Free Republic

Space can make humans insufferable. Despite humanity's meager history of space travel, over which only a few hundred individuals have ventured beyond the cozy confines of Earth's atmosphere to the great vacuum beyond, we've already had numerous examples of misbehavior. Much lower gravity than we're used to on Earth reshapes the brain, which in turn can worsen our behavior.

Some of the final results sent back by ESA's Venus Express before it plummeted down through the planet's atmosphere have revealed it to be rippling with atmospheric waves – and, at an average temperature of -157°C, colder than anywhere on Earth.

NASA’s budget proposal is far more concerned with spending on global warming research than supporting the agency’s mission of space exploration, according to Republican lawmakers. “This budget takes our human spaceflight program nowhere fast. This budget undermines our space program and diverts critical funding to lower priority items,” Texas Republican Rep. Brian Babin, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Space, said during the hearing. “Orion and [the Space Launch System] are strategic national assets and must be sufficiently funded. Proposed cuts to the planetary science division are equally disturbing.” Democratic lawmakers, however, argued spending more climate science to be a...

Experts Concerned We’ve Sent Sexist Messages to Space We’re not doing enough to promote diversity to aliens. During the British Science Festival, a group of experts pondered whether or not some of the images we have sent into space might be too sexist and too white — which would clearly be sending the wrong message to any aliens out there. Yes, seriously. Dr. Jill Stuart, considered an expert on the “politics” of space, expressed particular concern about a plaque on the 1972 Pioneer 10 spacecraft that featured a naked man and woman. “The plaque shows a man raising his hand...

Mark E. Kelly, gun-control proponent and husband to former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, recently purchased an AR-15 (an “assault weapon,” he called it)—which he now says he intended as an illustration of the need for more stringent gun laws. Kelly reportedly bought the AR-15 and a 1911-style semi-automatic pistol at a gun store in Tucson, Arizona

Excerpt - HOUSTON - Lisa Nowak chose a juggling act of dauntingly high difficulty: to be an astronaut and a mother of three. Her background — high school valedictorian, Naval Academy graduate, test pilot — seemed to equip her for the challenge. Yet as she and some of her acquaintances acknowledged, the stresses on her and her family were extraordinarily intense. On Wednesday, transformed from space hero to criminal suspect, Nowak returned to Houston for a medical assessment, a day after she was charged in Florida with attempted murder and attempted kidnapping in what police depicted as a love triangle...

<p>An intergalactic anthropologist visiting one nation on this off-the-beaten-path planet might draw some amazing conclusions. He (or it, or whatever) might conclude that many of the natives are members of a "White Deer Clan," as numerous illuminated electric likenesses of white deer have been erected in yards and on municipal properties. He might alternatively conclude that the indigenous population consists of devotees to some weird "Cargo Cult," where a gaudily-dressed demigod descends from above and distributes gifts to True Believers. He might conclude that this country worships the changing of the seasons, as everyone says "Seasons Greetings" to each other and symbolic snowflakes are hung on lampposts.</p>