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Space Blog
LooseChanj writes "Ed Lu, a member of
the Expedition 7 crew of the ISS has been sending back some extremely
well written and interesting commentary
about his mission, and some of the things one has to deal with in
space. This is exactly the kind of stuff we need to see more of
out of NASA!"
...were successful missions. But apparently, I was wrong.
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
It's nice to see that at $20,000/pound, we're sending gozilla toys into orbit. The true irony would be if he were doing it from the Japanese Experiment Module
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
The same principle that makes the shuttle go forward (conservation of momentum -- gas goes backward and you go forward) would propel you forward too. Because of air resistance, however, you would gradually slow down.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
To be sure: Since ed's logs appeared on spaceref , I've been looking out for each new installment, they are good, really. but... since the Colombia 'mishap' (what a stupid word, why don't they call a disaster a disaster, for that what is it, for NASA, at least) NASA seems to do everything to polish up their public image, in a way that's great, but they're sometimes too obvious, and start looking ridiculous. Nasa's newsletter used to be informative, but since Colombia it's just one 'come over to the party' rag; no hard info anymore, only things like kids at nasa, nasa ont tv blablabla. I'm afraid they actually pressed lu to publish these things, because he has a good pen. I can imagine those 2 guys have a hard time up there, and nasa nagging 'hey Lu, when's the next article coming down, you can sleep if you're back on earth! Ok a bit exaggerated, i guess, but still...
To quote Orgazmo:
Movie store clerk: Have you been living in a cardboard box lady??
Joe's Fiance': No..I'm from Utah.
Movie store clerk: Oh...sorry.
Blog == weblog == online journal == 99% of the internet.
More than enough BS
Sending a millionaire into space is IMO the most worthwhile thing the station is doing. The science is probably not worth what they're paying for it, but creating a market for space tourism will be one more source of funding for research that will lower launch costs and indirectly help science. ISS is there not for science but because it's *cool* to have a space station. While I agree it shouldn't have been built, tourism is a more honest use for it, and a good use in the long term I think.
When Kirk would start out with "Captain's log..." he was really making an entry into his weblog. Man, I'd love to see the feedback on that thing:
Captain's log, stardate 1234: Banged the green chick again today - what a wild one!
Feedback:
SpacemanSpiff: Dude! What are you drinking, Romulan Ale? Green means 1 of two things: not ripe or spoiled and either way that's one place you don't want to go where no man has gone before...
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Why? Should space be kept only for those of us who are physically perfect, have trained for years and years as pilots, and now as astronauts? Why shouldn't other people be allowed into space? Also, I'm sure Russia could use the money, and it's not exactly hurting anyone, is it? Space belongs to us all. It is for everyone to conquer, not just astronauts and experts. If rich people can go into space, soon the prices will go down, until more and more people can go into space. I think that is worth it.
-Dae
"Alle reden vom wetter. Wir nicht." - SDS Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund.
j00 4r3 3n73r1ng l337 w0r1d.
They run Windows. Actually; the first crew, under command of Bill Shepherd had some problems with it initially, what didn't help was the fact that shepherd was a Mac user, some funny entries in his -extensive and really interesting- mission log on that topic. like, he being very proud to have installed a harddisk on a windowssystem, being a Mac head. http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp1/ex1l ogs.html
April 30: The Commander is a little gruff at times and the payload specialist has been laying some major payloads of flatulence, but overall it's not so bad.
May 5: The crew acts nice and polite when I'm around, but I suspect they don't like me. They always stop whispering when they see me.
May 18: If I catch Yuri with my wife's picture again doing what he was doing, he's going to be doing some unscheduled EVA, suit optional.
May 31: They're up to something alright. They think I can't see their little conspiratorial glances and such, but I can, oh I can.
June 12: The voices are growing louder now. They're telling me the crew's true plan. Act normal, I can't let them know I'm on to them. Not yet.
June 29: I've taken advantage of the short periods I have alone to set up a little surprise for these aliens posing as my human crewmates. Almost ready. Soon, soon I'll be free.
July 7: This is my last blog entry All is prepared. The crew knows I know now. I have only miuntes now to save the world. Just one push of a button and it will be all over for these invaders.
In this case (for a body enclosed by the space shuttle in free-fall) you can assume that momentum is conserved. So you you expel gas, the total momentum of you and the gas is 0.
By the same token, the force exerted by you on the gas is the same force extered by the gas on you. That's newton's third law.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
Given the high risks inherent in each mission, I wonder what NASA really feels about astronauts blogging from space. NASA probably has mixed feelings about "personalizing" these high risk individuals. Did you all catch that recent story of the speech Nixon had ready had the Apollo 11 crew been unable to return from the moon. Compelling stuff.
Nixon's unused speech
On orbiting: "A good way to imagine our view is to stand up and look down at your feet." He continued, "For some of you this will be an exercise in imagination. If you lack imagination, clown shoes will also do the trick."
Number 29:
Americans complaining about Russians behaving like capitalists.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
This is exactly the kind of stuff we need to see more of out of NASA!
Count me out. Manned space flight is very expensive and risky. I'd rather see NASA explore Venus or Io or put more budget into their space telescopes a la Hubble.
My karma ran over your dogma
It will be cool, too, if we can read the weblog of the astronauts that will go to mars in n years.
Right now I'm reading Mars, by Ben Bova. This is a really great novel if space exploration and/or Mars exploration interrests you. BTW Ben Bova work[ed?] for the NASA so he knows what he talk about, from the technical point of view.
If China succeed with its space ambition to go to the moon one day (they are still very far from that goal, see various Slashdot articles in the last few weeks), it can be cool to read the weblog of this mission, too. This one maybe of less interrests because the Appolo mission was very well documented but the detail, expectation and goal of the mission will likely be somewhat different.
but I know about the problems of accounting in Russia. I would want very much that the bulk of the money goes to the space program and doesn't get diverted via miscellaneous off-shore companies and swiss-bank accounts.
See my journal, I write things there
did you actually read any of his entries? how do you know they don't provide value if you didn't?
Given that I will probably never have the chance for long-term spaceflight in my physically capable lifetime, I would darn well like to know what it feels like to sit in a capsule, and what it's like to have a few million pounds of highly explosive stuff behind you blast you up at incredible speeds - the moments when the boosters are jettisoned, etc.
I'd like to know what it's like to fly through a space-station, and what particular difficulties are encountered during what's run of the mill on earth (eat, sleep, brush your teech, go to the restroom).
I'd like to know the views, the feelings, the daily life - because even if I cannot make it up there physically, for at least a short while my imagination can.
So, you think tax dollars are better spent to make some astronomers giddy about this nebula or that galaxy they can see? well, those nebulas and galaxies arn't going anywhere for the next few billion years. But there are people who might be interested in what space is like but won't ever have a chance to go up there. They won't last nearly that long.
What's wrong with providing a taste of space for everyone like that? do we not deserve some piece of the rewards for all these achievements in space? human experience should be shared by all, not just a few scientists, methinks.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
The laptops that plug directly into the core flight computers to allow the crew to do command and control of the station itself (critical things like maneuvering, opening valves, etc.) are running Solaris 2.5.
These laptops are currently IBM 760 XDs but they are going to be upgraded next year, at which point the OS will be transitioned to Linux. Some of the payloads in the racks use various flavors of Unix depending on what the investigators put together but I'm not sure how many (if any) of those are Linux.
As a longtime fan of NasaWatch (which is a weblog), I'd loooove to see a real ISS weblog, which would be updated continually with all the tidbits passing thru the crewman's interest, and addressed to his peers.
But what Lu is doing isn't even a Web journal-- he's writing long essays on set topics that are targeted for a popular audience by 'talking down'.
Each spaceflight has a number of fun events and ceremonies that never go to official press releases. For instance, I hoped that Ed wouldn't be a hypocrite and will clearly state that he had to piss on a Russian bus as a part of the 'piss ceremony' (scroll down to the Baikonur piece), but no, he shamefully tosses that fact and tells us the dull story of leaving signature at the apartment's wall. He didn't even mention that every single Soyuz spacecraft carrier gets 'Tatiana' name hand-painted on it shortly before launch.
I think if NASA wants to popularize space exploration among the youth, it should openly declare that antisocial behaviour and graffiti are mandatory parts of space travel.
Lisp is the Tengwar of programming languages.