I LIVVVVEEEE...

It has been well over a year since I posted, and for that, I apologize. My life has changed a lot in the last year. I have completed my undergraduate career, received my degrees in Communication and Chemistry, and begun the elusive job hunt.

I figured there was no better time for me to relaunch Scitidbits. The United States and the world recently celebrated the 45th anniversary of the first man on the moon. July 20, 1969 was an amazing day in human history - Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first two men to step onto the surface of the moon. Below is a photo of the National Geographic from December 1969, just months after the landing.

            "Mankind entered a new era at Tranquility Base - an era in which travel will be reckoned not in thousands of miles but in millions and billions.  Space is an endless frontier for our children, and for all future generations."

                        -Dr. Thomas Paine, National Geographic December 1969

While I am still in awe of this major human accomplishment, it also reminds me of how far NASA has fallen - to just below 0.5 percent of the Federal budget. This has to change because the vastness that is outer space still offers us a multitude of things to discover, and great unknowns that are still to be explored.

            "... To what goals in space would we now commit ourselves as a Nation?"

                        -Dr. Thomas Paine, National Geographic December 1969

Dr. Paine said it well then, and I believe it remains a fair question - "To what goals in space would we now commit ourselves to as a Nation?" In the past years, we have continued to send scientists and astronauts to the International Space Station, but the STS-135 mission using the Atlantis space shuttle on July 8, 2011, was the last time we launched our astronauts ourselves.

There are many exciting new missions in store for NASA - this includes capturing an asteroid and bringing it back to orbit the moon for research and study purposes, sending astronauts to the same asteroid, even launching another rover to Mars in 2020 to further research, and hopefully, eventually getting people to Mars and back.

Private industry is also developing some interesting opportunities. Space X has been delivering supplies to the International Space Station the past few years, and Google has an initiative, the Google Lunar X Prize, that directly involves the moon.  This competition is to be completed by December 31, 2015 and features a huge monetary prize to the team that completes a series of challenges first. These challenges include landing a rover on the moon, moving 500 meters on, above, or below the Moon's surface, and sending back HD video from the surface of the moon. There are currently 18 teams still in the running for the prize, and you can read about their progress on the individual team blogs. Mars One is obviously the private, non-profit organization that has received the most media attention. They intend to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars, and begin sending astronauts to Mars by 2024.

So here's to space, to continuing human curiosity, and to further exploration into our vastly unknown solar system and universe!