The Space Thread

[nutzbuster 7]

LCROSS is set to impact the moon a little over 3 hours from now. NASA tv will be covering it. I also found this site, which will have a free sream from a telescope.I guess in the overall scheme of things, this isn't one of NASA's highest profile missions, but I think there's something really cool about crashing a rocket into the Moon just to see what gets blasted up.

says in 4 hours from now here.... man. Not gonna make it.Tried to watch the ISS flyover while in Kauai too a few days ago but it was too cloudy. bummer.

[sandwedge 30]

says in 4 hours from now here.... man. Not gonna make it.Tried to watch the ISS flyover while in Kauai too a few days ago but it was too cloudy. bummer.

oops, I stand corrected. I was looking at the time for when the telescope feed started. I just got home from work, so my mind isn't functioning.I hope Hawaii was fun.

[Balloon guy 158]

oops, I stand corrected. I was looking at the time for when the telescope feed started. I just got home from work, so my mind isn't functioning.I hope Hawaii was fun.

It is

[sandwedge 30]

It is

You've probably got your clubs with you too. Hit one into the Pacific in my honor.

[savagerebel 0]

Researcher Mohd Abubakr says that his circular periodic table is better than Mendeleev's. I'd have given him Nobel Prize in chemistry—if Obama hadn't got it first for mixing himself a whiskey with Red Bull onboard Air Force One.Abubakr—who works at Microsoft Research in Hyderabad—says that if you arrange the table in circular form it gives you an idea of the size of the atoms. The closer to the center, the smaller the atom element would be. That's why hydrogen and helium—with less atomic weight—are the nearest to its center. His table also preserves the periods and groups, and manages to look neat and pretty at the same time.The Physics arXiv Blog at MIT's Technology Review disagrees. They said that the table is flawed because it can only be read by rotating it—which doesn't make much sense, since you can easily rotate an image on the screen. Their other criticism is valid, however: They say that the genius of Mendeleev's table is that it can "predict the properties of undiscovered elements," arguing that Abubakr's table is not as intuitive.Whatever MIT people, you chemistry dorks you, I just like how it looks.http://gizmodo.com/5378105/the-circular-pe...ble-of-elements

[Balloon guy 158]

You've probably got your clubs with you too. Hit one into the Pacific in my honor.

I triedOnly hit this one 375 yards.

[sandwedge 30]

bump.Space Shuttle Atlantis set to launch in a few hours. Not sure why I enjoy watching the preparations/countdown/launch so much, but NASA TV ftw.

[coesillian 0]

Anybody heard of the Apophis Asteroid, I just recently heard of it and the measures of deflection are cool to think about.wiki:99942 Apophis is a near-Earth asteroid that caused a brief period of concern in December 2004 because initial observations indicated a small probability (up to 2.7%) that it would strike the Earth in 2029. Additional observations provided improved predictions that eliminated the possibility of an impact on Earth or the Moon in 2029. However, a possibility remains that during the 2029 close encounter with Earth, Apophis would pass through a gravitational keyhole, a precise region in space no more than about 600 meters across, that would set up a future impact on April 13, 2036. This possibility kept the asteroid at Level 1 on the Torino impact hazard scale until August 2006. It broke the record for the highest level on the Torino Scale, being, for only a short time, a level 4, before it was lowered.^[5]the torino scale is also pretty cool: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torino_Scaleand for those who rather hear it from our friendly neighborhood astrophysicist (no not LLY), check out Neil deGrase Tyson : http://fora.tv/2007/02/09/Death_By_Black_Hole#fullprogram

[coesillian 0]

http://www.videosift.com/video/Neill-Blomk...out-real-aliensDirector Neill Blomkamp gives his thoughts on the existence of alien life, and what it might resemble in a recorded talk for 2009 TEDxVancouver.He discusses some amazing concepts that I found fascinating.

[sandwedge 30]

http://www.videosift.com/video/Neill-Blomk...out-real-aliensDirector Neill Blomkamp gives his thoughts on the existence of alien life, and what it might resemble in a recorded talk for 2009 TEDxVancouver.He discusses some amazing concepts that I found fascinating.

Very interesting stuff. I personally believe that there is a high probability of abundant life in the universe. We just don't have the ability to find it yet. I'm becoming more awed by the size of the universe. I was watching a show on Nasa TV about the Hubble telescope, and they showed a picture taken by Hubble that had 5,000 galaxies in it. They said that the portion of the sky represented in the picture was about the same as if you took a drinking straw outside and looked up through it.On a side note, I was hoping to go to Florida to see the Shuttle launch last weekend, but wasn't able to make it. I consoled myself by buying a relatively inexpensive telescope. I haven't gotten to use it much, but I have gotten some pretty good views of the Moon. Two weeks ago, my daughter and I got to see the Moon pretty well. We snapped a few pictures through the lens with a basic digital camera...My daughter said, "I want to take these pictures for Show and Tell (she's in kindergarten). I printed them up for her, but wasn't sure how well it would go over. When I had her this weekend, I asked her about show and tell, and she said, "They asked me to show the pictures to the Pre-K and 1st grade classes also." This means it was either a great success, or she was saying something so funny that the teacher's couldn't resist letting the other teachers in on the joke. I haven't found out yet.

[coesillian 0]

cute story, but great picture.I feel like I'm learning about space and stars for the first time these past few years. The otehr day i grasped where matter comes from and its so basic and fundamental yet it isn't widely understood. Stars are mostly composed of H and He (the universe is like 99% H and He).Those are the elements with 1 proton and 2 protons. Stars are a fission furnaces, meaning they take H and He and blast them at each other so fast and hot that they combine to create different atoms. When 2 He atom collide and merge you get a new atom with 4 protons known as Berillium. Add another He to that, so 6 protons, and you get a Carbon atom. Every amount of protons in an atom is an element, 1 through 92 are naturally found on earth and shown on the Periodic table (which we all know from high school but the underlying meanings are not so clear). All the elements floating around the universe were brewed in a star, we are literally star dust.

[sandwedge 30]

cute story, but great picture.I feel like I'm learning about space and stars for the first time these past few years. The otehr day i grasped where matter comes from and its so basic and fundamental yet it isn't widely understood. Stars are mostly composed of H and He (the universe is like 99% H and He).Those are the elements with 1 proton and 2 protons. Stars are a fission furnaces, meaning they take H and He and blast them at each other so fast and hot that they combine to create different atoms. When 2 He atom collide and merge you get a new atom with 4 protons known as Berillium. Add another He to that, so 6 protons, and you get a Carbon atom. Every amount of protons in an atom is an element, 1 through 92 are naturally found on earth and shown on the Periodic table (which we all know from high school but the underlying meanings are not so clear). All the elements floating around the universe were brewed in a star, we are literally star dust.

Interesting stuff, coesillian. Makes me want to go back to high school and retake Chemistry.

[qyayqi 11]

looks like it really is made out of cheese.

[chrozzo 19]

looks like it really is made out of cheese.

yummy cheese!maybe some Gruyeres cheese?

[sandwedge 30]

Awesome...I got selected for a NASA Tweetup in Houston on May 19th. Along with about 100 other people, I'll get to tour the training facilities, meet some astronauts, and see Mission Control during the next shuttle mission.

[vbnautilus 48]

Awesome...I got selected for a NASA Tweetup in Houston on May 19th. Along with about 100 other people, I'll get to tour the training facilities, meet some astronauts, and see Mission Control during the next shuttle mission.

Yeah, that sounds cool, but the bad news is that they made you say "tweetup".

[Jeepster80125 0]

Yeah, that sounds cool, but the bad news is that they made you say "tweetup".

I think it would be pretty neat to be involved in any way with the shuttle missions while they last.

[hank213 1,823]

I think it would be pretty neat to be involved in any way with the shuttle missions while they last.

You mean like living in the debris field?

[timwakefield 68]

An aurora, shining high above the northern part of Saturn, moves from the night side to the day side of the planet in this movie recorded by Cassini. These observations, taken over four days, represent the first visible-light video of Saturn's auroras. They show tall auroral curtains, rapidly changing over time when viewed at the limb, or edge, of the planet's northern hemisphere. The sequence of images also reveals that Saturn's auroral curtains reach heights of more than 1,200 km (746 mi) above the planet's limb. These are the tallest known "northern lights" in the solar system. Each image was obtained with a two- or three-minute exposure, taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft's narrow-angle camera from October 5th to 8th 2009. (NASA/JPL/SSI)

[sandwedge 30]

^^ nice post, wakefield.Here are some pics from the NASA tweetup "gathering" that I attended last week. It was a really awesome experience. I got to meet other people who share my interest in NASA and space in general. They came from all walks of life and from all over the country, and even one person from London. One person drove 1500 miles from Utah to attend.Basically, we got a VIP tour of Johnson Space Center.Mission control for the Space Shuttle. Atlantis was at the ISS at the time, and an EVA (space walk) was going on. You can see the astronaut on the middle screen. Eric Davis, a flight director for the ISS, led this part of the tour.The coolest part of the trip for me was to go inside the flight control room for the Apollo missions. This is me sitting at the flight director's spot. The Neutral Buoyancy Lab, where astronauts train for EVAs. There were two astronauts in the 40 foot deep pool at the time.The Space Vehicle Mock Up Facility.A mock up of a shuttle. Astronaut David Leestma led this part of the tour. He is a veteran of three shuttle flights. When he said he had flown on the Challenger, Columbia, and the Atlantis, I let out an involuntary "uh oh'. I hope he didn't hear me.The new lunar rover prototype.Robonaut and SpiderbotMe with astronaut Jeff Williams, who has spent 360 days in space. I got him to sign an autograph for my 6-year-old daughter, who was very upset that she couldn't come with me. To make her feel better, I promised her that she could give me a question to ask a real astronaut. Jeff stood completely speechless and staring blankly when I asked him if astronauts played "tag" in space.

[speedz99 145]

The Neutral Buoyancy Lab, where astronauts train for EVAs. There were two astronauts in the 40 foot deep pool at the time.

Those are the biggest underwater chairs I've ever seen.

[JoeyJoJo 18]

Those are the biggest underwater chairs I've ever seen.

Awesome

[sandwedge 30]

Some more pics:ISS flight director adresses the group inside Apollo mission control. Inter-office communication was done through vacuum tubes. He told a story about a poor frog that got caught outside, and spent the day travelling from one office to the other.NASA has a backup for everything. This is the backup for the flag that was placed on the moon by Apollo 11.The backup for the plaque placed on the moon by Apollo 11.A look inside the new lunar rover prototype.Inside a mock up of a Soyuz command module. It's tiny and cramped compared to our shuttle. Soon, we'll be paying 50 million plus per astronaut to the Russians for trips to the ISS. JFK must be rolling in his grave.

[sandwedge 30]

Those are the biggest underwater chairs I've ever seen.

lmao. I hadn't noticed.It was in Texas, you know.

[El Guapo 8]

Those are the biggest underwater chairs I've ever seen.

I think it looks like a giant robot laying on its back, and those are its feet.