This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
The big story this week was the launch of Planetary Resources, an asteroid mining company backed by the likes of James Cameron, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt. You can watch the full webcast of the press conference on YouTube. Paul Raeburn at the Knight Science Journalism Tracker has a good round up of the coverage and points out how little scepticism there has been, saying "...there is nothing especially romantic about carving up asteroids to feed an unsustainable demand for metals and minerals." I must admit, as cool as asteroid mining sounds, similar thoughts did cross my mind too. As if predicting doubters, Forbes stepped in to speak to the company's President Chris Lewicki and tell us how the company is already making money.
Oh, and while we're on the topic of asteroids: The only thing that can stop this asteroid is your liberal arts degree.
"In a knitted spacesuit and tight-fitting helmet, Camilla the rubber chicken floated to the edge of space in a modified lunchbox as the sun unleashed the most intense radiation storm since 2003." Need I say more?
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If you want to know more about the big dark matter news from last week, read this blog post.
Another blow to astrophysics, as cosmic rays are not doing what we'd like them to. (For more detail, see this article.)
NASA released an supercut of footage of Earth from space, complete with dramatic music.
Scientists want to send a boat to Titan: "It's a boat, essentially. You'd have been locked up… if you'd suggested that before."
If this is what astronauts get to do all day, I want to be one even more now.
Prototype space shuttle Enterprise was flown over New York on Friday morning. I couldn't see it from here in London, obviously, but those at the Scientific American offices got a good view. Though not as good as this one...
Here at Basic Space, I shared stories of snowballs around Saturn and meteorites from Mars. And over at BBC Future, I have a feature up about space weather forecasting: Cloudy, with a chance of solar flares. (If you're reading from the UK, you might prefer this link.)
I'm afraid that's it from me. Does anyone who hasn't been in revision-induced hiding have any important/interesting/cool space links? Share them in the comments.