Saturday, November 29, 2014
Orion Test Flight Still On Track
The world's most powerful rocket is set to test the Orion capsule system next Thursday, Dec. 4th! It will be the deepest into space any capsule designed for human occupants has traveled since the moon landings more than 40 years ago. (link)
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Orion Flight Test
With the comet landing in the news you might have missed the roll out of the new Orion capsule for its first flight test in December. Here is a link to a info video.
This is exciting, but I am always suspicious of political spin. The following video has some background info but seems overly focused on praising the shuttle program and even mentions the Orion as a backup for shuttling to the international space station.
A point of interest, this video mentions a lunar return mission with up to six months spent on the lunar surface and possibly the poles (containing water) as a target.
This is exciting, but I am always suspicious of political spin. The following video has some background info but seems overly focused on praising the shuttle program and even mentions the Orion as a backup for shuttling to the international space station.
A point of interest, this video mentions a lunar return mission with up to six months spent on the lunar surface and possibly the poles (containing water) as a target.
Interstellar Movie
So, today is a holiday; the power went out again at the apartment this morning. I ran some errands into town for work and when I got back the power was still out. The older kids worked on their homework that was on paper or reading books but they couldn't get a lot done because the rest of it was on the computers or online. I figured it was a good time for a break so we went to the theater to see a movie---we haven't been in a while.
Interstellar was playing so we saw it. It was a fun movie, we enjoyed it and talked about it afterwards. I liked the points about US politics regarding science funding, the public view of science research, and education priorities. The drawback for me was the more fanciful aspects. I think it would have been a better movie if the "ghost" communication with the past was left out. ...that they used their fuel to go to the last planet and the gravity equations were independently solved on Earth to get the colony/rescue ship launched... This is something I liked about the first "Rendezvous with Rama" book; the author didn't try to explain everything and left points hanging which improved the book.
In recent years I have also become more interested in media's influences on each other. There seems to be a clear inheritance in Interstellar from "Contact" and "2001: A Space Odyssey". I also believe I saw multiple, fairly obvious, plot points from "Battlestar Galactica" and "Star Wars" (which goes back in influence to "The Hidden Fortress" (1958)).
There were also lots of points for discussion with T and M. We got to talk about the dust bowl in the 1930's, the great depression, and gravity's influence on time dilation in relativity. I told them this was a real effect and had to be accounted for with Earth's gravity and GPS satellites. I also told them that people really were studying and working on ways to resolve differences between relativity and quantum mechanics and to better understand gravity waves and quantum gravity, which are big unanswered questions about the universe---this was a plot element in the movie. We also had some fun talking about higher dimensions, which we have discussed before. ...and finally, it is fun, but not wise, to drive a truck through a (tall) corn field; something I have done at least once in the past.
Interstellar was playing so we saw it. It was a fun movie, we enjoyed it and talked about it afterwards. I liked the points about US politics regarding science funding, the public view of science research, and education priorities. The drawback for me was the more fanciful aspects. I think it would have been a better movie if the "ghost" communication with the past was left out. ...that they used their fuel to go to the last planet and the gravity equations were independently solved on Earth to get the colony/rescue ship launched... This is something I liked about the first "Rendezvous with Rama" book; the author didn't try to explain everything and left points hanging which improved the book.
In recent years I have also become more interested in media's influences on each other. There seems to be a clear inheritance in Interstellar from "Contact" and "2001: A Space Odyssey". I also believe I saw multiple, fairly obvious, plot points from "Battlestar Galactica" and "Star Wars" (which goes back in influence to "The Hidden Fortress" (1958)).
There were also lots of points for discussion with T and M. We got to talk about the dust bowl in the 1930's, the great depression, and gravity's influence on time dilation in relativity. I told them this was a real effect and had to be accounted for with Earth's gravity and GPS satellites. I also told them that people really were studying and working on ways to resolve differences between relativity and quantum mechanics and to better understand gravity waves and quantum gravity, which are big unanswered questions about the universe---this was a plot element in the movie. We also had some fun talking about higher dimensions, which we have discussed before. ...and finally, it is fun, but not wise, to drive a truck through a (tall) corn field; something I have done at least once in the past.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Comet landing live
Be sure to catch the comet landing live webcast if you can. It starts in about 20 minutes from the time of this post:
http://www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-space-tv.html
----
Update: 11:40 PM HST
There is some drama! The thruster to hold down the lander while the ice screws in the feet attach is not working. So, the lander is dependent on an ice harpoon---if it hits a rocky boulder the lander might bounce off into space. Acquisition of the lander signal and the first pictures are expected at 2AM here so I am setting my alarm to get up briefly and check.
----
Update: 7:00 AM HST
The lander is on the surface. It seems there is some uncertainty about the harpoon firing? Some pictures from the surface are expected in the next hour.
http://www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-space-tv.html
----
Update: 11:40 PM HST
There is some drama! The thruster to hold down the lander while the ice screws in the feet attach is not working. So, the lander is dependent on an ice harpoon---if it hits a rocky boulder the lander might bounce off into space. Acquisition of the lander signal and the first pictures are expected at 2AM here so I am setting my alarm to get up briefly and check.
----
Update: 7:00 AM HST
The lander is on the surface. It seems there is some uncertainty about the harpoon firing? Some pictures from the surface are expected in the next hour.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
