URL Of the Month

This is a new feature in the newsletter that will generally feature URLs for http, ftp, and gopher protocols. (URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, a standardized Internet file reference system. An URL is in the form protocol://sitename/filename). Selection of the space-related URLs is based on quantity and usefulness of information, presentation, links to other sites, and overall appeal. If you find a site that you feel is worthy of being a URL of the Month, send information to andrea@seds.lpl.arizona.edu. The first site featured this month is titled "Should We Return to the Moon? A World Wide Web Public Policy Forum" sponsored by ARInternet Corporation and the National Space Society. This experimental site was opened on December 1st and will only be open for three months. It is basically an on-line forum that you may partake in. In order to ensure intelligent and informed responses, this site also has a "Reference Room." This resource contains background material that includes submissions made by other net users. It also contains other space information under categories such as Aerospace Business, Reaching Space: Launch Vehicles, and Organizations, Groups, Agencies, and Campaigns (which SEDS is listed under).

This discussion, including comments, questions, letters, and answers, will be archived on CD-ROM. The site is maintained by Bruce Altner, Director of Technical Services for ARInternet Corporation. Even if you choose not to submit material, you may still spectate and keep up on the issue. This site is definitely worth checking out! The URL is http://www.ari.net/back2moon.html.

Another URL that is worth browsing through is called "Mars Today" and is located at http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/MarsImages/MarsToday/MarsToday.html. It was created by Howard Houben and contains daily conditions on Mars and its relationship to Earth. It essentially a large poster with four panels. The first panel displays a diagram of the current positions of Mars and Earth relative to the Sun. The second panel is a comparison between the Martian disc (viewed from Earth) and Earth's disc (as viewed from Mars). The third panel is a simulation of what Mars would look like from an Earth-based, high resolution telescope. The last panel is a model prediction of the current meteorology of the Martian atmosphere. The poster is updated daily and you can download the file containing the panels by clicking on an icon. There are also links to other Mars images and to the CMEX (Center for Mars EXploration) home page.

Here is a URL based on campus that you may find interesting: http://www.geo.arizona.edu/index.html. This site is maintained by Steve Sorenson of the University of Arizona Department of Geosciences. Information is available on a wide range of topics, including up-to-the-minute seismographs in a choice of frequency bands. There are also links to other web servers involved in geosciences such as the Radiocarbon WWW Server and the Southern Arizona Seismological Observatory server.

The last URL featured this month is along a different train of thought. If you like to color as a stress reliever, this is the site for you. It is called Carlos' Coloring Book Home at http://robot0.ge.uiuc.edu/~carlosp/color. When you "arrive" at the site, you are presented for instructions on how to color and a choice of pictures to color from the coloring book. There is also a link to Coloring Book 2.0 which is available for downloading. After spending hours browsing the wide world of web, take a break and color. :-)

Andrea Vicars