Aside from being the first probe to actually visit Pluto (50 days till the half way point; 1780 days to go!) its secondary mission is to scout out, and hopefully flyby some Kuiper belt objects. (The Kuiper belt is the area where Pluto and other dwarf planets are found. It is believed that there are many thousand objects in that area, totaling around the mass of Earth.) It is from here that some of the local comets could come from (recent research points to the much further out and sparser Scattered disc being the source of most), and some believe that on these are ancient microbes. (It’s possible that Pluto could too; this is to be tested.)

These ideas have been given some strong support recently; on the ISS there was a recent experiment where some microbe samples were placed outside the station and given no protection. (The Van Allen belt would have offered some protection, but I digress.) 553 days later they were brought in…

…and some were still alive! It does make me wonder; if life can continue in space then why not Mars or Jupiter? Maybe the spacecraft hunting worm from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back isn’t so implausible afterall!

Check! What could be more apporpiate than being whacked by classic LEGO spacemen?

Secondly, you needed to do a movie parody involving them.

Mine was The Empire Strikes Back, with the quote “Put Captain Glow-lo in the cargo hold”…

Photos are hosted on Flickr. I used it a lot around then, but I’ve forgotten my password…

But the Slog has been going well at least! Roughly every week there’s been a new post here, thanks to the marvels of the WordPress scheduling system… and the fact that I have oodles of old content that I can re-cycle. Even so, over half of the posts are actually 100% new which I think is quite alright for a one-man blog. Recently we added a Twitter reposting function; while I’m not a huge fan of the site itself, due to me buying a HTC Desire recently (with integrated twitter among other things) I’ve seen the worth in Twitter as a news aggregator. Thus I’m joining the club!

So what’s coming up? Well I’m mostly finished several MOCs, but no real progress (in terms of building) has been made in regard to the comic. So expect some more MOCs soon… but the comic is on extended holiday for now.

This guy is obviously a construction fig, and his hat is removable. Unfortunately only the arms are “articulated” which does limit his use.

Aside from the yellow hands he’s a very close match to the real fig.

He is however better in that he has a back print and a full belt.

There’s actually four in the set, but since I’d rather spend $75 on actual LEGO I just bought one. (I’d probably feel different if they had different themes… or a female.) However for completeness I took these photos at the local K-Mart where I found them.

They all have back prints; the generic guy is supposed to have a cap but it was missing.

Here’s how they are supposed to be displayed. (K-Mart didn’t pay me for neatening up their shelf.)

It’s the perfect addition to a geeks soft toy collection!

Stone A was given to my daughter who rolled the stone around for a week. No moss gathered.

Stone B has been in my garden for a few years and in that time no moss has been detected.

Stone C was left next to a pond for a month to attract moss. No moss has been noticed but there might be some under the frog. Further tests will be conducted.

But I was prepared; I had a tonberry at the ready.

Undeterred Grievous attacks!

The fight rages on…

…and the General senses an advantage…

…but it was just a diversion and they resume their positions.

The tonberry notices the weak spot…

…and moves in to strike…

…but it’s skillfully dodged!

Both combatants pause…

…and Grievous realises he may have met his match…

…and that he might be defeated by a soft toy.

Go tonberry!

My plan to break this aside, I think this is a very under appreciated set. As I said earlier, the model is very hard to photograph due to the size and complex shape, and I do think that this is a model that’s best appreciated in person. Even so, it’s a pain to keep together; parts fall off all the time, it’s hard to put in different poses, hard to dust… and that’s why I decided that I’d give him one last hurrah! Taking these photos was hard; balance is always a huge problem with Grievous, and parts kept falling off which is not a good thing when you’re outside. (A few are noticeably missing; especially the sabers.)

But I think that TLG did a great job making a model like this with relatively few pieces and if I had more room and pieces I’d keep him together.

Also, the US Army has recently selected a winner in the LEMV (Long-Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle) program for a recon airship with an endurance 3 weeks. Northrop Grumman’s design is a hybrid design (like HMS Indefatigable!) as this approach give the craft far better control. The contract is for 3 at the moment and they could be in service as early as next year.

While I only recently bought Grand Emporium, I made Domo a while back; I love Domo-Kun!

Don’t worry; he might look scary, but he just wants a hug.

Domo loves to eat potatoes.

Domo salutes! I’m not sure why… he tends to daydream a lot.

Domo and his large soft friend.

Domo and his new friend.

Domo stressed! Careful; he tends to fart…

Domo is searching for adventure!

Interestingly this was the first case, that I know of, when a MOC of mine was plagiarised. Someone on MOCpages posted this as their own. I complained (politely) and my comment was removed. Thankfully the member took it down eventually.

After 7 years in space, the Japanese asteroid probe Hayabusa returned with what hopefully is a good sample of Itokawa. Finding out if this is the case will take some time as they JAXA are being extremely careful to avoid contamination, which all things considered is smart. Some scientists believe that life on Earth could have come from the asteroids and thus the results could be quite astounding… or rather disappointing if there is nothing there. (No full samples are believed to have been taken, but some dust is possible.) In any case the mission has been a success considering how pioneering it was and how much techniques have been tested. I’ll be eagerly awaiting news on this one!

…and in old news

IKAROS In transit to Venus. The sail deployed on the 10th of June.

COTS Next Falcon 9 launch is scheduled for later this year. No exact dates as of yet. The first launch seems to be largely successful, however the 1st stage booster was not recovered as planned due to a parachute failure. Since it’s supposed to be re-usable this could be a minor setback. The other entrant in the COTS program, Orbital Sciences Corporation, has a launch planned in March 2011 with Taurus II.