A day of Remembrance

Today is Nasa’s official day of remembrance, for all of the astronauts who have sacrificed their lives for our further understanding of where we are, and the things around us. Specifically the crew members of Apollo 1, who burned to death in an oxygen saturated simulation capsule, the Challenger crew, who died when their Shuttle exploded shortly after launch, and the Crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia, who died when their shuttle disintegrated during its decent to earth.  Take a moment to think about the guts these people have.

Once Again, With Feeling…

Here is a collection of the best things that the Auto-tune craze has produced. John Boswell is a genus. I cant decide which one is my favorite, but David Attenbourough is one of the coolest men alive.

How many people are in space?

Lets find out! A simple site dedicated to answer that question.

Back to the Future

Nasa’s LRO (lunar reconnaissance Orbiter) just beamed back some pretty mind blowing pictures of the lunar surface. Big deal, right? Well what makes these pictures awesome is that not only are they pictures of the moon, but LRO has resolved the Lunar Landers and other scientific equipment left by Apollo astronauts 40 years ago. Now, this is incredible because yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11.

Apollo 11's Lunar Module, Eagle (center)

OK, so Endeavour.

Today, Space Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to scream off the launch pad at 7:13 pm Eastern Time (4:13 pm Oregon time). Endeavour is scheduled to deliver final components to the Japanese Kibo module of the  International Space Station. Over a series of 16 days and five space walks, astronauts will assemble two platforms located outside of the Kibo module that will serve as a sort of “front porch”.This allows experiments that require direct exposure to open space to occur on the ISS.

Based on where Mission specialist Cristopher Cassidy is sitting in the Shuttle during launch, he will be the 500th person in space!

There will be a free live-via-satellite viewing of the launch at the OMSI in the planetarium today at 3:30. Pray for good weather.

Nothing to do with Space.

My favorite: “I like a woman who can just get down and bowl.”  yes.

First image from LRO

NASA recently launched and successfully injected into lunar orbit the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which will remain in a low polar orbit, about  31 miles above the moon for at least a year. LRO is designed to collect information about the surface and environment of the moon using an array of  seven on-board instruments.

Along for the ride on the same killer Atlas V rocket was LCROSS, or Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, which has a slightly more awesome mission, which is to watch as 2300 pounds of metal (the spent engine form it’s launch vehicle) slams into a permenently shaded crater on the moon, and 4 minutes later, fly itself through the debris, and then crash itself into the moon as well. Currently, LCROSS is in orbit around the Earth, and is expected to slam into the moon sometime around October 9th.

Galactic Collision

Well, we’re all screwed. Life as we know it is totally over (probably)…..in 3 Billion years. IT turns out that our good ol’ Milky Way Galaxy is headed for a collision of Galactic proportions with the Andromeda Galaxy, which is our closest neighbor. We’ve only got 3 billion years to figure out how to stop it. I’m getting some pretty awesome movie ideas.

How would you stop two galaxies from colliding? Below are some computer generated simulations of galactic collisions. From the University of Toronto.

Here is our Milky way, colliding with Andromeda.

And here are some Hubble shots of galaxies in mid-collision.

Atlantis Update

Both of today’s landing windows have been closed due to bad weather. Atlantis will try to land tomorrow, ideally in Florida. If the weather is bad in Florida, though, Atlantis can try to land in either California or Texas, and then get a piggy back ride on a 747. NASA prefers not to do that, though since it costs around an extra 2 million dollars.

Another day stuck in space….must be terrible.

Kittinger, meet Earth.

What did you do today?

In 1959, Joseph Kittinger put on a space suit, hopped on a giant Helium balloon, rode it up into the sky nearly 20 miles, and then jumped. He set the world record for highest free fall.

This video is pretty neat. I’m not sure about the surfing thing though.