Russia Roscosmos 2010 Highlights

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all!

If you go outside in Grand Marais today, you would think it is late May or early April. It is supposed to be 43 degrees today with rain. We've had three warm days in a row, so much of the snow is gone. It is supposed to turn cold again tomorrow. Hopefully, there will be some snow in our future.

Today's posting includes a few more pictures from Pathway Beach, located around five miles east of Grand Marais. But first, a couple of sunset pictures taken from the east side of Grand Marais bay.




Here is another Pathway Beach photo. This line of icebergs is located around ten feet up the beach from the high water mark. Along the entire length of ice there were icicles hanging down.



The jet streak lit up with the setting sun.



I just loved the high clouds.



When I drove through town I snapped a couple of shots of the snowmobile parking areas. One is next to the Dunes and the other is across the street south of Bayshore Market. Ten years ago these two areas would have been packed with machines. Although there have been quite a few snowmobiles in town, the sport is not what it once was.

"What would Elon do?" Fix and fly of course

Kennedy Space Center technicians have uncovered even more cracks on Discovery's external tank, NASA disclosed earlier today. The cracks leave the planned Thursday, February 3, 2011 lift-off date uncertain.

Discovery, on the STS-133 mission, first went to the launch pad in early November when leaks and weather pushed the launch date into December and again to February 2011. The ongoing cracks found in the External Tank has caused pause among the launch team. The launch stack was returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building near the launch site for further x-ray inspections prior to Christmas. More from PCMag.

A NASA management oversight team will determine next week whether the shuttle will stay with the scheduled launch date of Feb. 3, reports Aviation Week in greater detail.

Meanwhile, WBOI News reports that, NASA space shuttle launch teams have reportedly begun wearing shirts embroidered with the phrase, “WWED,” or “What Would Elon Do?” Elon refers to Elon Musk, the founder and chief executive of SpaceX, who invested his personal fortune to pursue a dream of sending people into space.

Launch Update: The Last Days of 2010

Chow on the International Space Station

a resolute new year

my new year's resolution is to run the city2surf race that occurs in sydney each august. city2surf covers 14 km (8.7 miles) from downtown sydney to the internationally known bondi beach. apparently, its the largest fun run in the entire world, having attracted 80,000 runners for the 40th race in 2010!

i decided before i came to australia that the move across the world would be a good time to start running again. i was reasonably active in england, but the pub lifestyle did not really compliment my physique. so i bought a nice pair of running shoes when i arrived in sydney and i've been running steadily for almost two months now.

at first, the running was so painful that i just did a combination of walking and running and walking and running. after i gained some strength and endurance, i managed to go for 20 to 30 minutes straight 2 to 3 times a week.

then i found a running group to join and last night i went for my first run with them. we started in my neighborhood, went across the harbour bridge, around the opera house, and back. i've been on worse runs before! the area surrounding the opera house is all decked out for the massive fireworks celebration tonight, which i've been warned will be insanely packed with people. cant wait :)

at 4 miles, last night's run was the longest i've completed in years, but i have to say i have no intuition for how long it takes me to run a kilometer - i still think in minutes per mile! the run was slow... but i completed it with only one little bit of walking! woohoo! the group was great and i estimate that the average age of the runners is about ten more than me, which gives me a bit of hope.

the craziest part about this new year's celebration is that i will be in an entirely different decade than most of you for almost an entire day! weird. but still...

happy new year!

ESA highlights space activities of 2010

The European Space Agency highlights 2010 as a great year for ESA with achievements in different areas, including Earth Observation, Science, Human Spaceflight and Telecommunications. From the launch of Cryosat to the Planck sky scan, from Node 3 Cupola completing the iSS to Paolo Nespoli launched on Soyuz to the ISS, from the Rosetta flyby of asteroid Lutetia to the launch of Hylas providing broadband for Europe.

Ski adventures in the School Forest

A few days ago Wendy and I skied through the school forest to what I call Pathway Beach. From H58 it is around 3 to 3 1/2 miles. For most of the way we skied in snowmobile tracks. The last half mile or so we had to create our own track.

The second day, we took some Ecobricks as well as food. We had a small fire and enjoyed a winter picnic.

Habitables and the Fermi Paradox Explained

Dr. Claudio Maccone provides a statistical equation that is called the Statistical Equation for Habitables (SEH) as well as its relationship to the Statistical Fermi Paradox. He starts by noting that the statistics of habitable planets may be based on a set of ten (and possibly more) astrobiological requirements first pointed out by Stephen H. Dole in his book "Habitable planets for man" (1964) in this one hour SETI Talk.

Dr. Maccone provides the statistical generalization of the original (too simplistic) Dole equation by replacing a product of ten positive numbers by the product of ten positive random variables. This is called the "Statistical Equation for Habitables" or SEH. His proof is based on the Central Limit Theorem (CLT) of Statistics, stating that the sum of any number of independent random variables, each of which may be arbitrarily distributed, approaches a Gaussian (i.e. normal) random variable (Lyapunov form of the CLT).

Dr. Maccone also discsses the implications of this derivation, including a practical example of how the equation can be used to find the average distance between Habitables. Finally, this result will in turn be used to discover the statistical extension of the Fermi Paradox, namely the Fermi paradox re-read in terms of probability distributions.

What-up in January 2011?

Looking to the sky with the new Christmas telescope? Here are some ideas.

Space Music for The New Year 2011

Inner Spacesuit - Flanger


Death of the Space Piper - Rare Air


Dune Rider - Eat Static


We Are the Shepherds - O.M.F.O.


Alone - Red Planet


The Dream - Total Recall


Mutant Dancing (Code Remix)


Man on the Moon - R.E.M.


Apollo 13 - James Horner


I Wanna Be A Cosmonaut - Riff Raff


Fly By Night - Rush


Future Signs - The Warm Jets


Welcoming Home the Astronauts - Flickerstick


Jack Names the Planets - Ash


Ghosts of American Astronauts - Mekons


Reverb 10000 - Man or Astro Man?


Electrostatic Brain Field - Man or Astro Man?


Full on Scientist - Flanger


Manta Ray - Man or Astro Man?


Come On Come On - Sleeper


Where You Get Love - Matthew Sweet


Quiet - The Bad Astronaut


'Shooting Star' - Les Baxter


Pharaoh - Eat Static


Galak - Flanger


Man of Action - Matthew Good Band


San Francisco Serenade - The Bad Astronaut


18 - Moby


Kashmir - Led Zepplin


UFO Over Trenchtown - Eat Static

Ariane 5 Rocket Successfully Launches

An Ariane 5 carrying two telecommunication satellites -- Hispasat 1E and Koreasat 6 -- lifted off Wednesday from the launch zone based in Kourou in French Guiana. The launch of Ariane 5 was postponed from Tuesday due to a windy weather. This is Arianespace's year-end mission and the sixth flight of the heavy-lift Ariane 5.

Hispasat 1E is designed to serve Spanish operator Hispasat on television and value-added broadband services in mobile, land and maritime environments. The other satellite, Koreasat 6, was built by U.S. Orbital Sciences Corporation and Thales Alenia Space of France for South Korea's KT Corporation. It is to provide broadcasting and communications services across South Korea. Both are now in orbit.

"This latest successful Ariane 5 launch, the sixth in 2010, once again proves the launcher’s operational capabilities. Ariane 5 is the only commercial satellite launcher now on the market capable of simultaneously launching two payloads and handling a complete range of missions, from commercial launches into geostationary orbit to scientific satellites boosted into special orbits", Arianespace touts.

serious snow

wow! this is part of the tateyama kurobe alpine route in the japanese alps. not sure why they bother digging out the road though!

via tywkiwdbi

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Medvedev Seeks 'Performance Discipline'

Energia vice-president Vyacheslav Filin and Roskosmos deputy head Viktor Remishevsky have been fired for "the mistakes made in the fuel calculations," in the failed launch of three Glonass-M orbiters in a statement released by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

The Russian Proton-M rocket proved too heavy to reach its initial orbit during the December 5 launch and was forced to dump the three hi-tech Glonass-M satellites near Hawaii. The rocket had too much fuel adding weight.

The statement said Medvedev had reprimanded Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov and ordered the agency to be more careful in future work. "On the Russian President's instructions, Roskosmos will undertake additional measures to strengthen its performance discipline," the Kremlin said. More from the BBC.

Ariane 5 Re-Set to Wednesday in Guiana

In what may be the last orbital launch of the 2010 calendar year, a European Arianspace Ariane 5 will dual launch the Koreasat 6 and Hispasat 1E satellites from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana, South America on Wednesday, December 29, 2010 between 4:26 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. eastern time. The launch has been delayed due to incelemnt weather conditions today at the launch site. The launch will be webcast live, now slated for Wednesday.

While Flight 199 will place into geostationary transfer orbit the Hispasat 1E and KOREASAT 6 telecommunications satellites, the Ariane 5 will be looking for an expanded role in the number of launches in the international market next year including an expanded role in providing services to the International Space Station.

Alan Shepard to be honored on US stamp

Alan Shepard will be depicted on a 2011 U.S. postage stamp wearing the silver spacesuit in which he made history as the first American astronaut to fly into space and the fifth human to walk on the surface of the moon.

While honoring Shepard as the “First American in Space” — as the stamp’s inscription describes — the design, unfortunately, omits reference to Shepard also having been the fifth out of only 12 men to the walk on the moon.

The stamp’s design, which was quietly released last month by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), shows Shepard from his shoulders up centered between images of his rocket lifting off and his capsule above the Earth.

Opposite the astronaut’s portrait on an adjoining stamp, an artist’s rendering shows NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft orbiting the planet Mercury. The two US Postage stamps are timed to coincide with MESSENGER becoming the first spacecraft to enter orbit about Mercury on March 18, 2011 and the 50th anniversary of Shepard’s Mercury-Redstone 3 flight on May 5. The stamps are the first space-themed releases by the USPS in more than a decade.

the ashes

the ashes is a long series of cricket matches played between england and australia every 18 to 30 months (?). i dont understand cricket. i dont understand it so much that i have no idea why the ashes is actually a series of test cricket matches instead of just regular cricket.

i know the matches can last for days and i know that my friends in england, who care about cricket, are very excited that im in australia right now. apparently they feel i am somehow obliged to be happy (and brag?) about england's recent performance.

anyway, while i lived in england i was too excited by all the soccer games i could watch to bother paying any attention to learning the rules of cricket or rugby. notice how i called it soccer instead of football? thats because here in australia the word football could potentially mean like 3 different sports, so i've cut out all ambiguity and gone back to calling my favorite sport simply soccer!

i'm at a loss when it comes to popular sports in australia because there is rugby league, rugby union, cricket (and apparently test cricket), aussie rules football, and good old soccer. this SMBC cartoon summarizes my knowledge... just substitute any of the above for football except, of course, soccer.

Piers Corbyn and the solar magneic theory

Mocked British astrophysicist Piers Corbyn predicted Europe's winter of discontent. It makes one wonder as to the precision of his methods in Earth weather prediction based on the Sun and moon or solar magnetic theory.

Popular Torrent Searches Of 2010

Its time to wind up the year 2010. Mashable has published bittorrent zeitgeist of 2010.
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Dunes Snowshoe

On Sunday Stu Stuart asked to join Wendy and I on our training snowshoe. We hiked from the Sable Visitors' Center to Sable Lake, up and across the dunes to the foot bridge by Sable Falls, and back the trail along the river to the visitor's center. It was a beautiful day for a snowshoe.

antihydrogen

its nice to hear my old colleagues talk about interesting things! here the folks of sixty symbols talk about an experiment at CERN that is "trapping" antihydrogen.

Best Mobile Phones Of 2010 | Techtree

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Android On Nokia N900

Nokia N900 luckily got a good hardware properties for running the best mobile operating system available on the market.
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Christmas Day Snowshoe

On Christmas day my son and daughter-in-law and I snowshoed from the Sable Visitor's Center down the trail along the river, past Sable Falls, to the lake shore. As each day passes this winter, the amount of ice on Sable River increases.



Going down the steps, Jericho decided to keep her snowshoes on. It was tricky, but she did a great job.



I just saw Sable Falls and took pictures of it the other day. With the warmer temperatures in the low 30s, there has been enough melt that the increased flow over the falls broke away and melted some of the ice covering the falls.



Here is evidence of some of the melting along side the river.



I posted pictures the other day showing all the ice boulders at the mouth of Sable River. On Christmas day there was one ice boulder left. The wind had changed to come out of the north. The larger waves broke up the ice. Notice how the icicles on the ice boulder have two directions -- showing that the chunk of ice shifted and continued to drip.



More photos taken at the beach.

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Russians Have Successful Launch

A Few More Seney Refuge Photos

I hope that everyone had a safe and enjoyable Christmas. The next few days in Grand Marais are going to be warmer and sunny. We are supposed to have temperatures in the 30s. I guess down state Michigan is going to see 50 degree temperatures in some places. While we have mild weather around here, the east coast is supposed to get pounded with a storm. My son and his wife are supposed to fly back into Boston early on Tuesday. Since Boston is expected to get up to two feet of snow, I hope they can safely make it back.

Today's posting includes a few more photos taken during the cross country ski trip to the Seney Refuge the other day. I just love the clumps of snow on the trees.





These snow covered boulders next to the river demanded that a picture was taken.



I think I had a picture of this bear-clawed tree last year. The bear must use it a lot because it was definitely more clawed up this year. There were some of the shavings on top of the snow so at least one bear is not yet in hibernation.

NDTV Play Review

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VA Gov McDonnell Boosts Spaceport Budget

Earlier this month, Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell appeared before a joint meeting of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations Committees of the soon-to-be 2011 General Assembly in Richmond with his budget priorities for next year and among them - a financial boost for the state's commercial spaceport at Wallops Island.

McDonnell pledged significant operational support to the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority in 2010 increasing the operation budget of the spaceport to $1,379,095 and $1,000,000 for 2011. His latest request to the 2011 General Assembly is $1,379,095 for the next fiscal year beginning July 1, 2011 or a $379,079 increase over what was approved last year (line item K).

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, one of only four FAA-commercial orbital launch facilities in the nation, is expected to commence launching re-supply and cargo to the International Space Station in 2011 from Wallops Island in Accomack County, Va. NASA is also planning a unmanned mission from Wallops Island to the Moon in early 2013.

Virginia was the first state in the nation to adopt a Commercial Space Flight Liability and Immunity statute in 2007 and the first to adopt a ZeroGravity-ZeroTax statute in 2008. Virginia's unique actions gained the attention of the Federal Aviation Administration, with a report naming the state as a 'Change Agent' for commercial space flight.

Virginia's Congressional delegation played a significant role in the adoption of the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 in both the Senate and the House - 12 of 13 members voting 'yes.' The emerging aerospace state is expected to benefit from commercial space launch development.

cherpumple

meanwhile back in the USA, my cousin and her new husband introduced the family to the monster of all desserts, the condominium of cakes, the after dinner answer to the turducken, a confectionary delight that could have come from no where in the world other than my home country: the cherpumple.

yes, ladies and gentlemen, a cherpumple is a pumpkin pie surrounded by spice cake, topped with an apple pie inside white cake, topped with a cherry pie baked inside chocolate cake, all covered in flattering frosting.

truly astonishing! i seriously wish i could have witnessed this event and tasted the tower!

want to make your own cherpumple? watch this video.

thanks to my sister for sending photos!