xkcd webcomic

I like webcomics.

xkcd.com is especially good, and this particular comic about YouTube speaks to my heart and my mission at the same time. Beware the bad words if you don't like the four-letters.

NASA Academy at GRC 2006

Also, I finally got around to putting up the slideshow for the NASA Academy at GRC 2006 that I made at the end of the summer. Had to edit it down to 10 minutes, so it's not everything, and it doesn't have our names in it, which is a good thing. But I think it's a good representation of what the NASA Academy students do all summer.

Mission for the Holidays

Hmmm. I was trying to think of a holiday break space mission, and I think it would be nice if, as you all visit family and friends during the holidays, you bring up (at least once) space exploration and all the amazing things that have come of it that help everyone on Earth. The Space Coalition website has a quick summary of benefits that you can check out for reference: http://www.spacecoalition.com/benefits2.cfm

I have never heard a good reason against space exploration and the space program that could not be countered, usually by just looking to the future a bit. It helps education, it helps medicine, it helps American security, it helps the economy, and it will definitely eventually help the future survival of humanity. Definitely read that little mini-list of facts linked above.

All of the name puns have been done already

Buzz Aldrin was on NUMB3RS on CBS this evening. I'd never seen the show (which seems to be about people solvin' crime with math, so that's neato), but apparently one of the characters was chosen to go on a "NASA space mission" for six months, and Buzz Aldrin helped walk him off into the sunset. I'm not quite sure what the lead in was like, but hopefully the dude, you know, did some training before the launch (which occured in the next scene)...

This article is much like the one I read this morning in our own Daily Oklahoman (although I have to admit I was digging around in it for the sudoku) which informed me of the appearance with a little info on the show and the actors' reactions to working with Aldrin.

This article has a different angle that talks more about him. "Dr. Aldrin is determined to inform people all over the world that space is not only the next frontier, but it is their frontier. He hopes his appearance on 'NUMB3RS' will direct people to learn more about space and space travel on ShareSpace Foundation’s new website." Which I thought was very cool.

This is his ShareSpce Foundation website which I hadn't heard about yet, and hasn't really launched yet, but it'll be cool to see what they do with it.

No way!

Oh my goodness! You won't believe it...

A major US news outlet wrote a positive story on space, and it's not even on exploration! It's about the incredibly positive life-changing side effects that actual taxpayers get from the space program. No, we don't know what's coming when we do space R&D, but we do know that it has consistently had outcomes that have unquestionably improved life on Earth. NASA discovers amazing things and processes (or pays other people to), then gives them away to companies that want to develop it into something that will go on to make them rich and help (or at least convenience) humanity. That's how we roll.

Thank you, ABC News, for doing some real research and writing a great story!
Space Spin-Offs Alter Life on Earth

*Real* Space Fashion

Space tourism to be fashion's final frontier

Orbital Outfitters website

It better be a top story on cnn.com

Yep, we have "recent water activity" on Mars.

craigslist to the stars

I don't remember hearing about this (in 2005), but I came across it today, and it was interesting:

Site: http://www.craigslist.org/about/space.html
Story: http://www.craigslist.org/about/space.v09.html

Theme

Funny...(?)More NASA mentions on the Colbert Report tonight.
Always up in the air whether this is good or bad... :-)

Fear
http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2006/11/fear_strikes_us_out.html
This also applies to us in the government space business, and probably a lot of other things, but interesting to think about.

Floating bed

Article
Actual website

Familiar Martian Crater Names

New names have been approved and announced for some Martian craters.
Among the special ones you may recognize:

Soffen - For Dr. Gerry Soffen, founder of the NASA Academy program
Ada - After the Oklahoma (USA) town

Looking through the list, one was also specifically named for Freedom, OK. Is there a reason, or did someone just want to call it "Freedom" and found out we had a conveniently named town? Anyone know?

The rest of the new ones.

The full listings for craters.

Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature (AKA "Lists of Named Space Stuff")

Space Fashion... kinda

Anyway, space themes are in, so says Harper's Bazaar.

The shoot was done at the US Space and Rocket Center (AKA Space Camp)in Huntsville.

Plus they mention Virgin Galactic. Go Team Space-is-Hott!



More pics at the Fashion Addict Diary flickr page.

SGAC on Facebook and MySpace

It occurred to me while talking to Kevin last night (and after some searches to confirm it) that Space Generation Advisory Council did not have a Facebook OR MySpace group. We're trying to get youth involved, and we don't hit up the two biggest young people websites around to get info out there? That's not good. He's the official guy, but he's busy, so I made the groups. Please join and spread the word!

Facebook

MySpace

And the ACTUAL Space Generation site: http://www.spacegeneration.org/

If you don't know, Space Generation is, "...a non-governmental organisation which brings the views from its members to and works with the United Nations, space agencies and other organisations. Members are students and young space professionals." Basically, they say it's a "global volunteer base, working on projects that are related to space." To get involved, simply join the mailing list on the main page. On the list, there's tons of info on space goings-on from around the world, as well as opportunities to get involved in awesome projects.

Some space stuff going around...

Postcards to Space

The nice dude in the campsite next to ours has started a company to send postcards to space, and you can do it for only $25!





He talks about the experience of X Prize Cup here. Mike, Kevin, and I get a mention :-)


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SI Time Capsule

A cool time capsule project by Yahoo! and the Smithsonian Institute.

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NSS Space Settlement Calendar Art Contest

From the NSS website:
"The National Space Society (NSS) is looking for artists to create visions of a spacefaring future — a future of space settlement, be it on the Moon, on Mars, on asteroids, or orbiting independently in space. To bring attention to our goal of creating a spacefaring future, NSS is sponsoring a contest for such artwork to be used in a calendar promoting a future of humans living and working in space. The best of the submitted artwork will be selected for inclusion in the 2008 NSS Space Settlement Calendar. "

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Fly Your Name to Mars on Phoenix

From the Planetary Society website:
"Simply fill out the form below and your name will be included on the Phoenix DVD along with Visions of Mars, a collection of Mars literature and art, and personal messages to the future by space visionaries of our time such as Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clarke."

Cool project

Cool project:
http://timecapsule.yahoo.com/capsule.php

X Prize Cup pictures

XPC Best of

Space Week on The History Channel

It's Space Week on The History Channel!
Here's the schedule of space shows from their website:


Space Week Schedule

Monday, October 16 @ 7pm EST
Modern Marvels: Apollo 11
As mankind's greatest achievement of the 20th century, Apollo 11 stood as the apogee of science, exploration, flight, and technological prowess. In scarcely 10 years, America went from rocketing monkeys to landing a man on the moon. Leaving Earth on July 16, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Mike Collins pushed the limits of skill and endurance. See and experience the flight of Apollo 11 through the eyes of the astronauts, mission controllers, engineers, and designers who made it happen.

Tuesday, October 17 @ 7pm
Modern Marvels: Apollo 13
The Apollo 13 mission was intended to be a "routine" trip to the moon. But when an oxygen tank exploded, the spacecraft was crippled and its 3-man crew placed in mortal danger. The Lunar Module, intended for deployment on the moon's surface, instead became a lifeboat. Scientists and engineers on earth fought a race against time to save the crew. We'll examine the mission, which nearly ended in tragedy, but instead was a resounding success, and in some ways became NASA's finest hour.

Wednesday, October 18 @ 7pm
Modern Marvels: ET Tech
In 2003, with Mars closer to Earth than it had been in 60,000 years, scientists launched three life-seeking planetary landers. If the long journeys prove successful, all should be hard at work on the Red Planet's surface by January 2004. NASA's Spirit and Opportunity and the European Space Agency's Beagle 2 represent the pinnacle in the history of the search for extraterrestrial life. Leading scientists, who believe life may exist beyond Earth, explain skepticism about ETs having visited Earth.

Thursday, October 19 @ 7pm
Modern Marvels: Observatories: Stonehenge to Space Telescopes
From Stonehenge to the Hubble Telescope, man has always been a species of stargazers. Unforgettable film footage and expert accounts reveal the facts of astronomy's most mind-boggling discoveries.

Friday, October 20 @ 7pm
Modern Marvels: Satellites
Strong enough to survive their fiery launch into orbit, sophisticated enough to provide life-saving images or relay tens of thousands of phone calls at the same time. By monitoring weapons systems and troop movements, these "eyes in the sky" may be the difference between security and annihilation. From the futuristic visions of a British sci-fi writer to creations of a German rocket designer for the Nazi war machine to the Cold War technological race, we review the satellites that link our world.

Friday, October 20 @ 8pm
How William Shatner Changed the World
You've got a cell phone at one ear, an iPod at the other. You know that Blackberry is now a verb and Spam is not only canned meat. But just how did we get here? Blame William Shatner--yes, that William Shatner--Captain Kirk. We'll boldly go where few have gone before to reveal how scientists, inspired by the series, would revolutionize medicine and are surpassing the far-out vision of the future foreshadowed in Star Trek in the 1960s. From cell phones to computers to even leading-edge medical advancements, this 2-hour special explores how those sci-fi inventions have now permeated everyday life as we know it. Hosted and narrated by Shatner and based on his book, I'm Working on That, we'll meet the brightest minds of Silicon Valley and the Trek-inspired inventions that have help change the world.

That last one is actually really good and talks a lot about how our top scientists and engineers have been very inspired by science fiction.

The History Channel also has a contest to win a trip to KSC for a Shuttle launch.

I'm off to Arizona, then New Mexico on Wednesday for the X Prize Cup and NASA Academy Alumni Event. Pics next week!

"NASA Announces New Student Aeronautics Competition"

NASA Press Release:
"NASA Announces New Student Aeronautics Competition

NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, Washington, announced a new aeronautics competition for high school and college students. The competition is sponsored by the directorate's Fundamental Aeronautics Program, and it is part of NASA's mission is to inspire the next generation of engineers, scientists, and explorers.

High School students are challenged to put themselves 50 years into the future to describe how air transportation systems have evolved with vehicles flying at various speeds. Entries are due by March 15.

College students are invited to propose solutions for complex technical problems in hypersonic and supersonic flight; subsonic fixed and rotary wing transports; or Mars entry, descent, and landing. College entries are due by April 27.

Monetary awards ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 may be available for first place winners in each category. There will be awards for second and third places and honorable mention recognition. Winning university students may be offered a 10-week summer internship at a NASA field center.

For details about this competition, visit:

http://aero.larc.nasa.gov/competitions.htm
"

believe it

I always believed that's what he said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4225505.htm

podcast competition

Another NASA contest:

Podcast (audio or video) competition, for ages 11-18:
http://www.explorationpodcast.com/
Deadline: Oct 10 or when they get 1000 entries in each of the caterogies (11-14 Audio, 11-14 Video, 15-18 Audio, and 15-18 Video)

All kinds of info about making your entry at that website. Tell some kids about it!

SGC delegates

Three of my GRC RAs are in Valencia for Space Generation Congress 2006 and International Astronautical Congress. Kevin is one of the organizers, and I was talking to him online when I saw the three of them sitting in the lounge on the hostel webcam. I asked him to go down and tell them I was watching over them again, and he did, and I got screen caps :-) I'll always be watching over my RAs.

NGEC

Ryan wrote a piece on the Next Generation Exploration Conference (NGEC) that we went to a month ago for space.com. Big mentions of awesome Melissa, who invited me, too :-)

Back from Pasadena again. Hopefully I'll be spending a lot more time there in the near future...

There's a contest with very little publicity going on called "NASA's Biggest Fan." (There are so many things we wouldn't know about if not for NASA Watch.)

Anyway, the deal is if you're 13-24 years old and really like NASA, you can make a 30-second video about how cool space is to you, and the winner gets a trip to KSC for a launch. More info and rules at the website (linked above).

More NASA in the pop culture, on the Colbert Report.
http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=75472

We get a "Wag of the Finger" but from his world of super parody, that's usually a good thing.

Interesting links

Dr. Mike Griffin on Science, Exploration, and NASA
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=22033
I really trust this guy to make *the right* decisions for exploration. There's probably only one thing more complicated than making the hardware and software for exploration work. That's making the several hundred people representing the several million people whose money you have to use happy with how you're doing it. Oh, and the several million have to at least be interested, too. It's going to be impossible to make all of your employees happy with the limited money you have, so you have to make hard decisions, or else everyone's going to end up with $1.50 and no one can do anything. I especially like this part, and it's brave (or at least not typical of people who have to play political games) of him to say it:
"...[Exploration] is about the expansion of human activity out beyond the Earth. Exactly this point was very recently noted and endorsed by no less than Stephen Hawking, a pure scientist if ever there was one. Hawking joins those, including the Chairman of the NASA Advisory Council, who have long pointed out this basic truth: The history of life on Earth is the history of extinction events, and human expansion into the Solar System is, in the end, fundamentally about the survival of the species."
You'd think everyone would be interested in that, wouldn't you? I think it's important enough to dedicate my life to it.


An older link that Kevin sent me is about light reaching "superluminal speeds."
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/07/20/speed.of.light.ap/index.html
"Researchers... sent a pulse of laser light through cesium vapor so quickly that it left the chamber before it had even finished entering."
How cool is that?


NASA Watch linked to some old surface pictures from Russian Venus missions, and they're pretty amazing.
http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm


The second space tourist is making an OS available for free, especially for places that can't afford MS products.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/09/11/space.tourist.microsoft.reut/index.html


And the next space tourist is female, which is pretty cool.
http://www.anoushehansari.com/

More trivia. 

Then some space trivia for prizes... although someone might have been rigging it... 

More learning. 

Learning 

Then workbooklets were handed out so the students had something with info in it to take home. 

Every group at one RA to help. 

Rocket explanations. 

Then they broke out into groups to put together the model rockets. 

Hard at work. 

The RAs handed out paper to the kids and asked them to draw what they thought the next spaceships to replace the Shuttle would look like. 

Week 9 brought the actual group project outreach, at a YMCA day camp in Megan's town.  

Cool buildings 

Hey, look, it's Cleveland. 

I got to see a freakin' Harrier demo, which was the highlight of my day. 

Lots of cool airplanes. 

That weekend we went to the Dayton Air Show, and it was cool.  

Btw, this was at a place in the Metro Parks that we drove past everyday on the way to work. I called it Bear Field because it has AWESOME lighting that really makes you feel like there should be a bear in it every morning as you pass it at 7:30 am.  

Setting up, much enthusiasm. See how much cooler it was to take pics into the sun?  

I think this is probably one of my top 5 favorite pictures (of the 5000 or so I took) for the summer. 

Here they go. 

Teamwork. No, they're not actually going to launch it from the hood of the car.  

And now a series of my favorite pics from the summer, when the RAs did their test launch for their outreach rockets... look at that light; it was very pretty.