Archive for the ‘astronauts’ Category
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
Sally Ride is to be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Recently returned ISS Commander Chris Hadfield announced his retirement from the Canadian astronaut corps today.
Last month, the governor of Texas signed a new law that is necessary for SpaceX to build a new spaceport near South Padre Island and Brownsville. The bill allows the mandated closure of Boca Chica Beach – a public state park – on the days of rocket launches. This bill is a big step towards SpaceX making South Texas their second launch site.
Apparently Justin Bieber made a down payment on a spaceflight with Virgin Galactic last week.
If you are a night owl (or the opposite) you should go outside at about 4:30 AM (Eastern) on Tuesday, June 11, and see if you can spot some Gamma Delphinid meteors. The possible meteor outburst may only last 30 minutes or so, but may be dramatic.
The asteroid mining company Planetary Resources launched a “crowdfunding” campaign last month to help them raise money for their asteroid hunting space telescope(s). They are getting close to their $1 million goal. I think it is worth donating (I contributed already) just for the possibility of getting the cool “space selfie” perk they are offering. They are planning to have a small video screen on the outside of the spacecraft that can display photographs that can then be themselves photographed against the backdrop of the Earth.
Warner Brothers intends to make a feature film based on the nonfiction book “Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo”. I’ll go see it!
In Orbit
On Wednesday, May 29, the second half of Expedition 36 docked to the ISS in the second “express” docking. Launch to docking time was about 6 hours. The new crew consists of Karen Nyberg (American), Luca Parmitano (Italian), and Fyodor Yurchikhin (Russian). Soyuz Commander Yurchikhin is on his third spaceflight. He was just in space exactly 3 years ago for Expedition 24.
Last week, the fourth European transfer vehicle (ATV4) launched from French Guiana on its way to ISS. ATV4 is named “Albert Einstein” and will stay docked to ISS for several months.
Early tomorrow morning, China intends to launch their fifth manned spaceflight. The mission will be Shenzhou 10, and will send three taikonauts to the Chinese Tiangong-1 space station. (via NASA Watch)
Out There
The Keck Telescope in Hawaii (where my dad works) was used for some new research into the Big Bang. The giant telescope looked at stars to get spectroscopic data of their Lithium isotope content in order to confirm a prediction made by The Big Bang Theory of the universe’s origin.
Because it’s cool
Perhaps the answer to Life the Universe and Everything is 3, not 42.
Friday Links
Down to Earth
A couple of updates on Space Shuttle artifacts being displayed. First, the original external fuel tank test article was shipped from KSC to the “Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum” in Starke, Florida. Second, the space shuttle Atlantis was “unwrapped” at its new display at the KSC visitor center.
Rumor has it that Virgin Galactic might have their first powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo next week.
The Texas state legislature is a few steps away from approving key measures that would enable SpaceX to build a launch site near the Mexico border outside of Brownsville. This week the Texas House of Representatives approved a bill that would allow closure of state beaches during launches. The bill still needs to go to the State Senate before passing.
Mars One, the… company? … that plans to colonize Mars, has opened up their astronaut application process. What the heck, why not apply?
In Orbit
Orbital Sciences successfully launched their first Antares rocket on April 21st. It was a beautiful launch into a clear blue sky. We look forward to seeing them on ISS in a few months.
Up on the Space Station, two cosmonauts – Pavel Vinogradov and Roman Romanenko – went on a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk to work on some external experiments and also some various maintenance.
On Wednesday, the latest Russian Progress resupply craft launched on its way to ISS. The docking is planned for just a few moments from now, on Friday morning (coverage is live on NASA TV if you catch this post right after it goes up). The Progress will be docking to ISS despite a rendezvous antenna that was unable to fully deploy after launch. The retracted antenna is physically in the way of the docking mechanism, so flight controllers will have to come up with a plan to get the antenna out of the way… or something else. Otherwise the cargo inside will not be accessible. One possibility is to plan another spacewalk after docking to move the antenna.
And on a lighter note, Commander Hadfield talks about barf bags in space.
Around the Solar System
At Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft has been observing meteors impacting the planet’s rings. Awesome.
Interesting Economics
Last weekend, the six-man crew onboard the ISS got a special delivery from Earth. The third in what we hope will be a long line of SpaceX Dragon capsules was grabbed by the space station robot arm on Sunday morning. It didn’t take very long after the Dragon was firmly attached for the crew to start working diligently to get the hatches open and get to the cargo inside, even though it was supposed to be partly their day off.
Why the rush? Well if you had only eaten fresh food a few times in the last four months you would be excited too! About 2-4 cargo deliveries will happen during an astronaut’s stay on ISS – so that means you only get to enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables in your diet for a few weeks of your stay.
I was on shift in ISS mission control on Sunday when the crew got the hatch open and you bet they wanted to know where the bags of apples were stored away. Not only did they find the expected NASA manifested bag of apples, tomatoes, and other items, but SpaceX had hidden away a special care package of extra apples and oranges. Their excitement was clear and I’m sure they had a good dinner that night.
What I think comes to light in this case is the interesting economics of supplying a space station, or I suppose any remote operating base. An orange is cheap – your neighbor’s tree might drop some over the fence into your yard and they would never know they were missing nor probably care. But the cost of launching those oranges to ISS makes them worth a lot – not quite equivalent to gold by weight, but getting close. Imagine if the trip to the grocery store cost you 10,000 times more than the groceries themselves? That’s a cost of living that would make even San Franciscans cringe.
This is obviously one important reason that spaceflight is so expensive. By having companies like SpaceX to run supply missions, launch costs can be reduced through efficiency and frequency. But even so, launch costs can only drop by so much. Thus, we will never truly be a spacefaring species unless we learn to be self-sufficient. The European colonies in America only prospered when they learned to live off of the local resources. As long as oranges are worth $2,000, we will be stuck in low earth orbit like some colonists in a coastal fort waiting for the next ship from England.
Someday the lessons we are slowly learning about self-sufficiency on ISS and elsewhere (like bases in Antarctica) will take us outward – but until then I would hate to be the astronauts up there stuck with the guilt of eating a $2,000 orange. What does it feel like to know that so much effort went into getting you just a few bites of fruit?
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
NASA administrator Charles Bolden and Buzz Aldrin laying a wreath at Arlington.
You thought it was all over last month didn’t you? Well think again. The deal that the 112th Congress agreed to early in January only delayed the “sequestration” of the federal budget. Sequestration is a returning threat if a more permanent deal can’t be reached by March. This will of course have far-reaching impacts in this country, including in space exploration. Here’s a summary from the Planetary Society about what sequestration would mean for NASA’s planetary science programs. The bottom line though is that NASA leadership has not publicly indicated how drastic budget cuts would be dolled out within the administration.
Veteran space shuttle astronaut Jerry Ross has released his new autobiography in hard cover.
Ron McNair died in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. His brother remembers him in a story that was turned into this cartoon by StoryCorps.
In Orbit
Later this morning – at 10:30 AM eastern – famed actor William Shatner will have a public video conference with ISS astronaut Chris Hadfield. As I understand it, some of America’s major news networks plan to cover the brief event.
The large asteroid 2012 DA14 will fly within just 17,200 miles of the Earth next week, on the 15th. That distance is below the roughly 22,400 mile altitude of geosynchronous orbit. The asteroid is about 50 meters or so across so it will be too small to see with the naked eye. I have not read anything that indicates we should be worried about a gravitational “keyhole” for 2012 DA14. It does not seem to be at a high risk for impact in the near future.
In less serious asteroid news, there is one out there with the newly minted official name “Wikipedia”.
There was some speculation earlier this week that the Iranian space monkey launch was faked. The accusation was based on the before and after pictures of the monkey, which appeared to be of a different animal, to experts. Iran has said they simply used the wrong photos, but they did really send their monkey on a successful suborbital flight.
Bigelow Aerospace has posted pricing information for trips to their planned Earth orbit space station. Visitors would fly up on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule or Boeing’s CST-100. The flights are noticeably cheaper than what tourists have paid in the past to travel to ISS. This is all well and good, but I want to know why Bigelow is calling their station “Alpha Station” when some NASA astronauts still refer to ISS as “Space Station Alpha”. Could get confusing.
Around the Solar System
Mercury and Mars are having a very close conjunction in the sky (as seen from Earth). At dusk today, February 7th, you should look West if you have a clear view to the horizon, and you may be lucky enough to spot this unlikely pair. You probably need binoculars to easily see the planets.
Cernan Visits ISS Mission Control
Sometimes history just walks up and smacks you in the face – or at least walks up in the form of a 78 year old man who once walked on the moon, more than 40 years ago.
On Tuesday, astronaut and moonwalker Eugene Cernan stopped by FCR-1 (the main control room for ISS mission operations) to see how the program is going many decades after his last steps on the moon, and to share a brief call with the crew aboard ISS.
FCR-1 has been used for continuous ISS operations for many years now and is regularly staffed by flight controllers who can be fairly young (for instance, I have been working in FCR-1 since I was 23). Long before I was born, Eugene Cernan was backup crew on Apollo 7, whose flight control team sat in the very same room in October 1968 – 45 years ago.
Human spaceflight is one of those things that can seem to both stretch and compress history at the same time. To me, the Apollo program is mostly an event to study in history books and memoirs. A bygone era of my profession two generations removed, from which I can still take lessons, but whose glory has long passed. And yet, many of the men and women who made Apollo possible are still around, not least of which are the eight surviving moonwalkers.
The existence of the very space station I fly can be traced back to a presidential decision in 1972 to pursue “low earth orbit infrastructure” as the future of NASA’s manned spaceflight program. this plan included the development of the space shuttle and eventually the large scale construction of a space station. Funding for this long-term plan was approved mere months before Cernan’s astronaut career culminated with his Apollo 17 landing on the moon that December.
Suddenly those words spoken on December 14, 1972 don’t seem so long ago.
I’m on the surface; and, as I take man’s last step from the surface, back home for some time to come – but we believe not too long into the future – I’d like to just [say] what I believe history will record. That America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return: with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17.
Book review: Moondust
Moondust by Andrew Smith is a space history book that seeks to tell a unique tale through first person interviews. The subtitle describes the quest for which he set out – “In Search of the Men who Fell to Earth”.
As Smith describes in his prologue, he did not originally intend to spend several years on a quest to interview all the surviving Apollo astronauts. His principal career was as a journalist, not an author, and on July 9, 1999 he was interviewing Charlie Duke (Apollo 16 LM pilot) and his wife for a magazine. That was the morning the world learned of the death of Pete Conrad. Somehow that coincidence of timing haunted Smith, leading him to ponder the meaning of Apollo and those unique men, the “moonwalkers.” Hunting down all 9 surviving moonwalkers is a daunting task, but somehow Smith accomplished it, with a few Command module pilots thrown in to boot.
There is nothing like a first person account of history. Moondust is a one of a kind book (unless you count the film “In the Shadow of the Moon” as a book) in that it provides so many first person accounts of the Apollo program, from the men that flew the missions, in one place. This is Moondust’s exceptional achievement, which overcomes some other flaws – not least of which is Smith’s lack of in depth knowledge about the Apollo program. Smith is certainly an outsider to the space program. He freely admits that he is not even a huge fan of space exploration. Thus, it is understandable that he is not a space scholar. This provides a fresh outside perspective but leads to some glaring factual and editorial errors. A good example is when Smith asserts that the Apollo program stopped for 18 months after the Apollo 1 fire so that NASA management could be “overhauled.” A more studious historian would know that the entire Command Module design was also “overhauled” during this period.*
Due to these frequent errors or twists of history, I would not recommend Moondust to readers who are not already studied in Apollo history. Moondust is not a book to read to learn about Apollo. Instead, Smith’s book is a look at the personalities of many of the astronauts themselves. When reading other personal stories, such as the memoirs of astronauts Gene Cernan, Al Worden, or Dave Scott, you are only treated to one perspective for an entire book. Within the pages of Moondust you can contrast the free spirit of Al Bean with the cocky second place finisher Buzz Aldrin with the hard and political Cernan with the quiet hero Neil Armstrong, and many more. Smith’s interpretations of the many astronauts motivations and psychologies may be flawed, but the words from the moonmen he interviewed are their own. In some cases, more interesting than the words the astronauts say, is Smith’s description of their demeanor, tone, and unique quirks. For instance, Aldrin’s strange ramblings can only really be appreciated by someone that has seen him speak off script (ie, not on Dancing the With the Stars or an Axe commercial).**
The second aspect of Moondust which I really liked is what seems to be at the heart of most negative reviews of the book on Amazon.com – context. Andrew Smith does more than just recount his many interesting interviews with Apollo heroes, he gives us personal and historical context for his thoughts about Apollo, and why it may or may not have been worth it. Most astronaut memoirs do at times try to provide context by discussing what was going on in the world outside – Vietnam, civil rights, civil unrest (Kent State, Chicago DNC riots). But most of the astronauts bring those events up to admit that they were sheltered in their NASA bubble, and were thinking only about their missions. Andrew Smith of course grew up and lived through the 60s and 70s, and at times digresses from his space themed narrative to tell us what that was like. This is described by some Amazon reviews as “self-absorbed” and “narcissistic” but overall I found it enlightening.
In summary, Moondust is a book worth picking up for any space geek who wants a new perspective, and who won’t be offended by an outsider telling you that maybe space exploration isn’t everything you make it up to be. Smith’s core thesis is dubious, but interesting; that the astronauts who went to the moon never really “came back” but instead spent the rest of their lives searching for that sense of purpose that they had during their mission, forever dreaming of the Moon. This may not be a fair psychoanalysis to use with so broad a brush, but it took me out of my comfort zone and really caused me to examine each of the moonwalkers as people. Moondust is best read after first reading the major Apollo memoirs (Cernan, Aldrin, Worden, Slayton, Scott, Kranz, Kraft, and Lovell) but will likely be enjoyed by almost any space fan. Add it to your reading list.
*My second favorite error is during Smith’s chapter about his Al Bean interview. He says that Bean described watching “the Earth wax and wane int he sky “like a blue-and-white eye opening and closing.” But clearly this is impossible, as the moon’s orbit means that Earth’s phases, as seen from the moon, are also on a 28 day cycle. Perhaps Bean was referring to shifting cloud patterns on the Earth. In any case, Smith’s lack of scientific understanding here is glaring.
**Apparently Aldrin has partnered with AXE in some strange promotion where they will send contest winners to space. Ya, I don’t get it either.
Weekly Links
Not much new over the past few days. Here are the few interesting tidbids I’ve compiled.
Down to Earth
Due to a recent BBC documentary about Neil Armstrong, there has been a story circulating in the media that Neil Armstrong did not come up with his famous “one small step” quote spontaneously as he had led us to believe. The true story is, of course, more subtle than the news would like to portray – and it does not involve Neil Armstrong lying for 40 years. Andrew Chaikin (author of the pre-eminent book “A Man On The Moon”) has a good sober analysis of the situation.
Phil Plait has compiled all 360-ish astronomy facts from 2012 that he tweeted over the year.
In Orbit
In a fun internet event that had people excited last week, ISS astronaut (and soon to be Commander) Chris Hadfield exchanged tweets with fictional starship commander William Shatner.
A NASA-funded study has shown (using mice) that the cosmic radiation experienced during interplanetary flight may be a significant risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.
Out there
A recent study at Caltech, based on Kepler data, suggests that there is at least 100 billion planets in our galaxy.
Because, why not?
Entering the realm of the truly geeky, here is a mashup of nearly every film in cinema that featured a space helmet… yes really (via Universe Today).
Musician-astronauts Cady Coleman and Chris Hadfield play a tribute to Sally Ride.
2012 In Review
I wouldn’t say that 2012 either came in or went out with a bang (unless the last minute federal budget politiking* strikes you as “a bang”). Nevertheless, 2012 was a busy year for space enthusiasts. The last twelve months held much to wonder, celebrate, contemplate, mourn, debate, and of course explore. Here I will try to sum up the space related events, deaths, discoveries, and anniversaries that I find interesting. If you are interested in a full recap of worldwide events in 2012, I’d suggest starting with the “Year in Pictures” at Boston.com’s “Big Picture” blog – Part I, Part II, and Part III.
In Memoriam
In order to try to honor some fallen heroes, I will start out with the saddest part of my recap.
In 2012 we lost three American astronauts – Alan Poindexter, Sally Ride, and Neil Armstrong.
Captain Poindexter was 50 years old when he died in July 2012. He was a veteran of 2 space shuttle flights, having been selected in the 1998 group of astronauts. Coming from a Navy test pilot background, he was the pilot for STS-122 and then Commander of STS-131. 131 was the last night launch of the shuttle program and helped set the record for most women in space at one time – with 3 women on the crew of Discovery plus one on the space station. During his military career Poindexter flew F-14s on carriers – very cool.
Sally Ride needs no explanation. More important people than me provided lots of memories about Sally Ride after her death back in July. She certainly left us too soon – but she left a legacy. Sally Ride Science will continue to do great things, and you should consider supporting them if you can.
And of course, everyone heard when Neil Armstrong died in August at the age of 82. Like Sally Ride, I can provide no words here better than what has already been written. Armstrong was in many ways the model of a public hero and should not have left us so soon.
~~
There would be no astronauts without first someone to inspire us to dream. Thus, we should also remember legendary author Ray Bradbury who died aged 91.
~~
Lastly, engineer Roger Boisjoly died at the age of 73. Mr. Boisjoly is known for being the SRB (Solid Rocket Booster) project manager at Thiokol who warned not to launch mission STS-51L during a meeting the day before the flight. His warnings were ignored and the Space Shuttle Challenger was lost.
Major Events or Discoveries
Whether your interest lies more in planetary exploration, new technology, or manned spaceflight, there were many milestones and missions in 2012.
NASA achieved what I will subjectively dub their triumph of the decade (so far) when the Mars rover Curiosity touched down at Bradbury landing in Gale Crater on August 6th. You have got to love this video…
Curiosity could easily explore Mars for a decade, with its RTG that should keep it powered long enough that something else will wear out first. The vistas we have seen of Gale crater from MSL are stunning and I think she will be a huge source of inspiration – and of course science – for many years ahead.
~~
Curiosity isn’t alone on Mars. Another huge milestone of 2012 is the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity continuing to quietly do its job at Endeavour Crater on the other side of the planet. In fact, Opportunity and Curiosity are now racing each other to find clay minerals known as “phylosillicates”.
~~
SpaceX impressed the world with their first successful (test) flight to the International Space Station in May which was followed up by the first official contracted resupply mission in October.
~~
The Chinese performed their first in orbital rendezvous of a manned spacecraft when Shenzhou 9 docked with the Tiangong 1 space station on June 18.
~~
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft continued to explore asteroid Vesta (where it arrived in 2011) and finally departed in September 2012 to start the long interplanetary flight to larger asteroid Ceres, where it will arrive in 2015.
~~
NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft found evidence of water ice in polar craters of Mercury.
~~
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft continued to to perform well at Saturn, more than 8 years after arriving (15 years since launch) and discovered a vast river system of methane and ethane on the moon Titan. Time to send the riverboat robots to explore.
~~
Anniversaries: 50 years since Kennedy’s famous “Moon speech” in Texas, 50 years since John Glenn’s orbital flight, and 40 years since the last flight to the moon – Apollo 17.
~~
Back in June many people around the world – including those who are not even space geeks – enjoyed the rare passing of Venus across the face of the sun. The next Venus transit will not be until 2117.
~~
One of my absolute favorite events of 2012 was the discovery of a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, the nearest star system to Earth. And only a few weeks later, a “super earth” was found in the habitable zone of HD 40307 only 40 light years away. The discovery of exoplanets is turning into the science story of the 21st century…
Unless you are a physics geek. Then the science story of the 21st century will be the ongoing unlocking of secrets of the quantum world, which continued in 2012 with the announcement that the Large Hadron Collider in Europe has discovered the “Higgs Boson”.
But in any case, the idea of people living on a planet at Alpha Centauri is the inspiration for my blog’s name, so I have a bias for the planets.
~~
This year was nostalgic for us Millenials – who grew up watching space shuttle launches – as the three remaining space shuttle orbiters reached their final homes in California, Virginia, and Florida.
~~
NASA and the astronaut office finally caught on to 21st century communications and media in earnest. More astronauts than ever are actively interacting with the general public on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Reddit, and elsewhere on the ‘net. NASA astronauts have made this communication a part of their mission while on ISS, with many of them writing blogs or maintaining exciting Twitter and Flickr streams from space. This will certainly continue in 2013 as the “Net Generation” begins to come of age and will have real influence on the personality of America, and whether we stay committed to space exploration. My guess is that this video helped.
Looking forward
What will 2013 bring? Well, probably most importantly – but least excitingly – are the pending federal budget decisions in Washington, DC. Congress still needs to decide on a 2013 budget and then a 2014 budget. Some of their choices will shape the future of space exploration, especially for planetary science missions.
Here is my list of the more cheery things to look for in 2013:
- Finally the first powered flight tests of tourist space vehicles. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo should be hopping into space this year.
- SpaceX should continue to demonstrate reliability of their rockets as they fly two more missions to the ISS as well as a fairly packed launch schedule for other customers.
- SpaceX’s competitor for ISS commercial flights, Orbital Sciences**, will attempt to make good on their contract with NASA.
- Russia will fly the 50th Progress resupply mission to ISS, this being the 15th year since the launch of the first ISS module.
- Late in 2013, the next Mars launch window will see two missions: NASA’s MAVEN orbiter and India’s first interplanetary mission.
- NASA will launch the LADEE lunar probe.
- Continued excellence in the field of extrasolar planet astronomy – smaller and more numerous rocky planets will be discovered further out from main sequence stars.
Round ups from other blogs
For some other summaries of 2012 in space and science see:
Universe Today’s list of best space images
Bad Astronomy’s list of best astronomy pictures
EarthSky’s top 5 weather stories
Hyperbola’s summary of all of humanity’s rocket launches in 2012
Houston Chronicle’s top 10 skywatching events of 2013 (one is the Quadrantic meteor shower tonight!)
Parabolic Arc’s “NewSpace” year in review (that one’s a quick read)
*yes, Congress did pass a bill to avert the “fiscal cliff” at the very last minute on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
**the author has a small shareholding in Orbital Sciences
New Year Links
Down to Earth
The “NewSpace” venture Stratolaunch intends to have their first test flight out of Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the year 2017.
NASA manager Jesco von Puttkamer has died. I had never actually heard of Mr. Puttkamer until I saw the post of his passing on NASA Watch. You should at least read his Wikipedia page and watch the video below to understand his legacy. Mr. Puttkamer was part of Werner von Braun’s German rocket team that built the Saturn V. Based on that, it seems he worked for NASA for 50 years. Impressive.
Well, the fiscal cliff is still looming… here are some more words from The Planetary Society on how the budget cuts will affect NASA.
I’m sure most of my readers aren’t interested in the legislative side of space news or ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulation) reform. But for those of you that are, the Senate and the President of the US are expected to sign a bill that will remove satellite systems from the munitions list, so that they are no longer under ITAR. Theoretically this should make some aspects of the aerospace industry cheaper and allow more competition from American companies on the world satellite market.
In Orbit
A Christmas message from ISS Commander Kevin Ford.
And a video New Year’s message from all three US segment crew aboard ISS.
Speaking of Christmas messages, it’s too bad I didn’t find this story to post last week. Apparently during Apollo 17, Jack Schmitt wrote his own lunar version of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” (via Carnival of Space).
And, saving the best from orbit for last… ISS resident Chris Hadfield has recorded the first original song in space – “Jewel in the Night”. Give it a listen or two.
Around the Solar System
I wrote about the close conjunction in the sky of the Moon and Jupiter last week. I didn’t write about the fact that the Moon would actually pass in front of Jupiter because it was only visible from South America. Phil Plait linked to a cool video of the occultation.
Check out this great visualization of over half a million asteroids in our solar system. The visualization is mainly just to see their orbits but the database looks at the estimated worth of the asteroids in raw materials, as well as their accessibility. The database appears to be inspired by the question “is asteroid mining actually a viable industry?” (via the Houston Chronicle).
Because it’s Cool
I love this art project – a robot traces the trails from the game Lunar Lander on a canvas and shows all of the trails overlaid. It reminded me of the physical model of the Mercury capsule that used be on the world map in early NASA flight control rooms.
And lastly, this French short cartoon of some astronauts on a space station is too cute note to share. (via the Planetary Society).
Happy Spacey New Year!
I have some ideas on how to write my take on wrapping up 2012 for space enthusiasts, but I will include that in another post. Have a safe new year’s eve everyone.
Christmas Links
Down to Earth
SpaceX’s reusable vertical take-off and landing rocket, Grasshopper, had another successful flight. This one longer and higher than the last two.
This is a big rocket. There was a six-foot mannequin riding the side and you wouldn’t see it unless you knew it was there.
SpaceShipTwo, the long awaited tourist space plane, had a first drop test in flight configuration – meaning with the full rocket engine strapped in the back (but not turned on). They are expected to do the first powered flights before the end of 2013.
The Intrepid Air & Space Museum in New York reopened on Friday, Dec 21, but the Space Shuttle Enterprise is still being repaired from damage from Sandy.
NASA has been talking about their next gen space suit, the Z-1, which uses a bright green color scheme that reminds us of Buzz Lightyear.
In Orbit
The rest of the Expedition 34 crew arrived at ISS with no problems on Friday, Dec 21. Jump to 2:15 to see the new guys come through the hatch.
Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford has finally updated his blog since arriving at ISS in the Fall and has shared a few stories.
Around the Solar System
On Friday, Dec 21, the Cassini spacecraft (in orbit around Saturn) observed a transit of Venus across the sun. You may remember that we had a transit of Venus visible from the Earth back in June.
Go outside on Christmas night and take a look at Jupiter and the moon hanging out together. The moon will be almost full for the conjunction.
Merry Christmas!