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Space: Artemis, Delayed
Yeah, I saw on YouTube that the launch this morning was scrubbed.
Looking forward to the next attempt. Soon, please?
Looking forward to the next attempt. Soon, please?
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News: Not-so-random stuff towards the end of August 2022
Canadian Press via CBC News: Canada invests $100M in 'historic' action plan for 2SLGBT communities
I understand why "2S" is being put first in this version, because of Indigenous history and concerns. Expecting pushback from the usual suspects anyway.
CBC News: NASA's massive moon rocket poised to launch Monday morning
Yes, I am excited by this. I expect that I'll have CBC coverage running tomorrow morning during my job search rituals. Or I might actually watch that coverage.
I understand why "2S" is being put first in this version, because of Indigenous history and concerns. Expecting pushback from the usual suspects anyway.
CBC News: NASA's massive moon rocket poised to launch Monday morning
Yes, I am excited by this. I expect that I'll have CBC coverage running tomorrow morning during my job search rituals. Or I might actually watch that coverage.
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Flight and the Quiet Happy
This morning, I tried to watch the launch of the new space telescope on YouTube, but it turned out I missed the launch time by about seven minutes. I still got to see enough to make me quietly happy for most of the rest of the day.
The household range is having problems. The heating elements on top are still working just fine for frying, steaming and boiling, but the burner box - the oven - is not in good shape. I'd call the process of heating anything "sluggish" if anything. We're not sure what's caused that, and calling for help is naturally Problematic right now. So cooking lasagna was cancelled in favour of relying upon Pizza Pizza last night.
My day job is on hold until after New Year's due to lack of people available to supervise.
*shrugs*
More as it comes to mind...
The household range is having problems. The heating elements on top are still working just fine for frying, steaming and boiling, but the burner box - the oven - is not in good shape. I'd call the process of heating anything "sluggish" if anything. We're not sure what's caused that, and calling for help is naturally Problematic right now. So cooking lasagna was cancelled in favour of relying upon Pizza Pizza last night.
My day job is on hold until after New Year's due to lack of people available to supervise.
*shrugs*
More as it comes to mind...
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A List for the End of February 2021
1. The job search continues. As I type this, I'm looking at Indeed and Jobilico. I expect to check several federal commissions, departments and agencies, a couple of crown corporations, GC Jobs, the federal Job Bank, and at least ten temp placement companies (yet again) over the rest of today.
2. I hope to listen to Ontario Today at noon, because Perseverance on Mars is the topic of the day.
3. Downloading new updates for Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher.
4. The Affinity suite is still on sale from Serif.com at half-price as I type this. About C$35 for each of the three programs in the suite.
5. Inkscape and Krita and the like are also still useful freeware, so why not get those too?
6. Listening to The Current right now. The discussion in progress as I type this entry?
Letter-writing. Actual letters through the paper-mail system. Apparently, this is making a come-back among many who have the time and enough other resources.
7. More later today as I think of it.
2. I hope to listen to Ontario Today at noon, because Perseverance on Mars is the topic of the day.
3. Downloading new updates for Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher.
4. The Affinity suite is still on sale from Serif.com at half-price as I type this. About C$35 for each of the three programs in the suite.
5. Inkscape and Krita and the like are also still useful freeware, so why not get those too?
6. Listening to The Current right now. The discussion in progress as I type this entry?
Letter-writing. Actual letters through the paper-mail system. Apparently, this is making a come-back among many who have the time and enough other resources.
7. More later today as I think of it.
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Congratulations to the NASA Perseverance Team!
I just watched the successful landing of the Perseverance Rover!
Cue the Starfleet March!
Cue the Starfleet March!
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Starships and Railroads
Seemed like a good mix of reading material while I had supper tonight.
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Space: ESA's Science Fleet
Space nerd wants to revisit this site later. You might end up having fun too.
http://scifleet.esa.int/#/
http://scifleet.esa.int/#/
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TREK: DSC - Ship Names
Fans of Ursula le Guin may have a pleasant surprise awaiting them, if they haven't already watched today's episode of Discovery.
I haven't yet, but I cheat a little.
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SPACE/RUSSIA: A Fair Concern About the Future
"So now we must demonstrate what we are really made of. Are we really worthy of the glory of Gagarin?"
They can be worthy. But I worry that Putinism will be an obstacle to that here.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/with-dragon-russian-critic-says-roscosmos-acting-left-behind/
They can be worthy. But I worry that Putinism will be an obstacle to that here.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/with-dragon-russian-critic-says-roscosmos-acting-left-behind/
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SPACE: Artificial Gravity and the Ottawa Hospital
I didn't know that they've been involved in this! Mind you, the doctor involved has had to travel to Germany to do some of the work...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/artificial-gravity-1.5216905
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/artificial-gravity-1.5216905
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TREK: Fonts for TOS-Style Federation Starship Hulls
This is interesting for Star Trek fans with interests in model-building, graphic design and the like, and you prefer to work with TOS Starfleet hull design aesthetics.
While I bought a license for Amarillo USAF from tlai-dot-com, and consider the freeware font Airborne II superior because it includes character sets for Greek, Cyrillic and Hebrew (in case you want your Earth-built starship hulls to be multilingual), this one went in for getting lower-case glyphs added to the mix.
https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/stockbucket/hammer-and-tongs/
While I bought a license for Amarillo USAF from tlai-dot-com, and consider the freeware font Airborne II superior because it includes character sets for Greek, Cyrillic and Hebrew (in case you want your Earth-built starship hulls to be multilingual), this one went in for getting lower-case glyphs added to the mix.
https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/stockbucket/hammer-and-tongs/
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Helicarrier and Starship Design Factor Nerdery
https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-aircraft-carrier-gerald-ford-has-first-weapons-elevator-installed-2019-1
From 2017, and I suspect the issues as described in this second article have since been fixed. It's been over a year and a half since publication, after all...
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-gerald-r-ford-aircraft-carrier-doesnt-have-urinals-2017-7
These articles are gold for a SHIELD-Bearer or a Trekker of a certain kind...
From 2017, and I suspect the issues as described in this second article have since been fixed. It's been over a year and a half since publication, after all...
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-gerald-r-ford-aircraft-carrier-doesnt-have-urinals-2017-7
These articles are gold for a SHIELD-Bearer or a Trekker of a certain kind...
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Mars Rover Names and Star Trek
I was listening to a discussion of the Mars-rover Opportunity on CBC Radio's The Current while doing my cleaning project.
As a Star Trek fan: I'd be disappointed to not see the rover names represented in Starfleet's order of operations-type starship lists.
(Okay, maybe "Opportunity" would be one that the Ferengi merchant fleet would want an exclusive claim on...)
As a Star Trek fan: I'd be disappointed to not see the rover names represented in Starfleet's order of operations-type starship lists.
(Okay, maybe "Opportunity" would be one that the Ferengi merchant fleet would want an exclusive claim on...)
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TREK: Ships of the Line Calendar 2019
I happily discovered for myself yesterday that this is now in retailers' hands in Ottawa-Gatineau.
The annoying thing is that our Gregorian calendar only allows for twelve months.
The annoying thing is that our Gregorian calendar only allows for twelve months.
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MOVIES: The Martian
Watched that movie at Landmark Orléans 10 last night. It was a good show all around. The production team stuck pretty close to the spirit and broad strokes of the novel, allowing for "show, don't tell" doctrine to work out properly. The hard science was used as written. Performances were pretty darned good.
Oh, and I want to buy schematics for the Hermes, the Ares habs, rovers, MAVs, etc.. Please?
Oh, and I want to buy schematics for the Hermes, the Ares habs, rovers, MAVs, etc.. Please?
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Orion Cockpit Design
On a more positive note...stumbled across this on YouTube tonight...
Getting the sense that this is what Drexler, Okuda and company were aiming for in their work on the 2150's travel pod cockpit designs for Enterprise.
Trouble is, I worry that such design choices could backfire on the crews of Orion-type mission vehicles. One sufficiently nasty solar flare...? But surely, the designers of this real-'verse cockpit have already anticipated such things?
Getting the sense that this is what Drexler, Okuda and company were aiming for in their work on the 2150's travel pod cockpit designs for Enterprise.
Trouble is, I worry that such design choices could backfire on the crews of Orion-type mission vehicles. One sufficiently nasty solar flare...? But surely, the designers of this real-'verse cockpit have already anticipated such things?
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For Starships and Iron Man-Style Suits Alike: Printing Alloy Components
Thanking Rick Sternbach over on Facebook for pointing this item out:
http://www.design-engineering.com/general/nasas-jpl-develops-multi-metal-3d-printing-process-132113
Interesting...
http://www.design-engineering.com/general/nasas-jpl-develops-multi-metal-3d-printing-process-132113
Interesting...
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From politics into spacecraft design for a moment...
Because various people have been pointing things out to me via Facebook that are catching my attention tonight.
The Geometry of Starship Design - Star Trek from robotjackelope.com. Focusing mainly on the TOS Enterprise, but a page is set aside for the Klingon D-7 as well. I was never the best geometry student in high school. I barely recall ever hearing about the "golden ratio" concept, and we never got into the Fibonacci Sequence material at all. But this is interesting. Thanks to the Star Trek Art Group on Facebook for this!
(For those of you interested in Star Wars, there's another page from the same blog.)
From the Icarus Interstellar Blog, pointed out to me by David Brin, we have some thoughts on starship design in a different direction, based on assumptions that artificial gravity will have to be attained by more realistic means. Mostly, they focus on the probability that long-haul generation ships really are going to have to be mobile towns on the scale of Melville to Moose Jaw in terms of population in order to work.
Not a mathematician or an engineer, so I'll be interested in seeing opinions from the rest of the room re: these two articles.
The Geometry of Starship Design - Star Trek from robotjackelope.com. Focusing mainly on the TOS Enterprise, but a page is set aside for the Klingon D-7 as well. I was never the best geometry student in high school. I barely recall ever hearing about the "golden ratio" concept, and we never got into the Fibonacci Sequence material at all. But this is interesting. Thanks to the Star Trek Art Group on Facebook for this!
(For those of you interested in Star Wars, there's another page from the same blog.)
From the Icarus Interstellar Blog, pointed out to me by David Brin, we have some thoughts on starship design in a different direction, based on assumptions that artificial gravity will have to be attained by more realistic means. Mostly, they focus on the probability that long-haul generation ships really are going to have to be mobile towns on the scale of Melville to Moose Jaw in terms of population in order to work.
Not a mathematician or an engineer, so I'll be interested in seeing opinions from the rest of the room re: these two articles.