“If you had the chance to name a minor planet what would you name it?”

On 3 June 2010, six volunteers, all men, walked confidently through the door into what will be their home for the next 520 days, the length of time it will take to reach Mars and back, plus spend 30 days in a “Mars orbiting” phase. This simulation, known as Mars500, is a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian and Chinese governments. This experiment will study the effect of long-term physical and mental stresses similar to those expected on the long round trip to the Red Planet.

We all know by now that Britain has survived another election and another change of names and faces, most of them not at all familiar to us here in the colonies. Quite often, when the administration changes, so do many of the programs, policies, and priorities the previous administration tried so hard to implement. Sometimes that’s a good thing, like cancelling the over-budget, behind schedule, and outdated Constellation project begun during the Bush administration, but sometimes good programs are halted or just don’t have the support they need.

Look up, Indy 500 fans. The next great race may be in the clouds.

The residents of Florida have long been fearful that a new direction for NASA would result in massive unemployment on the Space Coast. But when President Obama spoke on April 15, 2010, he worked to address the fear that thousands of jobs would be lost—not only at NASA but also with the hundreds of small businesses supported by the NASA workforce.

When Marianne Dyson, former NASA Mission Control specialist and author of “Space Station Science,” speaks with school children, she uses an exercise to demonstrate the difficulty of working in space. She has them try to pick a dime off a table top...while wearing boxing gloves.

Let’s say you’re looking for work. You have a 4-year degree in Aeronautical Engineering, Astrophysics, or a related medical field, plus experience with a government space agency, and perhaps you have trained as a Payload Specialist with some extra-vehicular activity. Didn't find anything? If not, maybe you should check out the latest listing for "Astronauts" at CareerBuilder.com.

Who better to write a book about space development than Douglas Mallette, a systems engineer working for a Houston, TX company providing technical services to NASA for the Space Shuttle?

Here on planet Earth, we’re suffering from an energy crisis: we need gasoline to power our cars, and we need electricity to power our homes. Alternative sources of energy, such as solar and wind power, can only provide a fraction of what we need, and nuclear power has inherent risks. Of course, space enthusiasts see the answer to our problems beyond the planet. By capturing the limitless energy of the sun and transforming it into electrical energy we can use, the world will have the energy it needs without being drained of its finite resources.

Years ago actors Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland popularized a now-famous show business cliché: “Let’s fix up the old barn and put on a show!”