foxtongue | Entries tagged with space

What does it feel like to fly over planet Earth?

A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, El Salvador, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Lake Titicaca, and the Amazon. Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line), a satellite (55sec) and the stars of our galaxy.

Novelty Seekers and Drug Abusers (might) Tap Same Brain Reward System.

The space shuttle Discovery had its final launch today. I watched from home, glued to my laptop screen, as the entire process played out over live streaming video from Florida, while Tony watched it with me over messenger, cheering for the crew from his Microsoft office in Redmond. We were a small slice of the future right then, together though separate, witnessing history through now common technology, eyes on an image televised live from the side of a rocket roaring with fire into outer space. The number of viewers at the foot of the screen declared that we'd shared the experience with over 30,000 other people. Beautiful. With that number there and Tony's words on the screen, it was the first time in almost a week that I haven't felt lonely.

From APOD: "Peering out of the windows of the International Space Station (ISS), astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson takes in the planet on which we were all born, and to which she would soon return. About 350 kilometers up, the ISS is high enough so that the Earth's horizon appears clearly curved."

The original, unedited, tweeted direct-from-orbit photo is here, courtesy of astronaut Doug Wheelock.

Eaaugh.

Some astronauts report losing their fingernails on spacewalks because of bulky gloves that cut off circulation and chafe against their hands. To avoid this inconvenience, a couple astronauts have taken to ripping off their own fingernails before reaching orbit.

[...]

Fingernail trauma and other hand injuries are spacewalkers’ biggest complaint, she said. In a recent study of astronaut injuries, at least 22 reported lost fingernails, a phenomenon called fingernail delamination. It happens because of pressure on the fingertips, but researchers also think circulation cutoff could be to blame.

NASA CONFIRMS WATER ON THE MOON.

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Somehow somewhere in the next twenty-four hours, the maddening mess around me has to coalesce into a travel ready me. I've no idea how I'm going to accomplish this, as I've put all my warm clothes into a suitcase and discovered it's still half empty, even when it contains a sleeping cat. Apparently over time I've renounced being an Owner of Sweaters, or even of Pants or Long Sleeved Shirts, essential ingredients during the last biting Montreal winter I gleefully survived. I suppose today I'll take a bit of time, disguised cleverly as my lunch hour, and unearth some, though I'm not entirely sure anymore where such things are sold. The Le Chateau sale place is close, though, as is Winners, and if I don't find anything there, I might as well give up until I can go shopping along Rue St. Denis or St. Catherine's, a plan that gets shiner with every passing hour.

Most of our plans for Montreal are the shiny sort, (Go Directly To Santropol, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Get $200 Dollars, and the equally obvious Purchase A Warm Coat Already You Foolish Girl), though they did a bit of an unexpected shimmy recently, shaking off the drive down to NYC with Melanie and Lung, leaving us with some uncertainty in regards to our adventures. I remain optimistic, however, even as I face the terrible pressure of being an inexpert wedding photographer, as according to a quick poll over on Facebook, which very quickly took on some serious consistency, everyone's favourite thing to do in Montreal is eat delicious food, a skill at which I am pleased to claim to be somewhat of a master. Om nom, om nom indeed.

ITEMS STILL MISSING: warm clothes, camera flash, ear cuff, bras, ipod cord, jammies, one lime stocking.

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A beautiful picture of a crescent Earth, taken by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft.

via jwz:

longnow_rss

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

via Warren:

Astronauts discover a long stretch of damage on the space shuttle Atlantis.
The shuttle appears to be in good overall shape, but the survey did uncover a 53cm (21in) line of chips on the vehicle’s right side. The line of chips uncovered by the inspection are in thick tiles that make up the protective heat shield on Atlantis’ starboard side. The damage is located where the right wing joins the shuttle’s fuselage. Nasa said the chips could be related to a debris event detected by the wing’s leading edge sensors 104-106 seconds into the lift-off.
This report leads to one of those surprising and uncomfortable truths about humanity’s current space travel skills:
If something goes wrong on this mission, Atlantis’ crew will not be able to shelter on the International Space Station (ISS). The station orbits at around 350km (220 miles) above Earth, while Hubble occupies an orbit about 560km (350 miles) up.
The Shuttle can’t fly there. It can’t shed 130 miles of altitude, establish a new orbit on a radically different inclination and maneuver to ISS. Because our things that fly in space still aren’t really spaceships as we’ve been brought up to think of them. In fact, the Endeavour’s on the launchpad now, ready to launch an unprecedented rescue mission if it’s determined that the Atlantis may not survive re-entry.

Shuttle-Riding Bat Dies The Most Glorious Death Imaginable:

On a cool spring eve March 15th, 2009 a bat, crippled and wistful, clung to the Space Shuttle Discovery as it was thrust toward the great beyond. Goodbye and godspeed, my magnificent Spacebat.
At some point during the countdown, Spacebat—a Free-Tailed Chiroptera—was spotted latched to the foam of the external fuel tank, occasionally moving but never letting go. Wildlife experts deduced that he had injured his wing and shoulder, leaving him with little chance of survival. He remained on the tank until launch. NASA's cold report?

The animal likely perished quickly during Discovery's climb into orbit.
True! But here's how it should have read:

Bereft of his ability to fly and with nowhere to go, a courageous bat climbed aboard our Discovery with stars in his weak little eyes. The launch commenced, and Spacebat trembled as his frail mammalian body was gently pushed skyward. For the last time, he felt the primal joy of flight; for the first, the indescribable feeling of ascending toward his dream—a place far away from piercing screeches and crowded caves, stretching forever into fathomless blackness. Whether he was consumed in the exhaust flames or frozen solid in the stratosphere is of no concern. We know that Spacebat died, but his dream will live on in all of us.

via Brass Goggles.

Steampunk Space Helmet, by Herr Döktor, entitled Vacuum Survival System
Build Progress Forum Thread

Recently recovered from the archive at Castle d’Arrogance, details of Herr Döktor’s Vacuum Survival System, or ‘Space Helmet’, have just recently come to light; this object was produced at some, as yet, undetermined time (due to the peculiar and labyrinthine method of personal dating) as a means for ‘personal safety while travelling the Ætheral Void between the Spheres, and for safe and comfortable promenading upon the Airless Planets of the Solar System’

Apparently it started as a large acrylic Victorian cloche-style garden propagator and a large polypropylene planter. Fantastic! (More pictures at Brass Goggles).

iTube Carbon, an iPod Vintage Tube amplifier/charger

BB video: Jacob explaining his Cold Boot Encryption Attack.

I deeply appreciate Jacob. Not only is he locally famous as my mad, delicious friend who convinced Liz and I that taking our shirts off while standing in two feet of snow was a good idea, (all in the name of art, you understand), he is also now, gratifyingly, the mad genius behind NoiseBridge, an open Project Space for hackers that just opened in San Francisco’s Mission District with a focus on art, science, technology, mentoring and other fun stuff.

"We want to provide infrastructure and collaboration opportunities for people interested in programming, hardware hacking, physics, chemistry, mathematics, photography, security, robotics, all kinds of art, and, of course, technology. Through talks, workshops, and projects we encourage knowledge exchange, learning, and mentoring.

As a space for artistic collaboration and experimentation, we are open to all types of art - with a special emphasis on the crossover of art and technology. From hardware labs to electronics, cooking, photography, and sound labs, anything that’s creative is welcome.

We intend to have many interesting things happening at all times. Sharing is essential to making this work. A logical followup to this is to find a space to display our creative projects."

When it's completely set up, the plan is to have a darkroom, a machine shop area, an electronics area, a programming laptop area, a relaxing reading room, a bart capsule hotel space, a library, server racks, a kitchen, and possibly a few more things, just because. At the moment they're still meshed in the process of establishing themselves as a non-profit, but soon people will be able to make tax deductible donations. Not to say you can't already give them money. That would be good too.

Current Music: brazillian girls - all about us

From

sclerotic_rings,

"Fifty years ago tomorrow, with the launch and subsequent success of Explorer 1, the US officially set off the space race. With it came the discovery of what are now known as the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding Earth, marking the first real scientific discovery of the interplanetary US/Russian competition. Now, maybe, we'll see advertisers stop using "Space Age" as a synonym for "futuristic" and maybe see its use as a synonym for "fondly nostalgic of paths not taken"."

Current Music: deathboy - empathy malfunction

NASA announced Tuesday that its new crew exploration vehicle will be named Orion.

A convict broke prison rules selling
paintings made from M&M's.

Duncan sent me this to complement my recent post on how to ding Focus On the Family: Baby Got Bible.

It seems that in response to us, not only have they begun implementing cookies, but they have taken down the Narnia DVD! Just how much notice did that post get?? You people are freaking me out.

One Giant Blunder for Mankind: How NASA Lost Moon Pictures.

Getting a lot done today, but only during the afternoon, as if the lost art of film editing was being applied to pack all the action into only two hours. I have cheques to pick up, work to arrange, and a focus group to attend. Simple things, wishes carrying my feet forward. Fortuitously, last night was the first night in a month that I slept home and alone. I was woken by a phone-call, Michael from Drumheller. He wants to know if I can build him an Electronic Press Kit for his Frank Zappa band. He might be visiting soon. Haloes dripping down like the unexpected rain drowning the sky outside.

Spacewander.com: Twelve minutes of space footage.