Welcome, one and all, to the 99th edition of the Carnival of Space. I feel special to host the last two-digit Carnival (and I can’t wait to see who gets #100!).

On with it!

I present this week’s Carnival in the form of my best recipe for bread (my friends call it Alice Bread, and it is quite easy to make):

1. First you need 1 Cup hot water (as hot as you can get from the tap) – and in that vein Christopher of the fairly new and piping hot Innumerable Worlds presents an analysis of the Sun’s wobble (What if we were looking back at ourselves from 10pc away? Would we detect the worlds we have here?).
2. Next, Brian, Next Big Future, tells us about eensy-weensy solar sails that are probably smaller than the 1 Tbsp Regular Yeast you’ll need next, and space based solar power.
3. Make sure your yeast is at least as fresh as the radio news from Nicole at One Astronomer’s Noise – don’t try this with a packet that’s been in the back of your cupboard for years.
4. A Babe in the Universe, Louise, celebrates Yuri’s Night with at least 1 Tbsp Sugar.
5. You can use any sweetener you like – just something for the yeast to eat, and to add a little flavor to the bread, and Alan from MSNBC offers a number of choices, addressing the questions of space-based solar power, Hubble’s “Hand” in space, and rocket racers.
6. Mang from the 433rd faces the oil (1 Tbsp Oil, that is) and water of the Pluto question.
7. Kimberly from the Chandra team shows us what Chandra is up to, combining its data with that from other scopes, just like I use various oils to get various flavors in this bread: I use olive for a “French” bread, and canola for a slightly plainer taste.
8. Emily, Planetary Society Weblog, loves the shadows on Saturn’s Rings, rings which we all know are made of tiny particles – just like the 3-5 Cups of Flour you’ll require.
9. I use All-Purpose white flour from the USA – if you love whole wheat I’d do several experiments instead of using this recipe as is. Speaking of experiments, Brian, the One-Minute Astronomer visited base camp for some very famous ones, and reports on his visit to Palomar. (Also, if you live in another country your flour may have a different gluten content, so try this recipe and let me know how it works, but the recipe is very flexible, so I’d expect it to turn out okay).
   
10. Heat a bowl. Ian from AstroEngine examines the Sun’s theoretical binary companion: it wouldn’t be very hot, comparatively, but still significantly hotter than you need to get the bowl you’ll be working with.  I heat my bowl by running the backside of the bowl under hot water until it doesn’t feel cool anymore.
11. Put your hot water in the heated bowl, which is where the Mars Sample Return missions David at Rocket Explorers looks at never quite got.
12. Mix sugar and oil in with the hot water (the goal is to have warm, happy, well-fed yeast). I mean, if you were going to go meet aliens around another star, wouldn’t you want them to be warm, happy, and well fed? Paul from Centauri Dreams talks about human interstellar flight versus robotic probes creating a “telepresence.”
    
13. Add yeast to your hot water mix. Paul of the Meridiani Journal examines strange formations on Mars, much like the strange formations you’re about to observe in your yeast.
14. Stir once, and while you do so read Stuart’s presentation “Rover Hugger” (which I can’t wait to finish reading myself!).
15. Wait until the yeast reproduces (you’ll see it “bloom” or get foamy). This is the best part! This should take 2-5 minutes, and you can watch it happen before your very eyes. Ethan at Starts with a Bang has also been watching for evidence of “babies” on a much different scale and has the secret to why nature decorates her galactic nurseries for girls.
16. Add one cup of flour. Stir, just like Colbert stirred up the ISS-module-naming community over the last few weeks. Robert of Collect Space weighs in on the NASA/Colbert naming resolution.
17. Add another cup of flour. Stir, and since he stirred up the community so well, Irene from the Discovery Channel knows just what NASA should do about Colbert.
18. Add a third cup of flour, knead in – don’t cut like you would a pastry, or like Occam’s razor might if you were Tycho Brahe: Ian of Astroblog wonders what the real role of parallax measurements in Tycho’s rejection of the Copernican system was.
19. Hubble just keeps finding more cool stuff, in this case presented by Phil, the Bad Astronomer, and just like that, if you need more flour, keep adding and kneading – you want to have dough that forms a ball and stays that shape.
20. Don’t worry about overkneading, but also don’t add more flour than you need just because the recipe calls for 3-5 cups. Speaking of adding more than one might need (or perhaps not enough), Shubber of the Space Cynics opines about the bailout’s effect on space projects.
21. If it’s stiff after just 2.5 cups, let it be – you’re done, but Nancy from the Universe Today hopes this isn’t the case for our space station and that we extend the life of ISS.
22. Oil a second bowl. Use the same oil you used in the bread, and speaking of using something you’ve used before, Bruce examines the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still over at 21st Century Waves.
23. Place the dough in the bowl, turn once to get it coated in oil – it might even look like the Moon Alexander of Potentia Tenebras Repellendi is writing about in his search for the Moon’s mother.
24. Darnell of Colony Worlds wonders if space elevators are rising in the right direction. Your bread certainly should be: let it rise until it’s doubled in size, covered and warm (About 45 minutes). I preheat my oven to about ~100F (I know, you can’t do that, I just turn it on for 10 minutes and then turn it off and keep it closed).
25. Punch down, knead once or twice, and form into the shape you want – perhaps the shape of Ryan’s Moon rocks. He took a short detour from the Martian Chronicles to check out Moon rock processing at Johnson Space Center. I make an oval on my baking sheet, but it works in a loaf pan too.
26. Let rise again for at least 15 more minutes, but you can let it go for up to 45. At least you don’t have to wait 520 days like the people on the mission to Mars currently happening in Moscow. Bruce from Music of the Spheres reports.
27. Bake in a greased or completely non-stick pan at 350° F for 45 minutes. Speaking of baking, I really don’t want to be on this mission: Ralph from Discovery Enterprise suggests we send crewed missions to Venus,  and Alex found a video about a Mars mission based on Apollo technology.

Okay, so my grammar had to get a little weird there, sorry. It’s kind of hard to make a carnival list fit a recipe.

Please comment to let me know about any mistakes.  If you’re not out of time yet, don’t miss the past couple Carnivals:

• Carnival of Space #97, Cheap Astronomy
• Carnival of Space #98, Universe Today

Have fun!

~ A l i c e !

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