Miscellany

The saddest item of business to note in this linky post is that noted astronomer Brian Marsden, retired director of the Minor Planet Center and a good friend to many (though, I'm sorry to say, I never met him in person), passed away yesterday at the age of 73. There is a detailed obituary in MPEC 2010-W10, and Charlene Anderson has written a remembrance on our website.

Also on our website, Lou Friedman offers a preview of and best wishes for Nanosail-D, which is scheduled to launch tomorrow .

This week's Planetary Radio features Alexis Rodriguez on a new model for the seas of Mars.

Also noteworthy is that the Space Shuttle Discovery launch has just been rescheduled to no earlier than December 3.

Finally, after being in safe mode since November 2, Cassini is expected to return to work next week, taking its first camera images since entering safe mode on November 26, as Jason Perry explains in the Rev 141 Looking Ahead article.