SpaceViews Event Horizon

John Denver: Singer/songwriter John Denver, a longtime member of the National Space Society's Board of Governors, died in a light plane crash in California October 12. Although best known for his hit songs in the 1970s, he was a founding governing member of the National Space Institute in 1976, along with Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Bob Hope, Alan Shepard and others. He stayed on the board after the 1987 merger of the NSI with the L-5 Society, which created the National Space Society. "He personified the deep desire of many of our Society's members to someday travel in space," said Board of Governors chairman Hugh Downs. "We will miss his vision, his talent, his perseverance and his unique ability, through his words and music, to help others understand the fragility and beauty of this planet we call home."

Space Summit Set: On Wednesday, October 29, 1997, the National Space Society is sponsoring a one-day conference to discuss space exploration possibilities for the first decade of the 21st century. "Space Summit: Building the Bridge to the 21st Century," will be held from 9:00am-5:30pm at the American Geophysical Union, 2000 Florida Avenue, NW, in Washington. The meting includes an update on Martian meteorite ALH84001, plans for lunar and Mars exploration, and a debate between a team of lunar advocates including planetary scientist Wendell Mendell against a team of Mars advocates including Louis Friedman, executive director of The Planetary Society, and Robert Zubrin, author of "The Case for Mars." Registration is $100, free for students. More information is at http://www.nss.org/summit.

New Telescope Dedicated: A giant new telescope, featuring the largest primary mirror in the world, was dedicated at McDonald Observatory in Texas October 8. The Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET), with an 11-meter (433-inch) diameter, will be dedicated to spectroscopy rather than imaging. The telescope, whose primary mirror is one meter wider than the twin 10-meter Keck telescopes in Hawaii, cost only $13.5 million, about one-sixth the price of each Keck mirror. To make the HET cheaper, it lacks the heavy tracking assembly of regular telescopes and uses identically-shaped mirror segments which are cheaper to manufacture but would create aberrations if used in imaging. Although larger than the Keck telescopes, a diameter of only 9.2 meters would be available at any time for observations, making it effectively the third-largest telescope in the world.

Mars for Sale: Viewers of the QVC cable shopping network will soon be able to purchase Martian meteorites. Meteorite collector Darryl Pitt plans to sell 20,000 vials of Martian meteorite samples over the network starting October 16. Each vile would contain 0.02 grams of the meteorite Zagami and retails for a mere $98. If Pitt sells them all he would gross nearly $2 million, or $5,000 dollars a gram, more than double the current going price for Martian meteorites.

In Brief: Russian bureaucrat Yuri Baturin has been cleared for astronaut training, Russian officials reported earlier this month. Baturin is expected to fly to Mir on a mission in mid-1998. His visit was described by one Russian as "something rather useful." Indeed, one less bureaucrat on Earth, even temporarily, is useful... Richard Hoagland, who claims that there is a face on Mars and tall buildings on the Moon, has finally won the award he deserves. Hoagland was awarded the 1997 Ig Nobel Prize in Astronomy in ceremonies October 9 at Harvard University. The prizes, sponsored by the journal "Annals of Improbable Research", are awarded to people whose achievements "cannot or should not be reproduced." Fellow award winners included the inventors of the Tamagotchi "virtual pet" and infamous spammer Sanford Wallace... We don't like picking too much on Mir, but we couldn't resist ZDNet's "Top Fifteen New Names for the Mir Space Station", released October 13. Names like "Absolut NightMir" and "Cattlecar Galactica" fill the list, and while not all are original ("Katputnik"), it's good for a laugh or two. Check out the whole list online at http://www.zdnet.com/wsources/topfive/t5101397.html.