Six Words

Attribution: xkcd

Six words that you never say at NASA.

Dear Reader (if any), you are probably wondering why I'm making a big deal of this.  Since the embedded image above doesn't show what happens when you mouse over the image, here it is again as a screenshot:

This is the equivalent of being nominated, or actually winning, a Nerd Oscar.

Eat your heart out, Sheldon Cooper!

Pizza on the Moon?

"It all started when I found the green meteorite." 

Seriously, this post idea started about 2 weeks ago after reading a thread on Orbiter Forum. It was started by Bloodworth, and discussed food franchises on the Moon - specifically, "on our lunar bases."  I was flattered to see, "Niven's Nachos", on the list.  Not quite so with his entry for "Jules Verne Vegan Cafe".  For you, Dear Reader (if any), not in the "know", Lunar Base Niven resides in the lunar far side crater of Jules Verne.

What really intrigued me was Pipcard's entry.  After viewing the commercial for Domino's Pizza, Japan, and doing a little background research,  I thought I'd add to this Internet meme (however old and/or short lived it may be).  I think that it is a mere publicity stunt in reaction to Pizza Hut's first delivery to the International Space Station.  Estimates for this project are $21 billion...their pizza just isn't that good!




I was struck by the similarities between the artist's conception and my own add-on (yes, another opportunity for shameless self-promotion).  Dome shaped with solar panels in the background.  Turn about is fair play...

So, the following is my first public exhibition of my mesh/texture creation with Wings 3D:

Finally, after adding this mesh into Niven.cfg:

(Click on images to enlarge)

THIS ISN'T an update to my add-on, BTW.   Above view is looking roughly south from the base.

Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) and Mars

(Last updated 05/11/2013.  Click on image to enlarge.)

The screenshot above was generated using the freeware space simulation Orbiter.  It depicts Comet C/2013 A1, aka Siding Spring, during its closest approach to Mars on October 19, 2014.

Also used to generate the above screenshot was the Horizons Web Interface, maintained by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.  I generated the ephemeris with this web interface, and then plugged the numbers into an Orbiter scenario.

There's only an observational arc of 211 days - so there WILL be a really decent fly by - with enough refinement to the projected orbit (for now) to say it WILL NOT hit Mars.

Per SpaceObs.org:

Since C/2013 A1 is a hyperbolic comet and moves in a retrograde orbit, its velocity with respect to the planet will be very high, approximately 56 km/s. With the current estimate of the absolute magnitude of the nucleus M2 = 10.3, which might indicate the diameter from 10 to 50 km, the energy of impact might reach the equivalent of staggering 2×10¹º megatonnes! This kind of event can leave a crater 500 km across and 2 km deep. Such an event would overshadow even the famous bombardment of Jupiter by the disintegrated comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 in July 1994, which by some estimates was originally 15 km in diameter.

Stay tuned, Dear Reader (if any).  As new observations over time refine the orbit of this comet, I plan to update the screenshot and/or post a short video derived from an Orbiter scenario.

Edit: 

A short video:

One Small Step

Resquiescat in pace, and ad astra per perspira!

 

 

Photo credit: Donamy

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, –and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of –Wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr

Since Neil was initially trained as a Naval aviator, he also deserves a Missing Man:

Photo credit: Star Voyager

Now for the really boring part, Dear Reader (if any).  I still remember watching the first "small step" live on TV.  I was watching it with my father (another boyhood hero who is now gone), and he was trimming my fingernails.

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 1, 2012:


Missing Man formation flown for Neil at his memorial on August 31, 2012:

Photo Credit: NASA


Then there was two:

Photo Credit: NASA

377 words

I really hope this post pisses off the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), dear reader (if any).  The following is a list of words and/or phrases that DHS monitors for usage on the Internet.  I assume that NSA either does that for them and/or for their own "uses".

I figure this blog entry will get noticed.  For convenience's sake, I alphabetized it.

2600, Abu Sayyaf, Afghanistan, Agent, Agriculture, Agro, Aid, Air Marshal, Airplane (and derivatives), Airport, Al Qaeda (all spellings), Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Al-Shabaab, Ammonium nitrate, AMTRAK, Anthrax, Antiviral, AQAP (AL Qaeda Arabian Peninsula), AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), Arellano-Felix, Artistic Assassins, Assassination, Attack, Attack, Authorities, Avalanche, Avian, Bacteria, Barrio Azteca, BART, Basque Separatists, Beltran-Leyva, Biological, Biological infection (or event), Biological weapon, Black out, Blister agent, Blizzard, Body scanner, Bomb (squad or threat), Border, Border Patrol, Botnet, Breach, Bridge, Brown out, Brown out, Brush fire, Brute forcing, Burn, Burst, Bust, Cain and abel, Calderon, Cancelled, Car bomb, Cartel, Cartel de Golfo, Center for Disease Control (CDC), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Chemical, Chemical agent, Chemical burn, Chemical fire, Chemical spill, Chemical weapon, China, CIKR (Critical Infrastructure & Key Resources), Ciudad Juarez, Closure, Cloud, Coast Guard (USCG), Cocaine, Collapse, Colombia, Communications infrastructure, Computer infrastructure, Conficker, Consular, Contamination, Conventional weapon, Cops, Crash, Crest, Critical infrastructure, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Cyber attack, Cyber Command, Cyber security, Cyber terror, DDOS (dedicated denial of service), Deaths, Decapitated, Delays, Denial of service, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Dirty bomb, Dirty bomb, Disaster, Disaster assistance, Disaster management, Disaster medical assistance team (DMAT), DNDO (Domestic Nuclear Detection Office), Dock, Domestic nuclear detection, Domestic security, Drill, Drug, Drug Administration (FDA), Drug cartel, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Drug trade, Drug war, E. Coli, Earthquake, Ebola, Eco terrorism, El Paso, Electric, Emergency, Emergency, Emergency Broadcast System, Emergency management, Emergency response, Enriched, Environmental terrorist, Epidemic, Epidemic, Erosion, ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna), Evacuation, Evacuation, Execution, Exercise, Explosion (explosive), Exposure, Exposure, Extreme weather, Extremism, Facility, Failure or outage, FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces Colombia), Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), First responder, Flood, Flu, Food Poisoning, Foot and Mouth (FMD), Forest fire, Fort Hancock, Fundamentalism, Fusion Center, Gang, Gangs, Gas, Grid, Gulf Cartel, Gunfight, Guzman, H1N1, H5N1, Hacker, Hail, Hamas, Hazardous, Hazardous material incident, Hazmat, Help, Heroin, Hezbollah, Home grown, Homeland Defense, Homeland security, Hostage, Human to Animal, Human to human, Hurricane, Ice, IED (Improvised Explosive Device), Illegal immigrants, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), Improvised explosive device, Incident, Industrial spill, Infection, Infection, Influenza, Infrastructure security, Interstate, IRA (Irish Republican Army), Iran, Iraq, Islamist, Jihad, Juarez, Keylogger, Kidnap, La Familia, Landing, Law enforcement, Leak, Lightening, Listeria, Lockdown, Looting, Los Zetas, Magnitude, Malware, Mara salvatrucha, Marijuana, Maritime domain awareness (MDA), MARTA, Matamoros, Meth Lab, Methamphetamine, Metro, Mexican army, Mexicles, Mexico, Michoacana, Militia Shooting, Mitigation, MS13 or MS-13, Mud slide or Mudslide, Mutation, Mysql injection, Narco banners (Spanish equivalents), Narcos, Narcotics, National Guard, National infrastructure, National laboratory, National Operations Center (NOC), National preparedness, National preparedness initiative, National security, Nationalist, NBIC (National Biosurveillance Integration Center), Nerve agent, New Federation, Nigeria, Nogales, North Korea, Norvo Virus, Nuclear, Nuclear, Nuclear facility, Nuclear threat, Nuevo Leon, Organized crime, Outbreak, Pakistan, Pandemic, Phishing, Phreaking, Pipe bomb, Pirates, Plague, PLF (Palestine Liberation Front), PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization, Plot, Plume, Police, Pork, Port, Port Authority, Powder (white), Power, Power lines, Power outage, Prevention, Public Health, Quarantine, Radiation, Radicals, Radioactive, Recall, Recovery, Recruitment, Red Cross, Relief, Resistant, Response, Reynosa, Reyosa, Ricin, Riot, Rootkit, Salmonella, San Diego, Sarin, Scammers, Screening, Secret Service (USSS), Secure Border Initiative (SBI), Security, Service disruption, Shelter-in-place, Shootout, Shots fired, Sick, Sinaloa, Sleet, Small Pox, Smart, Smuggling (smugglers), Snow, Social media, Somalia, Sonora, Southwest, Spammer, Spillover, Standoff, State of emergency, Storm, Strain, Stranded/Stuck, Subway, Suicide attack, Suicide bomber, Suspicious package/device, Suspicious substance, SWAT, Swine, Symptoms, Taliban, Tamaulipas, Tamiflu, Tamil Tigers, Target, Task Force, Telecommunications, Temblor, Terror, Terror Tuberculosis (TB), Terrorism, Threat, Tijuana, Tornado, Torreon, Toxic, Toxic Agro, Trafficking, Transportation security, Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Tremor, Trojan, Tsunami, Tsunami Warning Center, TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan), Tucson, Twister, Typhoon, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), U.S. Consulate, United Nations (UN), Vaccine, Violence, Viral Hemorrhagic Fever, Virus, Virus, Warning, Watch, Water/air borne, Wave, Weapons cache, Weapons grade, Wildfire, WMATA, World Health Organization (WHO) (and components), Worm, Yemen, Yuma

50 years - Friendship 7 - John Glenn

Dear reader (if any), do you really think I'd let this anniversary go by without comment or observation?  I was exactly 2 weeks old as of February 20, 1962.  That puts my conception on or about May 2, 1961.  See here for events on May 5, 1961.  I am a child of the Space Age/Race.

John Glenn's Mission Patch:

For the official NASA "take" on the mission, go here.

A nice take on the subject by Space.com:





(Sorry for the tiny embed...blame Space.com.  Direct link here)

My take on it:

(Caution...this is where I assume most will fall asleep due to sheer boredom.  Be glad I got the more exciting stuff out of the way first)



My favorite GI Joe "action figure" (yes, I played with "dolls" too) was the Mercury astronaut complete with the Mercury spacecraft.   I remember taking that to 3rd grade for show and tell, along with the "nifty" vacuum formed record of the Friendship 7 flight audio.

For years, I spelled my middle name with 2 "n", thinking my parents named me after Mr. Glenn.  I found out at the "tender" age of 12 this wasn't so after seeing my birth certificate and getting my first Social Security card while in 6th grade.  I also developed myopia at the same time, thus disqualifying me from being a test pilot and hence an astronaut.  I decided then if I couldn't fly them, I'd design them.  Plan B (aerospace engineering, or "rocket scientist")  didn't pan out either, BTW.

The most successful college paper I wrote was on Beowulf, on the thesis of the single combatant warrior.  But actually, I got that idea from Tom Wolfe's, The Right Stuff.  Mr. Wolfe's fantastic observation was that the Mercury astronauts were dueling it out on the Nation's behalf against the Soviets. 

I also remember how cheesy and derivative it was when Sen. Glenn(D-OH) finagled a ride on STS-95 (10/29/98 to 11/7/98).  I say derivative because Sen. Garn(R-UT) finagled a ride on STS-51d (4/12 to 4/19/85).  Yet this did show me another way into space...just become rich - be elected to the U.S. Senate - and get on the right committee to start twisting arms.

Lunar Base Niven v.3.0 RELEASED!

Yes, it is RELEASED!

From today, it will only be available from Orbit Hangar.

Enjoy, Dear Reader (if any)!

Lunar Base Niven 2012 updates

I finally had enough time and ambition to start adding the finishing touches to my Orbiter add-on surface base, Lunar Base Niven.  As of now, I've been working about 3 weeks on it, and estimate another 3-4 weeks before it is done.

I've animated portions of the domes and the doors on the surface locks.  I've added UCGO surface vehicles programmed to visit the outer laying portions of the base (the nuclear power plant, the VLA antennas, and the solar power panel farms).  I've also added UMmu breathable areas to the domes and locks.

Why the name Niven?  I choose it as a tribute to one of my top five science fiction authors, Larry Niven.  I would have choosen Heinlein...but it was already taken.

Here's 2 screen shots, both from the same position.  Remember, dear Reader (if any), click on any of the images to enlarge/download.

During lunar day:

During lunar night:

 As stated in the original documentation:

 Most of the structures are like icebergs with most of the volume below the surface in order to provide shielding against the occasional solar flare and coronal mass ejection.  Each dome is actually a sphere with a diameter of 110 meters. Volume of each is 641,431 m³, which gives the entire habitat complex a total volume of 5.8 million m³. This is about 5 times the size of the Pentagon, or, about 2 times the size of the World Trade Center.

Here's a graphic of the entire base, as published in the original release:

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.

The Real Problem with ATMs.

First, the credits.

I saw this piece on the American Thinker blog by Clarice Feldman, a frequent contributor there.

She writes, near the end of the piece:

After all, what did we get from the last presidential debates but a president who this week adds to his string of nonsensical pronouncements by saying ATMs are responsible for unemployment.

She in turn then quotes the following from Peter Kirsanow, who writes for National Review Online:

. . . is not so much that they destroy jobs, but that in at least 50 of 57 states you can’t conduct transactions in Austrian, making it difficult to withdraw enough cash to spread the wealth around to Midwesterners, who then become bitter and cling to guns and religion and antipathy toward people who aren’t like your doctor, who you can keep (if you like him) but you probably won’t because for extra cash he unnecessarily performs tonsillectomies and amputates the feet of people from Kansas, where a while back 10,000 were killed by a tornado that also air-raided villages and killed civilians in Afghanistan, from which we need to begin withdrawing troops by July so we can use the funds to save or create jobs for people who don’t use air pressure gauges to keep the tires on their cash-for-clunkers car properly inflated, requiring them to buy more gas than they otherwise would at $3.84 a gallon and thereby reducing their disposable income and causing them not to buy consumer products, resulting in slower GDP growth that can only be jumpstarted by another round of stimulus spending so the economy won’t go into a double-dip recession that would result in layoffs and a higher unemployment rate than we had even after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that everyone knows was George Bush’s fault.

Economics is hard.

 Clarice's last observation, is IMO, is the best:

Certainly, the sort of tough debates we had in 2008  failed to save us from electing someone moronic enough to believe all these untruths.

Since I earn a living fixing the things (ATMs), I certainly can't agree with the statement that they cause unemployment.  Also, dear reader (if any), consider the fact that they have been around for at least 30 years...which makes The One's pronouncement all the more foolhardy.

As I have been repairing ATMs for the last 14 years, I have come to the conclusion that certain people shouldn't be allowed to use them.  The main thesis of Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein is that there should be more than just a warm body requirement for one to exercise the franchise.  Therefore, 2008, IMO, proved to me 3 things:  that Heinlein was right, that certain people shouldn't be allowed to vote, and, that certain people shouldn't be allowed to run for office.

Flight Simulator 2004

Frontier 589 over Denver

 I get bored with Orbiter from time to time...or frustrated with the s/w crashes with certain scenarios.  So I revert to Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2004 (A Century of Flight).  I received  FS2004 for Christmas 2003 because I wanted to learn how to fly airplanes.  At first I was overwhelmed by the complexity, and put it aside for a awhile and disappeared into the world of online FPS games.  Then I found Orbiter and stopped playing online FPS games.

 My last foray into the FS2004 world (December 2009) I simulated a round trip flight between Salt Lake City and Seattle.  This because I had planned a vacation there with my wife to celebrate our 25th anniversary.  I downloaded the aircraft we would be flying in, and researched on the Web the actual flight paths used by commercial flights between the two cities.  I had learned so much from Orbiter that it was a lot easier to handle the complexity of FS2004.  Having simulated the flight before hand, it was a lot easier to recognize the terrain during the actual flight.  I could make better guesses about arrival ETAs too.

 I also came to the odd realization that if needed, I could "actually" step in for the real pilots had they become incapacitated.  Having said that, I realize I've seen too many movies from "Hollyweird".

 Now I'm scheduled for a business trip to Canton Ohio.  I leave Monday morning and return Friday night, flying on Frontier Airlines with a layover in Denver both directions.  I've already simulated the entire trip.

  Now having done this with an extreme gaming PC that I built myself and using Windows 7, I realize that it is time to finally upgrade to Microsoft Flight Simulator X.  The Airbus A319 I downloaded to use has beautiful external textures, and I downloaded awesome looking livery for Frontier.  I using the default Boeing 737 panels because there aren't any decent freeware Airbus ones to be had for FS2004.  Plus, the program was based on WinXP and is a little buggy on Windows 7.

 This time, I had learned more about IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) and ILS (Instrument Landing System) to the point where I could set up the autopilot to make the final approach and start the descent to the runway.  That sounds like cheating, but is pretty close to the real world.  The last 200 feet of altitude to the runway I fly manually...I've always enjoyed the landing flare.

 Now you are probably wondering, dear reader (if any), why I'm so much of a geek to do this.  Same reason one climbs mountains, I suppose.

MESSENGER MOI

MOI is shorthand for Mercury Orbit Insertion.  Currently scheduled for March 18, 2011 at 0045 UTC (that's March 17, 2011 at 1845 MDT).

Per the spacecraft's website, a webcast starts at 1755 MDT...my guess is that this will be the only live coverage of the event.  Also available on the website, under "Animation", are two Quick Time movies...the quality is LOTS better than the animations of anything Apollo...waaaay back in the day.

Or, dear reader (if any), if you are hopelessly addicted to Orbiter...then download the scenario pack I just uploaded to Orbit-Hangar.  This is a "little" more interactive.  Plus you get the opportunity to totally FUBAR a multi-million dollar spacecraft (simulated...of course).

A screen shot from the scenario:

How Big Really?

Hat tip to Bob at  http://www.bobsbs.com/ for the link.

This is from a BBC website showing scale of objects against a Google Map of whatever address in the world one cares to supply.

The following images were overlaid, "somewhere in Utah".  After playing with this, I walked outside to get a "down to earth" idea of the scale of the following objects.

International Space Station:

Apollo 11 Landing Site (showing the ground covered by the moonwalk):

 

 Have fun, dear reader (if any).  Your results may (will) vary.

MOI Animations

More MESSENGER news.

For the unknowing, MOI = Mercury Orbit Insertion.  Scheduled for March 18, 2011 at 0045 UTC.


These animations were posted by NASA / Johns Hopkins Advanced Physics Laboratory on the mission website.

The first one is simple, and shows the spacecraft from a 3rd person perspective...with an inset showing the trajectory.

The second one is also 3rd person, and shows detailed flight numbers.

Hope you, dear reader (if any) have a better experience waiting for the Quick Time movies to download and play.  I found it a bit choppy.

The Nigerians GET IT!

They get it because of this news article...actually, just the article's title.

Hail Probe, you ask?  See here and/or here.  It also graced the title screen of this blog for awhile:

I got "static" from the cultists on the forum after I posted this on the screenshot thread.

But it is also certain ethically challenged Nigerians that send emails requesting funds in order for you, dear reader (if any), to obtain even more funds.  Now it seems they're trying to mine the intelligently challenged people who follow space flight activities:

 

Before you send any funds to help this poor soul, I recommend that you research "Salyut 8T".

In closing, I just want to say: "HAIL PROBE"!

New Arabic Sensitivity Administration

The alternate title has to be, "NASA = No Americans in Space Anymore."  But I couldn't use it since it had already been taken by American Thinker.


I mistakenly thought that the final straw was this issue.  I stand corrected.  Now NASA is tasked with outreach to the Muslim world.  Please...they're still stuck somewhere in the 7th century.  One of the few things I was still proud about (you know, about my country) has now become a joke due to the present regime in the White House.  Glad I voted for the American.

Another web site ran a Photoshop contest for the new NASA logo. Here's the winner:

IMO, the real contribution:

The last one kinda cuts like a knife...

Remember, dear reader (if any) the following:

In space, no one can hear you scream, "Allah Akbar!"

Online Telescopes

No, not to buy, but to CONTROL!

Caught this thread on O-H and went to each of the following website home pages to investigate:

http://www.telescope.org/

http://mo-www.cfa.harvard.edu/OWN/index.html

http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/Home.aspx

Dear reader (if any) please note that you will have to create an account to use each site, and that there may be a slight delay with your observational request.


After all, you are potentially sharing this service with everyone else on the Web.