Michael West’s Blog

Has the real Jesus been so buried by tradition and legend that he is now lost to people living in the 21st century?

That is the question that is examined by a four part historical documentary called ‘The Christ Files’ that is airing on Channel 7 at noon on Good Friday, 21st March. Here is the blurb from its website…

“Historian Dr John Dickson sets out to discover what we can know for certain about the life of one of history’s best known and most influential figures. In a captivating journey across the globe, Dr Dickson examines ancient documents and consults the world’s most respected historians and scholars. Beginning with the Gnostic Gospels, he criss-crosses continents on a search back through time for the historical sources that reveal the real Jesus— a search for The Christ Files.”

I would be interested to hear what people think. Feel free to post a comment. More details about the documentary and a selection of interviews from it can be found at www.thechristfiles.com.au

(Thanks to Vella, Matt & Tiger for making me aware of this).

Today’s session was on the human exploration of Phobos and Deimos and included my presentation the engineering challenges and unique opportunities associated with such an endeavour. I will put up a PDF of my presentation later if you are interested. My presentation was well received and provoked some good questions and discussion, particularly about whether robotic precursor missions would be required before sending humans or if we know enough already to safely operate on their surface. From an engineering stand point, my big concerns are with the long term effects of the moons’ regolith on mechanical systems such as spacesuits and the challenges associated with affixing oneself to the surface and getting around on the moons. Since the gravity on Phobos, as an example, is 0.001G and varies as a result of its irregular shape conducting spacewalks and the like will require some careful consideration. Given the extensive experience gained from the Mir, Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs, in which spacewalks are conducted in near-zero G conditions, there is a legacy to build upon.

Other presentations during the day discussed the radiation environment in Mars orbit and the use of Phobos as a location for a cache of Martian material collected by sample return missions. Rob Landis from NASA Johnson Space Center gave a very interesting presentation about his study of a crewed mission to a Near Earth Object, such as an asteroid, using the crew exploration vehicle mission architecture as a prelude to human exploration of Phobos and Deimos. Following lunch was the poster session of which I have included some photos of below.

Later in the afternoon Pascal was interviewed by Michael Reilly from New Scientist magazine for an article that will hopefully come out online tomorrow about the conference. He also asked me a few questions about my presentation etc. Who knows, I might even get a mention

Well that just about sums up my morning of tutoring!

A German aviator has designed a set of jet powered wings for personal flight! The specs are pretty impressive. They have an endurance of 5 minutes, a speed range of 120 - 300 km/hr and a climb rate of 10000 ft/min at 100 knots. Check out this amazing video of Jetman! I’ll try and find some more details on the web over the weekend. Enjoy!

Thanks to Devin for lettting me know about this.

G’day, my name is Michael West and I have created this blog for some of the following reasons..

• so my family and friends in Sydney (and other corners of the globe) can stay up to date with my adventures as I undertake PhD studies at the Australian National University in Canberra
• so I have a record of my musings on life, the universe and everything in between, particularly as I complete my PhD
• somewhere to display the millions of photos I have taken while travelling and exploring God’s beautiful creation
• as a place to ponder and promote dialogue on various issues that I’m passionate about