Researchers have figured out how to make carbon nanotubes up to eight inches long, using chemical vapor deposition.

That means that very strong, very lightweight cables are just around the corner.

I had almost three thousand visits yesterday. That’s almost double any previous day. Must have been all the linking from Glenn.

There’s a fairly good overview of the current space station situation, with some history, over at the Orlando Sentinel today.

However, the story is a little incomplete and in one case misleading. It discusses the station as though its purpose was always just about science, which is palpable nonsense, though certainly its supporters like to say, and even imagine that it was. It was about jobs, and votes, and international relations, and even national security. (The Russians were brought into it in the ’90s partly in the hopes of keeping their engineers busy, and out of the pay of Saddam, Kim and the Iranian mullahs. It didn’t work all that well.)

Here’s the misleading part.

One potential source of money that NASA has tried to attract — commercial customers — never responded enough to make a major difference.

One would infer from reading this that there was never any commercial interest in using the station. The reality is that there was never any serious NASA interest–they went through the motions out of deference to Congress, but they were never willing to do any of the deals that were brought before them. Just ask Bob Bigelow and others. NASA has put so many constraints on any commercial deals (banning, for instance, advertising of any kind) that it would have been surprising if any deals had been done. But to blame private enterprise for this failure is to rewrite history.

The space station program has been a disaster from its inception, because there has never been any clear understanding of why we were building it. As the Cheshire Cat said, if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. NASA and the space station seem to have found a cul de sac.

I think Lileks likes Spiderman. Guess I’ve gotta go see it…

Captain den Beste has an interesting speculation on what the world would look like to the ancient Egyptians–if they lived on Europa.

Captain den Beste has an interesting speculation on what the world would look like to the ancient Egyptians–if they lived on Europa.

Captain den Beste has an interesting speculation on what the world would look like to the ancient Egyptians–if they lived on Europa.

There’s a nice story over at MSNBC. Hey, NASA, you want to get young people excited about space again? Here’s how.

Krieff said he was amazed at how Bass? space dreams have captured the imagination of the younger generation.

?Kids have been trying to send us checks ? which we don?t accept ? thinking that they can actually help pay for this flight,? he said. ?For 10-year-old kids … I just couldn?t get over that. If the space gods out there are listening, the kids out there are just totally into this. … I?ve been in business 20 years and I?ve never seen anything like it.?

Also, Lori Garver must be really serious. The story also says that she actually had her gall bladder removed last month, because ultrasound showed a small stone, and the Russians wouldn’t allow her to fly with it. I want to go to space pretty badly, but I don’t think I’d do that, unless it had to happen anyway.

[Update at 9:03 AM PDT]

And Mark Shuttleworth says he had a great time and would do it again if he could.

A couple of astronomers have developed techniques for tracking satellites with their ground-based telescopes, using custom software. They’ve made a movie of the International Space Station from the ground. It’s (understandably) fuzzy, but clearly recognizable.

Richard Perry has an interesting analysis of the space tourism market.

[Update at 12:15 PM PDT]

Not really related to the content of this post–it’s more of a metacomment. I just noticed that this was my thousandth post. Frightening.