UARS: a tribute

UARS could be a massive pain in the well, arse. OK, now I've got over the schoolboy sniggering, I'll explain that UARS is the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. Its job done, rather than have it crash into the space station and all those spy satellites, NASA has allowed the satellite to take a closer look at the atmosphere. A much closer look: those chunks which don't burn up on re-entry are going to crash to earth on Friday night/Saturday morning.

Where? That's where it gets tricky. They can't narrow it down any closer than 'not North America' (which is very sporting of them - always look after No. 1).

There's a long tradition of rock using space for inspiration, going back to the 1950s rockabilly fascination with the possibility of visitors from space. So here are some tracks from my collection in honour of NASA's death from above: Orange Juice's 'Satellite City', Aimee Mann's 'Satellite', Echo and the Bunnymen's song of the same name, Hope Sandoval's and the Warm Inventions' contribution,  and finally some brilliant, dog-rough rock and roll by The Rebelaires ('Satellite Rock') and Ray Sawyer ('Rockin' Satellite').

I love geeks

The final Twittercast (I know, I know) from the LCROSS satellite deliberately (and unsuccessfully) crashed into the moon the other days was a Douglas Adams quote - the first (and last) thoughts of the sperm whale which materializes above Magrathea then plummets to its doom.

Forget offshore - let's off-planet!

Yes: solar power collected in space then beamed down to earth as radio waves then converted to electricity is GO! The company needs less than $5bn to do it - £3bn or so, which is less than a decent express rail line.