Carnival of Space #117 on Simostronomy

Ladies and Gentelmen...step right up to experience this week's Carnival of Space.The fantabulous 117th edition, is hosted right here at Simostronomy! Brought to you absolutely FREE by Fraser Cain of Universe Today, as well as all the bloggers who submitted content for this week's Carnival.We have pieces on spacecraft, spectacular amateur imaging, talking to aliens, software used in space missions, light pollution, space elevators, asteroids, cosmology and space squirrels, just to name a few. There is something for everyone. So come on in...X-152009 is also 50th birthday of the first reusable spaceship. In October, 1959, the X-15 made its first flights, starting a test program that lasted until 1968.Text Messages to AliensAustralia’s COSMOS Magazine has decided to lower Earth’s galactic credibility by beaming a bunch of text messages at some aliens they hope might exist and be listening. They’ve even somehow roped NASA into the deal.Mission Updates from the Planetary SocietyTime to step back and take stock of what's going on with all our favorite robotic missions exploring space beyond Earth.Lunar Sample AtlasThe Lunar Planetary Institute has made available a database of lunar sample data and images.Minerva is a Triple AsteroidHigh resolution images provided by the Keck Adaptive Optics system ...