NASA/University of Arizona’s probe Phoenix was successfully launched this moning. Phoenix, which was cobbled together relatively inexpensively from unused parts of other spacecraft, aims to land in Mars’ arctic circle.
There, Phoenix will use a sophisticated set of tools, ranging from tungsten-carbide drills to a mass spectrometer, to search for water, and (dare we hope) possible signs of organic chemistry.
Phoenix, BTW, has an IBM Power processor – the RAD6000 – for a brain, a cousin of the G5s sitting in the Mac to my right. I think the RAD designation refers to ‘radiation hardened,’ which is a good idea given that Phoenix will fly millions of miles exposed to the Sun’s full spectrum of radiation. Keeping our fingers crossed for a successful mission…
If you were to peek into my Amazon orders list, you’d have seen this note at the top for about 10 months now:
Items not yet shipped:
Delivery estimate: August 13, 2007 – August 15, 2007
- 1 of: Untitled
Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC
I’d read a post on William Gibson’s blog that hinted that his new book, now titled “Spook Country,” already was listed on Amazon, so I placed an order even though I couldn’t see what the item actually was. Just to be sure, I tried to order the book, now with a title, recently, and got back the result I had already ordered it.
Amazingly, the date on the order is October 8, 2006. That was the day before I had the seizure that signaled the brain tumor. I now remember, sometime last December, I think, wondering if I’d be alive when the new book came out. I was still bewildered by everything I was hearing and reading about Grade 3 glioma.
Well, so far, so good on longevity. The cancer is responding well to treatment so far: the tumor has stopped growing, and even shows signs of necrotic cells. The side effects from the steroids, anticonvulsants etc. have left me kind of a wreck, physically, but I’m pursuing a rehab program and taking other measures to get some quality of life back.
So, looks like I’ll get my copy of the follow-on to “Pattern Recognition” week after next. I’ve read that Spook Country is the middle novel in a trilogy, a la the earlier cyberpunk novels. I’m not even going to think about whether or not we’ll be around for novel #3…