HycoSpeed, on May 12th, 2013
I can tell from some of the galaxies… have you ever wondered just where exactly those awesome images of deep space from the Hubble come about? I always thought they where just images from a camera, but as it turns out, it isn’t quite that simple. Check out this video from the HubbleSiteChannel on YouTube where they show an accelerated look at the processing each image goes through.
Hubble images are made, not born. Images must be woven together from the incoming data from the cameras, cleaned up and given colors that bring out features that eyes would otherwise miss. In this video from HubbleSite.org, online home of the Hubble Space Telescope, a Hubble-imaged galaxy comes together on the screen at super-fast speed.
Continue reading This Looks Like a Photoshop…
HycoSpeed, on May 5th, 2013
A few weeks back we looked at a speech memo written for the US President in the event that some catastrophe befell the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and they were unable to return to Earth. In the write up for that, I mentioned that some other posts sort of along a similar vein would be forthcoming, and this look at the science fiction book The Pilgrim Project, by Hank Searls, is the first of those. When I came across that memo, this story was the first thing that popped into my head. This book seems to be somewhat of an unknown, and was one of those books that my family just happened to own when I was growing up, and my brother and I read it as our interest in space and technology began to grow. For those of you [Professor, cough, cough] that might have been around, you may recall a film entitled Countdown, make in 1968 and based on this book. Reviews indicate the film was somewhat forgettable, and likely overshadowed by the actual Moon landing the following year.
The Pilgrim Project seems to have been inspired by actual ideas tossed around during the early days of the space race, and that always made it more interesting to me. In 1962, at a symposium in New York, members of the Institute of Aerospace Sciences proposed sending an astronaut on a one-way trip to the Moon. This was no suicide mission, but a long term mission. The theory was that we had rockets powerful enough to get someone to the Moon, but not to execute the then early plans for an Apollo type mission, where an orbiting capsule would send a lander down and then back up, then safely return to Earth. Instead, a simple capsule would land the intrepid astronaut on the lunar surface, and a separate launch from those same less powerful boosters would sent up a living quarters. Then those same rockets would launch re-supply containers at frequent intervals, until such time, perhaps a year or two in the future, the Saturn booster was ready for a full Apollo mission, at which point our lonely explorer would stand relieved and return to Earth.
Why go to extremes to get to the Moon? To beat the Russians, of course!
Continue reading Toasters Reads: The Pilgrim Project
The Professor, on May 2nd, 2013
 The mailboxes are watching… We’ve all watched lots of videos of various NASA launches, especially launches of the Space Shuttle. I’ve always marveled at the videos that show the vehicles clearly at very high altitudes and wondered at what kind of equipment that they use. Well, perusing the UK edition of Gizmodo, I found my answer. A post by Jamie Condliffe today included a video from the 1980s about the photo operations at Kennedy Space Center, and shows all sorts of interesting old camera tech and the various shops and contractors that made it all work. Well worth watching after the jump.
Photo Credit: NASA
Continue reading Recording the Shuttle Launches
engineerd™, on May 1st, 2013
As you read this, I’m on an airplane heading back down to Kennedy Space Center to try to convince them that I know what I’m doing. My work is at Pad B, which is a near-duplicate of Pad A shown above. Unfortunately, neither one will see a Saturn V for a very long [...]
engineerd™, on April 8th, 2013
The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) of America in partnership with Challenger Center for Space Science Education have created a sort of “movie trailer” for NASA. After meeting their initial funding goal they are trying to get this video on 750 movie screens across the country. They have an indiegogo campaign here. You can hit the jump to see the entire trailer.
I’m not saying contribute or don’t contribute. That’s up to you. The reason for this post is to ask a simple question: Why isn’t NASA producing this themselves? The money is small compared to their overall budget, but the payoff in terms of building support and solidifying our need for exploration could be huge for a government organization that has for too long been at the mercy of the schizophrenic, myopic sea of our government. Why does it take an industry group and an educational non-profit to put something like this together?
I’m afraid of what the answer may be.
Continue reading Crowdsourced, Privately-Organized NASA Trailer
HycoSpeed, on April 6th, 2013
 
Have you ever thought about what sort of silly things you say might get picked up if you had a microphone on all day long? When we think of the Apollo missions, we usually think of some of the more dramatic moments–first human view of the dark side of the Moon, first steps onto the lunar surface, first tense moments on board Apollo 13–but thanks to the always thorough NASA, we can relive some of the more mundane, and dare I say humorous, snippets of life in space.
The transcript excerpts you see here are all from Apollo 10. On May 18, 1968, Commander Tom Stafford, CM pilot John Young, and LM pilot Gene Cernan launched on a Saturn V for what was essentially a dry run for the Moon landing, including a test of the Lunar Module in orbit around the Moon. (Check out Vintage Space for more detail on the Apollo 10 mission.) Clearly, these gentlemen enjoyed their trip.
Continue reading Everybody Poops
engineerd™, on April 2nd, 2013
NASA may not be able to send its own astronauts anywhere other than flying them from Houston to Kennedy Space Center in their very own T-38s, but it does still have some space probes operating that are returning some impressive information. For instance, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, now in its third year of operation, is collecting data on the sun and how it affects space weather. It collects enough data to fill a standard CD every 36 seconds. Some of that data is in the form of impressive and beautiful images. Hit the jump for three and a half minutes of the sun as you’ve never seen it before.
Continue reading Journey to the Surface of the Sun
HycoSpeed, on March 17th, 2013
 
This afternoon I am going to run the first of a couple of posts that I have been kicking around for quite some time now, but just have never gotten around to. (Be sure to tune in next week for more!) The Professor’s User Input on the question of the current state of NASA and the future thereof reminded me of them. First up, when we remember back to the space race it’s culmination with the Moon landing, I think that we tend to view it as a period of triumph and success. But I think it is important to recall that at the time, the neither the success of these ventures nor the victory over the Russians in the Cold War were in any way assured. When it came to the Moon landing, did you ever wonder what sort of back up plans might have been in place in the event of mission failure?
The possibility had been considered that a problem with the lunar lander could have stranded the intrepid astronauts on the Moon, and a memo outlining actions to be taken and the speech that the president would make if such an unfortunate incident occurred were written. The previously unpublished documents were found by LA Times columnist Jim Mann, in a file titled, “IN THE EVENT OF MOON DISASTER.”
President Richard Nixon would have informed the country that night on television:
Before giving the speech, the President would have made telephone calls to the “widows to be” to offer condolences. After final goodbyes, and perhaps recommendations to the astronauts on how to close their lives, the plans called for Mission Control to “close down communications” with the Lunar Module. In a public ritual likened to burial at sea, clergyman would then have commended their souls to “the deepest of the deep”. (motherboard.vice.com)
Continue reading Mysteries of the Moon
HycoSpeed, on March 3rd, 2013
 
So as it turns out, I am out of town on a work trip again, which seems to be happening with increasing frequency here lately. On the plus side, yesterday a couple of the fellows I work with wanted to visit a local science museum, and as you might imagine, I did not take a whole lot of convincing. We opted for the package ticket, which included an Omnimax film ticket. The museum had several movies to choose from, and we went for one called Hubble, about the final mission to re-work the telescope before the Shuttle program ended. Watching the various scenes of Shuttle launches on the large domed screen was very impressive, but I actually felt an inappropriate sadness seeing something so awesome as launching crews and cargo into space, yet knowing that we have lost the ability to do that.
One of the things the film was showcasing was what the Hubble has shown us, that the universe is filled with billions of galaxies, each one filled with billions off stars, just the vastness of the world, and the tiny speck that Earth is in relation to all that. One of my buddies had somewhat of an existential crises after seeing that, and all I was thinking was that we need to get back to space. The Shuttle wasn’t a perfect vehicle, but it’s loss is depressing.
So in the spirit of thinking upon happier times, let’s take a look at NASA’s style guide from back in 1976. This graphic standards manual outlined text format for all of NASA’s activities, from uniforms to support vehicles.
Continue reading NASA Identities
Deartháir, on February 25th, 2013
Image Source: NASA’s Hubble Telescope
I was listening to a very rare interesting piece on CBC radio this weekend, talking about the various philosophies being used by modern-day theologians and even scientists to try and give a non-religious possibility for a life-after-death scenario. Now, most of these are relying upon some variation of [...]
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