#The Cape Canaveral Story

[kwebtv]

Series Premiere

Behind Closed Doors - The Cape Canaveral Story - NBC - October 2, 1958

Drama / Espionage

Running Time: 30 minutes

Written by Paul Monash

Produced by Sam Gallu 

Directed by Paul Wendkos

Stars:

Joe Maross as Wayne Hollister

Jacques Aubuchon as Charles Meyers

Peter Whitney as Edwin Getty

Bill Henry as Herb Goodwin

Virginia Christine as Julie Hollister

Kathleen O'Malley as Sue-Ellen Goodwin

Marc Snow as Captain

Gabriel Curtiz as Russian Scientist

Rear Admiral Ellis M. Zacharias as Himself

[frank-o-meter]

JAMES BOND in DR. NO

When I was in high school I read many of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. But I mostly remember them from the Sean Connery films. Recently I came across some BBC audio dramas based on the books and I’ve listen to Dr No and Goldfinger. They are both pretty good.

The audio dramas follow the plots from the novels and are also set in the 1950s when the early books were written. Toby Stephens, son of Maggie Smith, plays Bond. He’s good and could have been great as 007 in a movie. Instead Stephens’ played a Bond villain, opposite Pierce Brosnan, in Die Another Day (2002).

I’m not sure if I ever saw the Dr No film (1962). If I did, I don’t remember many details - mostly that the Chinese villain was played by a white actor. And the first appearance of Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder rising out of the ocean in her white bikini. This scene would be recreated twice in later films. First by Halle Berry as Jinx in Die Another Day (2002) wearing an orange bikini. Then again in Casino Royale (2006) with Daniel Craig wearing snug blue swim trunks.

In the audio drama David Suchet played Dr. No. Suchet is famous for playing Hercules Poirot, his best role. I absolutely did not recognize his voice in the audio drama. Suchet’s Dr No is very creepy.

This week I decided to rent the Dr. No movie on Amazon Prime. Sean Connery is incredibly handsome in it. Immediately you understand why he became so popular.

Between the 1960s and 1990s, Bond films were famous for the Bond Girls. And that was all introduced in Dr No. Connery has sex with at least 3 women:

Sylvia Trench, a beautiful woman he meets in a casino early in the film (she was originally intended to be a recurring girlfriend in the Bond films.)

Miss Tao, a double agent in Jamaica. Bond has sex with he even tho he knows she was plotting his death.

Honey Ryder - the beautiful bikini clad sea shell hunter played by Ursula Andress.

But there are several other women (receptions, hotel clerks, and Miss Money Penny of course) who swoon at the very sight of Bond. A couple make a point of checking out his butt as he walks away.

I used Wikipedia to compare the plot of the book to the audio drama and to the film. Most of the changes involve the villain Dr No. But they all agree on his main effort - he uses radio waves to disrupt rockets launched from Cape Canaveral.

Dr No is played by Joseph Wiseman. He isn’t even mentioned by name until 35 minutes into the story. And he doesn’t appear on screen for another 30 minutes. He has one scene where he monologue’s his nefarious plan to Bond. On the whole, Wiseman forgettable (David Suchet in the audio drama made a much stronger impression.)

Bond also meets up with his CIA counterpart - here played by Jack Lord (who would later become famous for the Hawaii 5-0 TV series). Lord had been asked to return for Goldfinger but he wanted a lot more money. He didn’t realize how easily he could be replaced. (BTW - Felix Lester was played by 5 different actors between 1962 and 1973.)

Here’s another piece of trivia… Ursula Andress’ voice was dubbed. Although she had been in Hollywood for nearly 10 years before the movie was made, she still had a heavy Swiss accent.

Is Dr. No as great Bond movie? Truthfully no. While Connery is good, the pacing is slow, too much time is spent on procedural stuff, the fire breathing “dragon” is laughable, and the villain is weak. But if you are a Bond fan, Dr. No is worth watching, to see how the building blocks evolved.

[gemini-enthusiast]

Was able to get some way better pictures of some of the launch complexes et al visible from the Apollo-Saturn V Center at KSC with my new phone camera. Now I'm pretty sure I got all these right but I mix them up sometimes so let me know if I did lol.

From top to bottom:

LC-39B: One of two launchpads used at KSC, LC-39B was constructed during Apollo and was sparsely used, the only Saturn V launch being that of Apollo 10. It was then used to launch Saturn IB Skylab missions and Apollo-Soyuz. After the Apollo program wrapped, LC-39B was used for Shuttle missions, with the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster being the first launch from the complex. The launchpad was most recently used for the Artemis I launch, and will continue to support launches of upcoming Space Launch System launches.

LC-39A: Every human mission to land on the moon was launched from LC-39A. The Saturn V launch of the Skylab space station and a majority of shuttle launches lifted off from LC-39A, making it an incredibly storied launchpad. Now, it is leased to spaceX for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches.

SLC-41: This launch complex is one of the many located on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (formally Patrick AFB) and has been used throughout history for Titan launches, being used to launch the Voyager probes amongst a myriad of others. The pad is now utilized by ULA, who launches their Atlas V and Vulcan rockets from the pad. The latest use of the pad was to launch the Starliner Crewed Test Flight on an Atlas V.

Vertical Integration Facility: This building is a facility used by ULA and its partners to support launches. Similar to NASA's VAB, the vertical integration facility is used to stack rockets and prepare them for flight.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

New SpaceTime out Monday

SpaceTime 20241007 Series 27 Episode 121

Scientists discover planet orbiting the nearest single star to the Sun

Astronomers have discovered a planet orbiting Barnard’s star, the closest single star to the Sun. The newly discovered exoplanet has about half the mass of the Earth and orbits its host star in just over three Earth days.

Hera mission slated for launch today

The European Space Agency’s Hera planetary defence mission is slated for launch today. The spacecraft will launch aboard a Space X Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida on a two year journey to the near Earth asteroid Didymos and its tiny moon Dimorphos.

A ring of fire around the Sun

People in the eastern South Pacific and South America have been treated to a spectacular annular solar eclipse.

The Science Report

Why the Tonga volcano blast was so powerful.

New Ozempic and Wegovy treatment involving a once a month rather than weekly injection.

Why people use cutesy ‘puppy voices when speaking with their pets.

Skeptics guide to psychic detectives

SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences.

The show is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts (itunes), Stitcher, Google Podcast, Pocketcasts, SoundCloud, Bitez.com, YouTube, your favourite podcast download provider, and from www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com

SpaceTime is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

SpaceTime daily news blog: http://spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com/

SpaceTime facebook: www.facebook.com/spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime Instagram @spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime twitter feed @stuartgary

SpaceTime YouTube: @SpaceTimewithStuartGary

SpaceTime -- A brief history

SpaceTime is Australia’s most popular and respected astronomy and space science news program – averaging over two million downloads every year. We’re also number five in the United States.  The show reports on the latest stories and discoveries making news in astronomy, space flight, and science.  SpaceTime features weekly interviews with leading Australian scientists about their research.  The show began life in 1995 as ‘StarStuff’ on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) NewsRadio network.  Award winning investigative reporter Stuart Gary created the program during more than fifteen years as NewsRadio’s evening anchor and Science Editor.  Gary’s always loved science. He studied astronomy at university and was invited to undertake a PHD in astrophysics, but instead focused on his career in journalism and radio broadcasting. Gary’s radio career stretches back some 34 years including 26 at the ABC. He worked as an announcer and music DJ in commercial radio, before becoming a journalist and eventually joining ABC News and Current Affairs. He was part of the team that set up ABC NewsRadio and became one of its first on air presenters. When asked to put his science background to use, Gary developed StarStuff which he wrote, produced and hosted, consistently achieving 9 per cent of the national Australian radio audience based on the ABC’s Nielsen ratings survey figures for the five major Australian metro markets: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth.  The StarStuff podcast was published on line by ABC Science -- achieving over 1.3 million downloads annually.  However, after some 20 years, the show finally wrapped up in December 2015 following ABC funding cuts, and a redirection of available finances to increase sports and horse racing coverage.  Rather than continue with the ABC, Gary resigned so that he could keep the show going independently.  StarStuff was rebranded as “SpaceTime”, with the first episode being broadcast in February 2016.  Over the years, SpaceTime has grown, more than doubling its former ABC audience numbers and expanding to include new segments such as the Science Report -- which provides a wrap of general science news, weekly skeptical science features, special reports looking at the latest computer and technology news, and Skywatch – which provides a monthly guide to the night skies. The show is published three times weekly (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and available from the United States National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio, and through both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

[capsarcastica]

Fly Me to the Moon Review

It's really two good movies put together that don't really mesh well. One is a standard rom-com set against the Apollo 11 launch. The other is a fun look at the supposedly fictional fake moon landing. Each is well done and interesting on its own, but they're not integrated well.

There's nothing about the rom-com story that is all that new. In fact, all the characters are pretty standard for stories like this.

It's the faked landing story that's the real meat of the story. I wish this was the entire movie and not just something they introduced in the second half.

All of the actors are good and well cast. The standouts are Channing Tatum as the overly serious NASA guy and Scarlett Johansson as the wily con-artist turned media specialist. They may not be Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, but they play well off each other. They're at their most fun one-upping each other, though Kelly is often played as too smug.

Ray Romano and Woody Harrelson are great in their supporting roles. Romano has some of the more heartfelt moments. Harrelson has some of the funniest. Of course, it's Jim Rash as the self-absorbed film director who steals the movie. He upstages everyone every time he's on screen.

The film looks good. The stuff film at the actual Cape Canaveral is gorgeous, and the classic buildings are shot with plenty of reverence. The launch itself looks great, even if it doesn't quite match the spectacle of 1995's Apollo 13.

It's a good movie for what it is. It's entertaining and well-made. But it would've been better if the two stories were more integrated or if it was split into two separate movies.

[mrbensonmum]

TV Shows - 3 Body Problem X

In the eighth episode, we’ve reached the finale, but nothing is going as it should.

Saul narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by self-driving cars, only to be interrogated and protected by Da Shi. It’s immediately clear that Da Shi knows more than the audience or Saul himself. Together, they travel to the United Nations, where Saul is appointed as a Wallfacer. This raises a lot of questions, even though they explain what a Wallfacer’s role is. However, both the audience and Saul barely have time to process this because, right outside the building, Saul is shot in an assassination attempt.

What I only understood after reading the books is the behavior of everyone around Saul after he becomes a Wallfacer. It was a big mystery to me, and honestly, a bit frustrating. People treat him differently because the status of a Wallfacer can never be taken away, so everyone assumes that Saul’s actions are just part of his Wallfacer role. On top of that, there was very little information given about the whole Wallfacer concept, leaving me feeling a bit lost. On one hand, this approach creates suspense, especially for those who haven’t read the books. But on the other hand, it’s risky. If there’s too much time between the first and second seasons, this confusion could become really annoying. It makes me wonder if people will even want to rewatch the first season before the next one arrives.

The second storyline focuses on launching the capsule and saying goodbye to Will, even though only his brain remains. In the book, this event happens much later, after a lot of time has passed, but in the show, it’s moved up significantly. I think that was a good choice, otherwise, it could have dragged on too much.

Everyone is devastated, and before Jin leaves Cape Canaveral, Wade whispers something in her ear. I would have loved to know what he said.

Jin and Saul sit in a motel, trying to drown their sorrows, until Da Shi shows up. He can’t stand seeing them so miserable, so he takes them to a lake or swamp full of insects. The San-Ti had referred to humanity as insects at the end of episode five, and Da Shi reminds them that humans have tried to get rid of insects too, yet the insects are still here. With these motivating words, the episode ends, showing the three of them getting back to work.

But that’s not quite the end—Sophon contacts Wade, telling him that she will always be there, and that she won’t leave his side until he dies. To make sure he doesn’t forget, she gives him a hallucination of his own death.

On one hand, after this episode, you want more—so much more—because it’s such a well-written and well-made sci-fi story. On the other hand, it’s a good ending, with enough loose ends to leave you really curious and excited for the next season.

And if you think I forgot about Auggie, I didn’t. There’s a brief scene where she uses her nanofibers as a filter to clean a water source. Even though she gets a call, she ignores it because what she’s doing now is what she’s always wanted, and at that moment, it’s more important.

If I’m not mistaken, this is also the end of Auggie’s (Wang Miao’s) character. He doesn’t play a bigger role in the book, though he’s mentioned a few times. Whether they’ll handle Auggie the same way remains to be seen, as all the characters have slightly different roles in the show compared to the book.

What am I looking forward to the most?

How will they depict the future in the next season? This will surely take a lot of effort, and if an episode already costs $20 million, it could get even more expensive here.

How far will the characters deviate from their roles in the book? How will the concept of the Dark Forest be portrayed?

If I remember correctly, there are fewer Wallfacers in the series than in the book. So how will they handle the Wallbreakers, and will they also meet in the game?

I’ll admit, even though her storyline is supposedly over, I’d love to see more of Auggie. Eiza González does a fantastic job, and I’m really happy she got a more demanding role here (I only knew her from Bloodshot). I know she was also in Alita: Battle Angel, but I couldn’t remember her (I looked it up, and she played Nyssiana. I would’ve never recognized her!).

Much of the story will shift from Earth to space, and I hope they stick to the book here and maybe take some inspiration from the CGI series. But that’s wishful thinking, and I suspect they’ll come up with something new and innovative.

[moonwatchuniverse]

December 2023 PHILLIPS NY auction Rolex Space Dweller Although the Rolex "Space Dweller" never made it into space , it's a wonderful wrist watch with an interesting history. Here's the story how it might have originated:

In May 1963, as NASA started recruitment for the Group III astronauts, Mercury astronaut Leroy Cooper made the last solo spaceflight mission of the Mercury program. Onboard “Faith 7” Cooper orbited the Earth 22 times before a pinpoint splash-down near recovery ship USS Kearsarge in the North Pacific Ocean. During this 34 hours long mission, NASA astronaut LtCol John Glenn was stationed aboard the Pacific radio telemetry tracking ship “Coastal Sentry” off the coast of Kyushu - Japan. Between May 10 and 16, John Glenn, the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth, acted as CapCom (Capsule Communicator) with the Project Mercury communication center at Cape Canaveral in Florida. After the mission, John Glenn and his family spent a 13 days vacation visiting Japanese industrial, historic and cultural sites. Glenn’s goodwill tour brought him to Tokyo, discussing space achievements with science writers, and Nihon university where he received an honorary degree. The Japanese youth met him with great enthusiasm as Glenn’s candidness and openness boosted the US image in Japan. This goodwill tour did not go unnoticed to Rolex, as the Swiss company wanted to release a watch in tribute to the spacefarers as Rolex had commemorated legendary explorations to the summit of Mount Everest and the Arctic. In response to the Japanese fascination with astronauts and spaceflight related science fiction, Rolex launched a small production run of the “Space Dweller”, for which the Swiss patent was registered on February 16, 1966 followed by a US patent office registration on November 19, 1968. Basically, the “Space Dweller” was launched in 1967 as a modified version of their Explorer 1016 model. However, it looks like this model remained a Japan-only special edition as it was not released into Rolex’s complete world market. In 2008, Sotheby’s auctioned a set of 4 separate “Space Dweller” dials which more than probably ended up in 1016 cases as case production dates range between 1963 and 1968. (Screenshot: PHILLIPS NY auction lot 23)

[careerarm2-blog]

June 13 - Cocoa Beach

It rained last night, but no too much. I’m watching the weather as Miami had torrencial rain. I hope we don’t run into it.

This morning we left St Augustine for Cocoa Beach. We drove on A1A , the main highway that runs from Northern Florida to the South. It runs through small towns, along the coast. It wasn’t busy at all. Driving south, there are beach towns that have many gates communities as well as huge condo and apartment buildings. Literally, over 15-20 stories high, one after another. The hotels are also built right next to the beach and are quite big too.

We drove through famous Daytona Beach but it didn’t seem worth a stop. It took about 2+ hours to get to Cocoa Beach, which became famous during the 1960s when the space program was first started. Cape Canaveral and NASA are 15 miles from here and a woman told me that when the rockets are launched , people here have a perfect view.

We went to the pier which was built in 1962. It has a couple of fish restaurants and whoosh. Even though it was almost 7 pm, people were still at the beach and in the water. We had sushi at one of the fish places. It was quite good.

The hotel we are staying is pretty big. It has a pool that meanders around which is fun for the kids. It has a 1950-60s vibe, it is no frills but comfortable. There is a laundry, which we used, as well as a bar. It feels like Palmdale on the beach.

[lizabethstucker]

The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield

4 out of 5.

Apollo Murders 1

Kazimieras "Kaz" Zemeckis' future as a test pilot and astronaut selectee is destroyed when a bird strike led to his canopy exploding, the plastic shrapnel causing him to lose his left eye. Five years later he's sent by the U.S. Navy to the Houston Manned Spacecraft Center to be the military liaison for the Apollo 18 crew.

The mission, completely funded by the Department of Defense, will be the first all-military spaceflight whose classified purpose would be determined by the U.S. Air Force. The actions of the Soviet space program, both orbiting Earth and on the Moon itself causes rapid changes in the Apollo mission and schedule. Espionage, romance, science, and a man caught between his life and his past all combine into an engrossing thriller.

NOTE: This has nothing to do with the horror film APOLLO 18.

The main action is set in 1973, with a few flashbacks and jumps from Houston, Texas, to Russia and elsewhere. Chris Hadfield is a man of many, many talents. He's a former fighter pilot, astronaut who was Commander of the Space Station, caught my attention with a YouTube video of him singing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" in the Space Station, and numerous talks and non-fiction books. Now he shares his ability to weave an enthralling story of what might've been.

As Hadfield stated in the start of the book, "Many of these people are real. Much of the actually happened." He even provided a partial list of who and what is real in the back of the book. If you're curious, I highly recommend Googling, but be prepared to fall down a rabbit hole.

I do believe it is a bit too long at 480 pages, could've benefited by tighter editing. That said, it was a fun read, one I binged almost all night. It also brought back a lot of memories for me, having grown up just south of Cape Canaveral with a father who worked in the program from slightly before 1959 until 1970. Highly recommend to my fellow space enthusiasts.

[tonberry-yoda]

I do like the SDC AU, but I have a complaint, and that I think Pucci, and Kakyoin should have known each other, since both of them were the only Dio servants to be teens, and also both were going through there own struggles during the series. So IMO I do believe Pucci should recognize who Kakyoin was, and Kakyoin should know who he was when they reunite in Cape Canaveral. I know it may be a little nitpicky, but IMO that was a big missed opportunity on your behalf, but it's still a good story though.

this au isnt really a big part of my blog, so in the nicest way possible, I don't really care

A lot of you come asking me about this AU, which I appreciate, but at the same time, this is an AU I'm literally putting 0 effort into. I just answer questions and request with on the spot thoughts tbh, I don't actually think about this AU outside of when I have to do something for it.

I put more effort into my One Piece modern AU and I barely have time to pump that out.

I haven't actually done fics for this JJBA AU in a while and though it is fun, I put my time into a lot of other things

If you think you can make it better, by all means, write it yourself. There's really no missed opportunity if I didn't feel like taking it in the first place

I really don't want to sound rude, but at the same time, having people tell me how I can change my writing when I'm very busy outside of it just kinda makes me feel meh

I love JJBA with all my heart and soul, but I think Araki wrote it perfectly. I only created the Kakyoin lives AU to make my Kakyoin fans happy and then Yuki appeared, but I haven't wrote anything for him in a little bit and don't plan to

But again, if you think you can write it better DO IT, don't tell me how I can change my writing. I love constructive criticism, but this ain't it.

I would love to see what you write if you do

Sorry if this was a not so cheerful Tonberry, but I am very very busy outside of this little AU I began due to a request.

Have a good day nonetheless and I apologize for the rant again

[fullyinconsequential]

Okay, everybody relax—I wrote this random crack Steddie fic where Steve was a writer and I wrote this from his point of view and I recently reread it after a long, long time and I was floored so enjoy.

Also it is a present-day set crack fic just to clear up time inconsistencies.

Atlantis.

When I was 10, my parents took me to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex at Cape Canaveral, Florida. I’d been to Disney World a hundred times by then, knew what the air would smell like and how the waves would sound licking the shore right beside the needlessly expensive condo we’d rent in Daytona. I expected roller coasters and cotton candy and to be sick with exhaustion by the end of it, trailing behind my booze-ridden parents, watching other kids get lifted on shoulders, fireman carried, cradled. Sometimes I walked slower than I felt, hoping one of them would have grown so annoyed of begging me to hurry, that they would lift me instead.

They never did.

Instead of a theme park, I got space. Thirty-minute presentations of one spacecraft or another—Apollo 8, Apollo 17, Apollo 11, the Challenger, the Columbia. Tears rolled down my face as we wandered through exhibits of dead astronauts, failures, fuck-ups.

But I cried harder at the successes—the cheers of the control room when Apollo 8 successfully launched, the testimonial of Gene Cernan about being the last man to have touched the moon, and Neil Armstrong himself confiding in the camera, all for a silly visitor center.

I cried the entire day. I hadn’t been able to explain it, and my mother took to believing I was scared of it all. She scolded my father the whole hour it took to get back to Daytona, convinced I had been frightened at the implication of the universe being so vast.

She never failed to misunderstand me.

If there was anything I understood, it was vastness. The echoing hallways of our four-story house, my king-sized bed, the hollow place inside me that burned bigger each time my father left for a business trip, mother in tow. At a certain point, they started forgetting to hire babysitters.

Just me and the house, my own black hole.

It’s hard to comprehend how big a super heavy-lift launch vehicle is until you’re standing beneath it. My legs weren’t long or fast enough to run the length of it. I slowed to a jog half-way, and walked to the tip of the launch escape system. Then I turned around to look for my parents, and they were gone.

I didn’t panic. I knew I would find them at the nearest supply of alcohol—but not just yet. For now it was me and Saturn V, this monstrous thing, it’s vastness like a mirror. One, two, three, four, five impossible structures that might’ve fused into one had it been launched, four that might’ve been abandoned, and one that might’ve returned home. A fraction of what it had been.

My mother always turned up drunk, my father, tired. He would say something of being jet-lagged, and retire. My mother would giggle and invite her friends to the house so she could boast of all her thrilling adventures. Sometimes I wondered if they remembered they had a son at all.

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex has grown in the time since I’ve been there, most notably in their addition of the Atlantis, a spacecraft that traveled in and out of space on nearly 30 round trips. It was the first spacecraft of its kind—reusable. Returnable. Designed with the capacity to come back whole, warm with information, not lacking in love.

I’d like to stand beneath it one day. I’d like to see what I couldn’t when I was ten, to know that these wonderful metal creatures can come back whole.

And that it wasn’t my fault the others could not.

I’m off to cry now, thanks for reading :’)

[erindrifter]

I have a story to tell you. One of the VERY few college stories I have.

So, I took this math class, right? The teacher... Wasn't very good. He was much more interested in telling stories than actually teaching mathematical principles. I actually stopped attending his classes except for tests, and instead just sat in the cafeteria and studied the textbook on my own terms. I got a C. So, I passed.

Anyways. One of the classes, the teacher told a story. Of the Mars Climate Orbiter. My beloved.

NASA wanted to get some more info about Mars, so they teamed up with Lockheed Martin to build a probe designed to orbit Mars and gather information about the atmosphere and climate, and how it changes over time.

So NASA and Lockheed Martin spent the next several months communicating back and forth about this project.

There was actually some importance to this project, due to the loss of the Mars Observer probe. It was sent to Mars, and three days before it was scheduled to enter orbit the probe just vanished and stopped sending back signals. So, NASA kinda needed a win here.

Anyways. I don't know how long it took to construct the probe, but eventually it was completed and sent to Cape Canaveral for launch. As a side note of little importance to the story, NASA uses the SI unit of measurement (metric system) and so they design all of their equipment with that in mind. Lockheed Martin, on the other hand, uses United States Customary Units (which are NOT technically imperial units, though it's widely known as that) in all of their designs. So, someone had to specifically translate the measurements between the two systems for each of their correspondences.

Anyways. December 11th 1998. The price is launched. And nothing goes wrong. It actually goes quite well, and the probe is on its long journey to Mars. September 23rd, 1999. The probe arrives at Mars and begins the process of entering Mars orbit.

This process is automated, since a signal would take too long to transmit from Earth. So, EXTENSIVE math was done to ensure that the probe would do all the things at the correct time to enter orbit at the correct altitude. The general idea was to use the Mars atmosphere to help slow the probe down for each pass, so it was planned to arc into Mars's upper atmosphere. Here's a diagram of what I mean:

Anyways. The probe encounters Mars 49 seconds too early, and at a MUCH lower altitude than was planned. This may not seem like too much, but it is CATASTROPHIC in a mission like this. The probe then went behind Mars and the signal was lost. This happens, signals don't usually like going through planets.

The signal never came back. The Mars Climate Orbiter, much like the Mars Observer, was lost.

So, naturally, an investigation was launched.

Remember that anecdote about measurements that I said wasn't important? I lied. It's important.

Just about 2 weeks before the probe made it to Mars, the probe made a course correction. It was supposed to do that. The probe was just lining up to hit the atmosphere at an altitude of about 226 km, as planned.

Some more science jargon time! The Orbiter was planned to be at 226 km, but it had the potential ability to survive being as low as 80 km in atmosphere. The scientists keeping an eye on the probe noticed that the trajectory was seemingly going to be at about 150-170 km. Not good, but survivable. Right before the orbital insertion, it was estimated to be at 110 km. Starting to look bad, but maybe recoverable? Well, the investigation showed that the probe would have hit at 57 km of altitude. Which would have either destroyed the probe completely, or jettisoned it back out into space.

Why did this happen? Well, Lockheed Martin supplied a navigational software that calculated the thrust needed for the maneuvers. The LM system provided numbers in Pound-force seconds. The NASA supplied system designed to predict the location of the craft expected numbers to be in newton-seconds. Nobody performed the needed unit conversion between the two systems, so the course correction sent the probe to a completely different location than the probe thought it was at.

So. Basically, the world should just use a single unified unit system so this stuff doesn't happen.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Roving the red planet: New paper documents first Mars mission soil samples

UNLV-led research details early insights from NASA’s Perseverance rover; Specimens due back on Earth in the 2030s

A new paper released today documents the first soil, airfall dust, and rock fragment samples collected by NASA for return from Mars. We checked in with the UNLV astrobiologist leading the specimen selection team for intel on what the samples so far reveal.

To date, the only objects from Mars that humans possess are meteorites that crash landed here on Earth. Thanks to NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission, scientists for the first time in history are able to retrieve handpicked samples — ranging from rock cores the size of a piece of blackboard chalk, to collections of fragmented rocks the dimensions of a pencil eraser and miniscule grains of sand or dust that could fit on the tip of a needle. 

Percy, as the rover is nicknamed, launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. in July 2020, and arrived in February 2021 at Jezero Crater — a 28-mile-wide former lakebed selected for its potential to help scientists understand the story of Mars’ wet past. The yearslong mission seeks to determine whether Mars ever supported life, understand the processes and history of Mars’ climate, explore the origin and evolution of Mars as a geologic system, and prepare for human exploration. 

The specimens are currently slated for return to Earth sometime in the mid-to late-2030s. In the meantime, NASA has so far collected 28 of the mission’s target of 43 samples. 

“The samples will help us learn more about Mars, but they can also help us learn more about Earth because the surface of Mars is generally much older than the surface of Earth,” said UNLV College of Sciences professor Libby Hausrath, an aqueous geochemist who investigates interactions between water and minerals. 

She’s a member of the NASA Mars Sample Return team that helps determine which specimens the rover will bring back to Earth for inspection by powerful lab equipment too large to send to Mars. She’s also the lead author of a new research article published in the American Geophysical Union/Wiley journal JGR Planets documenting the first soil samples collected.

“There are many possibilities for spinoff technologies used for space exploration that can then be used on Earth,” Hausrath added. “And one of the biggest benefits we get from the space program is that it’s exciting for students and children, and can help attract people into science – we need all the future scientists to help with science topics like these and others.”

The project fulfills a decades-long dream for Hausrath, who fell in love with Mars while pursuing her Ph.D. and partnered with an advisor to write a proposal to work with data from NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

“This was one of my career goals for a long time to be able to serve on a Mars mission, so I was really excited to have this opportunity,” Hausrath said. “It really is just incredible the level of detail and precision that the Perseverance rover has. To get the data back and be able to target a specific rock or soil area, and be able to take measurements and decipher information from a tiny sample or specks of dust on another planet is just mind blowing.”

Why Scientists Care

Unlike Earth, Mars doesn’t have plate tectonics constantly shifting and tilting the planet’s surface. Similar to the way scientists study a tree’s rings or examine a cave’s stalactites for historical climate pattern changes, researchers are able to glean information about Mars’ 4 billion-year-old existence by using the rover’s instruments to core rocks and dig soil samples for clues to the history of Mars, including possible signs of past life. 

Examining the rocks’ geochemistry and airfall dust also has the potential to shed light on how Mars’ climate heats and cools and its relative temperature. This information may also tip off how the planet formed, reveal clues about the early solar system, and help pinpoint the time period when life arose on Earth.

“During early Mars history, the planet is believed to have been warmer and had liquid water, which is much different than its current environment, which is very windy, dry, and cold,” said Hausrath. “I’m really interested in water and what kinds of environments can be habitable. And Mars, in particular, is quite similar to Earth in lots of ways. If there was past life on Mars, we might be able to see signatures of it.”

The mission also serves as a de facto scouting mission that could unlock clues about the similarities or challenges that humans might face during future trips to the Red Planet. To highlight the importance of recon, Hausrath recounted the experience of the first astronauts on the moon.

“The lunar regolith is actually really sharp so it was cutting holes in the astronauts’ spacesuits, which is something scientists hadn’t anticipated,” she said. “There’s a lot of dust and sand on Mars’ surface, and bringing back samples is of great interest and value to scientists to figure out how future human astronauts could interact with the particles swirling in the air or potentially use it for building materials.”

How the Rover Works

Percy boasts a cache of futuristic instruments that scientists can manipulate from millions of miles away. It can measure chemistry and mineralogy by shooting a laser from a distance of several meters. It has proximity instruments that can measure fine-scale elements. Researchers use the rover’s wheels to make trenches allowing them to see below the planet’s surface. Science, engineering, and navigational cameras transport images back to Earth. 

“It’s like a video game to see these images of Mars up close,” said Hausrath. “You can zoom in, see the rocks and soil, pick out a spot to measure, figure out the chemistry and mineralogy of a specific rock – it's just incredible that we’re able to do these things that seem like they’re out of science fiction.”

Hausrath is one of the team’s tactical science leads. During daily meetings, members collaborate on instructions to send back to the rover for collection.

“There are some instruments that just can’t be miniaturized and sent to Mars,” Hausrath said, “so once the samples are back on Earth, we’ll have much finer resolution, be able to measure smaller amounts of each of the samples and with higher precision, and look at things like trace metals and isotopes.”

Until then, the samples are being held on Mars in small tubes and are either being stored on the rover or at the Three Forks depot, a swath of flat ground near the base of an ancient river delta that formed long ago when it flowed into a lake on the planet’s Jezero Crater. Scientists mapped an intricate layout, so that they can be found even if buried under layers of dust. 

Eventually, they’ll be retrieved by a robotic lander that’ll use a robotic arm to carefully pluck the tubes into a containment capsule aboard a small rocket that’ll ship them to yet another spacecraft for the long ride home to Earth.

What the Rocks Reveal

On Earth, life is found nearly everywhere there’s water. And the Percy team is on a mission to find out if the same was true for Mars billions of years ago, when the planet’s climate was much more like ours. The rock and soil samples are being pulled from the once water-rich Jezero crater as well as the crater rim — a swath laden with clay minerals, which result from rock-water interactions and look similar to soils on Earth. 

Until the samples are back on Earth, scientists won’t be able to say for sure whether they contain traces of microorganisms that may have once thrived on the Red Planet. But so far, there are strong indicators that bolster previous predictions about water flowing freely on Mars an estimated 2 billion years ago.

Percy’s cameras show that the surface crust differs from the soil below, with larger pebbles on top versus finer grains below the surface. Some particles are coarse and weathered, evidence that they likely touched water and thus are a sign of habitable environments in the past. Atmospheric measurements provide signs of recent processes likely including water vapor in soil crust formation. 

The bedrock is abundant with olivine, a mineral also found in Mars meteorites. Olivine can undergo serpentinization — a process that occurs when olivine interacts with water and heat — which on Earth indicates the potential for habitability.

But perhaps the most exciting find (and one of Hausrath’s personal favorites) is a rock with “leopard spots” nicknamed “Cheyava Falls,” after a Grand Canyon waterfall. The rock contains phosphate, which is of interest to scientists because it’s a major building block of life on Earth — from energy metabolism and cell membranes to DNA and rNA.

Analysis continues. And the NASA team is looking forward to collaborating with the European Space Agency (ESA), which plans to launch its rover, the Rosalind Franklin, in 2028. It’ll carry equipment to Mars capable of drilling 200 cm below the surface — much deeper than Percy's 4-6 cm drill. 

“That would probably get beneath the effects of radiation, so we’d be able to see things we haven’t seen before potentially if there were traces of organic molecules in the past on Mars,” Hausrath said.

The Journey Back Home

NASA, in partnership with ESA, is currently slated to bring the specimen tubes home sometime between 2035 and 2039. When the samples cross back into Earth’s orbit, their first stop will be a receiving facility where they’ll be carefully inspected to determine whether they’re safe for release to researchers. The overall cache of 43 rock and soil samples will include five witness tubes to test for potential contamination.

“Planetary protection is top of mind for the mission — making sure Mars is protected from us and that we’re also protected potentially from Mars,” Hausrath said. “The goal is maintaining safety from the samples in case there’s any concerns for human hazards and also preventing any contamination from us impacting the samples.”

After clearance, she said, researchers around the world will be able to request pieces of these “international treasures” for study, similar to the current program for accessing Mars meteorites. 

“One of the really cool things about the mission is that it is so international and the samples are really a global effort,” Hausrath said. “It’s really great for us to work together to bring these samples back for this goal that benefits all of us.”

IMAGE: NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie in July 2024.  Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

[thejojolands-moved]

Got tagged by @juuouen

Rules: Tag 10 people you wanna know better

Relationship Status: Single baby 😎.....🥲🕶️🤏 I have been flirting on and off with a girl though but Celibacy

Favorite Color: This gonna be REALLY SURPRISING but red and pink (they are the same to me. Taxonomically)

Song stuck in head: Actually don't have anything stuck in my head ATM! If you want a suggestion I just listened to "What's the Story Morning Glory?" By Oasis again and it's a lot better than I remember. I think I just always remember them for all the people who suck at playing Wonderwall and how much they want each other dead before I think of the music.

3 fave foods: Salmon, Crab, and idk chocolate? I like that specific seafood and I don't have it often but picking foods is rough bc I've been having to cut out more foods I like due to GI upset. Hopefully I can add some back soon.

Last thing googled: 15 variations of the same renp'y/python error. I figured it out without any help though because I'm either a genius or I made such a stupid error I should've caught it sooner.

Dream Trip: I don't know actually! I'm a really odd traveler since I just don't enjoy a lot of typical touristy things, instead sticking to pretty much only museums and zoos and the like. Maybe back to Cape Canaveral once Florida stops being the fucking worst or smth really tame like the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta.

Anything I want right now: For the dog I'm sitting to stay asleep and hopefully a little well behaved 🙏Please, Nash, I'm gonna be here for a week be nice to me and my eardrums.

Ok so this is gonna be fun. You don't have to if you don't want to or if you've done it already. @borderline-purrsonality @astormlikethis @lagomortis @jojosfagdykeadventure @nexter2nd @atomic-rena @tomendthesun @see @rogan-4rcane @morays

[algrolo]

"Hey! Hi! This is ground control! I guess? Guess I'm ground control. Hi! Hope you all are doing alright! Heh. So I bet yall saw the fireworks down here and the explosions and the lack of communication but we're fine! Mostly... mostly? Eh. Probably. Theres a good amount of radiation, you can't step foot in like any major US urban center but for the most part people are alright? I guess? Anyways.

Just wanted to finally call you guys, wasn't sure if anyone was alive up there but hey! I figured if yall were youd probably need the food and such and okay. This is uh. This is kinda stupid. But like. Oh god. It had to be like a decade ago right? Probably. Anyways. I was on this social media app called Tumblr. And there was this writing prompt about this literal exact situation. And you know, I was a teen, bored outta my mind in class, so Im thinking about this prompt I read on the internet and I wrote an entire story about it. There were like aliens and something supply the ISS cause all the humans died, arghh, nooo, tragic. You get the gist. But well, I kinda found that story buried in a notebook a couple weeks ago?

So my first thought was 'wow, spot on prediction random writing prompt' and then my second thought was 'oh god theres still people up there holy shit'. So, abandoning all common sense, I drove off across 2 states, avoiding metropolitan areas as best as I could, and made it to Cape Canaveral which, surprising, didn't look too bad? I dont know how much radiation Im getting to be fair being this close to Miami but you know I always figured Florida was kinda radioactive before the planet decided to blow itself up so whatever.

And yeah well. Place was deserted. Alarms sure as hell werent and those things are NOISY. Intruder blah blah blah, well, sorry, but seems like the NASA boys all up and left- wait I shouldnt just say boys there were probably a bunch of women here too! STEM field! Diversity. You know. Sorry, sidetracked. Again. Anyways.

Thankfully, the computers all had logs set up for the next shipment to the ISS. So hey! You all didn't starve. It took me a bit but like when all the informations there all you gotta do is teach yourself some button sequences and pray that the rocket doesn't explode or something and viola! One shipment of ISS goodies. Easy! Said it should last a couple months. Great! Now do you want to guess what there weren't manuals for? HOW TO USE THE DAMN RADIO. Sure you can look at all the data on the server once you know how to crack a few admin passwords but did no one SERIOUSLY consider writing down how to talk to yall? Really?

Like I guess that's really basic to all the NASA nerds because 'its just a simple call we've been doing orbital calls to space for decades everyone knows how to do that you just show the new guy' WELL GUESS WHAT. THE NEW GUY IS HERE AND YOUR SORRY BUTTS ARENT. WHY DID NO ONE THINK TO WRITE THIS DOWN. Oh wait they did. BACK IN LIKE THE 1980S. Do you know how long it took to find the god damn manual in the archives? And this place is HUGE. MASSIVE. I AM ONE SINGULAR WOMAN.

Anyways. The computer says you should have recieved the the supplies by now. So PLEASE tell me you got them and I didn't just waste over a month roaming an abandoned government facility for nothing. I am going to be so mad if NASA did evacuate yall and no one bothered to write it down. Or if I sent a rocket flying right into your station and you all exploded or something. That would be bad too.

Oh god. Ive been talking nonstop for like 10 minutes. Whoops. Sorry. New at this, haha. Um, is anyone there? And if you are, could you help me get you down, maybe?"

"Ground control this is the ISS, we read you, over."

As one of the astronaut on the ISS you and your colleagues watched in horror as the Earth descended into nuclear chaos. You were certain that you were going to die up there, but even though there is no one left on Earth to answer your radio calls you still receive regular supply shipments.

[webshootersandwingdings]

So let’s talk about it!

Not a fan of the new logo, but that’s not super important. I’m not crazy about the braid or the jacket either, but I like everything else! I like the outfit overall, just not maybe as a permanent thing. To me the braid and the jacket still seem way too formal for every day wear. And I’m not wild about the jacket evoking military imagery.

But what really matters is the writing!

1. I hope to see Chewie, of course. I need Carol to be written realistically. And realistically, pet owners have responsibilities to their furry friends. Chewie should be a staple. And I would honestly love it if she adventured with her more. Chewie is helpful in combat AND she can teleport!

2. I would love to see some reference to Carol’s history as a writer. She wrote an exposé on her time at NASA. She was a magazine editor, she freelanced. She wrote a sci-fi book based on her adventures as Binary. I think it would really help flesh out her character if she had some more hobbies outside of super-heroing. We know she likes Star Wars, we know she likes to play board games with her friends, and of course there’s poker night. But why not have her interested in writing again? Maybe we need to bring back the Bejeweled obsession, idk. Make Carol a gamer lol.

3. I am not a fan of the retcons made in The Life of Captain Marvel, but I do think it’s important to have some consistency here. Carol has a living brother, and of course Lauri-Ell. It would be weird to ignore their existence.

4. I would like some continuity with past stories. She got a lot more powerful over the Thompson run. She can harness her energy in a lot of unique ways. I feel weird that she created an entire other sentient being and no one cared to delve into how that happened lol.

5. What makes Carol so fascinating to me is all the things she’s done in her life. She joined the Air Force because she wanted to fly and her male chauvinist father refused to help her with college. She was a test pilot. She was in Intelligence. She was head of security at Cape Canaveral. She was a writer. She struggled with feelings of inadequacy, battled alcoholism… she lived in the Statue of Liberty for a while lol. I hope the new team has read a lot of Carol’s history to see what works and what doesn’t. Carol has been written really terribly in the past, and I hope we can move beyond that forever.