PenguinSix » Space

Virgin Galactic buzzing San Francisco

Andrew — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 06:28:15 +0000

Ok, so this was last week. I’ve been busy and just didn’t get time to upload it. But the Virgin Galactic website released some really cool pics of their recent fly-by of San Francisco (and the opening of their new terminal at SFO–no more International Terminal squatting).

So here are a few pics from this event. Wish I could have seen this.

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Relearning some old skills for NASA space capsule recovery

Andrew — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 03:16:07 +0000

I was watching Apollo 13 the other day and the emotional peak is basically over when the nitty-gritty business of actually getting the astronauts out of the capsule begins. In the launches we saw as kids, the space capsule would come back to earth to a splashdown in the ocean, met rather quickly by a fleet of helicopters and rescue swimmers diving into the water to secure the space craft and crew.

But with decades of Space Shuttle landings under NASA’s belt, the practice of actually recovering a crew from the ocean has become a lost art. So the Air Force and NASA conducted some tests of recovery skills for the (now cancelled) Orion missions. Guess they’ll have to just take some good notes and figure out how to do it all over again whenever we decide to have a real space program again.

Here is an older video of how it was done:

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Skinning my iPad 2

Andrew — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:10:58 +0000

While the iPad 2′s new cover is really quite a sexy thing, magnets and all, it does leave you feeling a bit naked on the back of your iPad as it offers no protection to the metal back. To rectify this, I’ve just ordered a new ‘skin’ for my iPad 2 back from the Canadian company called Gelaskins. Gelaskins is a company making covers for iPhones, Androids, laptops, just about any electronic device.

The only problem was what to put on the Gelaskin. I’ve already got the kids pictures as the wallpaper, and honestly I’m not really comfortable blasting their photo out to every person who happens to see the back of my iPad while I’m carrying it on the subway. So I started to look for some cool pictures from around the net.

First choice, and one I almost went with, was a photo of the Space Shuttle and an F-15 on combat air patrol. This one was pretty interesting because the exhaust plume of the Space Shuttle shot directly into the camera lens on the back of the iPad.

Then I thought to look at some other NASA stuff from my youth. I found a neat photo of a Saturn V being moved out to the launch pad from the VAB. It fit the iPad pretty well and offered quite a few colors.

But in the end I decided to go old school. This NASA photo graced my father’s office for many years and the stark black / white colors would just sort of fit with the grey and black iPad. In the end I picked this one which is wining it’s way over from the Great White North to Hong Kong sometime this week.

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View of the Space Shuttle launch from a passenger plane window

Andrew — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 02:04:50 +0000

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Attaching the Space Shuttle to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft

Andrew — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 03:34:24 +0000

As the Discovery rockets toward space today (on it’s final orbital mission before heading off to a museum) I was doing a bit of research on the space shuttle online. Came across some information on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, the big 747 you’ve seen on everything from CNN to James Bond’s Moonraker. But if you look very very closely at the connecting point, you’ll find some instructions for the guys who attach the Shuttle to the 747.

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Spy satellite NROL-32 logo and purpose

Andrew — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 02:30:14 +0000

The US launched NROL-32 “the largest satellite” in the world the other day but won’t tell you what it is going to be used for. However, if you are curious, you can find the logo / patch online.

In case you are wondering, Annuit Coeptis (I can’t type the exact characters) is roughly translated as “Providence favors our undertakings” or “Providence has favored our undertakings.” Just to give a little Masonic twist onto the NRO’s satellite mission (yes, these are the same words that are over the pyramid on the US dollar bill).

So what does NROL-32 do? Probably electronic eavesdropping. The size is mammoth, rivaling the ISS Space Station so amateur satellite trackers will likely be able to see it:

“I believe the payload is the fifth in the series of what we call Mentor spacecraft, a.k.a. Advanced Orion, which gather signals intelligence from inclined geosynchronous orbits. They are among the largest satellites ever deployed,” said Ted Molczan, a respected sky-watcher who keeps tabs on orbiting spacecraft.

Destined for geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the planet, this new spacecraft supposedly will unfurl an extremely lightweight but gigantically huge umbrella-like antenna to overhear enemy communications and aid U.S. intelligence.

Keep watching the Skies!

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Combat Air Patrol at a Space Shuttle Launch

Andrew — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:19:21 +0000

From the US Air Force photo archives.

4th FW Strike Eagles assist shuttle launch

Lt. Col. Gabriel Green and Capt. Zachary Bartoe patrol the airspace in an F-15E Strike Eagle as the Space Shuttle Atlantis launches May 14, 2010, at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Colonel Green is the 333rd Fighter Squadron commander and Captain Bartoe is a 333rd FS weapons system officer. Both aircrew members are assigned to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.

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A visual sonic boom – Atlas V launch

Andrew — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:30:51 +0000

An Atlas V rocket passes through a layer of ice crystals just as it goes supersonic, with the sonic boom creating an amazing visual that could be seen from the ground.

At minute 1:50 or so…

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How satellites are being retasked to help the Haiti rescue mission.

Andrew — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:22:16 +0000

Red areas are the worst hit, and where the aid is going first.

I’ve taken a bit of a break from digital media blogging this week. The jetlag from Vegas/CES and the fact the Haiti story is just so much more important than new TVs has led to me blogging about that disaster instead.

One of the interesting things I’ve been reading about is the actual process by which satellites are being pulled into service (retasked) to assist in the rescue effort. The BBC’s Space Reporter has an excellent piece about the efforts underway by the EU and other nations who are pulling in space resources to assist in the disaster.

Many space agencies have signed up to something called the International Charter [on] Space and Major Disasters.

It was initiated back in 2000 by Esa, and the French (Cnes) and Canadian (CSA) space agencies; but then quickly acquired other signatories including important US bodies like Noaa and the US Geological Survey.

The UK, too, is involved. It has a very particular contribution to make through the Guildford-based Disaster Monitoring Constellation company, which manages a six-strong fleet of optical and near-infrared imaging satellites that can – as a team – picture the entire Earth’s surface in one day.

When the Charter is activated, the signatories re-task their satellites to get the data most urgently needed in a devastated region.

The Charter was activated this week - of course it was.

Be sure to take a look at all the pictures that have been not only generated, but also modified to show specific damage in neighborhoods, etc.

Geoeye, which works with Google, has also done some interesting ‘before and after’ type photos, matching up specific coordinates so people can see what things looked like before the earthquake and after. By far the best use of this data is in today’s New York Times, which utilizes Flash to allow the user a house-by-house comparison of the two photos.

MSNBC’s Cosmic blogger is also doing an interesting piece on satellites being retasked. His story remarks about the worldwide collaboration that is going on:

GeoEye is by no means the only satellite operator on the case. A whole fleet of eyes in the sky are focusing on Haiti: DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-1 andQuickBird. France’s Spot-5, Japan’s ALOS, the European Space Agency’s ERS-2 and Envisat, and Canada’s RadarSat-2.

The MSNBC piece also talks about some of the volunteer efforts underway to establish communications systems in Haiti. One such agency is TSF–Telecom San Frontiers who deployed a recovery team to Haiti already.

Looking over the devastation I’m reminded of my own seawall. It’s 100 feet long and surrounded by large boulders. Every year I say I’m going to pull back the boulders closer to the seawall (the curl of the wave pulls them toward the sea) and every year I end up not doing it. It’s just too massive of an effort to accomplish on my own.

And now I look at what is going on in Haiti. This is going to be more massive than we can even comprehend at this point. The fleet that we have sent is nowhere large enough, and the plane bridge will not be able to keep up with the demand. This is going to get much much worse in the next weeks and months before it gets better.

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TACSAT Minotaur Launch from Wallops Island – Pictures

Andrew — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:29:13 +0000

Here are the pics from my house on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, about 75 miles from the launch site.

More here http://www.flickr.com/photos/penguinsix/sets/72157618411162551/

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