Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
UhOhXplode - very good for such a young person from a country on the other side of the globe.

I made two mistakes, but I am confident that I am much better up to scratch on Russia than 95% of people in the UK where I live, and that's good enough.
You would be amazed how much you can learn about Russia just by studying rockets and space exploration. And I was studying Russia and Russian history all last summer and this summer too.
Another awesome learning tool is Google Earth. I've been all over Russia with that and I even know where to find a Teremok restaurant near New Arbat.

Quote Originally Posted by Deborski View Post
NASA just launched a new lunar probe Friday:

NASA launches rocket to probe mysterious lunar dust | Al Jazeera America

I don't think the US space program is dead. The shuttle program was ended, but the shuttles were not the most efficient way to get into space. Space exploration does not have the same wide-ranging support in the US that it had in the 60's when we were at the height of the so-called "space race" but that does not mean it's over. On the contrary, NASA is still alive and kicking, just focusing on different kinds of projects, and more welcoming of international cooperation in space programs, which in my mind is a good thing.
Yeah, I knew about the lunar launch and I hope there will be more stuff happening here too. And I am all over the Cassini and Curiosity missions. And the stuff coming back from the Voyager 2. There's the New Horizons spacecraft that's already half way to Pluto and I can't wait to see what that discovers!
NASA - New Horizons: Mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt

And everybody's talking about a manned Mars mission too! That would be so awesome to land on Mars! Btw, did you know that the Japanese made an artificial, solar powered tree that produces oxygen. An astronaut could stand under one of those trees and get air. And food can be made in a lab. The Japanese are growing beef in cultures. They don't even have to kill the cows. Anyway, I think we know enough now to live on another planet!