thebattalionasks
Q:
How do you predict the game against Kansas will turn out? Monzerrat Calderon senior sociology major
thebattalion ● monday,
februray 15, 2010
Ryan Dunnhert sophomore political science major
texas a&m since 1893
● first paper free – additional copies $1 ● © 2010 student media
Walkup dazzles on court and off Junior basketball player vital part of a winning team T.D. Durham
“We’ll beat the hell out of Kansas! The Aggie spirit is all we need.”
● serving
The Battalion He stands 6-foot-7, weighs 215 pounds, has a dimple in his chin and is the resident hunk on the Texas A&M men’s basketball team. His name is Nathan Walkup. “Nate Walkup is absolutely adorable,” said freshman Alix Angelelli. “His muscles, his eyes— he’s so athletic. Plus, he hustles so much and shows up when we need him in the game.” Although the ladies may swoon at the sight of Nate, he said he is off the market. “Actually, I’m a taken man. I’m dating a girl from my high school. I mean, I really
like meeting people; I don’t want people thinking I’m a snob or nothing. I’m really loyal to my girlfriend, but I always like seeing fans and saying ‘Hi’ to people.” Walkup said his girlfriend is used to his heartthrob status. “Every once in a while, she’s like ‘Nathan!’” Walkup said. “We always joke about it, but she’s really cool about it – she knows I like her.” Walkup, a native of Deer Park, Texas, is one of four juniors on the A&M team, the squad he said has a lot of fun even when it’s not throwing alley oops on the hardwood.
“We’re serious on the court and serious in practice, but off the court everybody’s having a good time,” Walkup said. “Dash [Harris] and D-Ro, they’re the biggest jokesters. We have a lot of fun.” Walkup said the injury senior guard Derrick Roland suffered on Dec. 22 brought the team closer. “We’ve been really close since the beginning of the year, but D-Ro’s injury made us even closer,” Walkup said. “It made us all realize how quickly basketball can be taken from you.” See Walkup on page 10
Beating Kansas Looking back at 2007’s monumental win over KU and predictions for this years game.
sports | 6
BEAT KU Find the poster for tonight’s game.
inside | 4-5
“I think we have a good shot – especially since we’re playing them at Reed Arena.”
Reagan Thompson senior agricultural economics major
“I’m expecting that we’re going to do great, the team is on a roll right now, but we’ll need the help of the Twelfth Man.”
Morgan VanDerLeest sophomore computer science major
“Beat the hell out of Kansas! We’re on our way to get tickets right now.”
Jeramie Heflin — THE BATTALION
This year marks the last for shuttle missions to the space station. According to NASA, Mars missions are in the future.
Space travel to halt NASA budget cuts mean last launch year Vicky Flores and Jill Beathard The Battalion The first of five final missions for the Endeavour shuttle took place this weekend following the recent news of NASA’s budget cuts and the termination of the constellation program. The mission involved placing Tranquility, a new node or compartment, to the International Space Station to
Morgan Smith junior bilingual education major
add extra room for astronauts and control systems. The station will be about 90 percent complete with the addition of Tranquility and the cupola –– a robotic workstation with seven windows. During a spacewalk Saturday, astronauts Nicholas Patrick and Bob Behnken attached ammonia connectors between nodes Unity and Tranquility to provide cooling to
the node. A port was also prepared for the cupola, to be positioned on a later spacewalk. “Everything was accomplished as we had planned, the main objective was hooking up the ammonia lines, the ammonia lines provide cooling to the electronics and systems to the Node 3 module and integrates it into the cooling system of the See NASA on page 10
Galactical investigations take off “I think we’re gonna kick their tale!”
Mitch Morris junior political science major
“Home court will help us out a lot. We play our top game and it should come down to the end.”
Evan Oliver and Jeramie Heflin — THE BATTALION
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■ Professors working with NASA telescopes discover distant star formations that bring outerspace to life in Aggie classrooms. Upcoming events
Samantha Johnson
Wednesday lecture series: Patricle, Astrophysics and Cosmology.
Texas A&M professors Casey Papovich and Steven Finkelstein along with other collaborators have identified 35 of the most distant galaxies studied, which likely formed between 500 and 800 million years after the Big Bang. The images of the galaxies were captured using NASA’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. “Up until recently we could only see so far. The WFC3 allows us to see galaxies that are invisible in optical light,” Finkelstein said. The goals of these studies are to locate the earliest galaxies to better understand how the galaxy was formed. “The overarching goal that we’re working on is just trying to figure out how galaxies form and evolve, and you can tackle that in a number of ways,” Finkelstein said. “We’re doing it by trying to find the most distant things we can find and what they’re like.”
Wednesday’s topic: Spitzer Observations of Star Formation in Galactic HII Region Environments. 11:30 a.m. Mitchell Institute, room 102.
The Battalion
While Finkelstein said the galaxies identified are not the most distant, it is another step closer to the goal. He said the launching of the James Web Space Telescope, which will occur in four to five years, will enable them to identify the “infant galaxies.” Senior English major Sarah Maldonado, who is enrolled in an astronomy course, said the discovery brings the curriculum to life. “We haven’t covered galaxies in my astronomy class yet, but now, because of this, I’m really excited for when we get there,” Maldonado said. Junior aerospace engineering major Philip Hopkins said he is excited for what this discovery means, not only for learning about the history of the universe, but for the future of technology. “It’s great that they could provide insight into the origins of our galaxy,” Hopkins said. “But what is really exciting is how far technology has come, and even how more advanced we could be just by the time I graduate.”
Exploring the issues NASA needs public funding. voices | 9
thebatt.com
Inside Video Check out footage from inside mission control.
this day in
US
history Feb. 15, 2002 The U.S. Congress approved the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada for the storage of radioactive waste materials. The site is near the Nevada Test Site where the U.S. tested nuclear weapons. The site was never opened due to legal and budget issues. The funding for Yucca Mountain was removed from the Federal budget in 2009.
2/14/10 10:04 PM