CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: INTERNET OFFERS GALAXY OF SITES ON SPACE, ALIENS FOR STARGAZERS (COLUMN 4)

Cybertip: FAQ means Frequently Asked Questions. FAQs provide background or information that newbies and experienced websters may need.

With the hullabaloo about Mars and possible life on the Red Planet, we are taking a voyage into Cyberspace to learn more about outer space. The Internet offers a galaxy of sites for stargazers who want to go where no man has gone before from the comfort of their computer.

Reporters at the Southeast Missourian used some of these sites recently to collect data on the Mars rock. The NASA site was so popular it was difficult to log on. It seems that things have calmed down a bit this week. We got right in.

http://www.nasa.gov

Peggy: The NASA web presence is huge. NASA maintains multiple web sites, thousands of photos, video and audio clips. Every mission, past and future, is detailed. Each shuttle has a page. Each research center has a page. Major projects have pages.

Joni: You could get lost in all this.

Peggy: I believe they call it lost in space. In response to the Mars announcement, NASA counted hits to its pages by the millions. The Johnson Space Center's Life on Mars page recorded over a million hits a day during the rock rush.

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/flash

Joni: We also wanted to see what NASA online had to say about our own astronaut Linda Godwin.

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/

Peggy: NASA has biographies about all the NASA astronaut. Linda Godwin's biography told about her three shuttle missions, 1991, 1994 and 1996. She is married to a former astronaut Steven Nagel. There is also a link to his bio page.

Joni: According to her biography, Linda Godwin enjoys playing saxophone and clarinet, reading and flying.

Peggy: She has also logged 633 hours in space, including a six-hour space walk.

Joni: NASA also links you to space agencies in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan and Sweden. Interesting enough, they didn't list Russia, which we found at

http://www.rssi.ru/

This site takes you to the Russian Space Science Internet Project in Moscow. The page displays the current time in Moscow, 9 hours ahead of us. I like the "What's usually called useful links" button.

Peggy: Even though NASA doesn't link to Russia, the former Soviet Union links to NASA's Spacelink for information about the Mir space station.

Joni: Another site to visit for worldwide information on space exploration is Florida Today's Space Online.

http://www.flatoday.com

They call themselves Planet Earth's best source for space news. No big heads here. But to tell you the truth, they do have something to boast about. It's a top notch site.

Peggy: The page counts down all types of launches from space programs around the world. The launch schedule goes into 1997. There's also a new galactic shopper site to buy, sell and trade space stuff.

Joni: I wonder how much they'd charge for that Mars rock? Each day, Space Online has space news from around the world. Eventually they hope to have 30 years of news stories and photos about space available in a searchable archive. It should be great for school projects.

Peggy: NASA has Martian microbes but PBS's Nova has little green men on their UFO home page. Nova is a weekly television program that focuses on science.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/nova/aliens/alienhome.html

Joni: Nova explores the alien abduction phenomenon. In a nutshell they ask "Kidnapped by UFOs?" and warn "This feature contains disturbing material." It interviews both believers and skeptics and outlines some alleged cases.

Peggy: In one story, a woman believes she was abducted from a 12th floor apartment in Manhattan. There were apparently a number of witnesses who saw her floating out the window with three aliens. The UFO expert says there's more evidence, but he's not at liberty to divulge it right now.

Joni: I guess he's worried about the government or the little men in white coats.

Peggy: For the big picture about aliens, visit

http://www.id4.com

Independence Day, the movie, asks questions about our government and aliens and what's really going on at Area 51. You can challenge your investigative skills in a multiple choice quiz and chat with others interested in aliens.

Joni: There are four different polls on the site, asking such questions as "The morning after the day that an alien space ship landed in front of the White House, your alarm goes off. Do you go to work?" Right.

Peggy: I like the question: "What is the first thing you do when you hear an alien ship has landed on Earth?" My favorite answer is: Wonder if my Star Trek memorabilia is now worthless. Of course, few people really answered that way. Nearly 60 percent said they'd stay glued to the television.

Joni: You can also see how others voted. The responses are tallied continually.

Peggy: Do you believe in aliens or life on Mars? E-mail us at movn@ldd.net.

See you in Cyberspace.

~Joni Adams is managing editor and Peggy Scott is a graphics editor/staff writer at the Southeast Missourian.