Re: Space Nerds

redxavier wrote:

Well done everyone. We've been going into space for 50 years now! Go on, give yourself a slap on the back.

So another 50 years from now (when I'm 80), what do you think we'll be doing out there? Will we have developed the technology that allows us to cheaply and quickly travel around our solar system? Will we have landed on Mars? Will we have gone to Titan and seen what lurked beneath the ice on Europa?

I wish we could work that quickly, I want to go to space dammit.

Last edited by JessicaMonroe (2011-04-12 09:35:07)

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Re: Space Nerds

I came here to note the same thing: it's been 50 years since the Cunion of Coviet Cocialist Pepublics sent a dude into space.

I think 50 years from now we'll just be experimenting with landing humans on Mars. If NASA wants more funding, they need to be findin' some more faces. They need to be like, "Oh damn! We think that's an abandoned city! And there's oil and gold there! And tentacle porn!"

Hang on. I'm getting another movie idea.... Hey, anybody know what Pauly Shore is up to these days?

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

Re: Space Nerds

This just in: NASA announces new homes for space shuttles.

Short version:
Discovery will go to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, replacing Enterprise which is currently there.

Enterprise will be moved to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York.

Atlantis will go to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.

Endeavour will go to California Science Center in Los Angeles.

Personally I'm looking forward to watching Endeavour's last launch later this month, but if things go the way I hope soon, I will regrettably not be here for Atlantis's (indeed the Space Shuttle Program's) last launch later this summer.

It's sad really; it's the end of an era, but unlike our pioneering days into space, the next phase of space exploration doesn't have that same feel of taking new exciting steps forward.

Re: Space Nerds

Hmm, either they relaxed the rules or the Intrepid museum is really expanding. NASA was insisting on an enclosed climate controlled building for the shuttles, which would exclude leaving the Enterprise out in the New York winter next to the salty Atlantic. Museums were also being asked to pay for the transportation themselves smile

(I'm all for saving all the orbiters, but I find it heartbreaking that all this money will be spent preserving four copies when the only remaining Spanish American War ship, the USS Olympia, may be scrapped because the Philadelphia museum is out of money)

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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Re: Space Nerds

Thanks for the link and summary Matt. It reminds me, it's the 30th Anniversary of the first shuttle mission today as well.

Crossing my fingers and toes that Endeavour's still a go on the 29th. I'd hate for some stupid political BS to delay it with a federal shutdown. I mean really, who throws a shoe?

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. - Carl Sagan

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I am so super jazzed that Los Angeles is getting a no-foolin-actually-been-in-space space shuttle. Griffith Observatory will have a challenger for my affections.

Re: Space Nerds

Well if there has ever been a reason for me to leave my comfy home in Oregon to visit LA, thats a pretty damn good reason.

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Re: Space Nerds

Brian Finifter wrote:

I am so super jazzed that Los Angeles is getting a no-foolin-actually-been-in-space space shuttle. Griffith Observatory will have a challenger for my affections.

Were you fishing for the bad Challenger jokes, or can we blame it on the 2 AM posting?

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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Re: Space Nerds

Eep.

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I know I'm at best a lurker here...but is there going to be a party or something near Titusville for Endeavour? 
I'm going to be there, got a place to stay already...just wondering if there's a meet planned.

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Re: Space Nerds

No worries sir, all are welcome here.  There aren't any plans per say, but I'll be there; certainly willing to meet up with anyone else who will be.  I believe there would be at least three of us.  I'm not sure of the best place to view a launch, but I'm sure we can meet somewhere for lunch or something and figure it out then.

Re: Space Nerds

Cool. 

That's part of what I'm about: getting a spot with good line of sight and staking it out the night before.  We're hoping to find someone who can be bribed to let us on a condo or hotel roof, or the high-ground in their front yard or something.

I and another semi-amateur photographer are bringing about a dozen cameras and rigs, in hopes of getting a few decent shots for posterity.  You know, of the hoopla, as much as the launch itself.

I'll fb you.
<edit> What happened to the 'personal message' one used to be able to add to a fb request?  FYI "drew" is short for "Andrew."

Last edited by drewjmore (2011-04-21 19:25:18)

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Re: Space Nerds

So friended; let's "make it so" (see what I did there; damn I'm clever).

Re: Space Nerds

I'm the third man. I've actually got causeway tickets so viewing the launch itself is all sorted out. Would be great to meet up sometime afterwards.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. - Carl Sagan

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Re: Space Nerds

Cool.  How's that work by the way?  By person, by vehicle?  Drew & I would by happy to fill up any empty spots wink.  Otherwise I believe Drew has a spot picked out, and I'll likely join him there.  We should all exchange e-mails so we can co-ordinate our post-launch festivities.

matt.vayda@gmail.com

Re: Space Nerds

Well, I guess I won't be headed to the Cape today after all.  Just got word the launch has been scrubbed for at least 48 hours.  Not sure how long you two are in the area for, but I'm still up for getting together for dinner or whatever.

Re: Space Nerds

TOUCH DICKS POST PIX

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Pics forthcoming: lightning the night before was excellent, no dicks though.

We're trekking back down there once they get the new schedule nailed down, probably next week.

redxavier, are you going to use those causeway tix for the re-try?

Matt, we bugged out pretty quick after the scrub, our place to wait-out the delay was a place called "The Villages."  Retirement, golf, and other such excitement.  Picked up two urns of cremains for a friend of a friend to return to the IL.  What a mad party we had.

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Re: Space Nerds

Well that could have gone better! My plan to borrow a friend's mini-laptop fell through at the last minute so I was without a connection for the week and I stupidly hadn't sorted out contact details with you guys before I had left.

I ended up using my causeway ticket (bought through Gray Line Tours, who bus you out there and bring you back), only to spend about 20 minutes on the causeway itself before the scrub was announced. Oh well, at least I got a few snaps of the shuttle on the pad. On Wednesday I went back and did the Discover KSC Tour, which took me much closer to the pad but from the other direction (seeing just the ET and SRBs). Will post some pics soon.

In other news I highly recommend the Shuttle Launch Experience at the KSC. It's a great ride which promises a realistic simulation of a launch. In reality it's probably toned down but it was such a blast (haha, a pun!).

And for those that missed it, it was the 50th anniversary of America's first astronaut yesterday. Scott Glenn, er I mean Alan Shepherd  (or Ted Levine if you would prefer) was launched in Freedom 7 atop a Redstone rocket for a 15-minute sub-orbital flight. I think the USPS have issued special stamps? Is anyone going to get some?

.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. - Carl Sagan

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Re: Space Nerds

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= … e58441e896

There's the photos I felt deserved publication...didn't tweak any of them, straight from the camera to you.

redX: are you going back for the next launch attempt?  I'm about 80% sure I am at this point.

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Re: Space Nerds

Two fun bits from my time on the Shuttle Launch Experience:

It has one of those big briefing videos at the beginning, where a group of thirty or so people all watch the same video introduction in one big room. The floor of said room was plated metal, but with squares arranged in a spaced out grid (they looked like maintenance panels or something). The doors open, the people flood in, and with no other cue then their mere existence, stand on the panels one person to each, as if each panel were a transporter pad or something. All the panels quickly become occupied but people keep flooding in. Everybody who comes after tries to find a square but can't. People then start to legitimately panic and fret about not having a square to stand on and what that means. Later, I went with another friend and as the doors opened, I whispered to her, "Wait. Hang back just a second. Watch." Sure enough, the exact same thing happened. People spontaneously lined up on these squares without any actual cue to do so. Theme parks as slaughterhouses indeed.

Also the first time I went with a friend (who worked on the shuttle program until recently), the ride itself was still quite new and they were still working out the kinks. We went by and it was broken, so they told us to come back later. We did and they had it up and running again. We waited in line, also waiting on more slight delays. Eventually we get to the front and get strapped into the actual ride, excited to finally experience the thing after so much anticipation. And then wait out more delays. Finally, they admit to us it's broken again and unload everybody. In short, the first time I tried to ride the SLE, the mission was scrubbed. Eventually, we went back again and rode the thing successfully, but my friend and I were very amused by the simulation's fidelity to real life.

And the guy giving you the briefing in the video at the beginning (at the time, I don't know if they've redone it) was Charlie Bolden, who's now the NASA administrator. He has a very grandpa-ly vibe to him.

Re: Space Nerds

Haha... those damn squares on the floor! I stood next to one but not on it. Don't judge me!

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. - Carl Sagan

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Hah, it's alright, my friend and I started to do the same thing. Had we been earlier in the crowd, I'm sure we would have stood on the squares and never given it another thought.

Re: Space Nerds

New launch date for Endeavour officially announced as the 16th May (next monday). Unfortunately, I can't make the trip over the Atlantic again so soon. Hope some of you can though (and it goes up ok!).

Another thing I'll remember from my trip to Florida is watching the Hubble movie at the KSC IMAX Theatre. Wow, absolutely brilliant. I've not been a fan of 3D but here, it works so well. You feel like you can almost reach out and touch the astronauts as they work. There's this moment at the end when you're staring deep into space and you feel like you've walked into a room full of webs, a model of the universe. It's just... amazingly beautiful.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. - Carl Sagan

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Re: Space Nerds

My vacation time is all blocked off.  3 day countdown starts Friday-ish, that'll be the next time they might officially change the plan.

Last edited by drewjmore (2011-05-18 12:32:18)

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