Confessions of a Curiosity Voyeur

We have just watched, along with millions of other space junkies, NASA’s successful landing of the Curiosity rover on the surface of the planet Mars.  And I must confess that those of us here, and at the Jet Propulsion Lab in California, along with millions from around the world, have been ecstatic for hours.

It is one thing to view the Mars crater landing on the faces of the crew working the mission; it is another to see the swiftly delivered almost live photos that they are viewing themselves.  Spectacular thumbnails first seen through transparent lens covers, then through the lenses themselves, made us oooh! and aaah!

Seeing a live broadcast by NASA is now over for the night. And over too is my first voyeuristic adventure with Curiosity.  It has been enormously satisfying.  But now it is back to the canned, replayed stuff from the past.  And soon tonight’s events will also become a part of the past history of the United States space program, a program that has been exciting me for six decades.

Japanese Fish In Space This Year

According to Space,com The next astronauts to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) will be taking a few little buddies along.  The story begins:

When the next Russian-built Soyuz capsule launches to the International Space Station in October, it will deliver three new crewmembers to the orbiting outpost. But the trio of spaceflyers will be sharing their ride with some special cargo: 32 small fish for a science experiment at the space lab.

The medaka fish are native to southeast Asia, and have been the subjects of lab study in Japan for a very long time.  In fact they are analagous, in many ways, to the labratory mice and rats we study here in the United States.  Scientists can extrapolate animal results to humans due to the wealth of knowledge they have acquired over the years.  

So these little guys will have an important job to do, in addition to entertaining the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the ISS..

Scooter S. Bear

Photo – Scooter S. Bear Meet the third member of our little family of retirees .

via CarolGee’s Content on RedGage http://www.redgage.com/photos/carolgee/scooter-s-bear.html

On the ends of eras.

‘Tis no more . . . Riding piggy-back to destinations all over the United States, the last shuttles have been retired from service.  All made it to final resting places, to be on display to the public from now on.

The first female astronaut, Sally Ride will be laid to rest soon also. She passed away at age 61, fallen by pancreatic cancer.  Doctor Ride inspired a generation of women to chose careers in Space, as well as careers in other formerly male-dominated fields.  Engineering is no longer just open to men

The NASA channel’s tribute to Sally Ride featured old footage of her first ride on the shuttle, Challenger.  That shuttle blew up shortly after launch many years ago on January 28, 1986.  After a lengthy investigation, NASA shuttles were once again riding piggy-back from California to Florida and other destinations on both coasts.

Now it is 2012 and we are in a new Space era.  One marked by NASA and other international space agencies operating the International Space Station.  People and cargo travel to and fro from the ISS by means other than space shuttles.  The next big arrival, on July 27, to the ISS will be HTV3, a Japanese cargo craft:

The 16.5-ton HTV3, also known as Kounotori3, or “white stork,” is carrying almost 4 tons of supplies, food and experiment hardware for the orbital outpost.

Eras end and new ones begin.  So often the ends of eras bring us deep senses of loss.  But we do our mourning eventually and then move on to the next phase.  Here’s to a safe berthing for JAXA’s “white stork,” next Friday.

Rick Perry’s Texas lacks human decency

English: Rick Perry at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

New Blog Post: Rick Perry‘s Texas: When Politics Trumps Basic Human Decency http://ow.ly/1lmAmF

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