Sat07 Awesome +LEGO Serenity by  +Adrian Drake
*updated with pictures from Adrian* http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124476420@N01/7717710438
more pictures thanks to +Jeff Stevens 
https://plus.google.com/u/0/100353807204884022887/posts/NxExXaZvWv9

a FB friend sent this to me from the BrickFair convention in Virginia going on this weekend by Dulles (http://www.brickfair.com/). I would love to have the time and skill to build this.

 The ship took 750 hours, and most of it was translating the +Quantum Mechanix  blueprints to the finished product. Quite amazing.

update from +Jeff Stevens who talked to the builder
It was made by  Adrian Drake of Ohio. It is seven feet long, weighs 135lbs, is made of 70,000 bricks and took 21 months to build. Total build time 475 hours. The builder only had to buy $800 worth of bricks for this build because his collection was so extensive that it covered the rest. It has all of the compartments of the original set except the engine room, which he said he could not make while maintaining structural integrity. It debuted today at Brickfair in Chantilly, Virginia, and was pretty much the talk of the show. 

Oh, and the cargo bay and firefly drive light up, the shuttle detaches and the wings swing out, and the engines do rotate.


#LEGO   #Firefly  

(Mon09) This is happening just down the hall from me

we all saw the articles a few months back on NASA working on warp field and now IO9 interviews Sonny on his work. I have run into Sonny in the halls a few times and he is definitely excited about it and hoping that the upcoming tests will be his Chicago pile moment but also surprised by how much press this has gotten over the past few months.

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(Tue04) This is pretty cool new keyboard interface.

not just for android or iOS (though it will have to built into each app since Apple doesn't let you change the default keyboard) but think about wearable, game consoles or countless other ways that might need a keyboard/type interface. let's break free of the typewriter mentality.

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(Sat03) This will be interesting

But luckily not in the Oh God we are all going to die definition of interesting.
TL:DR watch the video http://youtu.be/jYs6Mw744VA?t=40s
The small near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass very close to Earth on February 15, so close that it will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites. NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office can accurately predict the asteroid's path with the observations obtained, and it is therefore known that there is no chance that the asteroid might be on a collision course with Earth. Nevertheless, the flyby will provide a unique opportunity for researchers to study a near-Earth object up close.

 Asteroid 2012 DA14 will be closest to Earth on Feb. 15, at about 11:24 p.m. PST (2 p.m. EST and 1924 UT), when it will be at a distance of about 27,700 kilometers (17,200 miles) above Earth's surface. Although this is close enough for the asteroid to pass inside the ring of geosynchronous satellites, located about 35,800 kilometers (22,200 miles) above the equator, it will still be well above the vast majority of satellites, including the International Space Station. At its closest, the asteroid will be only about 1/13th of the distance to the moon. The asteroid will fly by our planet quite rapidly, at a speed of about 17,400 mph (7.8 kilometers per second) in a south-to-north direction with respect to Earth.

 more details - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-041

#scienceeveryday
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Working at NASA
This is so true.

(Tue15) Hubble Archive of the Day: A Beautiful Butterfly emerges

This celestial object looks like a delicate butterfly. But it is far from serene.

What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to nearly 20 000 degrees Celsius. The gas is tearing across space at more than 950 000 kilometres per hour — fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in 24 minutes!

A dying star that was once about five times the mass of the Sun is at the centre of this fury. It has ejected its envelope of gases and is now unleashing a stream of ultraviolet radiation that is making the cast-off material glow. This object is an example of a planetary nebula, so-named because many of them have a round appearance resembling that of a planet when viewed through a small telescope.

more info and higher resolution -
http://spacetelescope.org/images/heic0910h/
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(Sun04) Black & White Superhero Posters

Iconic heroes captured in iconic scenes. the artist might eventually start selling them. which is your favorite.

Batman, Hulk, Captain America, Spider-Man, Silver Surfer, Thor, Iron Man, Superman, Dr. Manhattan, and Wolverine.

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Stunning +LEGO set for Potter fans

12 months and 400k bricks, but this is pretty impressive.

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(Thu03) This is an awesome bedset

The snoring astronaut from Dutch company Snurk

https://www.snurkbeddengoed.nl/astronaut?size=851#more

h/t +Edward Burke

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(Mon08) I believe in Sherlock

Finally, still no word when it will air (fall or early 2014)
 Long planned scheduling around the availability of both and Martin Freeman means that principal photography on Sherlock Series Three will be done in two sections, with two episodes being filmed from March 18. A break will occur in the early summer, and then the third and final episode will be shot a few weeks later.

#ibelieveinsherlock
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(Fri02) Watch NASA's Mohawk Flight Director in two Google+ Hangouts
okay I screwed up the hangouts were yesterday. curse me for not being completing awake yet.
Curiosity Flight Director Bobak Ferdowsi in two Google+ Hangouts
here is the +Los Angeles Times Hangout Understanding the photos from Mars
here is the +The Huffington Post Hangout EXCLUSIVE: Meet NASA's Mohawk Guy, Bobak Ferdowsi


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(Tue01) As an Agency we can't advertise, but you can help

unlike the military (Army of One, Air Force, NASCAR, etc) NASA can not advertise, but now you can help. not sure I would recut We Are the Explorers into a 30 sec trailer. heck just go for broke and keep it at 2:30 like a regular movie trailer. anyway if you care about the space program spread the word.

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(Tue03) Looking forward to the book

and someday season 2.

you can preorder the book from TFAW http://www.tfaw.com/Profile/The-Legend-Of-Korra%3A-The-Art-Of-The-Animated-Series-HC-Book-One-Air___423139

(Tue05) New Iron Man 3 trailer

I was disappointed in IM2, but this one is winning me back.

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Thur03 Trek Life artist David Reddick commemorates Scotty's trip to space

As you know the current +SpaceX Dragon mission also carried a secondary payload from Celestis which included the remains of Astronaut Gordo Cooper and Actor James Doohan (https://plus.google.com/116992234810067730471/posts/ccNMviaRFTe)

h/t Geore Takei on Facebook

Stunning new image of Horsehead Nebula from Hubble
This new Hubble image, captured and released to celebrate the telescope’s 23rd year in orbit, shows part of the sky in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter). Rising like a giant seahorse from turbulent waves of dust and gas is the Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as Barnard 33.

This image shows the region in infrared light, which has longer wavelengths than visible light and can pierce through the dusty material that usually obscures the nebula’s inner regions. The result is a rather ethereal and fragile-looking structure, made of delicate folds of gas — very different to the nebula’s appearance in visible light.

Credit:
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1307a/
#scienceeveryday  

(Wed03) Paperman short now online
It will also be on the Wreck it Ralph DVD.

(Fri07) A little Red Bull Stratos Humor for Friday

since everyone seems to think Felix jumped from Space. +Roger Balettie found this gif.

No he did not jump from higher than the space station, but it is still funny.

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Hubble Archive of the Day: Out of this Whirl
The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy M51 (NGC 5194) appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space. They are actually long lanes of stars and gas laced with dust.

This sharpest-ever image, taken in January 2005 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, illustrates a spiral galaxy's grand design, from its curving spiral arms, where young stars reside, to its yellowish central core, a home of older stars. The galaxy is nicknamed the Whirlpool because of its swirling structure.
more details - http://spacetelescope.org/images/heic0506a/
#hubblearchiveoftheday  
#scienceeveryday  

(Tue13) The Cosmic Hearth

The Orion nebula is featured in this sweeping image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The constellation of Orion is prominent in the evening sky throughout the world from about December through April of each year. The nebula (also catalogued as Messier 42) is located in the sword of Orion, hanging from his famous belt of three stars. The star cluster embedded in the nebula is visible to the unaided human eye as a single star, with some fuzziness apparent to the most keen-eyed observers. Because of its prominence, cultures all around the world have given special significance to Orion. The Maya of Mesoamerica envision the lower portion of Orion, his belt and feet (the stars Saiph and Rigel), as being the hearthstones of creation, similar to the triangular three-stone hearth that is at the center of all traditional Maya homes. The Orion nebula, lying at the center of the triangle, is interpreted by the Maya as the cosmic fire of creation surrounded by smoke.

more details - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-046

#scienceeveryday
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(Tue02) First Use of Mars Rover Curiosity's Dust Removal Tool

This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows the patch of rock cleaned by the first use of the rover's Dust Removal Tool (DRT).

The tool is a motorized, wire-bristle brush on the turret at the end of the rover's arm. Its first use was on the 150th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Jan. 6, 2013). MAHLI took this image from a distance of about 10 inches (25 centimeters) after the brushing was completed on this rock target called "Ekwir_1." The patch of the rock from which dust has been brushed away is about 1.85 inches by 2.44 inches (47 millimeters by 62 millimeters). The scale bar at bottom right is 1 centimeter (0.39 inch).

more info - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-009



Dust Removal Tool (DRT)

The Dust Removal Tool (DRT) is mounted to the turret of the robotic arm and can be used to remove the dust and loose material off of rock surfaces by clearing it away with stainless steel wire brushes. The design of the DRT is different from the Rock Abrasion Tool brushes on the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, but is expected to have a similarly effective dust removal capability. A single actuator mechanism rotates the brushes and relies on the robotic arm to position it at a desired standoff distance from a target surface. The area to be cleared with the DRT has a minimum circular area of 45 mm diameter. The DRT is also expected to be used to clear off loose material from the observation tray.

more about the sampling system  - http://msl-scicorner.jpl.nasa.gov/samplingsystem/

#scienceeveryday




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Tue11 Today I get my 15 year service pin from NASA
In February of 1996 I started as a volunteer at the Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, MD while I was in grad school at George Washington University. In May of 1997 I sent the center director a thank you email to tender my resignation as volunteer since it looked like they weren't going to have a civil servant slot for me (the Jedi Mind trick worked as I was soon hired as term employee). July 5th 1998 I transferred to the Johnson Space Center to become a Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) Officer for the Space Shuttle. I spent 11 years in Mission Operations from Ascent/Entry Control to Orbit Front Room. I was not in the MCC during Columbia but still suffer the survivors guilt every year. I moved up from flight control to be the Mission Ops rep to the Orbiter Project Office which earned me the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal . My Mission Management Team summary notes were sent to the upper echelons at HQ and I when I left MOD, Administrator Bolden called me "the voice of the Shuttle Program to the outside world" My year as chief of staff for Orion Avionics, Power and Software was chaotic at best given the cancellation of Constellation and the congressional fighting that followed. I have been in the Engineering Directorate working on In-Situ Resource Utilization for Mars now for  18 months, but while the work has been interesting it lacks the backing of the agency so I am not sure how longer it will continue since we are running on leftover FY11 dollars.
The agency has certainly changed in the past 15 years. We have successfully built the International Space station, retired the shuttle with no clear mission to follow on. The agency has also gotten more political in both internal and external communications with talking points coming down (which I usually ignore) from on high and the tone has changed. Sure we were always a political football usually ignored by presidents and used by congress as pork and white collar jobs for certain districts but the last few years we have become more of a hotbed as old space fights new space. Where will the agency be in another 15 years? probably still stuck in Low Earth Orbit for one. Orion's first crewed test flight is at best 10 years away if the stars align, MSFC gets SLS built and congress keeps the funding adequate. Will we be headed to an asteroid or Mars in 15 years? doubtful because that assumes a political and public will that is sorely lacking. Will I even still be at NASA? I don't know, this was my dream job, but lately the wind has been sucked out of my sails and it is just a job.

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(Sat06) This is a great plan for all Whovians

if anyone is going to stop the Mayan apocalypse it is the Doctor.

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i could see this happening.

#whovians  

(Sat01) Hubble Archive of the Day: Inspiring Pillars of Gas and Dust

Resembling a nightmarish beast rearing its head from a crimson sea, this celestial object is actually just a pillar of gas and dust. Called the Cone Nebula (in NGC 2264) - so named because in ground-based images it has a conical shape - this monstrous pillar resides in a turbulent star-forming region. This picture, taken by the newly installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the upper 2.5 light-years of the Cone, a height that equals 23 million roundtrips to the Moon. The entire pillar is seven light-years long.

full details - http://spacetelescope.org/images/heic0206c/

#hubblearchiveoftheday

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(Tue04) This brings a tear to my eye

There are a lot of browncoats here at NASA (heck my dvd set is still on the ISS), plus obviously the space shuttle has a special place in our hearts. So just as Endeavour made one final flight aboard the SCA (Shuttle Carrier Aircraft) so does Serenity in this t-shirt on Red Bubble.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/crocktees/works/9633288-the-final-flight?SSAID=292008

h/t +Fashionably Geek

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(Wed21) A response in Libya to the recent killing of the US ambassador

while there are extremist and there are regular citizens. Extremists killed Chris Stevens, regular folks said no more.

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 This is not what I expected to see. I am aware that a few are scum, namley Al-Quada, who hoisted their flag high. 

Look at this link to see more: http://imgur.com/a/tlCyI

#lybia  

(Fri11) Awesome shot of the Ring of Fire Eclipse

From Mike Elli http://mikelli.net/pormpuraaw-eclipse-10-may-2013/

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(Wed13) Now you can follow Voyager as it travels the Magnetic Highway

Keep an eye on the spacecraft and when the three signs are verified, scientists will know that one of the Voyagers has hurtled beyond the magnetic bubble the sun blows around itself, which is known as the heliosphere.
The gauge indicates the level of fast-moving charged particles, mainly protons, originating from far outside the heliosphere, and the level of slower-moving charged particles, also mainly protons, from inside the heliosphere. If the level of outside particles jumps dramatically and the level of inside particles drops precipitously, and these two levels hold steady, that means one of the spacecraft is closing in on the edge of interstellar space. These data are updated every six hours. #scienceeveryday

(Tue19) Curiosity Update: Rover Nearing Yellowknife Bay

The NASA Mars rover Curiosity used its Mast Camera (Mastcam) during the mission's 120th Martian day, or sol (Dec. 7, 2012), to record this view of a rock outcrop informally named "Shaler."

 The outcrop's striking layers, some at angles to each other in a pattern called crossbedding, made it a target of interest for the mission's science team. The site is near where three types of terrain meet at a place called "Glenelg," inside Gale Crater.

 Full mission report - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-392#1

#scienceeveryday
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(Tue03) I think +Curiosity would approve

do they celebrate Halloween on +Mars :)

no Mohawk pumpkin for +Bobak Ferdowsi

I wonder if +Scott Maxwell has a pumpkin of him driving MSL

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Need some inspiration for carving your pumpkin this year?  Here are some outstanding space-o-lanterns, including this one by Will Gater!

See more here:

http://www.universetoday.com/98244/space-o-lanterns-7-minutes-of-terrordragon-edition/#

(Sat10) Today's Hubble Archive The Sombrero Galaxy

NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has trained its razor-sharp eye on one of the universe's most stately and photogenic galaxies, the Sombrero galaxy, Messier 104 (M104). The galaxy's hallmark is a brilliant white, bulbous core encircled by the thick dust lanes comprising the spiral structure of the galaxy. As seen from Earth, the galaxy is tilted nearly edge-on. We view it from just six degrees north of its equatorial plane. This brilliant galaxy was named the Sombrero because of its resemblance to the broad rim and high-topped Mexican hat.

more details and higher resolution
http://spacetelescope.org/images/opo0328a/

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(Tue22) Very cool shots from old Soviet era Venus probe

they may be digitally enhanced, but they are still cool.
h/t +Tara Mulder
#scienceeveryday

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Meanwhile on Venus...
...well, not exactly "meanwhile".

With the world's attention turned to Mars, scientist has reprocessed with modern digital techniques data relayed from the old Soviet Venera 9,10,13 and 14 probes.

Most of these pictures must be credited to Don P. Mitchell

Sources:
Mental landscape, Don P. Mitchell's website
http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm
Unmanned Spaceflight Forum
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=1410
And...
http://planetimages.blogspot.it/2005_09_01_archive.html

#science     #sciencesunday     #space     #venus   #astronomy     #planetology     #solarsystem   #mars #curiosity  

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(Fri08) How did that one slip by me

Well played indeed. now if only the top row could Assemble once more.

H/t +Marc Velez

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#FireflyFriday #Firefly #browncoats #MarvelsAvengers  

(Wed04) +Curiosity at YellowKnife Bay

The NASA Mars rover Curiosity used its left Navigation Camera to record this view of the step down into a shallow depression called "Yellowknife Bay." It took the image on the 125th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Dec. 12, 2012), just after finishing that sol's drive. The Sol 125 drive entered Yellowknife Bay and covered about 86 feet (26.1 meters). The descent into the basin crossed a step about 2 feet (half a meter) high, visible in the upper half of this image.

 Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Using Curiosity's percussive drill to collect a sample from the interior of a rock, a feat never before attempted on Mars, is the mission's priority for early 2013. After the powdered-rock sample is sieved and portioned by a sample-processing mechanism on the rover's arm, it will be analyzed by instruments inside Curiosity.

 Yellowknife Bay is within a different type of terrain from what the rover has traversed since landing inside Mars' Gale Crater on Aug. 5, PDT (Aug. 6, UTC). The terrain Curiosity has entered is one of three types that intersect at a location dubbed "Glenelg," chosen as an interim destination about two weeks after the landing.

 more details - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-404

#scienceeveryday

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(Sat04) not many names from the 20th century are more well known than Armstrong
we are all star stuff, Neil touched the stars in 1969 and has returned to them today. sad to hear the first moonwalker has passed away.

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MAN ON THE MOON - Apollo 11 Anniversary
July 20, 1969

An estimated 1 billion people on the planet Earth are watching or listening to transmissions from the Apollo spacecraft in lunar orbit All three U.S. television networks are on live. At 1:30pm U.S. Armed Forces Network radio is on live. In lunar orbit, Mike Collins has taken the controls of the Command Ship Columbia and gently undocks from the lunar lander, the Eagle.

In train stations and bus stations, ball parks and airports the sounds coming from the moonships and the crackling static are heard around the country. Briefly, for a fleeting moment in time, the entire American nation has come together as one to follow an event- this time, not a national tragedy but a voyage of exploration: humans on their way down to the surface of an alien world.

1:40pm EDT -
“The Eagle has wings!” Cries Buzz Aldrin and Apollo moves away from the Eagle. Slowly Columbia and Eagle pull away from each other but remain in the same orbit.

Eagle Has wings.
3:12pm EDT -
Now with both craft on the back side of the Moon, the Eagle’s engine fires up and begins to break the craft down into a lower orbit. The engine fires at 10 percent thrust for 15 seconds, then is gradually increased up to some 40 percent of its 9,970 lbs of capability.

The crew is flying with their feet first, face up. The craft speeds across the barren landscape below just 60 miles up with a low point of eight miles. At that low point they are to fire up for the final descent burn, riding a rocket’s tail of hot gas towards the lunar landscape.

3:47pm EDT -
Columbia’s Mike Collins calls the ground and reports that the Eagle is “on its way down” towards the surface. At 260 miles uprange from the touchdown point, the LM’s rocket engine fires again for its final burn -or PDI (Powered Descent Initiate). Now Eagle is dropping from 50,000 feet above the Moon to a low point of 10,000 feet. The engine is powered down to 6,000 pounds of thrust. But now, at 39,000 foot altitude, things begin to go wrong.

On the instrument panel, the Caution-And-Warning System alerts the crew that they are close to radar lockup. If this happens, their radar system will be unable to guide them towards the landing site. The crew quickly resets the switches for the system, and it returns to normal.

At 9,620 feet, the craft’s computer begins to send a series of alarms to the crew. These “1202” alarms warn that the computer was becoming overloaded with data inputs that were taking too long to process. Armstrong cleared the computer’s memory and asked Houston control for a judgment call. Mission Control calls the crew: go!

Just above 2,000 feet Armstrong takes manual control of Eagle briefly to check out the flight controls. The spacecraft is snappy and responsive. Below 1,500 feet, the astronauts are now scanning the landing site below. What they see concerns them. The autopilot is bringing Eagle down into a boulder-strewn field. At 500 feet altitude, concerned that the landing site was not suitable, Armstrong reached over and took control of the spacecraft away from the autopilot and the computer: he was flying the Eagle.

Using the ascent stage thrusters, Armstrong brings the Eagle laterally across the surface looking for a landing site. At 100 feet he stops the rate of descent, the begins it again slowly.

At 30 feet, peering through a cloud of dust stirred up on the surface of the Sea of Tranquility, Aldrin calls out that Eagle has less than a minute of fuel left in its tanks. Should they abort? Peering through the clouds, Armstrong sees a smooth area through a break in the dust. He has moved more than 1,100 feet across from the original landing point as chosen by the computer. Armstrong was still looking out the window when Aldrin calls: “Contact Light!” A small light has illuminated on their instrument panel, indicating that a probe in one of the LM’s footpads has touched the alien lunar soil.
With the engine still running, the LM drops down onto the surface. Armstrong shuts off the descent engine. All is quiet .In Mission Control Capsule Communicator Charles Duke calls to the crew “we copy you down Eagle?” At first there is only static. Then Armstrong calls across the generations: “Houston, Tranquility Base here-the Eagle has landed!”.

On the east coast of the United States it was 4:18pm EDT. In Yankee Stadium in New York city 16,000 people rose to sing the National Anthem as they stopped a baseball game in progress. At Grand Central Station, the thousands of Sunday travelers cheered so loud Aldrin’s last words before touchdown were not heard. In Trafalgar Square, London announcers screamed “the Americans have done it!”. In Japan, television viewers were told "a new age has now begun". In Mission Control Houston, flight controllers come to their feet cheering, breaking a tradition of silence.

It had been nearly exactly 8 years, 2 months since John Fitzgerald Kennedy had walked up the center aisle of the U.S. House of Representatives and made the lunar landing a national goal. In his CBS News control booth, newsman Walter Cronkite cannot speak. He turns to astronaut Walter Schirra and then says: "Man on the Moon!"It is Sunday, July 20, 1969.

The mission has been accomplished...


6:00 p.m.
With everything in order, Armstrong radios a recommendation that they plan to start the EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity), earlier than originally scheduled, at about 9:OO p.m. EDT. Mission Control replies: "We will support you anytime."

10:39 p.m.
Later than proposed at 6:00 p.m., but more than five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opens the LM hatch and squeezes through the opening. It is a slow process. Strapped to his shoulders is a portable life support and communications system weighing 84 pounds on Earth, 14 on the Moon, with provision for pressurization; oxygen requirements and removal of carbon dioxide.

Armstrong moves slowly down the 10-foot, nine-step ladder. On reaching the second step, he pulls a "D-ring," within easy reach, deploying a television camera, so arranged on the LM that it will depict him to Earth as he proceeds from that point.

Down the ladder he moves and halts on the last step. "I'm at the foot of the ladder," he reports. "The LM footpads are only depressed in the surface about one or two inches. . . the surface appears to be very, very finegrained, as you get close to it, it's almost like a powder."

10:56 p.m.
Armstrong puts his left foot to the Moon. It is the first time in history that man has ever stepped on anything that has not existed on or originated from the Earth.

"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong radios. Aldrin is taking photographs from inside the spacecraft.

The first print made by the weight of man on the Moon is that of a lunar boot which resembles an oversized galosh.

Its soles are of silicon rubber and its 14-layer sidewalls of aluminized plastic. Specially designed for super-insulation, it protects against abrasion and has reduced friction to facilitate donning. On Earth, it weighs four pounds, nine ounces. on the Moon, 12 ounces.

Armstrong surveys his surroundings for a while and then moves out, testing himself in a gravity environment one-sixth of that on Earth. "The surface is fine and powdery," he says. "I can pick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch. Maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine sandy particles.

"There seems to be no difficulty in moving around as we suspected. It's even perhaps easier than the simulations...."

Feeling more confident, Armstrong begins making a preliminary collection of soil samples close to the landing craft. This is done with a bag on the end of a pole.

"This is very interesting," he comments. "It's a very soft surface, but here and there . . . I run into a very hard surface, but it appears to be very cohesive material of the same sort.... It has a stark beauty all its own. It's like much of the high desert of the United States."

He collects a small bagful of soil and stores it in a pocket on the left leg of his space suit. This is done early, according to plan, to make sure some of the Moon surface is returned to Earth in case the mission has to be cut short.

11:11 p.m.
After lowering a Hasselblad still camera to Armstrong, Aldrin emerges from the landing craft and backs down the ladder, while his companion photographs him.

"These rocks . . . are rather slippery," Armstrong says. The astronauts report that the powdery surface seems to fill up the fine pores on the rocks, and they tend to slide over them rather easily.

Armstrong fits a long focal length lens into position on the TV camera and trains it upon a small, stainless steel plaque on one of the legs of the landing craft. He reads: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the Moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind." Below the inscription are the names of the Apollo crew and President Nixon.

Armstrong next removes the TV camera from its fixed position on the LM and moves it away about 40 feet so it can cover the area in which the astronauts will operate.

As scheduled, the astronauts set up the first of three experiments. From an outside storage compartment in the LM, Aldrin removes a foot-long tube containing a roll of aluminum foil. Inside the roll is a telescoped pole that is driven into the lunar surface, after which the foil is...

...suspended from it, with the side marked "Sun" next to the Sun. Its function will be to collect the particles of "solar wind" blowing constantly through space so that they can be brought back and analyzed in the hope they will provide information on how the Sun and planets were formed.

11:41 p.m.
From a leg of the spacecraft, the astronauts take a three-by-five-foot, nylon United States flag, its top edge braced by a spring wire to keep it extended on the windless Moon and erect it on a staff pressed into the lunar surface.

Taken to the Moon are two other U.S. flags, to be brought back and flown over the houses of Congress, the flags of the 50 States, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, the United Nations flag, as well as those of 136 foreign countries.


11:47 p.m.
Mission Control announces: "The President of the United States is in his office now and would like to say a few words to you." Armstrong replies: "That would be an honor."

11:48 p.m.
The astronauts listen as the President speaks by telephone: "Neil and Buzz. I am talking to you from the Oval Room at the White House. And this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made For every American this has to be the proudest day of our lives. And for people all over the world I am sure they, too, join with Americans in recognizing what a feat this is. Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world. As you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquillity, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth. For one priceless moment, in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one."

As the President finishes speaking, Armstrong replies: "Thank you, Mr. President. It's a great honor and privilege for us to be here representing not only the United States but men of peace of all nations. And with interest and a curiosity and a vision for the future. It's an honor for us to be able to participate here today."

The two astronauts stand at attention, saluting directly toward the television as the telephone conversation concludes.

Armstrong next sets up a folding table and opens on it two specimen boxes. Using tongs and the lunar scoop, a quantity of rocks and soil are picked up and sealed in the boxes, preparatory to placing them in the ascent stage of the landing craft.

Aldrin, meanwhile, opens another compartment in the ship and removes two devices to be left on the Moon, taking each out about 30 feet from the ship. One is a seismic detector, to record moonquakes, meteorite impact, or volcanic eruption, and the other a laser-reflector, a device designed to make a much more precise measurement of Earth-Moon distances than has ever been possible before.

From George Takei on FB
makes perfect sense to me.

(Sun06) Hubble Archive of the Day - Butterfly emerges from stellar demise in planetary nebula NGC 6302

This celestial object looks like a delicate butterfly. But it is far from serene.

What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to nearly 20 000 degrees Celsius. The gas is tearing across space at more than 950 000 kilometres per hour — fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in 24 minutes!

A dying star that was once about five times the mass of the Sun is at the centre of this fury. It has ejected its envelope of gases and is now unleashing a stream of ultraviolet radiation that is making the cast-off material glow. This object is an example of a planetary nebula, so-named because many of them have a round appearance resembling that of a planet when viewed through a small telescope.

full release -
http://spacetelescope.org/images/heic0910h/

#hubble #NASA #spaceporn #sciencesunday
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Sat10 Class Act by Craig
if only that TARDIS on his desk was real :(

h/t +stephanie wanamaker 

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I just gained a load more respect for Craig Ferguson. 

Cool new panoramic of Mars
This mosaic of images from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows Mount Sharp in a white-balanced color adjustment that makes the sky look overly blue but shows the terrain as if under Earth-like lighting. White-balancing helps scientists recognize rock materials based on their experience looking at rocks on Earth. The Martian sky would look more of a butterscotch color to the human eye. White balancing yields an overly blue hue in images that have very little blue information, such as Martian landscapes, because the white balancing tends to overcompensate for the low inherent blue content.

Mount Sharp, also called Aeolis Mons, is a layered mound in the center of Mars' Gale Crater, rising more than 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the crater floor, where Curiosity has been working since the rover's landing in August 2012. Lower slopes of Mount Sharp are the major destination for the mission, though the rover will first spend many more weeks around a location called "Yellowknife Bay," where it has found evidence of a past environment favorable for microbial life.

Full detail - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-097
#scienceeveryday  

(Mon06) Cassini spots Venus peaking through the rings of Saturn

Peering over the shoulder of giant Saturn, through its rings, and across interplanetary space, NASA's Cassini spacecraft spies the bright, cloudy terrestrial planet, Venus. The vast distance from Saturn means that Venus only shows up as a white dot, just above and to the right of the image center.

Venus, along with Mercury, Earth, and Mars, is one of the rocky 'terrestrial' planets in the solar system that orbit relatively close to the sun. Though Venus has an atmosphere of carbon dioxide that reaches nearly 900 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees Celsius) and a surface pressure 100 times that of Earth, it is considered a twin to our planet because of their similar size, mass, rocky composition and orbit. Venus is covered in thick sulfuric acid clouds, making it very bright.

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 17 degrees below the ring plane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 10, 2012.

This is a true-color picture of Saturn and Venus.

full details - http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/newsrelease20130304/

#scienceeveryday
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Sun05 This day in Space History - June 3 1965 the first spacewalk by NASA
+NASA  Astronaut Ed White made history on June 3, 1965, when he floated out of the hatch of his Gemini 4 capsule into the void of space. The first American "spacewalk" -- or Extravehicular Activity (EVA) -- lasted 23 minutes, not nearly long enough for White. He later said the spacewalk was the most comfortable part of the mission, and said the order to end it was the "saddest moment" of his life. 

White was attached to the capsule by a 25 foot umbilical cord. He initially used a gas powered gun held in his hand to maneuver. After the first three minutes the fuel ran out and White moved around by twisting his body and pulling on the cord. 

This photograph of White's spacewalk was taken by Gemini 4 Commander James McDivitt, still inside the spacecraft.

Image credit: NASA

high res images - http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/gemini_4_eva.html
Video narrated by Ed White - Gemini 4 | NASAs First Ever Space Walk - Narrated By Ed White (June 3, 1965)
#NASA   #firstspacewalk   #Gemini4   #sciencesunday  

This week in Cool Space Images - March 16 2012
Sorry for the delay.

Severina Crater on Vesta by +NASA's Dawn
Raw image of +Saturn
Landslide on +Mercury
Quasar lenses by +Hubble Space Telescope
+European Space Agency, ESA's VLT spots teenage galaxies.
Hubble spots Butterfly Planetary Nebula

(Thu16) BREAKING NEWS ISS leaking coolant fluid

The coolant system requires at least 40 pounds of ammonia to operate normally. Based on the observed leak rate, NASA said in a web update, the channel 2B coolant loop could drop below that level and shut down within 48 hours if nothing is done to resolve it.

You can monitor real time data of the system from the ISS - http://spacestationlive.nasa.gov/displays/spartanDisplay1.html

learn about the SPARTAN console here - http://spacestationlive.nasa.gov/handbooks/spartanHandbook.html

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Images from the final flyby of Rhea

Following its last close flyby of Saturn's moon Rhea, NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured these raw, unprocessed images of the battered icy moon. They show an ancient, cratered surface bearing the scars of collisions with many space rocks. Scientists are still trying to understand some of the curious features they see in these Rhea images, including a curving, narrow fracture or graben, which is a block of ground lower than its surroundings and bordered by cliffs on either side. This feature looks remarkably recent, cutting most of the craters it crosses, with only a few small craters superimposed.

more images from the flyby - http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassinifeatures/feature20130311/

Rhea [pronounced REE-uh; adjective: Rhean] is the second largest moon of Saturn, but with a diameter of 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) it is less than a third the size of the largest moon, Titan. Rhea is a small, cold, airless body that is very similar to sister moons Dione and Tethys. As with the other two moons, Rhea is tidally locked in phase with its parent -- one side always faces toward Saturn. Rhea's surface temperatures are also similar to Dione and Tethys, being roughly as warm as -174 degrees Celsius (-281 degrees Fahrenheit) in sunlit areas and ranging down to -220 degrees Celsius (-364 degrees Fahrenheit) in shaded areas. Also like them, it has a high reflectivity (or geometric albedo) suggesting a composition largely of water ice, which behaves like rock in Rhea's temperature range.

more about Rhea - http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/moons/rhea/

#scienceeveryday

I travel with superheroes
Just how I roll.

(Sat04) The Minbari not born of Minbari has gone back to the stars from which we all came.

One of the best quotes from Babylon 5 that applies to the real world space exploration as well.

Mary Ann Cramer: I have to ask you the same question people back home are asking about space these days. Is it worth it? Should we just pull back? Forget the whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at home.

 *Cmdr. Jeffrey Sinclair:* No. We have to stay here. And there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics, and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-Tzu, and Einstein, and Morobuto, and Buddy Holly, and Aristophanes, and - all of this - all of this - was for nothing. Unless we go to the stars.


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(Thu10) Stunning True Color Images from Cassini

Posing for portraits for NASA's Cassini spacecraft, Saturn and its largest moon, Titan, show spectacular colors in a quartet of images being released today. One image captures the changing hues of Saturn’s northern and southern hemispheres as they pass from one season to the next.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/newsrelease20120829/

 #saturn #scienceeveryday

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Sat02 tee shirt for all the stuff we have been promised that have yet to come true

they are missing Jetpacks.

Buy the shirt here today only http://www.riptapparel.com/

(Thu04) Second #photosphere  test

#insidejsc in the Old Mission Control Center. This concludes the test of taking panorama from the JSC photography team and converted it via http://photo-sphere.appspot.com. now that users can contribute to Google Maps we may try to put some of our cool facilities, labs as photospheres plus we can embed them in nasa websites via the api.

last potential cover photo of the day
this one is for you +Aaron Harper 

(Thu05) NASA's Galex Reveals the Largest-Known Spiral Galaxy

This composite of the giant barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 combines visible light images from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope with far-ultraviolet (1,528 angstroms) data from NASA's GALEX and 3.6-micron infrared data acquired by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. A previously unsuspected tidal dwarf galaxy candidate (circled) appears only in the ultraviolet, indicating the presence of many hot young stars. IC 4970, the small disk galaxy interacting with NGC 6872, is located above the spiral's central region. The spiral is 522,000 light-years across from the tip of one outstretched arm to the tip of the other, which makes it about 5 times the size of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Images of lower resolution from the Digital Sky Survey were used to fill in marginal areas not covered by the other data. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/ESO/JPL-Caltech/DSS

full details - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-016

full res - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/galex/20130110/pia16613-full.jpg

#scienceeveryday

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Cutest Little Damn Heroes (besides +Quantum Mechanix's maquettes)

#browncoats  

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[ #Firefly ]

Happy 10th Anniversary to our big damn heroes!

(Wed10) The JPL MSL team has reached pinnacle internet immortality

first there was the memes and the animated gifs, but now the guys from MSL have hit the big time with their own music video mashup.

congrats guys

+Scott Maxwell +Bobak Ferdowsi

h/t +What's Trending
http://whatstrending.com/2012/08/nasa-it-lmfao-mars-curiosity-parody-video/

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Sun12 Gigapan for JPL MSL Mission Control
http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/110926

On the evening of Sunday, Aug. 5, the focal point of Martian activity here on Earth will be located in the Mission Support Area in Building 230 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. From this facility will come news of the progress of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover's landing. Visit an interactive page at http://bit.ly/mslmsa to explore the room a bit further and get a who's who of team members - as well as the history of one dry-roasted room essential. 
more info - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-228
#MSL   #NASA   #mars  

Thurs09 You are going to want to see the full version of this
Next Best Thing to Being There
This full-circle scene combines 817 images taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. It shows the terrain that surrounded the rover while it was stationary for four months of work during its most recent Martian winter.

Opportunity's Pancam took the component images between the 2,811th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's Mars surface mission (Dec. 21, 2011) and Sol 2,947 (May 8, 2012). Opportunity spent those months on a northward sloped outcrop, "Greeley Haven," which angled the rover's solar panels toward the sun low in the northern sky during southern hemisphere winter. The outcrop's informal name is a tribute to Ronald Greeley (1939-2011), who was a member of the mission team and who taught generations of planetary scientists at Arizona State University, Tempe. The site is near the northern tip of the "Cape York" segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater.

North is at the center of the image. South is at both ends. On the far left at the horizon is "Rich Morris Hill." That outcrop on Cape York was informally named in memory of John R. "Rich" Morris (1973-2011), an aerospace engineer and musician who was a Mars rover team member and mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena.

more information http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-196

update 2
125MB JPG File

My Google Drive https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7Sfv2Bq7xzhdVJBRVkzQ2phSnM

US East Coasthttp://www.aheadresearch.net/geo/PIA15689_Greeley_Pan_wDeck_L257F.jpg

US West Coasthttp://aheadresearch.com/geo/PIA15689_Greeley_Pan_wDeck_L257F.jpg
Europe (D)    http://johannes.sipsolutions.net/files/PIA15689_Greeley_Pan_wDeck_L257F.jpg

500MB tiff file
Original host http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA15689
US East Coast http://www.aheadresearch.net/geo/PIA15689.tif
US West Coast http://aheadresearch.com/geo/PIA15689.tif 
http://johannes.sipsolutions.net/files/PIA15689.tif

#scienceeveryday   #NASA   #JPL   #Mars  

Tue01 SpaceX's Dragon is on orbit but the hard part is still to come
Congrats to the +SpaceX team for the succesful launch this morning of the Falcon 9 carrying the first commercial spacecraft that will rendezvous with the +International Space Station. Not to detract from the quick turnaround of Saturday's pad abort but they had already proved they can launch it is the rendezvous and grapple that is still untested. The delicate, sweet ballet of orbital mechanics. Where two objects traveling 17,500 mph must meet up at the same point in space at the same time in a controlled fashion. That is where the Mission Ops team proves that they are Steely-Eyed Missile (wo)men and that cauldron will temper them and make them keenly aware "To always be aware that suddenly and unexpectedly we may find ourselves in a role where our performance has ultimate consequences." Stay Focused SpaceX and make us proud

Launch Replay - Launch of SpaceX Falcon 9
Post Launch press conference - SPACEX/NASA DISCUSS LAUNCH OF FALCON 9 ROCKET AND DRAGON CAPSULE


Dragon is carrying about 1,200 pounds of supplies for the crew of the station and experiments designed by students. The spacecraft can hold 7,300 pounds of material for delivery to the station, but since this is a test flight, the manifest was limited to important but not critical materials. Food and clothing make up the bulk of the supplies.

The launch put the Dragon on a course to rendezvous with the space station in three days. A detailed series of navigation and other systems tests will be performed in space before the capsule is allowed to move close enough to the station for astronauts to grab it with the robot arm and connect it to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module.

The tests include a careful approach to the station that calls for the spacecraft to pause several times. The space station crew also will show that they can communicate directly with the uncrewed Dragon capsule. If all the testing goes well, they will go ahead with the rendezvous and berthing.

The Dragon will remain connected to the station for about three weeks, allowing astronauts to empty it before loading used scientific equipment inside for the return to Earth. Reversing the process of connecting the spacecraft to the station, astronauts will use the robotic arm to remove the Dragon capsule. The Dragon will then de-orbit and return to Earth under parachutes, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.

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(Mon14) Classic Movies recast through history

Imagine Faye Dunaway as Sarah Connor, or Leonard Nimoy as John McClane or the Duke as Kal-El. if you could recast a favorite movie at any point in history what would the movie be and who would the cast be.

h/t +Yonatan Zunger

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Imagine famous movies, but made in another era.
These are brilliant, both artistically, & conceptually.
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Movies-From-An-Alternate-Universe/2783319
Via +Andrew Pam 

(Mon16) Definitely check out the full size panorama

One year after launch and 16 weeks since its dramatic landing on target inside Gale Crater, Curiosity has returned more than 23,000 raw images, driven 1,696 feet (517 meters)

full release http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-368#1

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(Sun07) pretty impressive numbers but also that the infrastructure was able to handle it

maybe +NBC Sports should take note for the next Olympics.

we watched on the big screen via our +Google TV .

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Approximately 8 million viewers tuned in on +YouTube to watch Felix Baumgartner's stunning  #spacejump , when the man reached 833.9mph during freefall. If the number is confirmed, YouTube will have broken its last livestream record by a factor of 16 (previous record: the London 2012 Olympic Games).

This is the future of live events. When something is allowed to broadcast free of geographic restrictions and artificial tape delays, the audience goes global. When traditional media is allowed to converge with social networks, anything can become a shared moment.

Great job Felix & #RedBullStratos ! And +YouTube, for inexplicably handling such a huge number of concurrent streams without imploding.

(Wed15) Endeavour at Ellington Field
pictures from the Shuttle's pit stop at JSC on the way from Florida to California.
#shuttledeservicing  

(Mon12) Telephoto Image from Mars plus voice playback

A chapter of the layered geological history of Mars is laid bare in this postcard from NASA's Curiosity rover. The image shows the base of Mount Sharp, the rover's eventual science destination.

 This image is a portion of a larger image taken by Curiosity's 100-millimeter Mast Camera on Aug. 23, 2012. See PIA16104. Scientists enhanced the color in one version to show the Martian scene under the lighting conditions we have on Earth, which helps in analyzing the terrain.

 For scale, an annotated version of the figure highlights a dark rock that is approximately the same size as Curiosity. The pointy mound in the center of the image, looming above the rover-sized rock, is about 1,000 feet (300 meters) across and 300 feet (100 meters) high.

 more from today's press conference -
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-260
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Mon06 NASA's Curiosity Rover Caught in the Act of Landing

I apologize if this stuff if repeats, but I have been out all day and I don't have time to go through 12+ hrs of my stream.

An image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the Curiosity rover still connected to its 51-foot-wide (almost 16 meter) parachute as it descended towards its landing site at Gale Crater.

"If HiRISE took the image one second before or one second after, we probably would be looking at an empty Martian landscape," said Sarah Milkovich, HiRISE investigation scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "When you consider that we have been working on this sequence since March and had to upload commands to the spacecraft about 72 hours prior to the image being taken, you begin to realize how challenging this picture was to obtain."


more info and high res http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-232

#MSL #scienceeveryday

Happy Birthday Carl Sagan Planetary Scientist (Nov 9 1934 - Dec 20 1996)


Carl Sagan played a leading role in the American space program from its very beginning. He was a consultant and adviser to NASA beginning in the 1950s -- he briefed the Apollo astronauts before their flights to the Moon.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

Carl was born in New York City on November 9, 1934. He described himself as a childhood science fiction addict who became fascinated by astronomy when he learned that every star in the night sky was a distant sun. He was always encouraged by his parents to research answers to his innumerable questions about science. His scientific curiosity led him to earn four degrees in physics, astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Chicago.

In his role as a visiting scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., Carl helped design and manage the Mariner 2 mission to Venus, the Mariner 9 and Viking 1 and Viking 2 trips to Mars, the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions to the outer solar system and the Galileo mission to Jupiter. Carl's research helped to solve the mysteries of the high temperature of Venus (a massive greenhouse effect), the seasonal changes on Mars (windblown dust) and the reddish haze of Titan (complex organic molecules).

Carl was often described as "the scientist who made the Universe clearer to the ordinary person." He helped to popularize science through the writing of hundreds of articles and over two dozen books. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for his book "The Dragons of Eden." His television series "Cosmos" was one of the most watched shows in public television history. It was seen by more than 500 million people in 60 different countries.

Carl taught and conducted research at Harvard University. In 1968, Carl became a professor at Cornell University where he was also the director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies. He was well known as a pioneer in the field of exobiology, which is the study of the possibility of extraterrestrial life. He was among the first to determine that life could have existed on Mars. And he constantly appealed to NASA to extend its exploration of the Universe.

With Louis Friedman and Bruce Murray, Carl founded The Planetary Society, a public membership organization, in 1980 which inspires, informs, and involves the public in the wonders of space exploration. The organization is also instrumental in influencing government decisions regarding spaceflight funding through its grassroots campaigns.

"Carl was one of the greatest intellects behind the genesis of space exploration generally and specifically the Galileo mission," said Dr. Torrence Johnson, a Galileo mission team member. "He was part of the original group that got together to promote the mission to NASA and he served as an interdisciplinary scientists on the mission team from the beginning. He was a great human being who shared with everyone his excitement about the exploration of the Universe."

Carl suffered from a rare bone marrow disease called myelodysplasia. Complications from this disease caused the pneumonia which ended his life on December 20, 1996. He was 62.

Read more:
http://www.carlsagan.com/
http://www.planetary.org/home/
http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=237
http://www.planetary.org/about/founders/carl_sagan.html
Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot


#NASA
#JPL
#CarlSagan
#SpaceHistory

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If you like Space still time to help
NASA can't advertise so private folks are talking up the slack to run an ad before Star Trek:Into the Darkness. It would be cool to blow through the goal and go bigger meaning more theater buys. so spread the word far and wide. Maybe JJ will hear about it (I did mention it to my friend at LFL to pass it along) and mandate it is attached to all ST prints. one can dream big right.
heck if all the folks who have me in their circles gave $1 mission would be accomplished and then some.

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We Are The Explorers UPDATE: funding at 50%!

As you might know, NASA cannot advertise itself. This is due to a federal restriction that the government places on itself as a whole. It can reach out publicly to explain what it does for the public, but the advertising landscape for a federal agency is complex. So, as a result NASA cannot advertise itself in a traditional, commercial sense. 

The AIA (Aerospace Industries Association) is so stoked about what NASA does, that they have decided to advertise on behalf of NASA. AND, they've decided to crowdsource this effort with Indiegogo.com. ANNNDDD they are planning on showing the ad with the new Star Trek Into Darkness movie that is coming out this year!

This comes at a crucial time when NASA's own public outreach is threatened due to the Sequestion fight in Washington DC. 

Indiegogo Link: http://igg.me/at/adspace/cstw

So, as it stands, the effort is a little bit over 50% funded. PLEASE spread the word about this and donate to this effort, because the more eyes that see this ad, the more potential supporters NASA will have in the coming months. 

#NASA   #Penny4NASA   #StarTrek   #Science   #Space   #Transformers   #startrekintodarkness   #SpaceAdvocates   #AIA   #aerospaceindustriesassociation  

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(Mon16) Fire up the +Google TV and get out your Multipass

Full movies from Crackle with Limited commercial interruption. The Crackle website is under spotlight apps on your Google tv.

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Continuing the Milla bday celebration with one of our fave movies: The Fifth Element. http://bit.ly/NmApdH

(Sat08) Hubble Archive of the Day: Stephan's Quintet

This portrait of Stephan's Quintet, also known as the Hickson Compact Group 92, was taken by the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Stephan's Quintet, as the name implies, is a group of five galaxies. The name, however, is a bit of a misnomer. Studies have shown that group member NGC 7320, at upper left, is actually a foreground galaxy that is about seven times closer to Earth than the rest of the group.

Three of the galaxies have distorted shapes, elongated spiral arms, and long, gaseous tidal tails containing myriad star clusters, proof of their close encounters. These interactions have sparked a frenzy of star birth in the central pair of galaxies. This drama is being played out against a rich backdrop of faraway galaxies

more details - http://spacetelescope.org/images/heic0910i/

#scienceeveryday #hubblearchiveoftheday




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(Mon10) ugh even longer wait for Sherlock

I still believe in Sherlock

Season three of the excellent BBC series had been poised to start production this coming January for a Fall 2013 debut, but EW now reports that the start date has now been pushed back to March in order to accommodate the busy schedules of stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.

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(Fri14) Only two months to wait for the 10th Anniversary special

#browncoatsunite indeed. with all the love the Science Channel has for the show, maybe they can team up with Netflix and do more. At Comic Con it was clear they all still loved it.

#firefly #serenity #cantstopthesignal

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Check out the Firefly Reunion Teaser Video! This is less than two months away on the Science Channel. I'm really excited about this.

#firefly   #serenity   #cantstopthesignal  

Mon08 where to find the latest images from MSL

This image was taken by Front Hazcam: Left A (FHAZ_LEFT_A) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 0 (2012-08-06 06:23:34 UTC) .

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

All   The Sol 0 images are here - http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/

 #MSL #scienceeveryday

Fri05 This week in Cool Space Images June 8th 2012
Herschel spots bubble blowing in Carina
Vesta has interesting patterns in the regolith
Cassini spies craters on Tethys
Galileo provides info on volcanic hot spots on Io
Enterprise cruises past Lady Liberty with minor damage
WISE spots dwarfs
Mars Rover is on the move
#thisweekincoolspaceimages  

Sun04 Dragon mated to Falcon 9
Forgot to post this a few days ago.

In a processing facility at Space Launch Complex-40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, mating of the Space Exploration Technologies Dragon capsule to the second stage of the company’s Falcon 9rocket is nearly complete. Known as SpaceX, the launch will be the company's second demonstration test flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS. During the flight, the capsule will conduct a series of check-out procedures to test and prove its systems, including rendezvous and berthing with the International Space Station. If the capsule performs as planned, the NanoRacks-CubeLabs Module-9 experiments and other cargo aboard Dragon will be transferred to the station. The cargo includes food, water and provisions for the station’s Expedition crews, such as clothing, batteries and computer equipment. Under COTS, NASA has partnered with two private companies to provide resupply missions to the station. The launch is scheduled for 9:38 a.m. EDT on May 7. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/spacex. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

Netflix is now the most watched cable network that isnt on cable
with Lilyhammer, House of Cards, Hemlock Grove (next weekend), and Arrested Development(May) can Netflix soon eclipse HBO in terms of quality content for an affordable cord cutting price.

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(Fri03) 32 years ago, my how the time flies

I was lucky enough to fly the shuttle for 11 years and 29 missions. I miss those days in Mission Control. The old girls are all stripped down and put out to pasture at their respective museums. Oh the promise of quick turn around never came through, but without the shuttle Hubble would never have gotten it's eye sight fixed or the space station built.

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Thurs02 STS-1 Launches into History


On 12 April 1981, the Space Shuttle orbiter Columbia lifted off from its pad at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on the STS-1 mission. The orbiter is only one part of the Space Transportation System (STS), more commonly known simply as the Space Shuttle. Heralded as the beginning of a new era of human spaceflight, this first flight was also the culmination of many years of development, planning, and early sparks of imagination.

Even before human space travel became a reality on this same date in 1961 with the launch of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, space visionaries had conceptualized reusable winged vehicles that literally flew into space. Expanding upon the earlier work of people such as Max Valier and Eugen Sänger, in the 1950s and 1960s the Air Force developed the DynaSoar (for Dynamic Soaring) and several other programs involving a reusable piloted glider perched atop a large expendable launch vehicle. Also at this time, NASA researchers had done pioneering work in blunt body and lifting body aerodynamics that made the Shuttle possible.

During the late 1960s, at the height of the Apollo program, NASA was simultaneously thinking about its next major human spaceflight efforts. In January 1972, President Nixon announced that NASA would begin a program to build a Space Transportation System (STS), more commonly known as the Space Shuttle. Thus, while the Shuttle development program formally took nine years, it represented the culmination of something much larger. Indeed, the successful launch of the first Shuttle mission demonstrated several cutting-edge technologies.
One of the most comprehensive accounts of Columbia's first flight can be found in this April 1991 edition of NASA's Space News Roundup, including a special article about the orbiter's development titled "The Amazing All-Electric Flying Machine," written by Brian Welch.
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/146670main_sts1_10th.pdf
#NASA #STS1 #Spaceshuttlecolumbia

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Hit Girl is all grown up
okay she is still only 15. still not sure about Jim Carrey as the right choice, but we shall see. Are you ready to kick ass again.

red band means NSFW language.

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I loved the first one... This looks great!

(Wed02) Chandra spots Rare Explosion May Have Created Our Galaxy's Youngest Black Hole

W49B is a highly distorted supernova remnant, produced by a rare type of explosion. Instead of radiating out symmetrically, W49B's exploding star shot more material out from its poles versus from its equator. There is evidence that W49B left behind a black hole - not a neutron star like most other supernovas. If confirmed, W49B would be the most recent black hole formed in our Galaxy.

more details - http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/w49b/

#scienceeveryday
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(Tue05) 'Yellowknife Bay' Veins and Concretions

"Drilling into a rock to collect a sample will be this mission's most challenging activity since the landing. It has never been done on Mars," said Mars Science Laboratory project manager Richard Cook of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The drill hardware interacts energetically with Martian material we don't control. We won't be surprised if some steps in the process don't go exactly as planned the first time through."
 more info - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-020

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(Sat02) Titan's Mountains named for Middle Earth

This map of Saturn's moon Titan identifies the locations of mountains that have been named by the International Astronomical Union. By convention, mountains on Titan are named for mountains from Middle-earth, the fictional setting in fantasy novels by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The map uses data collected by both the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) and Radar instruments on NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Image Credit:

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/USGS

more details - http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedetails/index.cfm?imageId=4702 Titan In many respects, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is one of the most Earth-like worlds we have found to date. With its thick atmosphere and organic-rich chemistry, Titan resembles a frozen version of Earth, several billion years ago, before life began pumping oxygen into our atmosphere.
Titan is of great interest to scientists because it has a substantial, active atmosphere and complex, Earth-like processes that shape its surface. The moon is enveloped by an orange haze of naturally produced photochemical smog that frustratingly obscured its surface prior to Cassini's arrival. Since 2004, the spacecraft's observations have taken the study of this unique world into a whole new dimension.more about Titan - http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm?SciencePageID=73 #titan #cassinimission #scienceeveryday


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(Thu13) NASA image of the Day: The Italian Boot

This oblique, night time panorama of much of Europe was photographed by one of the Expedition 32 crew members aboard the International Space Station flying approximately 240 miles above the Mediterranean Sea on Aug. 18, 2012.

The country of Italy is visible running diagonally southward from the horizon across the center of the frame, with the night lights of Rome and Naples being visible on the coast near the center. Sardinia and Corsica are just above left center of the photo, and Sicily is at lower left. The Adriatic Sea is on the other side of Italy, and beyond it to the east and north can be seen parts of several other European nations.

Image Credit: NASA

full resolution http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/684493main_italy_boot_full_full.jpg


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(Fri09) What has NASA done to make your life more awesome

everyday people sadly complain that the space program is a waste of money that could be spent here on earth (I am pretty sure every dollar NASA spends is here on Earth not some credits at the space casino) Now some of this is because the public doesn't realize how little NASA actually gets ( hint it is less than Half a Penny of the Federal Dollar) and of course the media makes a big deal out of a probe like MSL costing $2.5B (which is over 2yrs of exploration, plus the cost to build and employ all the people) yet the Olympics blows through $14B in roughly 2 weeks of games and nobody says a word (does winning medals somehow enrich our understanding of the universe?)

The other big thing is NASA does a poor job of publicizing what we do out there and how it benefits life here on earth. Sure there is sites like
http://spinoff.nasa.gov/ ,but how many folks take the time to read it. Maybe their should be a little label on everything that comes from the space program like the FCC label or UL rating so folks can see that little meatball everywhere and then it will dawn on them just how much they get back for the little that goes into NASA ( most folks probably spend more on coffee per week than what their weekly tax contribution is)

This site (thanks +Joltrast . ) looks to help educate the public on all the ways NASA impacts your life whether you realize it or not.

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(Wed08) Hubble gets a Close Encounter with the Tarantula

Turning its 2.4-metre eye to the Tarantula Nebula, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken this close-up of the outskirts of the main cloud of the Nebula.

The bright wispy structures are the signature of an environment rich in ionised hydrogen gas, called H II by astronomers. In reality these appear red, but the choice of filters and colours of this image, which includes exposures both in visible and infrared light, make the gas appear green.

Full details http://spacetelescope.org/images/potw1232a/

#Hubble #scienceeveryday

(Mon12) Swirling Red Hurricane on Saturn

The spinning vortex of Saturn's north polar storm resembles a deep red rose of giant proportions surrounded by green foliage in this false-color image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Measurements have sized the eye at a staggering 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) across with cloud speeds as fast as 330 miles per hour (150 meters per second).

more details -http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-149#1

#scienceeveryday

(Mon02) Welcome to all my new followers

Good to have you on this Adventure Called Google Plus.

So looks like Google has tweaked their Suggested User List and I am showing up for some of you (under science, or entertainment) Bit about what you can expect from me and some potential folks/communities to follow.

NASA/Science stuff:

I work for NASA though the opinions are my own and I don't always tow the company line, but I do try to give some insight on what is going on at the agency and why what we do is  #forthebenefitofall

I have a bunch of cool NASA videos on my Youtube channel like this Riding the Booster with enhanced sound so feel free to check them out.

Every Friday I tried to post a bunch of cool space images that I find around the web in the multitude of mission/program/agency sites out there you can search  #thisweekincoolspaceimages to see the posts.

If you are interested you can search  #shuttledeservicing to see a series of posts I did from the end of the shuttle program through delivery of the vehicles to their final musuem resting places.

If you like science definitely check out the folks in +Fraser Cain Super Science Circle https://plus.google.com/110701307803962595019/posts/CcPsCorMAWW

Tv/Movies:

I am a big fan of Science Fiction and help moderate one of the communities on here.

https://plus.google.com/communities/109226272642471366330 but I also will post stuff in my stream on Star Wars, Firefly, Tron, Legend of Korra, Doctor Who and other interesting tv/movie related content as well as some zombie stuff (there is great community +Amanda Blain started for that you should check out https://plus.google.com/communities/114093761017316566380 if you are interested.

I am  a +Google TV ambassador so if you have question about that head over to

https://plus.google.com/communities/103154508693468858359


Also sort of an evangilist for the Ultraviolet Movie streaming  system and you can check out that community if you have any question on how to give up the physical media and go HD streaming.

https://plus.google.com/communities/108872742809206554934

Tech:

Big fan of Android (I use +CyanogenMod on my Galaxy SII LTE Skyrocket) and was recently selected as part of the  #ifihadglass campaign to become a Glass Explorer. A few friends and I started a website to document our Glass experience as well as cover how the technology will impact society so you can check out +Living Thru Glass on here or the http://livingthruglass.com/ website. Ordinary Users, Having Extraordinary Adventures with Glass.

Misc:

I have a wonderful wife and three great kids so I might post some stuff about them from time to time as well. So now that you know a little more about me, thanks again for circling me.

(Thu09) Mini Drill test complete on Mars

In an activity called the "mini drill test," NASA's Mars rover Curiosity used its drill to generate this ring of powdered rock for inspection in advance of the rover's first full drilling. Curiosity performed the mini drill test and used its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera to record this image of the resulting hole and cuttings during the 180th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Feb. 6, 2013).

more details - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-051

#scienceeveryday

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Thanks for putting up with all my posts today
Hopefully they weren't too depressing. On to better days tomorrow.

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(Thu08) Excellent news for +Sherlock fans

though there is still the possibility that the episodes wont air until 2014.

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Series 3 (2013) - Filming set to begin in March. Who's bloody ready for a new season?

After the end of the final episode of the second series, Moffat and Gatiss both announced on Twitter that a third series had been commissioned at the same time as series two, and a part of the resolution to "The Reichenbach Fall" was filmed concurrently with series two. Production was originally set to begin in January 2013, but due to 'availability reasons' the filming of series three was pushed back to March 2013.

Gatiss has confirmed that he will write the first episode of the third series, and that it would be 'loosely based' on "The Adventure of the Empty House", in which Conan Doyle revealed that Holmes had faked his death. Gatiss plans to have Watson react very differently from the original character at the discovery of Holmes's return in series three; "I always found it a little unlikely that Dr Watson's only reaction was to faint for instance—as opposed to possibly a stream of terrible swear words," he said. Moffat and Thompson will again write the other two episodes.

Moffat aspires to tackle the fact that eventually Watson will be living apart from Holmes, though he is uncertain whether he will have Watson get married in this adaptation. Moffat also wants to use other villains and adversaries from Conan Doyle's original stories. Without revealing if Moriarty faked his own death at the end of series two, Moffat has suggested that Moriarty will not feature heavily in future series of Sherlock.

Moffat and Gatiss have announced three words that allude to the content of the third series. These words were, "rat, wedding, bow". Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in August 2012, Moffat said that these words "may be misleading, are not titles, are only teases or possibly clues, but might be deliberately designed to get you into a lather.

#sherlockbbc   #sherlock   #sherlocked   #watson   #iamsherlocked  

via/ http://bit.ly/XVo037

Last night in Boston with the family and showing off my new Project Glass setup ;)

(Mon11) South Pole Vortex on Titan

The Cassini spacecraft spies Titan's south polar vortex from below the moon in this image. Imaging scientists are monitoring the vortex to study its seasonal development.This view looks toward the anti-Saturn hemisphere of Titan (3,200 miles, or 5,150 kilometers across). North on Titan is up and rotated 36 degrees to the left. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 13, 2012 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 889 nanometers.

more details on the image - http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedetails/index.cfm?imageId=4701



Cassini has revealed that Titan's surface is shaped by rivers and lakes of liquid ethane and methane (the main component of natural gas), which forms clouds and occasionally rains from the sky as water does on Earth. Winds sculpt vast regions of dark, hydrocarbon-rich dunes that girdle the moon's equator and low latitudes. Volcanism may occur as well, but with liquid water as the lava.

On its journey to Saturn, Cassini carried the European-built Huygens probe. On Jan. 14, 2005, Huygens achieved humankind's first landing on a body in the Outer Solar System when it parachuted through Titan's murky skies. Huygens took measurements of atmospheric composition and wind speeds during its decent, along with an incredible series of images showing telltale patterns of erosion by flowing liquid. The probe came to rest on what appeared to be a floodplain, surrounded by rounded cobbles of water ice.

more about Titan - http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm?SciencePageID=73

#scienceeveryday

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(Thu11) 40 years ago today the last footsteps on the Moon were taken

The third moonwalk, the last of the Apollo program, began at 5:26 PM EST on December 13. During this excursion, the crew collected 66 kilograms (150 lb) of lunar samples and took nine gravimeter measurements.

 "I'm on the surface; and, as I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come — but we believe not too long into the future — I'd like to just say what I believe history will record. That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return: with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17." Commander Gene Cernan Dec 13th 1972

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Happy Birthday Saturn V
will anything ever replace it as the biggest rocket?
oh what a sight it must have been to see it lumber off the pad and send men to the Moon.
#scienceeveryday
#spacehistory

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November 9th 1967, the biggest Rocket ever made lifted off for the first time

The Apollo-4 mission was launched on Nov 9 1967 marking the first use of the Saturn V rocket. Launching for the first time from Pad 39-A which was constructed for the mighty Saturn V with the unmanned Apollo capsule atop the rocket. Even today it is still the most powerful rocket ever flown by NASA a milestone that may not be topped until the Space Launch System (SLS) is fully capable in 2030.

Apollo 4 Mission Objective
Demonstrate structural and thermal integrity and compatibility of launch vehicle and spacecraft; confirm launch loads and dynamic characteristics. Verify operation of command module heatshield (adequacy of Block II design for reentry at lunar return conditions), service propulsion system (SPS; including no ullage start), and selective subsystems. Evaluate performance of emergency detection system in open-loop configuration. Demonstrate mission support facilities and operations needed for launch, mission conduct, and CM recovery. All mission objectives achieved.

Launch: November 9, 1967; 07:00:01 a.m. EST.
Mission duration 8 h 36 m 59 s
Number of orbits 3
Apogee 101.5 nmi (188.0 km) (initial) 9,769 nmi (18,092 km) (maximum)
Perigee 98.8 nmi (183.0 km) (initial) −40 nmi (−74.1 km) (final orbit)
Orbital period 88.3 minutes
Orbital inclination 32.6°
Distance traveled ~85,000 mi (~140,000 km)

Mission Highlights
During third orbit and after SPS engine burn, spacecraft coasted to a simulated translunar trajectory, reaching an altitude of 18,079 kilometers. The AS-501 launch marked the initial flight testing of the S-IC and S-II stages. The first stage S-IC performed accurately with the center F-1 engine cutting off at 135.5 seconds and the outboard engines cutting off at LOX depletion at 150.8 seconds when the vehicle was traveling at 9660km/h at an altitude of 61.6km. Stage seperation occured only 1.2 seconds off the predicted time. Cutoff of the S-II occured at 519.8 seconds.

The Mighty Saturn Still the biggest rocket ever constructed
The Saturn V was a multistage liquid-fuel expendable rocket used by NASA's Apollo and Skylab programs and a massive representation of the power generated when Boeing, McDonnell, Douglas and North American coordinated their efforts.
Boeing built the Saturn V's first stage, North American the second stage, and McDonnell Douglas, the third. Each first and second stage was test fired at the Stennis Space Center located near Bay St. Louis, Miss.

The largest production model of the Saturn family of rockets, the Saturn V was designed under the direction of Wernher von Braun at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., with Boeing, North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft and IBM as the lead contractors. By 2007, it was still the most powerful launch vehicle ever flown. The Saturn V had 13 missions: the first 12 for the Apollo program and the 13th placed the McDonnell Douglas Skylab into orbit.

The Saturn V could put a 120-ton payload into Earth orbit or a 45-ton payload near the moon. It contained 5.6 million pounds of propellant (or 960,000 gallons). The assembled vehicle was so heavy that when it was rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral, Fla., it pulverized the special gravel roadbed designed to accept its weight.

The first stage came by barge from the Boeing plant at Michoud, La., then was placed on a block-long dolly and taken by barge to Cape Kennedy (Cape Canaveral), where it was raised and made ready for the second stage, which was shipped from California aboard the Point Barrow, a converted Navy landing ship. The third stage came from Sacramento, Calif., aboard the Super Guppy, a swollen version of the Boeing Stratocruiser.

In addition, North American's Rocketdyne built the five F-1 engines for the first stage, the J-2 engine for the second and third stage, the backup injector for the ascent engine of the Lunar Excursion Module, and the Command Module's reaction control system used for capsule repositioning during re-entry. North American's Space and Information Systems division built the command and service modules and the launch escape subsystem.

The S-IC first stage was built by Boeing at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. It was 138 feet tall and 33 feet in diameter and had five engines. It was the largest rocket produced in the United States with a dry weight of 300,000 pounds. When fueled, it weighed 5 million pounds.

Boeing responsibility to NASA included detailed design, fabrication and assembly of the S-IC in New Orleans and testing of the first stage at the former Mississippi Test Facility (renamed the National Space Technology Laboratories) at nearby Bay St. Louis. Subsequent assignments included systems engineering, vehicle integration and mission support for the entire Saturn V vehicle at Huntsville, Ala., spacecraft engineering and assessment at the Kennedy Space Center, and technical staff support to the Apollo program office at NASA headquarters, Washington, D.C.
The S-II, built by North American Aviation at Seal Beach, Calif., used liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. It had five J-2 engines in a similar arrangement to the S-IC and accelerated the Saturn V through the upper atmosphere. When loaded, 97 percent of the weight of the stage was propellant. Instead of having an intertank structure to separate the two fuel tanks as was done in the S-IC, the S-II used a common bulkhead consisting of two aluminum sheets separated by a honeycomb structure made of phenol, which insulated against the 70°C (125°F) temperature difference between the two tanks and saved 3.6 metric tons in weight.

The S-IVB, built by the Douglas Aircraft (later McDonnell Douglas) at Huntington Beach, Calif., had one J-2 engine and used the same fuel as the S-II. It also used a common bulkhead to insulate the two tanks. The S-IVB was used first for the orbit insertion after second stage cutoff; and then for the translunar injection burn. Two liquid-fueled auxiliary propulsion system (APS) units, at the aft end of the stage, controlled attitude control during the parking orbit and the translunar phases of the mission. The two APS were also used as ullage engines to help settle the fuel prior to the translunar injection burn.

McDonnell Douglas converted one of its S-IVB sections into Skylab, America's first space station, which was placed into orbit May 14, 1973, by the 13th Saturn V. The section's internal fuel tanks were converted into an orbital workshop for a three-person crew, with sleeping quarters and storage areas for food, water and other supplies.

Three different three-person crews staffed Skylab and performed hundreds of solar and microgravity experiments. The last astronauts departed Skylab in February 1974. The abandoned space station re-entered Earth's atmosphere and burned up on July 11, 1979. Weighing nearly 100 tons, Skylab orbited Earth for more than 171 days and provided invaluable information about how people are affected by long periods in space, as well as data about comets, the cosmos and solar flares.

#NASA
#Apollohistory
#Apollo4mission
#SaturnV

(Sun06) Hubble archive of the day: The Red Spider Nebula

Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula some 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbours one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometres high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image.

Credit:ESA & Garrelt Mellema (Leiden University, the Netherlands)

full resolution http://spacetelescope.org/images/heic0109a/

#sciencesunday
#hubblearchiveoftheday  
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(Wed11) Today's +NASA image of the day: Canadarm2 and HTV-3

In the grasp of the International Space Station's robotic Canadarm2, the HTV-3 Exposed Pallet is moved for installation on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-3) currently docked to the space station. Earth's horizon and the blackness of space provide the backdrop for the scene.

Image Credit: NASA



KOUNOTORI Specifications

KOUNOTORI is four meters across and about 10 meters long, a size large enough to accommodate a sightseeing bus. It consists primarily of three parts: (1) A propulsion module installed at the rear and composed of main engines for orbit change, Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters for position control, fuel and oxidizing reagent tanks, and high-pressure air tanks; (2) An avionics module installed in the center part, with electronic equipment for guidance control, power supply, and telecommunications data processing; and (3) A logistics carrier that stores supplies.



more about JAXA's HTV
http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/rockets/htv/index_e.html
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Fri13 I wish I could have been there

for those of us who missed the panel, dont worry it was filmed and will air as Browncoats Unite on the Science Channel on November 11.

Thur11 Pictures from this mornings +SpaceX Flyaround of the ISS and press conference
you can find full resolution here http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/multimedia/gallery/index.html
Press conference SpaceX Mission Moving On

Mon12 Space Shuttle ferry flight humor- shuttle attach point on the 747
from a friend on facebook. Tomorrow Discovery leaves KSC for the Smithsonian. more info http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/discovery/activity-detail.cfm?id=3783

Now witness this fully armed and cool swagger wagon. The family decals finally came.

(Fri07) Well +Google Wallet if you are going to kill off the physical then fix the app to work with all phones regardless of what the carriers say

enough of the letting the carriers block Wallet in favor of their coming ISIS system. If wallet cards weren't pushing innovation then surely the wallet app was if it can get on more devices and work with more storefronts.

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(Wed10) So 78,000 applicants means Mars One raised over $2M in two weeks

which sadly is better than Golden Spike did with their indieigogo campaign.

Has anyone here signed up for the potential one way trip to Mars? Is this plan any different than say Europeans sailing to the New World in the 17th century? or Americans traveling West in the 1800s?

 http://spaceref.com/mars/78000-sign-up-for-one-way-mission-to-mars.html

(Fri09) Happy Birthday Pioneer 11

The Pioneer 11 spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral forty years ago, on April 5, 1973. Pioneer 11's path through Saturn's outer rings took it within 21,000 km of the planet, where it discovered two new moons (almost smacking into one of them in September 1979) and a new "F" ring. The spacecraft also discovered and charted the magnetosphere, magnetic field and mapped the general structure of Saturn's interior. The spacecraft's instruments measured the heat radiation from Saturn's interior and found that its planet-sized moon, Titan, was too cold to support life.

This image from Pioneer 11 shows Saturn and its moon Titan. The irregularities in ring silhouette and shadow are due to technical anomalies in the preliminary data later corrected. At the time this image was taken, Pioneer was 2,846,000 km (1,768,422 miles) from Saturn.

more on Pioneer 11 - http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/2013/pioneer11-40-years.html

#scienceeveryday