Picture of the Week: Finally Got a Plasma

That is an image from the Korea Times (by way of Gizmodo) of the first plasma generated by South Korea 's KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Reactor) fusion reactor.

The experiment back in June produced 2 1/2 times more plasma than anticipated, which was good news for the project and for other, similar projects, like the high-profile ~$7-14 billion ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) reactor being built in France.

Fusion power is considered a leading motivation for moon colonization, as a primary fuel for it (helium-3) is rare on Earth, but plentiful on the Moon. Seen as an ultimate power source, fusion power could be a solution to certain problems that may crop up in the next 50 years.

Last year, South Korea announced plans to launch a lunar orbiter in 2020 (similar to the craft just launched by India), so they could be getting ahead of the game with their early development of the fusion side of things.

MoonPop: "Fly Me to the Moon"

This song has been stalking me as of late (today it was the song on the music player of my favorite--and totally not moon-related--coffeehouse's website...my first time at the website, and it's that song of all the possible choices for me, moon blogger/frequent patron...weird), and so without further adieu, here's a little spotlight onto the lunar entry into pop culture made famous by Frank Sinatra: "Fly Me to the Moon".

The song, written as a pop standard by Bart Howard in 1954, was actually orginally titled "In Other Words", but that oh-so-catchy first line eventually became the title. It was first recorded by Kaye Ballard, and after numerous others had recorded versions, Sinatra recorded his own iconic whirl on it in 1964.

Since then, it has been covered by countless more artists, inspired punny movie titles, and (of course) actually been sung in space.

I've got a whole playlist of moon tunes that I swing to while blogging away here, that I'll share as soon as I figure out a practical way for it to be more interactive (e.g. listenable) right here at the blog...:) But, for now, enjoy that video above and the litany of links I've provided for ya as per usual :)