Twitterpation and Astronauts.
With all these e-mails and comments flying my direction containing the word 'twitterpated', I'm starting to think I'm slowly garnering a reputation, in absentia, as some sort of weird academic casanova. If so, first of all wipe that awful mental picture from your mind, consider that 'casanova' to me means 'house' in Spanish and 'a periodically exploding star', and read on.My screaming hordes have not managed to get past the security fence and I'm still single.
There are some interesting developments with this most recent Shuttle mission: there is confirmed damage from cascading foam during launch on the underside of Endeavour. It punctured completely through the 2.5 cm-thick Thermal Protection System tiles arrayed on the bottom surface of the Orbiter and has exposed the underlying layers between the TPS and the aluminium skin.
The mission has been extended 3 days with the successful initiation of a new Station-to-Shuttle Power Transfer System, allowing the Orbiter to conserve it's hydrogen fuel for later use, drawing instead from the solar array electricity of the Station.
Two spacewalks, starring Canadian Dave Williams, have been completed successfully, having installed the S5 truss segment and now replaced a faulty control gyroscope - one of four which help to stabilise and orientate the Station.
Spring hasn't formally sprung yet, though it is nearing. I was flying (!) Sunday morning and everything is delectably green. It's really wonderful to see everything so richly verdant, while still cool and wet. I'm a bit concerned that Northern Hemisphere summer is a harbinger of what we're in for. 'Yikes' sums up my feelings succinctly. I think the official first day of spring is 1 September, which is interesting because they don't tie their seasons to celestial markers, instead declaring them at the beginning of the month in which the celestial event occurs.
Spring = 1 Sept
Spring Equinox = 21/22 Sept
Summer = 1 Dec
Summer Solstice = 21/22 Dec
And so on...
In other news, I spotted this one on the CBC today:
25-pound chunk of airplane debris, mistaken for UFO, lands in Maryland park
From which I gleaned these little gems:
" 'The landing gear door is not necessary to land the plane,' United Airlines spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said." and
" 'Various things fall off airplanes from time to time, but it's fairly unusual to have one of these landing-gear doors fall off,' Brown said. 'Airplanes are designed not to shed parts.' "
posted by Kyle @ 19:55
4 Comments:
So is an academic casanova one who is studying the effects of twitterpation on the student body?
Just checked out the NASA site and saw the pic of the damage on the ground. Was surprised that it looked the same as the pic from space. Was expecting some more deterioration from the entry. Wonder if the position had it in an aerodynamic dead spot that protected it?
Cheers
Ed
And a neat one for you Kyle
Ed
Thursday, August 23, 2007
New Google Sky tool turns computer into virtual telescope, planetarium
PITTSBURGH (AP) - The heavens are only a few mouse clicks away with Google Inc.'s latest free tool. A new feature in Google Earth, the company's satellite imagery-based mapping software, allows users to view the sky from their computers.
The tool provides information about various celestial bodies, from stars to planets, and includes imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope and other sources. It also allows users to take virtual tours through galaxies, including the Milky Way.
"By working with some of the industry's leading experts, we've been able to transform Google Earth into a virtual telescope," Lior Ron, a Google product manager, said in a statement.
The new software also promises users the ability to see planets in motion and witness a supernova explosion.
"Sky in Google Earth will foster and initiate new understanding of the universe by bringing it to everyone's home computer," said Dr. Carol Christian of the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Current Google Earth users must download a new version from http://earth.google.com. The software works on computers running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows, Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X and Linux operating systems.
Google, the leading Internet search engine, already provides surface images of Mars and the Moon through its Web site, along with animated and satellite-based maps of Earth.
Google Sky was developed at the company's Pittsburgh engineering office.
? The Canadian Press, 2007
Hahaha Ed, you're a kook, but a great one at that ;-)
Thanks for the link, I downloaded the new version today and had a look. It's trippy and total space sweetness!
Re the TPS: It is surprising, isn't it? They mentioned that there was a small amount of erosion, but not much. In general, it is surprising how localised the heating is on the belly of the orbiter - the reinforced carbon-carbon tiles that protect the nose cone, wing and vertical stab leading edges are subjected to almost an order of magnitude higher temperatures than the belly black tiles and the insulating white fabric in place throughout the rest of the fuselage. I think it's reasonable to expect that there wouldn't be as much heating along the belly away from the RCC tiles or other points of maximum aerodynamic heating.
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