"When the first of August came round, the Professor realized he had pleasantly trifled away nearly two months at a task which should have taken little more than a week." -Willa Cather (from The Professor's House, 1925)

How your email finds me this Friday: *second disk of the Return of the King soundtrack before the eagles arrive*

For International Moon Day: the Declaration of the Rights of the Moon. #IMD2026

@planetarysociety.bsky.social has a website that makes submitting an OMB comment easy! I made the point that we already have National Academy documents about how to improve the NASA grant ecosystem, and that my local economy benefits from the coffee I buy with my grant-supported salary.

Advocacy Action Center

The Planetary Society is organizing a new space constituency that is educated, empowered, and loud.

votervoice.net

How do you pick a landing site before you know how you’re going to land? The scientists behind NASA’s latest Moon missions are working on just that. aasnova.org/2026/07/10/p... 🔭🧪

Putting the Landing Site Before the Lander

How do you pick a landing site before you know how you're going to land? The scientists behind NASA's latest Moon missions are working on just that.

aasnova.org

One reason why research libraries should keep hard copies of journals #histSTM

Thiago Carvalho@cyrilpedia.bsky.social · last mo.

This is what makes it art: '(...) the publisher posted a blank white page with the cryptic phrase, “This article has been withdrawn due to article violation.” Springer Nature is nevertheless still selling the empty PDF for $39.95.' www.science.org/content/arti...

Back at it with more human spaceflight thoughts and an archival dive into US pilots licensing history

NASA announces its Artemis III crew, which will test important equipment and systems in Earth orbit and is testing public opinion

The Artemis program’s timeline and architecture has changed over the past year, so Artemis III will not land on the lunar surface.

theconversation.com

Margaret Landis@mlandis.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Got to write up a short Artemis II explainer for @theconversation.com! (It has been updated per the testing overnight resulting in a launch delay)

The end of Enterprise meant I had the room in my brain to finally search for a new show and accidentally watched an episode of Who (2005) on SciFi Channel and the rest is history

Christian_S@chrise1701.bsky.social · 2mo ago

An excellent article that very much reflects my thinking. And the comparison to Trek at the end of Enterprise is EXACTLY how I’m feeling right now

What a day to have finally been reunited with my Voyager DVDs from high school!

Apropos of nothing specific today, thinking about how WASPs would fly P51s when their regular duty service pilots refused and complained, in addition to whatever other aircraft needed ferrying

I’m now being served ULA YouTube ads which is marginally better than ASU ads (you already got me!) Though trust me when a project needs a launch provider it’s not gonna be a secret!! Let me watch Sam Reich’s Last Meal in peace!

Your institution should have more control of your LMS than this *send*

when we mourn le guin, we mourn one of our greatest writers & thinkers. but we also mourn one of our all-time greatest haters

The HiRISE team notes the passing of two esteemed friends and colleagues: Deputy Principal Investigator emerita Candice Hansen-Koharcheck and Co-Investigator Paul Geissler. More about Candice: www.psi.edu/staff/profil... More about Paul: www.legacy.com/us/obituarie...

Nahla Ake is convincingly how one might be after three centuries of dealing with undergraduates.

Una McCormack@unamccormack.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Slowly rewatching #StarfleetAcademy and loving it. Holly Hunter, guys. We have been blessed.

Hi there, I'm Barbara and I work on the Artemis II Lunar Science team. I'll be here for a couple hours while watching the preparations for launch and happy to take your questions! www.youtube.com/live/Tf_UjBM...

NASA's Artemis II Crew Launches To The Moon (Official Broadcast)

YouTube video by NASA

youtube.com

And instead speaking of good science fiction, the best post-war monster movie in English is getting a reissue on physical media!

Scream Factory@screamfactory.bsky.social · 4mo ago

A missing girl and a town secret that’s too big to ignore. THEM! (1954) follows investigators uncovering a terrifying truth: radiation has spawned giant man-eating ants. 🐜 Pre-order the Collector’s Edition 4K of this cult classic horror film: gruv.com/collections/...

Picking who cries in The Martian is politics my dude! (I will let this go perhaps never because if he’s trying to be ‘factual’, I know the people he’s trying to write about and they don’t act that way!)

Asher Elbein@asherelbein.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Ah, so Andy Weir is like... *dumb* dumb gizmodo.com/andy-weir-st...

Oscar-winner Ryan Coogler recalling how a college writing professor pushed him to become a screenwriter & the possibility of #Sinners being taught in film curriculums someday: “I have so much respect for professors…for dedicating their life to future generations & making sure their minds are solid.”

First Tucson Festival of Books in years and I’m overhearing so much genre-on-genre fiction violence

It was 20 years ago today... The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrived at Mars with the best camera ever sent to another planet: HiRISE! A massive thanks to all our team @uarizona.bsky.social , JPL and @baesystems.com who keep this adventure going on strong. 😃 #uahirise

I tell people that if the government is covering up the existence of aliens, NASA is absolutely not involved, because astrobiologists can't keep a secret to save their lives

tomate 🍅@jascha.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 5mo ago

When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.

It took a lot of work at both JPL and HQ to make it happen this year. For relevant, interested folks, please apply! I’m one of the science mentors. Feel free to ask questions!

Michael Busch@michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I learn that the NASA Planetary Science Summer School on spacecraft mission planning will be taking place this year, amid everything else that is happening. The pre-application webinar is on 2026 March 4: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

What’s important is I *found* an email and data file from 2021 and the paper will be done this year! What’s unimportant is the year this project started and how many institutions myself and a coauthor have been at during it! It’s fine!!

Sometimes I rewatch movies and realize “oh thats why I’m that way”: Star Trek VI Undiscovered Country

WOMEN👏DON’T👏WANT👏CHOCOLATES 👏FOR 👏VALENTINE’S 👏DAY 👏THEY 👏WANT 👏MERRIAM-WEBSTER’S 👏COLLEGIATE 👏DICTIONARY 👏TWELFTH 👏EDITION 👏

Got to write up a short Artemis II explainer for @theconversation.com! (It has been updated per the testing overnight resulting in a launch delay)

NASA’s Artemis II plans to send a crew around the Moon to test equipment and lay the groundwork for a future landing

Several robotic spacecraft orbiting the Moon can take detailed pictures of its surface, so why send people around the Moon? A planetary geologist explains the benefits.

theconversation.com

Except, you know, nothing is higher stakes than teaching.

This essay is probably already getting ratio’d, but I’d like to join by staring into the camera Office-style from the American Southwest: canals and big roads exist outside of Rome and capital E empires, my buddies!

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Read enough science fiction, and you'll start to notice that many authors seem pretty invested in the idea of galactic empires (clearly based on real-world empires); @jdnicoll.bsky.social asks just what the hell such authors are thinking.

No one: Me: How many artworks about the Navier-Stokes equations is too many? Other innocent people, just looking for pretty prints, maybe some nice animal linocuts… Me: Let me try to tell you about fluid dynamics and partial differential equations…