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Informative Shuttle Ascent Video
minterbartolo points out this video, produced by Matt Melis at the Glenn Research Center, excerpting from its description: "Photographic documentation of a Space Shuttle launch plays a critical role in the engineering analysis and evaluation process that takes place during each and every mission. Motion and Still images enable Shuttle engineers to visually identify off-nominal events and conditions requiring corrective action to ensure mission safety and success. This imagery also provides highly inspirational and educational insight to those outside the NASA family. This compilation of film and video presents the best of the best ground-based Shuttle motion imagery from STS-114, STS-117, and STS-124 missions. Rendered in the highest definition possible, this production is a tribute to the dozens of men and women of the Shuttle imaging team and the 30yrs of achievement of the Space Shuttle Program."
And obama canceled everything, and we don't have a plan. So much for "change." Sigh.
It's a "high definition" video that's only available in 480p. Sigh.
...man on the moon
Divide a cake by zero. Is it still a cake?
What's the point of bragging about how the program is rendered in 'the highest definition available' - and then putting it on You Tube in crappy low definition?
That rocked! I can't believe I'm the first to say that.
noting more to say
toilet lick
What does the shuttle 'imaging' team have to show us? As a nerd-loving public, other than good imagery, this shows me nothing of the previous failures and bad launch images that have plagued the shuttle history. Show me something like a new vehicle, even a new concept design. "We had bad launches in the past, so we videotaped our next launches" doesn't cut it for me. Something like, "We have an experimental launch vehicle to access other planets and explore the boundaries of human exploration, similar to what the Apollo Astronauts did, and the heroes died... That would cut it. But, "we are so afraid to continue launching people into space because the bureaucracy of our space program is so bad that we have not made any improvements in fifty years and have actually continued a program in which two vehicles of the same design disintegrated upon launch and re-entry. We can no longer afford to put humans into space because our bureaucracy has made it prohibitively expensive, therefore, that is a useless endeavor. I call bullshit, and I call bullshit on the people who spend money on war instead of money on human exploration. There are many soldiers who would be willing to risk their lives going back to the moon, and beyond that, going to Mars. If JFK had the balls to make that call, and the governers of this country respect him, why have we not been back there? Don't tell me it is funding, because the current military expenditure annualy in the US could easily fund at least some research on the project. Compound that billions of dollars of funding since the Iran Contra, and we could have a man, woman, and family on the Moon, not to mention an exploratory team going to mars. People like Jim Lovell, who were willing to say, this has never been done before, but maybe it can. If it can, I will risk my life to make it happen. The age of communication has destroyed the idea of centralized regimes like the Germans in 1939. That horror physically and informationally cannot happen again. So lets get past it, change our goals, and realize the limitations and possibilities of life on our planet. It needs to be preserved, and expanded. Expansion is not possible while people are still fighting over things as trivial as religion, philosophy, and wealth. All three are fairly relative when you consider survival, are they not?
Koalas. They're telepathic. Plus, they control the weather. -Margaret
Rendered in the highest definition possible, but uploaded as a 480p YouTube clip...
And here are some extra clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsvVU24uDIc
Items 30 years ago were engineered to work - that's all we knew how to do. But now we know how to do something more profitable: items today are engineered as cheaply as possible to last for the length of the warranty. It'd be uncapitalistic not to, right?
Of course, given the choice between expensive quality and cheap crap, the vast majority of consumers buy the cheap crap every time. If you try and build stuff designed to last for decades, nobody buys it and you go out of business. Sucks for the tiny minority which is actually willing to fund quality, of course.
To give a concrete example: Modern photocopiers are basically just big printers. They're the only printers left which have reasonable cost per page and are designed to last for millions of pages. But they cost several thousand dollars. The thing is, when you look at cost per page, they're actually *well worth it*, even at that price. You get break-even after a few years; after that they're making you money. But most people still buy a $300 printer instead.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Some guy did something similar (though not quite as extensive) for the footage of the Apollo 11 lift-off.
http://vimeo.com/4366695
NASA has never been good at public relations. This is a case in point. What they have here is some first class engineering pr0n. There are engineers all over the world that would love to see this on their 50" plasmas. Yet... it's not available. Why don't they realize what a public relations boost this could be? Not only does it make NASA look good, it illustrates what they do, how hard it is, and in the end how beautiful it is.
I'd buy a bunch of blu-rays of this. If I could. Ya listening NASA?
Anyone similarly interested, you can get the email address of Edward Schilling, the NASA public affairs contact for video imaging, here:
http://science.nasa.gov/about-us/public-affairs-points-of-contact/
Can't hurt to drop him an email. Might not help, but if we don't tell him what we want, there's no chance we'll get it.
Obama touched my junk.
Bush never did that.
Obama seized GM gleefully.
Bush never did that.
Obama marches troops away from the enemy.
Bush never did that.
Obama seizes banks gleefully.
Bush never did that.
Obama spreads socialist misery.
Bush never did that.
If ever there was a justification for bittorrent, this is it. Why stick this on Youtube with crappy resolution, when you could post a torrent file and seed for a while.
The video could be public domain, high-def, and inspiring to young geeks, instead of being lame.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
Bush lied, people died.