Uh, sorry

On the sidebar is the blog archive. I started out strong, but then settled down into around a hundred posts a year. In 2011 and 2012 I managed 88 posts each year. But starting in 2014, the number of annual posts dropped dramatically. Finally, this year, I got back into the swing of things. And as I entered December, I had 82 posts, with a good chance of breaking 90, and very good odds I would at least reach the 88 posts that I had in previous years. I already had a few meaty posts that were mostly written and just needed another short paragraph or so before clicking "Publish." But then, for no readily apparent reason, I kept finding other things to do. So with this post, I'm at 84 posts for the year. Not too shabby, but I had such high hopes. So, to apologize for hardly posting anything this month, I'll link you to Dave Barry's 2017 Year in Review. Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year.

A few more spacey links

-- Incredible. They recently fired up Voyager 1's trajectory thrusters, and they worked perfectly. It took over 39 hours after they first broadcast the signal to hear back from the spacecraft that it was a success because it's 19 and a half light hours away. More here.

-- Andy Weir, who wrote The Martian, has another book out about a Moon base, Artemis. Ima gotsta get it. Popular Mechanics explores the science and technology behind it.

-- What looks to be the beginning of an interesting series of articles: "How the Apollo fire propelled NASA to the Moon".

-- Some new discoveries make it (slightly) more likely that Jupiter's moon Europa could harbor life.

Update (11 December): Another big link: Trump orders NASA to send American astronauts to the Moon, Mars.