Mars by 2018!?

In yet more space news recently, the internet is abuzz with Dennis Tito financing a possible 501 day trip to Mars in 2018-19!

I first heard about it late last night but didn't believe it; however, now the story seems to be taking hold.  Tito was the first space tourist in 2001 and the rumor is he is now planning to use existing technology, a SpaceX Falcon rocket heavy lifter, to make an end run (fly by, free return) around mars and back (no landing, no orbit) beginning in Jan. 2018 when Earth and Mars line up for closest approach. 

500 days outside Earths magnetic field is a long time; I wonder what the plan is for radiation shielding. At any rate, a manned Mars fly-by in five years would be an amazing feat to pull off!  Would this spark some competition from other organizations, NASA or China perhaps?

Actually, now that I am thinking about it some more some details about this makes quite a bit of sense.  The sunspot activity (my last blog post) is consistent with the sun approaching its 10-11 year peak of solar activity with the corresponding flares of intense radiation.  Earth and Mars line up near each other in their orbits with a minimum distance between them once about every two years.  Five years from now will place the line up at the bottom of the solar activity cycle--the perfect time to make the jump. 

Sunspot AR1678

A large sunspot is developing on the sun with a chance of X-flares (the most powerful kind) over the next 24 hours. Like the logarithmic Richter scale for earthquakes, X-class flares are 10x (or more) more powerful than M-class, which are 10x more powerful than C-class, ... 

Of course I went out and tried to grab an image with some welding goggles strapped over my camera with a 200mm telephoto lens.  I turned the exposure down to 1/4000s F5.6.

In the image above you can just see it near the edge at about 5 o'clock (it might help to adjust your display's brightness/contrast to see it).  Below the sun's image is rotated 180 degrees, the storm is the set of three dark spots close to the center of the image.

Of course there are much better images online.  Here is the report from space weather.

And below is a dramatic image from space.com.

A DeLorean

I finally found out how to transfer pictures from my phone to the computer and here is the last one on the card.  A couple weeks ago when I was driving the kids to school we were behind a time machine in traffic! 

That's a DMC-12 DeLorean.  If you look closely you can see that the plate is "MCFLY"! 

Ki Bloom

Our Ti plant (Ki in Hawaiian; Cordyline fruticosa) put out a bloom.  This is the first time I have seen one bloom. 

Asteroid Impact

Wow!

 
I was reading about the 160 foot diameter "2012 DA14" that is flying close by earth today at an altitude of 17,000 miles at the nearest point.  I thought about blogging about it but it was supposed to be a non-event.  It would not impact and would not be visible on flyby.  However, apparently 2012-DA14 was not alone and had some neighbors flying through space with it. 

I just found a Reuters report (link) that a series of meteors have fallen across central Russia, breaking glass and with 400 people reported injured.
-----
Update: This has hit the big news sites now.  There are lots of good pictures and more information being posted all over the internet. I just read that part of a factory has collapsed (link).

While you're at it; check out the B612 foundation. 
-----
Update: Another one!  A fireball over N. California.  (link)

Rail Construction

The long awaited rail line is beginning to appear.  I count 15 supports that have gone up in a field outside Kapolei.  Last weekend I stopped on the side of the road and took pictures. 

The last election was essentially a referendum on rail, which passed (again and again--this has been voted on before).  It makes so much sense rather than spending over an hour commuting at 10mph every morning on the H1. 

As far as we can tell the main rail opponents are retired people that don't want to pay any taxes and have enough time on their hands to fight it politically; they apparently don't care about pollution, the local economy, etc.  If they had to commute every morning (or had relatives here who did) they might quickly change their minds. 

Above the line is headed toward Perl City in the far distance.  Below is a crop showing Honolulu in the distance and the peak to the right is Diamond Head. 

Lion Dance in Maui

T is off to Maui for a few days!  We dropped him off at the airport this morning.  This is his first time traveling without a member of the family along. 

He is going to a lion dance performance in Maui.  (link, link)  It is part of the Chinese New Year celebrations there.  The principal at his school agreed to let him have time off from school for the event. 

Below is a recent video of a lion dance (yellow lion) he was involved in in a local mall a few days ago. 

Gangnam Style

Where did these kids come from? 

This was actually last semester.  T and M were talking about the "Gangnam Style" (Korean pop) way of dancing and that T did it at school and all the other kids thought it was funny... 

Then M won a "Dance Dance Revolution" contest with her classmates...  (where you have to step on colored squares in the right rhythm) 

Then F overheard T and M talking about gangnam style and she started twisting and bobbing like she was dancing to music.  F picked it up from somewhere? 

Below is a link to the video for the three people on Earth who have not seen it yet.  (You have to close a popup 10 seconds in.)

Christmas 2012

Grandma came to visit this year and took T and M traveling for a week to Kaua'i and Hawai'i Island.  (This was after a wreck that totaled the car she was driving and sent her to the hospital--she was determined to see the grandkids and didn't let it stop her!)  We got a large (fake) tree this year and decorated by nailing up lights around the top of the room.  Note also the stocking on the back wall.  On the table are some candles, one for each of us, and we are taking turns reading stories to each other. 

Rise of the Desktops

I have wanted to build computers for T and M for years now but kept falling short with money keeping up with bills, etc.  Since moving to Hawai'i I have been determined to finally do this.  Last year (Dec. 2011) before Christmas I had T and M pick out computer cases, but the rest of the hardware inside the case will be identical.  I couldn't get them before Christmas but ordered the cases with the first paycheck in Jan. 2012.  The empty cases sat in their rooms all year until now.  This Christmas I got them motherboards, a CPU, and ram for Christmas and we put them together while I explained to the kids what each part does.  (M is really into this and picking it up quickly; she was talking about the difference between RAM and hard drive memory on the drive to school a few days ago.)  Here are some picture of M assembling hers. 

This month we added a power supply and CD/DVD drive.  It was quite a moment to plug it in, push the power button, see the fans come on, then eject the drive tray!  (I know it may not seem like much but... ) 

T stands for Tall

This picture was actually taken back in early January, with T holding K.  T is now officially taller than one of his parents.