Urban Dictionary: SCE to AUX

From Urban Dictionary:

Narrowly averting a catastrophe by coming up with an ingenious plan. From the Apollo 12 moon mission. The ship was struck by lighting on liftoff and its electronic systems went out of whack. A Flight controller named John Aaron told the flight director to have them switch "SCE to AUX". This fixed the problem and saved Apollo 12 from being aborted.

         "I thought you were going to fail that test?"
         "I stole the test and got an A"
         "Way to switch the SCE to AUX!"

"So I hear your girlfriend caught you cheating" "Yeah but she didn't break up with me" "How did you manage that?" "I switched the SCE to AUX"

 Hat tip to jedimaster1214 for posting this on O-F.

On a personal note, I REALLY need to look for that switch on ATMs.

EDIT: As of 6/25/2012, I haven't located this switch on any ATM, however, I did find it in an Orbiter add-on (NASSP).  I took screen shots and cropped them:

Found on Panel 3, centerline, near the bottom edge.

UARS and Chicken Little

Yes...the sky is falling! 

Actually, just UARS (Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite).  But NASA is predicting only 1 in 3200 chance that a part of it will hit a person.  With an orbital inclination of 57 degrees, UARS will reenter and parts of it will strike somewhere between 57 deg north latitude and 57 deg south latitude.  Which covers most of the inhabited surface of Earth...but there's a lot of ocean in that zone as well.

Launched on 09/12/1991, it was designed to study Earth's atmosphere, particularly the ozone layer.  The original mission life was 3 years, and finally decommissioned in 2005 with a de-orbit burn (using up all of its fuel) in December '05.  Since then, it has been slowly spiraling down and latest estimates put reentry happening on September 23, 2011...plus/minus a day.  Dear reader, (if any), may back check facts here and here.

 


Source: SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

NASA's ORSAT Orbital debris projection:   (pay attention to the parts with a Demise Altitude of 0 km).



Wait for it....now, the Orbiter angle.

A fellow Orbinaut was smart enough to post simulation scenarios for UARS in this thread at O-F.  Note that the scenario was created with and intended for ver 2010P1 of Orbiter.  I downloaded and ran this just for grins and giggles.  My simulation run predicts that Australia (somewhere SW of Brisbane) will get hammered with the debris...again!  I say again, because another piece of US space hardware, Skylab, managed to shower the Aussies with pieces of itself back in July of 1979.  Apparently, the Shire of Esperance fined the United States $400 for littering, a fine which remained unpaid for 30 years.

Here is a screen shot of my sim run (click on image to enlarge):

And a screen shot from Google Earth (click on image to enlarge):

Or visit my web site to download the *.kmz file (UARS Demise) and open that file with Google Earth.

How's this for synchronicity?

The first time I started the scenario with Orbiter, my mp3 play list within Orbiter started playing "Re-Entry" from In the Shadow of the Moon soundtrack.

Rather fitting, and spooky at the same time.

How to Simulate Submarine Life at Home

The following list was compiled by me and my shipmates aboard USS Flasher (SSN-613) in the late '80s.  This will explain some of the outdated references.

NOTE: Since this is a simulation...SCREEN DOORS ARE OPTIONAL.  Had to get this reference in before a friend points out the lack of mention.

For a MS Word document copy, download here.

How to Simulate Submarine Life at Home

1.  Surround yourself with a lot of people you don't like.

2.  Close all windows and doors tightly and close all curtains.

3.  Seal any openings to the outside world with a suitable vault door.

4.  Unplug all radios and TV's to cut yourself off completely from news, football games, Saturday Night Live, Married with Children, etc.

5.  Hourly, monitor all home appliances operation.  If not in use - log as "secured".

6.  If using the bathroom, don't not flush the toilet for the first 2 days to recreate the smell of blowing sanitary tanks and venting them inboard.

7.  Wear only approved coveralls or a proper Navy uniform.  No hats or special T-shirts, etc.

8.  Cut your own hair once a week, ensuring you make it look like hell.

9.  Work in 18 hour day intervals to really confuse your body's circadian rhythms.

10. Listen to the same cassette (or CD) over and over again until you can't stand it anymore.  Then put in one you can't listen to without nausea setting in.

11. Set your alarm to go off just as you fall asleep - with the alarm set LOUD.  Better yet, buy an alarm with special settings (e.g. battle stations, fire, flooding in the basement).

12. Prepare food with a blindfold on to simulate what real submarine cooks do.  Then try to get your dog to eat it.  Afterwards, break out a can of tuna and/or peanut butter.

13. Cut your bed in half and enclose all but one side using the dimensions of a small coffin as a reference.  When not in it, make up the bed properly so no one will see or care.  For an added touch of realism, have 3 people taking turns sleeping in the bed, one of whom is in two section "appliance" watch.

14. Periodically for excitement:

            a. Open the main power breaker and run around yelling "Reactor SCRAM" until you are sweating profusely - then restore power.

            b. Buy yourself a snorkel and mask and put it on and pretend you are in a smoke filled room with no way out.  For variety, hook up a garden hose and pressurize it.

15. To enable yourself to handle anything, constantly study wiring diagrams and operation instructions for various home appliances.  For no reason at all at specific intervals tear one apart just in case it was going to break.

16. Paint everything around you gray.  Navy gray - no substitutions - or else off white.

17. To be sure you are living in a clean and happy environment, every Saturday night set your alarm on LOUD for a short but hated drill sound, then get up.  Manned only with a bucket and sponge, clean one area over and over again even if it was already spotless.  Then make out a discrepancy list.

18. Once a day after normal programming hours, plug in the TV and watch one movie being careful that it is:

            a. At least 5 years old.

            b. Made long enough ago to ensure you've seen it once before.

            c. So bad you have to install a seat belt in your chair to keep you there until it's over.

19. Since no doctor with be available, stockpile band-aids, aspirins, and Actifed since these are proven cure-alls.  Practice on your dog (surgery, dentistry, etc.).  For the ultimate in realism, kill the dog (or allow it to die) and keep the body in the freezer until the end of the "patrol".

20. Sleep under your coffee table so that when the alarm goes off you can hit your head on the table to recreate actual experiences.

21. All trash cans must be thrown away and trash stored in the shower.  Once every two weeks it will be thrown out the window.

22. Mount your house on a platform that can tilt in all directions - at angles up to 40 degrees.  Once a day, set the platform to rock the house from side to side and turn on air conditioning full blast to simulate ventilating the "boat" at periscope depth.

23. When commencing this simulation, lock your family, friends, and everything else that means anything to you outside.  The test will run for at least two months with no specific end in sight.  The completion will be delayed at least twice for no less than two weeks.

IF YOU CAN DO THIS, YOU MAY ATTEMPT QUALIFICATION IN SUBMARINES!

Better Photos of Apollo Landing Sites

One simply has to go to NASA's LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) website to see the interactive photos of Apollo 12, 14, and 17 landing sites.  A slider in the middle of the photo lets you seen the difference between the previous photos and the most recent ones.  Absolutely outstanding detail!  At Apollo 17's landing site, you can see better the difference between the footprints the astronauts made and the tracks made by the lunar rover.

The official NASA press release can be found here.

Here's a You Tube video:




TAKE THAT YOU MOON LANDING HOAX NUT CASES!

As an inside joke, someone posted the following thread on Orbiter-Forum:

NASA releases photos of lunar landing sound-stage

2 Kinds of Science

That would be observational science and historical science.  Don't confuse the two.