Earth Hour

Well, it appears that Earth Hour has come and gone, and low and behold, I missed posting about it.  So, better late than never, I will do that now.  The whole idea behind the second annual Earth Hour is to attempt to have people around the world turn off non-essential lights and other such power sources for an hour to conserve electricity.  It appears that there were some places noticed a difference.

Ontario, for example, noticed a 6% decrease in power consumption during the hour on Saturday night.  Here in Saskatchewan, there was no noticeable difference.  Please read the Earth Hour news article on the News Talk 650 website.

Here is a link to the official Earth Hour website.

Space Station's new solar panels operational

NASA has reported that the International Space Station's (ISS) new solar panels are functioning properly. They are the last set on solar panels to be installed on the ISS in an effort to boost the amount of scientific research that can be done. The ISS is now about 81 percent complete and weighs about 670,000 pounds. It is expected to be completed next year in correlation with the reitrement of the space shuttle's.

Space Station Solar Panel's

(Photo courtesy of NASA)

Saskatchewan-Born Resident Canadian Astronaut Hopeful

Saskatchewan native Desmond Brophy (pictured below), who is currently a CF-18 pilot, has been chosen by the Canadian Space Agency as an astronaut candidate. He is one of the 16 final candidates in the National Astronaut Recruitment Campaign announced Monday in Toronto by the Canadian Space agency. He is one of 5341 applicants to be chosen. The two candidates will be chosen in May and will then travel to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for several years of training. Please see the link below for the full story.

Canadian Astronaut Hopefuls

(Photo Courtesy of Canadian Space Agency)