We’ll admit it. We’ve become addicted to MSNBC’s Month in Space feature, where each month they post a slideshow of the coolest new space-related photographs. At first we thought it was pretty neat, then we went back a second time… and now it is required viewing, which is why we link to it from Club Galahad each and every month.

Here’s the link to the November slideshow. Among the highlights: freaky carbon dioxide patterns on Mars’ surface; breathtaking Antarctic sea ice; the Leonid meteor as seen from South Africa; the colorful Crab Nebula (pictured at left); and of course, several cool shots of the space shuttle Atlantis and her crew.

Don’t just look at the pictures. Instead, make it into a game. As you flip through the slideshow, count the number of times you catch yourself saying, ‘Wow.’

Early Friday morning the space shuttle Atlantis and its seven-member crew touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking the end of a successful 11-day mission to the International Space Station. The Atlantis STS-129 mission delivered more than 27,000 pounds of spare parts to the ISS in order to extend its lifespan.

This article from Space.com highlights the eventful mission, which included “three spacewalks, the birth of a crew member’s daughter back on Earth, a Thanksgiving celebration in space, and also returned the last station resident to arrive and depart the station by a U.S. space shuttle.”

Whew, that sounds like a busy 11 days, especially when you consider they had to travel four-and-a-half million miles to do it all.

Atlantis will embark upon its final mission in May 2010 before making way for the next generation of NASA spacecraft. As always, stay tuned to ClubGalahad.com for all the latest.

We told you last week about the food that the astronauts aboard the International Space Station would be enjoying on Thanksgiving — but wait, there’s more!

Check out this video, where two American Astronauts share with us some of the actual dishes they’re eating while in space. They also send out warm wishes to all of us for a healthy and happy Thanksgiving, which is nice considering they’ve got their hands full at the moment.

And at least one American astronaut is feeling very thankful today– Randy Bresnik’s wife gave birth to a baby girl (named Abigail) this week, while he was busy at work on the ISS. Congratulations to the Bresniks, and here’s hoping that he gets home safely to welcome the newest member of the family himself.

Well Galahad fans, you’ve waited patiently, and the wait is about to pay off. The next two books in the Galahad series — The Web of Titan and The Cassini Code, respectively — will be on bookshelves in 2010. And as if that weren’t enough, the first book in the series, The Comet’s Curse, will make its Tor paperback debut.

As of now we know only the month each book will be released and not the specific day, but more details figure to follow shortly, including information on book release parties and special appearances. We didn’t want to hold out on you any longer, so here’s the rundown:

• March 2010 - The Comet’s Curse (Tor paperback edition)
• July 2010 - The Web of Titan
• November 2010 - The Cassini Code

There you have it. Of course, if you subscribed to the Club Galahad newsletter, you’d already know about this, since Club Galahad subscribers are always the first to know. Don’t worry, it’s not too late. Click here to sign up. Remember, it’s free, it’s easy, and we never share your information with anyone else.

There have been quite a few foreign objects lighting up the night sky lately. Most recently, the Leonid meteor shower got a lot of attention on Tuesday night, and rightfully so. It was an awesome display.

But this article from Space.com highlights how Leonid isn’t the only heavenly body snagging headlines of late. We’ve also seen a couple of very near-misses from asteroids that would have packed quite a punch if they’d hit the Earth, including one on November 6 that nobody saw coming until about 15 hours before it blew past us.

But have no fear — NASA is spending upwards of $4 million per year to better identify and defend against just that type of surprise. Because no one likes an uninvited visitor who packs a wollop equal to six kilotons of TNT. That’s just rude.

Despite some concerns about potential weather delays, the space shuttle Atlantis left Florida’s Kennedy Space Center this afternoon on its way to the International Space Station for an 11-day mission. The crew of six astronauts and the hundreds of staffers on the ground set a record for the fewest number of problems reported leading up to (and during) the launch sequence.

As always, there’s plenty to do over at NASA’s website. You can see photos and video from today’s launch, read about the mission, or even check out bios of each of the astronauts on board.

Atlantis and its crew will be dropping off more than 30,000 pounds of equipment and experiments at the International Space Station for use on future missions. The crew will be in space through the Thanksgiving holiday — although NASA says no special Turkey dinners are on the menu for the men and women of Atlantis. The closest they’ll get is a rehydratable pouch of turkey tetrazzini. Mmmmmm… just like mom used to make.

Remember when we told you a few weeks back about NASA’s plan to crash a rocket into a lunar crater in order to determine whether or not there was any water on the moon?

Well, turns out the answer is a definitive YES.

According to a NASA LCROSS project scientist: “Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn’t find just a little bit, we found a significant amount.”

This is a big development for a couple of reasons. First, having substantial amounts of ice (and therefore water) on the moon could someday lead to a full-time lunar base, which some scientists have speculated could be the first step in visiting more distant planets. In the near term, NASA is already planning to send manned missions back to the moon beginning in 2020, and there’s no telling what having access to “significant amounts” of water could mean to those missions.

Plus, let’s be honest. Finding out that there is water on the moon is just really, really cool.

Faithful readers of The Comet’s Curse will remember that Galahad uses cutting-edge solar sails to begin its voyage away from our solar system on its way toward the Earth-like planet of Eos.

But according to Canada’s CBC News, a space advocacy group called The Planetary Society (co-founded by the great scientific writer and thinker Carl Sagan) is planning to launch a real-life spacecraft into orbit using solar sails as early as next year. The group’s executive director says that in time, ships using solar sails could reach speeds of up to 100,000 miles per hour and could get out of the solar system in just five years.

In 2005, The Planetary Society launched a solar sail vessel called Cosmos-1, but the mission failed and the ship wound up in the ocean. Thanks in part to an anonymous $1 million donation, the organization has regrouped and re-tooled their design. Here’s hoping that this mission, planned for late 2010, goes off without a hitch.

Cool website alert: Here’s a link to a short (but fun) Space Science quiz over at ScienceMaster.com. It’s just a few questions, but they’re challenging!

The questions range from how to get from one planet to another, to math gems like this one: If you could travel in a space-ship at the speed of light away from the solar system, how long could you see the sun? 3 years, 30 years, or 300 years?

See what we mean when we say fun but challenging? And when you’re done with the quiz, bone up on some other science knowledge by checking out ScienceMaster’s learning galleries. They’ve got information on all kinds of science-related topics, from Asteroids to carnivorous plants to snowflakes. Enjoy!

In the ongoing debate over alternative sources of energy (more oil! less oil! new oil!), there’s one thing that just about everyone can agree on: that battery technology has not come all that far in the last few decades. Sure, we’re now capable of making some very small batteries (to fit in things like your iPod or cell phone), but 15 years ago it was pretty much assumed that cars would be able to run fully on battery power by now. No such luck. We just haven’t come up with the technology to allow batteries to take that next step.

However, a young scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (better known as MIT) has come up with a pretty revolutionary concept. You see, she’s created a battery that is powered by viruses.

That’s right, viruses. The things that are responsible for most of your sick days — the flu, chicken pox, etc. — might one day be used to power all those energy-hungry devices in our lives. Maybe even our cars.

We aren’t there yet, and getting from here to there will take lots of time and money. But the developments of the team at MIT are encouraging, and it goes to show that innovation, by definition, almost always comes from the places we least expect.