Artifacts of a Major Event

Somehow I managed to weasel my way out of needing to be physically at work last night for the big Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) event of the Curiosity rover on Mars.  I was able to stay home and watch the proceedings with my wife and children, who stayed up WAY past their bedtime to see the festivities.

I don't think any of them truly comprehended just how critical a successful landing was to my career, and so while I was literally twitchy with anticipation and hanging on every word from the NASA feeds, they were nonchalant and overly chatty.  They were so noisy that much of the time I couldn't actually hear what was being said.  I finally had to snap at them towards the end to get them to be quiet.  Seriously, didn't they know that their Daddy REALLY needed to hear Every. Single. Word being said by the commentators and his co-workers?  Because, really, every word was of historic significance and were never to be heard again ... okay, I felt a little bad for snapping at them, but I was seriously stressed out.

In any case, the landing went exceptionally well.  The artifacts we've seen come out attest to that over the past little while, some of which I'll share below.  During EDL itself, the orbiter did experience a plasma blackout.  The recorded UHF spectrum from both of the orbiters we had overhead that were recording the events in an open-loop manner clearly showed the Doppler effects as the spacecraft decelerated from 13,000 mph to 0 mph in just 7 minutes.  I'd include one of the graphics here, but I don't think it's publicly releasable, yet.

During descent, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which I worked on for many years, took a picture of the rover as it was hanging from its parachute.  We first did this 4 years ago, when the Phoenix spacecraft had its own EDL.  We had a 50/50 chance of getting that picture, and it was a stunner; and we had a 40/60 chance of getting this one, and it's even more stunning, but in a different way.  For Phoenix, the picture was remarkable for the giant crater visible in the background.  For Curiosity, it's remarkable for the detail that can be seen in the image.

This first picture is the larger image and sets the context:

This next picture shows a zoomed in and slightly more processed view, which clearly illustrates the parachute with its "ring" around the perimeter and the hole in the middle.  Stunning.

We had maneuvered all 3 orbiters, namely NASA's MRO and Odyssey, and ESA's Mars Express; so that all three of them would be geometrically visible to MSL during its descent.  The hope was to record the signal being transmitted from the rover as it made its way to the surface.  We did manage to get all the vehicles in position, with MRO at +9 seconds from its intended overflight time (it was early), Odyssey at -25 seconds, and Mars Express at +41.5.  Considering these are orbital geometries, and we didn't expend a lot of fuel to get any one of them into position, that was pretty darn good.

Odyssey recorded the signal coming out of the rover and demodulated the signal to extract data at 8 kbps.  This was transferred directly to Earth during the EDL event and provided the primary means of information regarding the health and safety of the rover.  It was this signal that told us that the rover was passing through its various configuration changes on the way to the ground, and that it was safely on the ground.  Further, it was this signal that transferred from the rover on the surface the very first images received from the rover, which showed unambiguously that the rover was on Mars.

This first picture was from one of the rear HazCams ("hazard camera") which is used when driving around.  The project decided, somewhat late, to add the taking and transmission of this picture (with a thumbnail) as something to be done right after landing, in the event that Odyssey could transmit the picture.  Here, you can see the pebble-strewn surface behind a dirty lens.  This was the first picture from Mars returned by Curiosity.

 The dirty lens was expected, and so this is actually a picture taken through a faceplate that was later removed.

This next picture came from a front HazCam, and interestingly it shows the shadow of the rover in the afternoon sun.  Despite the dirty lens, it has an oddly beautiful quality to it.

This picture, though, reminded me of something I'd seen before ... hmm, what was that? Oh, yeah! When a Decepticon killed Beagle 2, that's it ...

But back to the first image.  Soon the cover plate, which was expected to get dirty in the mess of landing, was "blown" (explosive bolts are awesome) and the next image came back clear.  Yep, that looks like a barren wasteland.  It must be Mars.  Despite how boring this is to Martian neophytes, this image actually suggests a lot of juicy potential for scientific exploration and discovery. 

This next image was annotated to show some of the hardware in the image.

All the while this was coming down, the people in the control room were going nuts with excitement.  This following picture shows a fellow I know pointing ecstatically.  Ah, happy nerds ...

Come the morning, I showed up at work for an early 7 am meeting.  Everything was going normally.  The recorded signals from MRO and Mars Express had been processed, with beautiful spectrum diagrams clearly showing the recorded signal and the plasma blackout that occurred just after entry, and a remarkable swing in the Doppler as the spacecraft decelerated maniacally.

Later, images were returned from the descent imager, which have not yet been released, yet; which clearly show the heat shield falling away after the parachute was deployed and a long series of images which show the landing all the way to the ground.  I'm confident the images will be assembled into a movie quite shortly.  It is truly something to behold.

So, today's been quite exciting.  I haven't been able to get much done in all the excitement, but I suppose nerds get to enjoy the fruits of their labor every once in a while.  It's been a good day, and the mission hasn't even really started, yet ...

Until Today, Curiosity Was Just An Academic Exercise

I'm sitting here contemplating how to write about the events of the past day.  It's been pretty big news, and almost none of what's been happening is the result of my own efforts.  Well, that's not entirely true, but I'll get there.  With Curiosity - a.k.a. the Mars Science Laboratory - now securely landed in Gale Crater on Mars, I can now proceed with the rest of my life.

Too dramatic?  Sorry, but let me explain.  My job at work is to coordinate when and how spacecraft that are orbiting the planet Mars transfer data to and from spacecraft on the surface of Mars from and back to Earth.  We use UHF radios to communicate between the various spacecraft, and my job is to help all the good people who independently operate each spacecraft to figure out the details.  To that end, part of my work is in the day-to-day effort to schedule these "relay" sessions between the rovers and orbiters; and the other part of my work is to help the high-level managers for each of these spacecraft to agree on what is allowed to be done.

Sound a little esoteric?  Let me explain some more.  Say, for example, that you have an orbiter that goes around Mars once every two hours.  This is the case for the two NASA orbiters at Mars which both orbit in a north/south direction - a polar orbit - in a manner where when the orbiter passes over the Martian equator, the surface is at a relatively fixed angle to the sun.  This is called a sun-synchronous orbit and has the benefit of allowing the orbiters to image the surface of Mars with consistent sun exposure (i.e. the observed shadows aren't greatly variable).  The scientists love this.

Operators of landers on the surface of Mars also love this because, from the lander's perspective, the orbiter is always visible at roughly the same time every day.  For example, if an orbiter is at a "3 pm orbit", then the orbiter will be coming overhead every day at roughly 3 pm (and 3 am ...).  This makes planning easier because the rover operators then would always know roughly when they can have the rover transmit data to an orbiter.  However, we typically don't get just 1 "pass" at 3 pm - we usually get 2 because, again from the lander's perspective, the orbiter will come from the north (or south) and pass on the east side of the rover and then one orbit later it will pass on the west side as Mars rotates beneath the orbiter.

Sounds great, right?  Well, from a relay planning perspective it is.  Unfortunately, none of the orbiters are built in such a way that they can support both relay activities AND continue with other science activities simultaneously without impact.  This means that every time an orbiter has a relay session with a lander, there is some interruption to or other impact on ongoing science data acquisition.  The scientists hate this.

Therein lies the quandary for the second part of my work.  I have to get orbiter projects to agree to provide relay support to landed projects when it is not in their interests to do so.  As all the projects are independently funded and operated, this can be problematic.  In the case of Curiosity - an exceptionally capable vehicle that can generate far more bits of data than we can possibly return to Earth given the relay spacecraft we have at Mars - this meant we held extensive negotiations with the orbiter projects before they came to agreement on how many of those relay passes that are geometrically viable that the orbiters would support.  As Curiosity is the new kid on the block and all the other projects are in "extended mission" we did have a little weight to throw around, but that didn't mean the orbiters agreed to their needs easily or quietly.

In the end, I and others managed to get these agreements between the projects in order.  The lander is content and the orbiters begrudgingly agreed to the outlined plans.  Once these plans were in place, we had to go through all the exercises to test and verify the inter-project interfaces (both Earth-based networks and the radio-to-radio interfaces that were to be in place once Curiosity landed on Mars) and the operational test and training plans.  This effort has consumed my professional life for the past few years, but all of it - every bit - was purely academic until Curiosity made it to the ground.  Now it is real.  *phew*

So, my job is to help all the landers and all the orbiters at Mars to work together.  Before Curiosity made it safely to the ground, there was only one rover there, Opportunity - an aging rover which has been trundling epically around on Mars since early 2004.  There are 3 orbiters at Mars right now, 2 NASA vehicles and one from the European Space Agency.  The collection of all of these spacecraft at Mars consists what we call the "Mars Relay Network".  Now this network consists of 5 projects, and I have work to do ...

Gratitude Day 22

I stayed home from work today in order to go get a tuberculosis test this morning.  My wife also had the same test and also had a physical examination by the doctor.  We had to do these things as part of our paperwork to get ready to adopt.  Apparently, they want to know that we're not going to fall down dead the second after we get children in our home.  I can see their point, but it's a terrible hassle.  Worth it, though, we think.

The mid-day interruption, though, completely killed my productivity for work.  Ah, well.  That's the way it goes sometimes.  It didn't help that my wife wasn't doing very well this morning, so I took the time to take my boys to school.  This killed a good 45 minutes, but on the way, somehow my oldest son and I got talking about anti-trust laws.  It's so weird to have these kinds of conversations with him, as this is quite a grown-up topic.  Even so, he was fascinated as I shared with him the tale of Microsoft and their clobbering of Netscape in the browser wars, and how they were taken to court due to their anti-competitive policy of bundling Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system.  Crazy stuff.

Later, I heard some interesting news from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that is now recommending that all handheld usage for texting and talking be disallowed due to such activity being such a prominent cause of accidents.  They would make it illegal for drivers to use these kinds of devices, including in so-called "hands free" modes.  They make no such statements for passengers.  I can totally see their point, and I know I am not a great example when it comes to using such devices while I'm driving.  It'll be interesting to see how it goes.

So, my Gratitude List is an odd one today, related to these three topics:

1) I'm grateful for doctors, because it is very nice to be able to go to somebody who -- most of the time -- can provide words of wisdom, direction, and help when I'm not feeling so well.
2) I'm grateful for the NTSB.  Really, I am!  I watch The Amazing Race enough to see what the rest of the world is like for drivers, and I'm very, very grateful that we have such a governmental organization whose sole purpose is to seek for better transportation solutions.  They're not a flawless organization, to be sure, but I'm confident we're better off with them than without them.
3) I'm grateful for anti-trust laws.  The fact that we, as Americans, can go into pretty much any kind of store and be confronted with such an amazing assortment of choices at prices as low as they are (yes, they really are low compared to most other places in the world) is testimony to me that having businesses compete is by far more beneficial to the consumer than otherwise.

These things are a little random, but I do appreciate them!

On Nuclear Power

A very good friend of mine is kind of a nuclear nut. He loves the stuff, and can rattle off how different radioactive isotopes decay quicker than he can tell you his phone number. (Okay, perhaps a slight exaggeration ...) In any case, in light of the mess that is Japan in the aftermath of the 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami, I was curious to know what his thoughts were regarding the explosions at the nuclear sites there.

And, of course, he not only has thoughts, he has insights. I highly recommend that all 2 of my regular readers take a look at his two (as of now) posts regarding the nuclear reactors there:

• Japanese Earthquake Implications Quick Q&A
• Thoughts on Fukushima-Daiichi

The content of these posts are very informative and explain much about what has happened and why much of the media-induced panic shouldn't be.

My friend is a huge advocate of a "new" style of reactor that uses thorium, called a "Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor", or LFTR. This reactor is a much safer, much simpler reactor, without all the mess of weapons-grade waste products being created. The technology has been around for decades, but the political will to build them just hasn't been there. Perhaps this disaster can help some of the right people see some sense, and put some weight behind this technology.

When Discovery Ends

Okay, so the title of this blog entry is intended to be clever, believe it or not. That said, I have been thinking a lot about the end of the Space Shuttle program, and it's long term implications. With Shuttle Discovery touching down for the last time, prior to becoming a museum piece after having spent a cumulative year in space, only a few more Shuttle flights remain until the program ends.

When Discovery launched on February 24th, I was at work and turned on NASA TV to watch the launch. I was terribly disappointed by the coverage. I know that NASA likes to portray a professional, we-do-this-all-the-time attitude, but watching the launch coverage was about as exciting as watching grass grow. It's no wonder the American public is ho-hum about the ongoing space program. The NASA PR people just can't seem to figure out how to make the whole thing exciting. The irony is that the public really does get excited about it, despite the failures of the NASA outreach folks.

Here it was, the last flight of one of the most iconic spacecraft ever built, and there was nothing discernible in the way of fanfare and glory. I quipped to a friend that day, "So this is how America's space dominance ends ... with a yawn." I was a little miffed at the time, but several weeks later, I still don't apologize for it.

I have written in this space before (here and here) about my thoughts on the Obama Administration's handling of the Space Shuttle retirement. I do appreciate and understand the rationale behind it, and I still have high hopes for the future, but I still worry.

Thus far, even the best of our nation's private industry hopes, namely SpaceX, has yet to produce a human-rated launch vehicle. When it does, it will be more of a throw-back to the Apollo era than anything akin to what the Space Shuttle represents. Listening to the radio the other day, some space pundit said that "the Shuttle could do anything except leave low Earth orbit." That last "except" is a big one, but the first part of that quote (the emphasis was his ...) is nothing to scoff at.

So, even though NASA doesn't seem to have any clue how to gracefully retire the thing, I'm doing my best to help my children appreciate the end of the era. And it really is the end of the era. For the foreseeable future, with no end date in sight, our great nation will have no means to delivery people into space. That's just sad.

But that didn't stop me from taking my kids out on Tuesday night to watch the bright spots of light rise above the horizon as Discovery passed overhead, followed shortly thereafter by the International Space Station. We went to a nearby treeless/lightless park and oohed and aahed in excitement. The kids tried their best to find them in the binoculars, which they quickly, wisely abandoned; and I could only grumble when my oldest son, the dope, announced he left his glasses behind and couldn't see a thing. Even so, the children all thought it was great stuff, and I hope it will have some positive effect on their hopes and aspirations for the future.

And I will continue to do so, because I'm a conscientious parent. Even and especially since NASA can't figure out how to do it ...

Very Exciting Stuff - Falcon 9 Launches!

Now this gives me hope for the future our nation's manned space program ...

Small World Destroyed

AP-Anaheim Disneyland's "it's a small world" suffered disaster today, ending in the soaking of dozens of families riding the amusement park attraction, and the complete destruction of the ride.

According to survivors of the incident, things went awry immediately when Ben Grimm, otherwise known as the Thing of Fantastic Four fame, decided to take a ride.

"He looked agitated from the moment he got on," said Emily Smith, a survivor who entered one of the ride's boats just behind Grimm. "As the ride started, he starting yelling at the characters as we passed by, saying they were insulting his intelligence. I was just worried about my kids."

Other survivors indicated that Grimm began to gesture violently at the characters of the ride and about halfway through decided to get out of the boat. Strictly against park policy, the park's security personnel were called to the scene in an attempt to calm the clearly disturbed Grimm.

Soon after, a few of Grimm's colleagues joined him inside the building that houses the ride. Witnesses say that an argument began between Grimm and Johnny Storm, otherwise known as the Human Torch, also of the Fantastic Four. Said Mike Aguirre, "Soon Johnny was shooting fireballs at that Thing."

Nearby riders, huddling in the ride's boats, found themselves diving into the water to keep from getting burned in the fracas. At this point, the building caught fire, and Grimm reportedly began moving from room to room in what can only be surmised as an attempt to put out the fire. This resulted in severe damage to the superstructure of the building itself. One member of the security staff, who was one of the first on the scene and witnessed the incident, said, "It was crazy! This guy was just pounding away at the 'small world' characters. It was kinda like he was trying to put out the fire, but I think that dude has some serious anger issues, too."

The park fire department was called to the scene and additional help was called in from nearby fire stations. Some confusion occurred at the gates when park security insisted that the firemen pay full admission before entering the park. It was only after Robert Iger, Disney CEO, rushed to the scene, yelling, "Let them in, let them in! Small world is burning down, you idiots!" that the firemen were allowed to enter the park to aid in the suppression of the fire.

Several hours later, the building was completely engulfed in flame, with the structure itself collapsing due to the internal damage caused by Grimm. In the end, all the riders had been safely removed from the building and there were no injuries. As clean-up of the site was finishing, Grimm was heard to say, "Oops."

It is expected that charges will be filed.

Meanwhile, it was announced on Wall Street that the Walt Disney Co. is purchasing Marvel Entertainment Inc. for the unprecedented amount of $4 billion in cash and stock. This news was met with Disney stock falling 3% while Marvel stock surged over 25%. Mickey Mouse reportedly squeaked that his good friend Walt was probably rolling over in his grave at the news.

As one person said, "The Happiest Place on Earth is gonna get pretty gnarly."

Apollo 11 40th Anniversary

Today is the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history as the first men to take a stroll in that "magnificent desolation." The event occurred over 5 years before I was born, with the last trip to the moon occurring in 1972.

To me, it's always been something from the history books. I've seen the video countless times of Neil hopping down from the ladder and saying those famous words. Even so, it has never really seemed tangible to me because I didn't "see" it. I didn't stare at the black and white television for hours as did many of my older co-workers. I wasn't around to experience the social buzz or the public wonder. I wasn't thrilled by the glitches or aghast at their bravery. It was an extraordinary accomplishment, to be sure, and something I understand intellectually, but it really is no different to me than old television footage of World War II dog fights, or, worse, silent films. It was something that just ... happened ... when I wasn't around.

For most of my life, I have watched televised shuttle launches and more unmanned rocket launches than you can shake a stick at. For the last ten years, I have personally been involved in the robotic space program. Of this, I am supremely grateful and proud to have played my part. These things I have seen "live", and experienced the same gut-wrenching astonishment at the failures and the same exhilaration at the successes as the rest of the nation.

But it isn't the same. Today, this day, I mark with sadness. It's been 40 years since we first set foot on the moon. 37 years since we last went there. That's a long time. Longer than I've been alive. The space shuttle and the International Space Station are incredible feats, to be sure, but they have never been as awe-inspiring in the public mind as those brave Apollo years. For me, my greatest fear is that I may be lost in the historical middle. Too young to have experienced Apollo, and (at the rate we're going) I may not survive to see people land on Mars. This fills me with a profound sense of sadness.

The current "Constellation" program, which promises to return us to the moon and, theoretically, lay the foundation for manned missions to Mars, is a great thing, but it feels to me like a has-run. In every advertisement for it, the NASA public relations folks use the phrase "return to ...", which directly translates to the unfortunate concept of "re-run". The Constellation program seems to largely be an exercise in bean counting of the very worst kind. The managers and eggheads are trying to fit the whole thing within existing budgets, carefully measured and meted and scheduled. Transition plans for the manned space program are being delicately laid out, and all the while the public imagination flounders, far more interested in the latest Harry Potter movie than the space program (does anybody even know that the space shuttle is in orbit right now?!).

So I make this bold statement: While it would be extremely hard on me and my family, I would be willing to lose my job if our beloved president stood up and said we were going to dedicate the entire NASA budget to putting a man on Mars before 2020.

Today, I sat and listed to wechoosethemoon.org, where they were replaying the audio between the Apollo 11 astronauts and mission control (well worth the time, by the way). I was astonished as I sat and realized that the type of chatter they were having was exactly the same kind of chatter that I've personally done in support of a robotic mission. I realized that these people who accomplished Apollo were not great legends, somehow superhuman in ability and talent. They were just regular Joes who were given a job to do and did it to the best of their ability, which ended up being more than good enough. Given a task like that, I am absolutely confident that today's generation could perform feats equal to it and, indeed, surpassing it in greatness.

So, on this anniversary, I am left to wonder: where is my Apollo? Where is my audacious goal? I and others have more ideas and capabilities than we know what to do with, but our leaders have not unleashed the powers of my generation. Will they ever?

LRO/LCROSS Launch

LRO/LCROSS just launched. It was very pretty. Most of us here at work are standing around right now watching the video feed of the computer animation that reflects the telemetry coming from the Centaur upper stage. When launches happen, not much work gets done around here ...

When I first looked at the rocket, I thought to myself, "Why are they using an Atlas 5 to go to the moon?!" The Atlas 5 is what MRO launched on in 2005 -- it's a very big rocket that at first blush seems like overkill for a lunar lunch. Nevertheless, going to the moon is nearly as hard as going to Mars, as far as C3 expended, and with the need to push the upper stage on the same trajectory, it does make sense after all.

Very pretty.

Constellation Concept

There's an awesome video at this link. Strangely enough, it makes me want to buy a drum set ...

Lost a Spacecraft

This morning, we lost OCO. It was a JPL-managed mission that was launching on a Taurus built by Orbital Sciences. The payload fairing failed to separate, and the rocket didn't have enough thrust to make orbit with it still attached. It went into the ocean down near Antarctica. Sad news. There is a somber mood here at work today as people on the floor above mine now contemplate the near-term. Tough break.

Hollywood Awards Season

I've been thinking about this for a long time, and it occurs to me that I am way out of the popular culture. This time of year, we are inundated with movie award shows that seem to honor films that are: 1) obscure or "artsy" or 2) favorites of the liberal elite. Oftentimes both. What's more, it seems that I very rarely actually see any of the films that are in the running. I got a little curious about this, so I went to look up the nominees for the awards shows that came to mind, and this is what I came up with:

Academy Awards/Oscars: Best Picture
-- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
-- Frost/Nixon
-- Milk
-- The Reader
-- Slumdog Millionaire

Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture - Drama
-- The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
-- Frost/Nixon
-- The Reader
-- Revolutionary Road
-- Slumdog Millionaire (winner)

Screen Actors Guild Awards: Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
-- The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (winner)
-- Doubt
-- Frost/Nixon
-- Milk
-- Slumdog Millionaiore

People's Choice Awards: Favorite Movie
-- The Dark Knight (winner)
+- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
x- Iron Man

MTV Movie Awards: Best Movie (held early summer 2008)
x- I Am Legend
-- Juno
x- National Treasure: Book of Secrets
x- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
-- Superbad
+- Transformers (winner)

Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards (held in March of 2008)
-- Alvin and the Chipmunks (winner)
+- Transformers
-- Are We Done Yet?
x- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

These are the awards shows that just came to mind. Look at the ones that have the pluses or the exes. These are the ones I've actually seen in either the theater (+) or on DVD at home (x). Clearly I don't get out much, but what I also noticed is that of the most prestigious awards (Oscars, Golden Globe, SAG) I don't really see those kinds of movies. Typically, they are morally questionable films and rated R, so I don't even bother. Strangely enough, percentage-wise I saw more of the movies competing in the MTV movie awards than in any of the others. Go figure ... MTV! Truly shocking.

The other thing I have to comment about is that as far as the Kids' Choice Awards, it seems quite inappropriate for Transformers and Pirates to be on that list, as they're both PG-13 movies ...

Anyway, if you need your fill of awards shows for movies, wikipedia has a quite comprehensive list of awards. Truly the film industry is very much self-congratulatory. In my opinion, they don't have much to be congratulating themselves about, as the "big" movies that win these awards use sex and violence as crutches in their story-telling.

Ack! Space Disaster! The Sky Is Falling!

No, really. I don't mean to be alarmist or anything, but this has the potential to be really bad. Check it out:

U.S., Russian satellites collide in space

The news is noting this as something of interest because it happens so rarely. There's a reason this happens so rarely, people!! We avoid it on purpose! Seriously, space debris is very bad news. Imagine taking two things that are flying hundreds of miles per hour, smacking them together from different directions so that they fall apart into little itty bitty pieces, then having these pieces spread out in separate orbits like so many rifle bullets -- all going hundreds of miles an hour.

What was one incident could turn into thousands (something called an ablation cascade that could ultimately result in the Kessler Syndrome). At the altitude these two spacecraft were flying at, the debris will be in orbit for decades, if not hundreds of years! This is an astrodynamicists worst nightmare ...

Can't people just clean up after themselves?!

Zombies

I usually cruise the news online when I'm eating lunch, and today I found something particularly noteworthy. This is a true public service announcement.

Construction signs warn
of zombies

Seriously. This is important stuff. When you see signs like this, definitely keep your eyes open.

Day of Remembrance

Our new President of these United States sent out the following email to NASA employees:

Message from the President on NASA's Day of Remembrance, Jan. 29, 2009

The arrival of a new year reminds us that life is a journey, one that takes us on many unexpected paths. NASA's role is to pioneer journeys into the unknown for the benefit of humanity. Along the way, we sometimes experience tragedy instead of triumph.

Today, we pause to reflect on those moments in exploration when things did not go as expected and we lost brave pioneers. But what sets us apart as Americans is our willingness to get up again and push the frontiers even further with an even stronger commitment and sense of purpose.

On this Day of Remembrance, we remember the sacrifices of those who dared to dream and gave everything for the cause of exploration. We honor them with our ongoing commitment to excellence and an unwavering determination to continue the journey on the path to the future.

President Barack Obama

I also received the following from the Acting Administrator of NASA:

Message from the Acting Administrator - Day of Remembrance, Jan. 29, 2009

Today we honor the Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia crews, and all members of the NASA family who lost their lives in the exploration of space. We honor their commitment as well as the loss to their families and friends.

The last Thursday of each January, NASA's annual Day of Remembrance, obliges us to reflect not only on the sacrifices that have been made by our fallen friends and co-workers, but to also consider what each one of us can do in their honor to assure that NASA achieves its very difficult goals in as safe a manner as humanly possible by recalling and reflecting on our core values of safety, excellence, integrity and teamwork.

Spaceflight represents one of the most difficult endeavors that we as a people can undertake. Just as the rewards are great, so too are the challenges we must overcome to safely reach, operate in, and live in space.
We will not always know what lies ahead of us; as we explore we learn more about the wonders outside of our planet, but also how unforgiving space can be.

While we all recognize these challenges, today is a good day to reflect on how we go about meeting them. We must challenge our assumptions, recognize our risks, and address each difficulty directly and openly so that we can operate more safely and more successfully than we did yesterday, or last month, or last year. We must always strive to be better, and to do better.

It's going to be a busy year for all of us, with missions that carry with them the considerable risk that is a part of our normal business. But they also carry great potential. We each have opportunities -- every day -- to remember through our actions, the courageous men and women who dedicated their lives to public service.

With each mission and every challenge, we build upon their technical achievements, benefit from their discoveries, and tap into their bravery and spirit. I am honored to remember these members of the NASA family, and to work side by side with those in NASA and in our communities, to fulfill the vision of these extraordinary people, of living and working in space.

Christopher J. Scolese
Acting Administrator

Where Was I?

There's always those things that happen in life when people mark it on a calendar and remember "where was I when ...". Consider Pearl Harbor, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the resignation of Richard Nixon, the Challenger Disaster, the falling of the Berlin Wall, and 9/11. Now we add a new one: the inauguration of President Barack H. Obama.

Where was I? I was at home, sick with a cold. While I tried to work from home, my mind just couldn't focus too well. However, because I was home, I was able, for the first time in my life, to watch the inauguration as it happened. It was quite a moving experience. I may not politically lean Democrat, and I voted for the other guy (as futile as that was), but even so, this is a great day in the history of our country. I am proud to be an American, and I pray that my new president will have the wisdom commensurate with his position.

Now if I could just get rid of this cough ...

I Totally Want One of These

Seriously. This is, like, the best invention ever. It's practical, safe, and a technology that combines the best of common-place technologies. If they offer an IPO for this company, I am so in. I could take off driving down the street and land in the arroyo outside of work. Absolutely the best way to get around ... I could skip all the traffic and get straight to work! I love it.

Flying car takes high road to Timbuktu

600 Pound Gorilla

We have an expression at work when we refer to the "600 Pound Gorilla". You can probably imagine the answer to the question: "What do you give a 600 pound gorilla? Anything it wants."

Generally, at work, there are at times missions or projects that are, for whatever reason, the most powerful, politically and economically. These projects tend to consume the resources of less-politically important projects, and I mean both money and people. Also, whenever a key technical trade-off needs to occur, they typically will win any tug-of-war.

Well, I was reading the news today, and I stumbled on this article:

Barbie beats back Bratz

When I read it, the thought that came to my mind was this expression. So, let it be known that Barbie has a new career now, and one that I'm sure will be on the shelves of your local toy store very soon: "600 Pound Gorilla Barbie."

The Space Shuttle Landed Today

I was sitting in Priesthood meeting and suddenly the whole building shook. We all looked at each other, wondering at first if it was an earthquake. Sadly enough, I didn't know that the shuttle was landing today, and I certainly didn't know it was going to be landing at Edwards Air Force Base, an hour away from here. One of the "old guys" in the ward (the Elders were meeting with the High Priests Group) knew it was coming back today, and even knew that the weather was bad in Florida, so the shuttle was likely to be diverted to land at Edwards -- hence the sonic boom that shook the building. So much for me being the space nerd.

Check out the video of the landing. It's beautiful:

It's a Tough Time on Mars

A few days ago, it was announced that the Phoenix mission is effectively over. This wasn't a surprise to anybody, as it was known that the mission would end about now anyway due to bad power margins. Indeed, some engineers quite accurately predicted the end of the useful mission.

Well, today it was announced that Spirit also has had some power issues. The rover has been in the middle of a dust storm in Gusev, and apparently hasn't had enough power to continue normal operations. The following news article tells the story pretty well:

NASA rover low on power from Martian dust storm

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Spirit rover, which is nearing its fifth year on Mars, is struggling to survive after a dust storm sapped its power, mission scientists said Tuesday.

The solar-powered Spirit produced only 89 watt-hours of energy last weekend, half the normal amount it needs to function. The culprit was a dust storm that moved over Spirit's site near the Martian equatorial plains, blocking sunshine from reaching its solar panels.

To prevent Spirit from depleting its batteries, ground controllers commanded the rover to turn off heaters that warm various instruments. Engineers also instructed the spacecraft to cease communications with Earth until Thursday.

"This is a very dangerous time," said project scientist Bruce Banerdt of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission. "If we don't hear from it on Thursday, we'll be extremely concerned."

The Spirit news came a day after NASA declared an end to another Mars mission, the Phoenix lander, which lasted five months. Phoenix was parked in the arctic plains and not expected to survive the Martian winter, but a dust storm there hastened its demise.

Scientists said there was reason to hope that Spirit could pull through. The latest Martian forecast suggests the dust storm over Spirit appears to have abated. Spirit's twin, Opportunity, which is exploring on the opposite end of the equator, was not affected by the storm.

Even if the storm passes, there could be damage to Spirit's instruments or a delay in getting the rover moving again if its solar panels remain dusty, Banerdt said.