Scenes From The Christmas Expo: Dragon Landing

 

 Taken at the Christmas Expo. With some supporters of the American Cancer Society (The Expo technically isn't a Relay event) having large avatars, it can make for something of a situation on the dance floor. So there was a special platform for the dragons at the main stage.

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

Watching the Mars Lander At The ISM

 

Yesterday, the Mars rover "Perseverance" touched down successfully. After a journey of half a year and 300 million miles, the craft entered the Martian atmosphere, deployed it's parachute, and landed without a problem in the Jezero Crater. The most advanced robot to date send to the red planet, it will look for evidence if there was ever life in the past on the world. Photos are already coming in, though it will take a little time for the car-sized robot to get moving. 

In Second Life, me and several others were watching from the International Space Museum in the Spaceport Alpha sim. In the past, people went there for Space Shuttle launches and landings. But they would end in 2011. But whenever something like this happens, one's sure to find a few space fans heading over to watch (or in my case watch from the webbrowser as the screen inworld wasn't working). I talked a little with them, and besides a few moments of joking around, there was a general sense of optimism and hope. Despite the Pandemic, despite the deep freeze across much of the US, despite the political troubles, the march of science and progress continues.

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Cartoon of the Day

By Bixyl Shuftan

Announcement: Moon Landing Day Celebration! Friday, 20 July 2018

Join the National Space Society in SL on July 20th at our Tranquility Base venue as we celebrate the anniversary of mankind’s first lunar landing.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/National%20Space%20Society/50/100/3675

We will gather there at 1pm SL time ahead of the landing time, and again at 7:30pm in advance of the first steps on the Moon to watch the videos and discuss the past, present and future of space exploration and development.

Ad astra (“to the stars”)!

Also, check out the Apollo 11 historical tour here:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/National%20Space%20Society/152/123/3012

Pick up a free Apollo 11spacesuit here:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/National%20Space%20Society/77/124/3005

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at a combat sim (not New Bastogne). Nydia Tungsten was doing a video shoot at the 1940's Europe style streets when a couple wise guys started taking pok shots at us with their bomber. Unfortunetly for them, they got a little close to the ground, and ended up stalling and making a hard landing right onto the streets. As you can see, taking off again from the position was impossible, so they just left the plane.

Bixyl Shuftan

The National Space Society Celebrates the Moon Landing

It was 44 years ago last Saturday in which Niel Armstrong set foot on the moon, the first time mankind had stepped on the surface on another place in space. To celebrate, the National Space Society held a party for the occasion near their library. Some noteworthy people showed up, some space ballads were played, and one of the NSS crew had a pretty active day earlier at the Neil Armstrong Museum in Ohio.

Read more in Events.

Cartoon of the Day: Warbug Wackiness

At the Warbug Air Show last weekend, their creator Arduenn Schwartzman had a little trouble, and crashed into the stands. This probably wasn't his exact quote, but he was saying something alone this line. I didn't say anything, but the cartoon shows what I was thinking. ;-)

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at New Ravenloft
By Bixyl Shuftan

End of an Era: Last Shuttle Landing Broadcasted in Second Life

This morning at 3AM SL time, the Space Shuttle Atlantis landed back on Earth in real life. In Second Life, the landing was broadcasted in a few places on the Grid. Among them, the International Space Museum, where RacerX Gullwing was able to take this picture.

The landing of Atlantis means the end of the Space Shuttle program, the ships heading to museums, and for now the end of the US manned space program, aside for the occasional astronaut hitching a ride on one of Russia's Soyuz rockets. Although NASA's workers cheered the shuttle landing as their last hurrah, within the week thousands will be laid off and looking for new jobs.

NASA has been working on a sucessor to the shuttle, saying they could have it ready possibly in a few years. But the US Federal government faces a huge deficit and a massive debt, political commentators and private citizens alike wondering if it is heading to a financial day of reckoning. It may be many years before US astronauts go back into space in their own rockets.

Fortunetly for Second Life residents, they can get spaceship rides for themselves in places like the Sci-Lands. Or, take a look at spaceship models in places like the International Space Museum (ISM) in the Spaceport Alpha sim.

Bixyl Shuftan

Sunday Cartoon: WW2 RP Area

By Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day: WW2 RP Area

By Bixyl Shuftan