Today’s theme is the interplanetary Web. We’ve reached the point where saying “the Worldwide Web” sounds goofy, and www. in a URL looks outdated. It’s still accurate, though. The Internet feels infinite, but it’s still limited to our one planet.
Not for long, though. There’s a conference this week bringing 20 spacefaring nations together to discuss technical standards and engineering challenges for designing the interplanetary Web.
And we may actually need interplanetary Internet access someday. There’s amazing new time-lapse video of Earth and the International Space Station, proving that our species actually has the mind and muscle to get off our world.
But the biggest off-world story today is the end of an era. The space shuttle Discovery has been ferried atop its 747 chariot to the Smithsonian in D.C. Lots of people paused in their days to take pictures.
The Atlantic Video has an Instagram shot that proves the instant-nostalgia value of those photo filters.
Drew Breunig responded to that shot with a deep interpretation.
“Riding on the back of a jet is perhaps the most mundane task the Space Shuttle ever performed (until it sits in the Smithsonian). But by doing so in casual view of a major population center during a (beautiful) work day it will become a viral hit, stoking nostalgia for our late age of discovery after we cut it’s budget.”
One of our favorite galleries is from Joel Housman, who went down to the Mall with heavy duty hardware and took some awesome close-ups.
But one of the most fitting, understated goodbyes to the shuttle is this video from Spaceflight Now, which frames its departure in a no-nonsense, NASA way.
What stories blew your minds today? Share them in the comments below, and we may feature them tomorrow.
Lead image credit: Alex Lutkus/ESA via KurzweilAI
First space shuttle photo: The Atlantic Video
Second space shuttle photo: Joel Housman
