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Special Section:
Life on Mars?

Sites of the Week for February 1997

Week of February 3, 1997

Windows on the Universe

Windows on the Universe is an extensive, beautifully-designed online resource of information about earth and space sciences and "and the historical and cultural ties between science, exploration, and the human experience." This NASA-funded project is in its second edition, with a third version due out in a couple months. The site is graphics-intensive (and you are warned about this up front at the site), but it's worth any wait, and a CD-ROM adjunct being tested will help people will slow connections still access the graphics. A truly impressive site!

http://www.windows.umich.edu/

The Astronaut Resources

Many people have dreamed of becoming astronauts, but few have actually fulfilled those desires, because of the stringent astronaut selection process NASA employs. If you're thinking about becoming an astronaut, or just curious to see how the entire selection process works, visit The Astronaut Resources. If you can handle the JavaScript and seemingly excessive use of colored text, you'll find a lot of useful information about becoming an astronaut and links to other online resources.

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/6098/

Week of February 10, 1997

Mars Direct Art Page

Robert Zubrin's call for manned missions to Mars as soon as possible has not only stirred technical interest in the Red Planet, but artistic interest as well. This Web site by artist Ken Fair has a collection of artwork showing Mars and the exploration of it by humans. There is also background information about Mars Direct and the genesis of this site, and a call to action.

http://www.electricolive.com/mars.html

The Dr. Carl Sagan Honorary Site

On December 20 of last year, the world lost a great astronomer and a great communicator of science when Carl Sagan passed away. This site, created by a University of Texas student long before Sagan died, has become a living memorial to the scientist. The site is full of links to information about the life and recent passing of Sagan, and is kept very up to date.

http://wwwvms.utexas.edu/~mrapp/sagan/sagan.html

Week of February 17, 1997

Mark Wade's Encyclopaedia of Space Flight

If there's a more comprehensive history of space flight on the Web, we haven't found it yet. This is a detailed reference source for the history of space flight, from 1930 to the present. You can examine the encyclopedia chronologically, or by mission or astronaut/cosmonaut. There aren't a lot of images but the vast array of information stored here more than makes up for this. This is a resource you'll definitely want to add to your bookmarks!

http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~mwade/spaceflt.htm

Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia

Speaking of encyclopaedias, this resouce takes us beyond the solar system into the new and quickly-changing realm of extrasolar planet discoveries. Within the last few years, and especially in the last year and a half, the field has been changing rapdily as first a trickle, and now a stream of planet discoveries around other worlds have been announced. The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia lets you keep up to date with the latest announcements and discoveries, the methods used, and more.

http://www.obspm.fr:80/departement/darc/planets/encycl.html

Week of February 24, 1997

Bad Astronomy: "Pain in the Asteroid"

Many of you no doubt watched NBC's two-part movie Asteroid last week. While it was an interesting movie, if you think the astronomy in it was realistic, though, you're in for a surprise. This site, by astronomer Phil Plait, details the numerous, often terrible, inaccuracies in the movie, from the physical impossibilities of asteroids reaching Earth as they do in the movie to the unlikelihood of a 29-year-old running a national observatory. There are also links to sites on the Web with information about the real threat asteroids poise to the Earth. This page is part of a larger "Bad Astronomy" site which debunks some of the "urban legends" of astronomy.

http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~pcp2g/bad/asteroid.html

Venus Revealed

This site promotes a new book on the planet Venus by planetary scientist David Henry Grinspoon. More than just an ad for the book, though, this site contains excepts from the book, numerous images, book tour information, and links to other resources about the planet. This is one of the better examples of promoting books on the Web. (Look for a review of the book itself in a future issue of SpaceViews.)

http://sunra.colorado.edu:80/david/book.html