Even though its arrival on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko did not go as planned, the accomplishment of the Rosetta probe is immense. We have a probe on the surface that was able to collect 57 hours worth of data before going into hibernation, and a mother ship that will stay with the comet as it moves ever closer to the Sun (the comet's closest approach will be on August 13 of next year). What a shame the lander's 'docking' system, involving reverse thrusters and harpoons to fasten it to the surface, malfunctioned, leaving it to bounce twice before it landed with solar panels largely shaded. But we do know that the Philae lander was able to detect organic molecules on the cometary surface, with analysis of the spectra and identification of the molecules said to be continuing. The comet appears to be composed of water ice covered in a thin layer of dust. There is some possibility the lander will revive as the comet moves closer to the Sun, according to Stephan Ulamec...

Back in the 1970s, Peter Glaser patented a solar power satellite that would supply energy from space to the Earth, one involving space platforms whose cost was one of many issues that put the brakes on the idea, although NASA did revisit the concept in the 1980's and 90's. But changing technologies may help us make space-based power more manageable, as John Mankins (Artemis Innovations) told his audience at the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop. What Mankins has in mind is SPS-ALPHA (Solar Power Satellite by means of Arbitrarily Large Phased Array), a system of his devising that uses modular and reconfigurable components to create large space systems in the same way that ants and bees form elegant and long-lived ecosystems on Earth. The goal is to harvest sunlight using thin-film reflector surfaces as part of an ambitious roadmap for solar power. Starting small -- using small satellites and beginning with propulsion stablization modules -- we begin scaling up, one step at a...

People keep asking what I think about Christopher Nolan's new film 'Interstellar.' The answer is that I haven't seen it yet, but plan to early next week. Some of the attendees of the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop were planning to see the film on the event's third day, but I couldn't stick around long enough to join them. I've already got Kip Thorne's The Science of Interstellar queued up, but I don't want to get into it before actually seeing the film. I'm hoping to get Larry Klaes, our resident film critic, to review Nolan's work in these pages. Through the Wormhole Wormholes are familiar turf to Al Jackson, who spoke at TVIW on the development of our ideas on the subject in science and in fiction. Al's background in general relativity is strong, and because I usually manage to get him aside for conversation at these events, I get to take advantage of his good humor by asking what must seem like simplistic questions that he always answers with clarity. Even so, I've asked...

One thing the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop did not offer was a lot of spare time. Les Johnson told attendees at the beginning that we would be working straight through. Between presentations and workshop sessions, that was pretty much the case, with no break at all between an 8:00 start and lunch, and afternoon sessions punctuated by breakout workshop sessions on four topics: communications and SETI; biology in small ecosystems; safety issues for interstellar missions; and a competition to reverse-engineer famous starships from science fiction literature. I finished up the after-dinner workshop session around 9:30 that first night. An Encounter with 'Dr. SETI' It was a pleasure to finally meet the SETI League's Paul Shuch in Oak Ridge. Paul and I have exchanged email for some time now, mostly about material we might use on our respective sites, and I've long admired the engineering and leadership skills he brings to a SETI all-sky survey that coordinates the efforts of 127...

When he opened the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop in Oak Ridge last week, Les Johnson told the audience that sessions would begin and end on time. Punctuality is a trait that I assume works well in Johnson's day job at Marshall Space Flight Center, and it certainly was appreciated in Oak Ridge, where the delays and overruns that mar so many conferences just didn't occur. That kept the pace brisk and the presenters solidly on topic throughout. That sense of pace and direction is making TVIW into one of my favorite gatherings. Today I'm going to run through some of the presentations from the first day, beginning with the multidisciplinary note with which I closed yesterday's post. What we gain by keeping a wide range of background in play among the presenters is a chance to spot hidden assumptions, some of which can prove deadly when not properly evaluated. Monday's TVIW talks helped clarify what we've learned about the human presence in space and just how much we have yet to...

When I was last in Oak Ridge, TN for the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop in 2011, I arrived late in the evening and the fog was so thick that, although I had a map, I decided against trying to find Robert Kennedy's house, where the pre-conference reception was being held. This year the fog held off until the first morning of the conference (it soon burned off even then), and I drove with Al Jackson out to the Kennedy residence, finding the quiet street surrounded by woods still lit with fall colors and the marvelous clean air of the Cumberland foothills. A house full of interstellar-minded people makes for lively conversation almost anywhere you turn. I quickly met the SETI League's Paul Shuch, with whom I've often corresponded but never spoken to in person, and our talk ranged over SETI's history, the division into a targeted search and a broader survey (the latter is the SETI League' bread and butter), and why looking for signals through a very narrow pipe (Arecibo) should...

Aerospace engineer and science fiction novelist Gerald Driggers will be a guest on The Space Show, hosted by David Livingston, tomorrow (Monday) at 5 PM Eastern US time (2200 UTC). You can listen to the show here. Centauri Dreams readers know Gerald as a champion of space colonization efforts going back to the days of the L-5 Society in the 1960s and 1970s, but of late he's been chronicling our prospects on Mars with novels like The Earth-Mars Chronicles Vol. 1 Hope for Humanity. He's also just released an Amazon short called Butterscotch Dawn. On Livingston's show, expect discussion of the large-scale settlement of Mars and the role of the Red Planet in our species' colonization of the larger Solar System. The show will be archived at http://www.thespaceshow.com.