Travel Fiend.
Well, to distract myself from brooding (heh), I got wrangled into TA-ing for a field course for all of next week (24 Sept to 30 Sept) to a place called Buchan. This place is NE of Melbourne a few hours and I had the pleasure of picking up a Kia Carnival minivan this morning expressly rented for the purpose of my Saturday afternoon enjoyment. But seriously, it was rented as one of the field vehicles for the trip; however, never one to let an opportunity go by without bending a rule or two (heh), I took it out for a cruise to (drum roll please...) the Airport! A little way down the road is Moorabin Airport - it's sort of a Springbank crossed with Calgary International type of airport: parallel runways, minimal control, and student pilots! Wah-hoo! The tarmac was populated with lots of Piper Lances, 172s, Warriors, and Slingsby Fireflies with original RAAF paint! Yep, I still love this stuff...
A sucker, eh hem, I mean a friend from the other unit thought that she'd like to come along for fun and instead got an earful of airplanes and flying for several hours. I hope I didn't scare her from airplanes for the rest of her life. Mom will enjoy this... I had a lot of fun driving to no where in particular later in the afternoon. The Carnival is like some kind of mobile, wheeled, people warehouse with a well proportioned V6 upfront that easily squeels the tyres around the slightest of corners while playing Dean Martin and Billie Holiday in relative quiet. Whoops...
Other than that, Friday was a 4WD course at the Melbourne 4WD Testing and Proving Ground. It is quite surprising exactly how steep a slope a Toyota Land Cruiser can be driven down while not falling uncontrollably. Really. I reckon it's the vehicular equivalent to a pilot's first spin experience: nothing but sky, then suddenly, nothing but ground!
There's still more Japanese adventures on the way, but they'll likely have to wait until I return from Buchan because I don't think there's going to be any Internet or telephones at our accomodation.
Miss you all...
Landed!
Safe! A flawless approach and landing. Mains touch down (TD) at 06:21:30 EDT; Nose gear TD 06:21:36 EDT; All stop 06:22:16 EDT. Total Mission Elapse Time (MET) 11d 19h 7m 24s.
Altogether a smashing success! Thanks for listening... Stay tuned for STS-116, launching No Earlier Than (NET) 14 Dec 06. This mission will be to deliver and install the P5 Truss section, which will function as the 'joiner piece', so to speak, between the P6 and P3/P4 integrated truss segments. The following missions will deliver the equivalent pieces of the starboard-side truss, then relocate the P6 segment to join on to P5.
Point your dishes here for your daily spac dish!
Landing!
Y'll 'll be sleeping, but Atlantis is go for deorbit burn this morning (for you guys) at 0514 EDT. That will put them landing at approx. 0621 EDT. Exciting!! Watch it if you're up...
Klein's Retirement.
Now that Ralph Klein won't be Premier any more, he can stop cheering for both Calgary and Edmonton at any battle of Alberta games. He has summarised the past 13 years of dichotomous cheering thus:
"Because the premier can't be seen supporting one team over another, I've had to sit in the stands at the Labour Day Classic and the Battle of Alberta hockey games cheering like an idiot for both teams. It's unnatural. It's like living in Red Deer." CBC News, 20 Sept 06
Spacey.
You have *!got!* to check this video out...
Left SRB. Nuts!
Undock has been completed now for a couple of days. After completing all objectives, the STS-115 crew are patiently awaiting their chance at landing. The first attempt was scheduled for Wednesday morning at 0559EDT, but due to bad weather and some possible FOD co-orbiting with the Orbiter, landing is now set for a first attempt on Thursday at 0622EDT.
They were running through some SOP Flight Control System checks and RCS thruster test firings when a crew member and flight controllers spotted something orbiting near the Orbiter. Engineers aren't exactly sure what it is, but since they have added a flight day anyway, Wednesday will be spent doing a complete re-inspection of the thermal protection system looking for anything amiss. There was a gap filler that was noted on previous surveys that may have shaken loose during the very vibrational tests. Everyone's in bed now having positioned the elbow camera on CanadaArm to overlook the payload bay, allowing image specialists to conduct surveys while the crew rests.
Good night!
Space Update.
I've been remiss in my duties to keep my genteel readership informed on the great happenings of STS-115. Big events around here have prevented me from my blog.
The first EVA was a huge success with Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper (say that five times fast!) working through their 'to-do lists' so quickly that everyone was running to keep up with them. Several get ahead tasks were added to each spacewalkers' activity column, helping the mission continue to go off without incident. The major tasks were to attach cabling and wiring, remove launch straps and restraints, and position the array booms for the subsequent unfurling. The cables and wiring will allow power and data transmission to and from the new array when fully activated.
The second EVA is the most important from any Canadian spacenut's point of view with venerable Canadian astronaut Steve Maclean and fellow astronaut Don Burbank taking their long awaited walk among the stars. The primary tasks on this EVA were removal of all launch locks that secured the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ) assembly and then several get ahead tasks added to each astronaut's activity column in light of the speed set during the first EVA. The SARJ is the primary pointing mechanism to keep the P4 arrays pointed into the sun. There is also a beta gimble assembly on each of the two arrays allowing further pointing precision.
Yesterday was the very successful unfurling of the solar arrays on the P4 truss segment. After a software glitch prevented the ground checkout of the SARJ from occuring on timeline, NASA engineers again rode to the rescue and executed a work around for the glitch alllowing the completion of the SARJ checkout. It was spectacular to watch such a massive structure spin like that. Cool, very cool. The unfurling was performed in two steps for each array to accomodate what NASA affectionately calls 'stiction'. The atomic oxygen coating on the solar cells tends to make adjacent panels, which are folded together zig-zag style like in the paper fans we all made in grade school, stick together. This requires above-nominal tension to pull them apart.
This phenomenon was first discovered during the unfurling of the first major solar array truss segment a few years ago - P6 - when surprising major movement was experienced during the then single-stage unfurling. NASA engineers spent the last several years working on the problem and the solution was to unfurl the array in multiple steps. The first step unfurls to about 49% of total length. 30 minutes of solar conditioning follows, during which time, I assume, the atomic oxygen coating flashes off. After that, the rest of the unfurl occurs. What a sight! This beautiful golden filigree of the arrays slowly reveals itself, shaken only by gentle waves as the last few stiction-stuck panels pull apart. Truly a sight. Check out the mission website and replay the video of the array unfurl. Spectacular!
The rest of the day was a bit of a low exertion day as cargo was transferred from the Orbiter to the ISS.
Today, the third and final spacewalk is underway with Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper having completed prep work allowing the P4 radiator to be extended, and now working on some maintenance activities to equipment onboard the ISS. Currently, they are engaged with changing out a faulty S-band telemetry antenna from the ISS. There was some complex gimbling activity that was very difficult to coordinate between the spacewalkers and mission control, but all is well - ground commands weren't working so mission control told Joe Tanner to 'manually position' the old antenna for removal and continue with the replacement/repair acitivity. I believe that's a NASA euphemism...
Some fairly big developments on this other fronts in life right now: the bid with the RAAF didn't pan out. However, if I could somehow get permanent residency, then I could try my hand at application. They maintain three different flying corps - Air Force, Army, and Navy. Each has their own and different entry requirements, but, frustratingly, they all require bona fide Australian citizenship or Permanent Residency to get any foot in the door. Hmmmm...
Docking.
Mission Status:
Liftoff was a spectacular success with Shuttle Manager Wayne Hale 'apologising' to the media at the post-Mission Management Team Briefing press conference for not having any pictures of debris to show.
The last day has been spent photo-documenting the physical status of critical heat shield locations on the Orbiter - the leading edges of the wings, nose cone, and crew cabin exterior - for any damage sustained during the climb to orbit. So far, there's nothing to report on that front. Yeah NASA!
In almost exactly 20 minutes, Atlantis will be docking to the Destiny module aboard the ISS, following the now-SOP backflip, which allowed the ISS crew to take detailed photographs of the underside of the Orbiter searching for any damage.
The extra hard work then beings with immediate prep for the three planned spacewalks of this mission, transfer of the P3/P4 truss assembly from Orbiter CanadaArm to ISS CanadaArm2 and attachment of the truss assembly to the ISS. The three spacewalks will install and wire the truss to the station, thereby allowing the unfurling and activation of the massive solar panels which are supported on the truss. This will double the solar energy available to the station, allowing subsequent expansion of scientific packages and payloads planned for later in the Station's life. This truss assembly features a sun-tracking swivel for the panels so that they can consistently produce maximum power by always being tilted directly toward the Sun - except of course, when there isn't any!
Wah-hoo!
Launch!
NASA TV Now!! STS-115 Scheduled for launch in 11 minutes!!
Wah-hoo!
Land of Trees, Land of Packaging, Land of Big Beetles
The field area was full of trees and narrow, well graded forestry roads. The roadbuilders went a bit nuts in Hokkaido and they have full on bridges and graded roads in places that you wouldn't think any vehicle would ever need to go. My little field vehicle was recently mocked for it's size and unassuming appearance. I assure you that that faithful little Toyota made up with intrepidness its lack in size, never failing a call to duty in the backwoods of south eastern Hokkaido.
I'll now give a geological run down of the field area in strict geologish: We spent the first three days with Hiro and Ruyo from Hokkaido University investigating heavy green-coloured rock and not so heavy grey coloured-rock. After that, Andy and I continued the hunt and found that: some of it was spotted with a black mineral called biotite, some of it wasn't. Some of it showed that it mixed with other rock, some of it didn't. Some of it had shiny, heavy gold- and silver-coloured ore minerals in it, most of it didn't. Most of it was in creek beds, little of it was on ridge tops. It was damnably hard to break, heavy to carry (you should see my back!), and slippery when wet. Foxes live in the forest and come down to inspect you when you are eating. Some of it is partially melting, most of it isn't. There are folds, faults, squished rock, heated rock, weathered rock, and fresh rock.
There, that's dispensed. I took about 300 or 400 pictures like this: This is mingled rock - a tonalite on the lower right is mingled with a gabbro - the grey stuff everywhere else. You see this a lot.
Hiro and Ryuo fed us sashimi and curry for the nights they were with us. Japanese all have skill with knives I think and Hiro demonstrates his for us in the picture. The first couple of days we spent in a Hokkaido University Seismic Observatory. Apparently there is about one feelable earthquake in this area each month. Unfortunately, I didn't feel one, but I'm sure there was at some point.
As for the packaging, fruit is precious in Japan. It is a treat not often enjoyed and for good reason. Two large peaches are 598 Yen, which is about 5 US dollars. But, with them you get this incredibly beautiful packaging. They were good, too.
In Japan, they have giant beetles and this one tried to eat our field vehicle one morning. We upgraded for the day to a Coca-Cola delivery Dodge Ram, as you can tell from the picture. But after the beetle finished with it, shards of scrap aluminum were all that were left and we had to go back to the trusty Toyota.
Last for this installment is the story of the Konbu Men and Women. Every sunny day, they go out when the Sun gets up, and scour the ocean for giant kelp, or
konbu. Hundreds of Konbu people do this every day and they pull out bushels of the stuff. In this area of Hokkaido, there are everywhere gravel patches alongside the road and once the konbu is winched up from the beach to the road level, the women set about flinging it in straight rows upon the gravel to dry in the sun. Late in the afternoon, they bunch it up, cut it, and send it to market. Hokkaido konbu is Japan-reknowned for its quality and fetches a fairly nice price by the look of some of the houses of the Konbu men and women. You can use konbu as a soup base, like OXO; as a soup itself if you cut up dried strips of it and throw them in boiling water; wraps for fish; flavouring for noodles; tea for drinking. You name it. And, it's not that bad. Behind the gravel fields are mountains in the field area.
