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Sites of the Week for November 1997

Week of November 3, 1997

Virtual Space Museum

The Virtual Space Museum seeks to display the manned and unmanned spacecraft of Russia and the former Soviet Union. At the site you'll find information, including some excellent images and VRML virtual-reality models, of Russian spacecraft from Sputnik to Mir, and some spacecraft, liked the planned lunar landers, which never flew. The site is short on encyclopedic text information, by design: the creator wants you to see Soviet and Russian space history, and does an excellent job displaying it.

http://www.ccas.ru/%7Echernov/vsm/main.htm

International Supernovae Network

The International Supernovae Network is an online resource for profesional and amateur astronomers to share informatuon about observed supernovae. On the site you'll see the latest news and images of supernovae, information on what to do if you think you've discovered one yourself, and related background on the subject. Given that supernovae discovery is one of the areas of astronomy where amateurs can make important contributions, this site in a great resource to keep supernovae hunters around the world up-to-date.

http://www.queen.it/web4you/noprofit/isn/isn.htm

Week of November 10, 1997

Space and Astronomy for Kids

There ane many resources about space and astronomy on the net, but most of them are oriented towards the general public or to researchers, not to students. Space and Astronomy for Kids, part of the Mining Company's Web site, attempts to recify this. Hosted by "guide" Cynthia Phillips, there are articles updated each week on topics from the Moon to comets to the Cassini mission to Saturn, complete with links to other relevent Web sites, including kid-friendly ones. This site is a good resource for children, parents, and teachers.

http://kidsastronomy.miningco.com/

The Virtual Observatory

The Virtual Observatory features an impressive collection of images of "deep-sky" objects: galaxies, nebulae, and clusters. Included is the full Messier catalog, NGC, Herschel 400, and other lists of objects. The well-organized lists include detailed information about the location, class, and brightness of these objects, and many images of these objects are available.

http://www.ifi.uio.no/~mikkels/astropics.html

Week of November 17, 1997

Free Virtual Galaxy Project

This sites details a project to provide a detailed, realistic 3-D simulation of nearby stars in the Milky Way galaxy that users can navigate through. The simulation is based on some of the most advanced star catalogs, such as Hipparcos and Yale Catalogs. This simulation does require a computer running DOS in order to run the simulation, which can be downloaded from the site (a new beta version was just released this past weekend.)

http://www.netwave.net/members/jrsmith/

ars astronautica

Ars astronautica, the Space Art Web Project, decribes itself as dedicated to developing a cultural dimension to space exporation through art. On the site you can find updated space art news, a directory of space artists with links to their web sites, and a gallery of images, as well as additional information and resources. Ars astronautica gives people a new outlook on the intersection of space exploration and art.

http://www.spaceart.net/

Week of November 24, 1997

Commercial Space Markets

There's plenty of discussion about the commercialization of space, but what are the real markets and how feasible are they? Jim Kingdon, who describes himself as an "amateur space policy analyst" takes a detailed look at the subject on his Web site. There are discussions on current and potential future markets from communications to remote sensing to space burial and entertainment. There's also information on the Commercial Space Transportation Study, a NASA/industry study from several years ago. This regularly-updated Web site is one the better resources out there on space commercialization.

http://www.cyclic.com/~kingdon/space/markets.html

David Ransom Software and Data

With the shuttle currently in orbit, you may have an interest in tracking it, or other satellites. If so, a good place to visit is David Ransom's Web site, which includes information and links to tracking data and software packages, including applications written by Ransom, to help use those data sets. The site is sponsored by JPL's Telescopes in Education (TIE) project, another worthwhile endeavor.

http://www.dransom.com/