Those big oval-shaped tanks store fuel for the test bed’s thrusters, one set of which guide its altitude/landing. For the tests here on Earth, an additional thruster offsets gravity so the others function as they would on the moon.

NASA is developing a flight mission to travel to the lunar poles, but also designing the landers to set down on the moon’s mid-regions. To build-out the program, Marshall partnered with John Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab, and the Von Braun centre for Science and Innovation.

Given the recent discovery of water molecules on the moon, I’m thinking they’re gonna keep getting funding. Very cool. [NASA via The Huntsville Times]

You thought that Ares facing delays or cancellations was bad? Well, what about a freaking huge honkin’ asteroid obliterating Earth because NASA doesn’t have enough funding to track every potentially deadly object out there? Yes, exactly my freaking thoughts.

Here’s the deal: NASA was supposed to be tracking 90 per cent of all potentially dangerous asteroids by 2020 under the Near Earth Object Program. This was mandated by Congress. Right now, they are on track to detect 90 per cent of asteroids 1km wide this year. However, that leaves a giant amount of other objects that, while not as big, are potentially lethal. And guess what? Congress isn’t giving money to NASA to fund the program.

In other words, if tomorrow an asteroid hits New York, I know exactly who is to blame. [CNN]

The Sydney Morning Herald says that if it had been headed toward a populated part of the world, we would have had 24 hours to act and evacuate. Sky and Telescope says that it was about twice the altitude of our communications satellites.

To put it into perspective, here’s io9’s list of scariest asteroid attacks on Earth, not including this one.

It would have looked somewhat similar to this, the great daylight fireball of 1972. How do we know that wasn’t Kal-El? [SMH and Nasa - Image credit to the original artist]

All that is needed is some Styrofoam, Claycrete, and some paint to achieve a convincing texture that looks like it came straight out of space (or straight out of the stone age). [Mashie Design via Unplgged via Gearlog]

Oh, who are we kidding? You have a crappy office job (whether you make a lot of money or not) that doesn’t allow you to sit around and play video games in your underwear all day. And nothing about these $US25 polyester gaming ties can change that.

But you know what works? Sneak a DS into your desk drawer and take really long bathroom breaks. [Amazon via OhGizmo!]

Clearly, you can tell why Neal is the host of PBS’s NOVA spaceNOW TV program. While the clip is from a talk he gave in 2007, it’s kind of fun to hear about the possibility of experiencing such a deadly event in such a lighthearted kind of way. If it wasn’t a real possibility, I would be laughing.

And while maybe it won’t on Thursday, April 13, 2029, it may happen any other day. Just in case, remember to follow your “What if the world would end tomorrow?” checklist every day. [Geeks Are Sexy]

The meteor–or comet fragment–was only a few tens of meters in diameter, according to modern estimates based on its 15 megatons energy blast. This 3D simulation, however, shows what something like Apophis will do if it hit Earth. I saw it a while ago on the web, but now it is available in glorious HD, so you can see all the gritty-nitty detail of good old planet Earth getting completely obliterated.

Kind of helps putting things in perspective. NASA and the rest of the world better get up to speed on their anti-asteroid alert and destroy system, I don’t care what they say about weaponising space.

The fact is that these things are very real, and they are lurking out there. So with that in mind, keep your list of things to do before you die handy. You never know what awaits for us in 2009. [YouTube--Thanks Louise]

Usually, the computer plays automatically & it keeps time. But, it also has a tilt-sensor so you can aim the ship by moving your wrist around. It’s not done yet, but it will have buttons for firing and engine-thrust. Maybe mind control will be next ;-)

Seriously, someone should really get this thing into mass production. [Boing Boing]

The Pan-STARRS cameras, designed to have a tleast three times the collecting power of current telescopes, each consist of a 40cm squared array of charge-coupled devices (CCD). Each CCD cell can electronically shift an image to counteract atmospheric blur, delivering crystal sharp pictures of the skies above. While nobody’s completely sure how to stop the asteroids once we spot them (though there’s been a few theories floated around), at least we’ll be able to see our imminent doom coming… in high res! [Technology Review]

First of all, understand that Schweickart loves NASA. The agency put him on the moon, after all, but he believes its cash-strapped later years might have led the agency–under immense pressure from Washington–to endorse a program with an ulterior motive: put nuclear weapons in space.

To remedy that situation, Schwickart’s group, the B612 Foundation, intends to “use gentler tactics” to observe and eventually deflect asteroid. It’s totally make love, not intergalactic war, man.

These new methods include using more powerful telescopes as they come online throughout this century to ID targets ASAP, as well as unmanned spacecraft and probes. Most asteroids could be redirected easily by rear-ending or towing them with these craft, Schweickart said.

In his lecture Schweickart compared Earth’s citizens to a blindfolded hitter in a batting cage. We know the pain is coming, but we have no way of knowing when. One day we will, and people like Schweickart hope we’ll be ready to react with the most effective means possible. According to him, that means no nukes. Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum will simply have to find another way to kill the aliens. [Wired]