Craig Porter's Phoenix Moon Society blog - Our local chapter president's site
Moon Society Phoenix Yahoo Group - A group for Yahoo account members
National Space Society Phoenix Chapter - The local NSS Chapter site
Challenger Space Center - Phoenix's own center devoted to educating the public about space, with a distinct focus on kids. A great place to take the kids on a hot summer day, as most of the exhibits are indoors.
Member/Associate Sites
Dr. Sky - Phoenix area media personality promotes astronomy and science
SpaceWeather.com - besides having a good what's up (in the sky) and daily email, the web site has a tab for flyby's such as when the ISS is visible
EarthSky.org - has a daily email and a good daily information blip on KBAQ each morning at 5:55am.
www.DonaldJacques.com - Don Jacques' personal Author and Interests page featuring various topics
www.LunarSettlement.com - Site devoted to the technology and philosophy of settling the lunar surface
News Sources:
Space.com - Space and technology related news
Moon and Back News - Space and related news
New Space Companies:
A major impediment to widespread, popular space development is the cost of getting to orbit. NASA and the US Air Force have proposed many programs over the years to try and develop low-cost boosters (Advanced Launch System, National Launch System, single stage to orbit vehicles, etc.) but either the support to finance them was lacking or the technology was immature. Some would point out that government-run programs have little incentive to produce a truly low-cost system.
The alternative is a number of small commercial companies, often collectively referred to "NewSpace". These entrepreneurial firms are free to implement a booster design of their own liking, without the bureaucracy that often accompanies government programs. Until a true market develops for private rides to orbit, however, these firms will still have the government as their primary customer. That puts constraints on how different than can really operate.
Certainly the NewSpace companies are doing interesting things. Some are doing them very quietly, one could even say secretly. Some have failed. Here's a list of several of these companies.
Mojave Space Port - Commercial Space Port
Space Adventures - Tourist/Travel Services to Space
Virgin Galactic - is part of Richard Branson's Virgin Group and a major standout among the NewSpace firms. They are preparing to offer sub-orbital tourist flights as well as suborbital science missions and eventually orbital missions.
XCor - is developing reusable rockets as well as the Lynx tourist spaceship for a Sub-Orbital Space Tourist Service.
Armadillo Aerospace - is a Texas company developing a spaceship for a Sub-Orbital Space Tourist Service
Blue Origin - is another company funded by an internet billionaire, this time Jeff Bezos of Amazon. They have a lot of the team that developed the DC-X Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) testbed and are developing a similar vehicle, New Shepard.
SpaceX - This is certainly the most successful of the NewSpace companies. Established in 2002 by internet mogul Elon Musk, they have developed two orbital rockets and demonstrated a capsule design to service the space station.
Advent Launch Services - They proposed a reusable launch system and competed in the Ansari X-prize competition. Their website is still functioning but the latest entry is from 2008.
Ad Astra Rocket Company - Developing the VASIMIR rocket engine
Bigelow Aerospace - Funded by hotel businessman Robert Bigelow in 1998, they focus on inflatable orbital habitats and are having some success. They have already launched 2 habitats that are still in orbit providing a wealth of information. A full-size station is due by 2014.
Masten Space Systems - VTO Spacecraft specifically a lunar landing craft.
MIT BioSuit spacesuit - A new kind of space suit design.
For a more complete list, see this Wikepedia page: Wikipedia.org
New - Old Technologies:
Garden Pool - Fish + Plants = self-regenerative biome
QuadroCopter - the new Telepresence!
Edutainment:
Mechanics of Orbit - Configure your own planet, or view existing ones