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CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk would appear to have a sense of humour and a liking for the classic British comedy program ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’.

It has been revealed that there was in fact a ‘Top Secret’ payload onboard Wednesday’s Dragon Space capsule flight – the first time that a private company has launched into orbit and successfully recovered a space capsule.

Tucked on board the Dragon was an entire wheel of Le Brouere cheese, apparently in tribute to the Cheese Shop comedy skit by the Monty Python team, first seen in the early 1970’s. 

Never seen the sketch?

Click HERE to see what makes Elon Musk smile! 

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Yesterday saw what is potentially  a huge step for the future of Space travel, and for the future of the US Space program, with the launch into orbit and safe return of the SpaceX Dragon capsule.

It is the first time that a private enterprise has managed to launch its own space craft into orbit, and is a vital step forward for NASA’s plans to rely on commercial development of new human Space flight vehicles.

SpaceX, a private company based in California, USA and run by Elon Musk (co-founder of PayPal ), has been developing the Falcon 9 launch rocket to carry the Dragon Space craft module into orbit. Blast-off took place yesterday 8th December 2010, from Cape Canaveral, with the Dragon entering into orbit 10 minutes after, and proceeding to circle the Earth twice before successfully re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down into the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico, around four hours later.

The Dragon capsule is initially intended to take cargo up to the International Space Station (ISS), but potentially if all goes well, it could also be used to transport new crew members to the ISS, up to seven at a time. After the retirement of the Space shuttles in 2011, transportation of astronauts will be totally reliant on the Russian Soyuz craft, thus the continued development of the SpaceX Dragon capsule, and others like it, is of vital importance to the continuation of the USA Space program.    
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Geminid meteor shower, California 2009
For those people out there who like to watch meteors, mid-December will see one of the most prolific of the year, with the Geminid meteor shower peaking on the nights of December 13th and 14th 2010. 

This year, as long as the cloud cover stays away, observers can expect to see upward of 100 shooting stars per hour, with the best time to watch being after midnight when the First Quarter Moon has set. With the moon dipped below the horizon, the darker skies should mean more meteors can be seen.

The Geminids are created from the embers of a disintegrating asteroid and appear in the night sky near the constellation of Gemini the Twins, hence their name. Tiny specks of dust hit the Earth’s atmosphere at about 126,000km/h and vaporize from friction with the air – thus appearing as the streaks of light that we call shooting stars.

Sadly, at this time of year the Geminids are better seen in the skies of the Northern Hemisphere, so all of us south of the equator will miss out. For all you keen meteor watchers on the upper side of the globe, find yourselves a dark field somewhere away from city lights, take along a garden chair, wrap up very warm indeed, take along a steaming hot flask of tea, and sit back and enjoy the spectacle! 

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Though the Space shuttle seems to be suffering from a few technical glitches at the moment, the same is not true of its baby brother, the X-37B, which touched down safely on 3rd December 2010 at the Vandenberg Air Force base in California.

The X-37B, originally built as part of a NASA program and subsequently taken over by the US Air Force, is a reusable Spaceplane looking similar to the Space shuttle, but at 8.9m (29ft 3ins) long and with a wing span of 4.5m (14ft 11ins), it is about a quarter of the size – and is unpiloted.

It was launched via an Atlas 5 rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force base on 22nd April this year and returned on “auto-pilot” after a 220 day mission, making it the first autonomous re-entry and landing of the US Space program.

The craft started life as a NASA project and much is known about the design of the X-37B, but as it is now under a military program, the exact purpose of its recent mission remains classified and shrouded in mystery, though speculation has suggested that it might be capable of inspecting foreign military satellites.

However, the official line for now is that “the purpose of the flight was to test the craft itself”.

Hmmmmm………………perhaps we will find out more one day via the WikiLeaks website! 
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The last flight of the shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station (ISS) has once again been postponed while engineers continue to try and sort out the mystery of the cracked fuel tank. 

Experts are baffled by the cracks that were found on the shuttles external fuel tank, with there being no obvious explanation as to their cause. Thus, a more detailed examination is being conducted, resulting in launch date being put back to 3rd February 2011, at the earliest.

The ‘safety first’ policy certainly has my backing as nobody would want to see a repetition of the disasters that befell the shuttles Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003. Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight after an O-ring seal on a solid rocket booster failed at lift-off, whilst Columbia disintegrated during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere due to damage to the thermal protection system – accidents that resulted in the deaths of 14 crew members.

The 11 day mission of Discovery with an all American crew, including long time friend Michael Barratt, will deliver a new pressurized module to the ISS to provide extra storage space, more spare parts, and also Robonaut2, the first human-like robotic assistant in Space.

Every cloud has a silver lining, so the expression goes, and for the 6 strong Discovery crew of the STS-133 mission, that silver lining must be the certainty of spending the holiday period with their families. So may I wish a very Happy Christmas to the crew of STS-133, and a special festive hug to Mike and his family.

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The successful launch took place last week at PUCRS of my first novel entitled Traicao, and I would like to thank all of my friends and colleagues who came along to support me.

Writing this book, in fact my first novel, is something that gave me enormous pleasure and fulfilled a life long ambition. It is poles apart from my usual scientific writings which are constrained by set rules regarding form and style. Instead, writing a tale of fiction gave free reign to my imagination and the creative cells on the right side of my brain had a wonderful time playing!

My major lifetime ambition has always been to go up into Space - ever since I was a child I have dreamed of this. Unfortunately, being Brazilian limited my options of achieving this through an official Space program, and the selection process for the only Brazilian astronaut was sadly restricted to military personnel only. But, happily with the impending advent of Space Tourism there may still be the possibility of my going into Space in the next few years - only problem is it will cost $200,000. 

Which leads me to the formation of my cunning plan! I fulfill my ambition to write novels (a series of 5 planned), and if enough people like them, buy them, and tell their friends how good the books are - then enough books will sell and I get to achieve my other ambition to go into Space! Sounds easy doesn't it?!

The book is currently being translated into English and I hope to find a publisher for it in the New Year. In the meantime, it can now be purchased online, in Portuguese, by going to the Editor AGE website (click HERE). 

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New bacteria life form GFAJ-1
When driving to work this morning, I heard a report on the radio saying that at 5pm Brazil time, NASA would be making an announcement and that they will “discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.” 

This sounded intriguing and exciting. I am sure that many people hearing this would have speculated about what whether some evidence had been found to confirm an alien life form, something from outer Space – I know this is what I was thinking about!

So I have to confess that listening to the details of the NASA announcement later today, and the discovery of a new life on Earth, I was a little disappointed.

This in no way detracts from the excellent research conducted by NASA scientist, Felisa Wolfe Simon and her team, who have found in Mono Lake, California, a microorganism called  GFAJ-1, which is unlike any other thus far known to man.

It was previously thought that all life on Earth was made of six components: Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. And every being, from the smallest amoeba to the largest mammal shares the same DNA blocks. However, this new bacteria is completely different - instead of using phosphorus, the newly discovered microorganism uses poisonous arsenic for its building blocks, forming a completely different DNA.  Arsenic is an element that is poisonous to all other living creature on planet Earth, except for a few specialized microscopic creatures.

Undoubtedly, this changes our idea of how life can develop. We must be open to finding very different life forms to those that we know. I just wish the news had been related to the discovery of a new life from Space, something that I am sure exists and I only hope it is discovered in my life time. 

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