Anniversaries: Ten Years of Mars Express

Mars Express orbiting spacecraft/satellite. Image Source: Wiki.

This year marks the ten-year anniversary of the European Space Agency's Mars Express, one of the most successful satellites in space exploration history, launched to orbit not our planet - but Mars. It was launched 2 June 2003 and entered Mars orbit on Christmas Day of that year. Its "relatively short interplanetary voyage, a result of being launched when the orbits of Earth and Mars brought them closer than they had been in about 60,000 years." It also carried a British lander, the Beagle 2, which was unfortunately unsuccessful. Below the jump, see the ESA's commemorative video for the orbiter's birthday. You can see their main mission page here, and all missions here.

Return from Local Extinction

Images Source: Mother Nature Network.

Here are some cutie-pie Sand Cat kittens, a desert feline once extinct in Israel. The species Felis margarita has been locally revived through the breeding of captive individuals and their reintroduction to the habitat (Hat tip: Trans-D Digital Art). There are several sub-species and the entire species actually has a near threatened status worldwide. See this litter on Youtube here. The report is from August 2012, so these kittens likely now look like this.

Image of the Day: Kragen Hunters

Fantastic Stories of the Imagination (July 1964).

Today's Lovecraftian image of naked kragen hunters and a surprise cephalopod comes courtesy of Michael May's Adventure Blog. The cover illustration here for Jack Vance's story The Kragen was later expanded into a 1966 novel entitled, The Blue World. It won the Nebula Award in 1966.

Ellen Ripley Meets Therapeutic Nihilism

Still from Alien3 (1992) © Brandywine Productions / 20th Century Fox. Image Source: Alien Explorations.

In 1991, David Fincher directed the Alien sequel, Alien3, which was a decade and a half ahead of its time. The film was nearly ruined by studio interference and production problems. It had previously gone through versions to which science fiction author William Gibson, Eric Red (writer of the cult horror films The Hitcher and Near Dark), future Riddick director David Twohy, and New Zealand director Vincent Ward all separately contributed.

What audiences and critics found more difficult was the gloomy, apocalyptic plot. Alien3 marked the new era of the compromised protagonist. It was a fraught with despair, a difficult narrative for audiences accustomed to triumphant cinematic conclusions. The heroine, Ellen Ripley, is even more heroic because she is not going to win.