Tag: space

Welcome to the Moon

The Odysseus lander is on the moon! Nice job, everyone!

Granted, according to the article I just linked, there were issues. The system that was meant to determine if the lander was right side up or not failed and they had to improvise an alternative. It might have worked, but as of the posting of said article, they aren’t sure if the lander landed on it’s feet or fell over onto its side or what.

We’ll find out soon enough. Here’s hoping we get good news. Also, here’s hoping we get pictures. It’s been a long time since we’ve had new pictures from the moon. The last US lander was in 1972, but there have been others since then. Other countries have had more recent successes. I think India sent the last lander to land near the South pole. They were 600 kilometers away and this new one is shooting for about 300 kilometers away.

Pics or it didn’t happen, right?

Moon Landing: Imminent?

There is about to be an attempt to soft land a lunar lander onto the moon. 300 kilometers from the South pole. If it is successful it will be the first time a private company pulled it off, and it will also be the furthest South anything has landed. Given that there appears to be ice in a crater at the South pole, that’s pretty gigantic in its significance.

The lander was sent up by a company called Intuitive Machines and of course it will be timed to happen while I am stuck in traffic on this evening’s commute so I won’t be able to try and follow it live.

Here’s hoping that when I get home I will learn about the first USA based craft to soft land on the moon since the last Apollo mission back in 1972.

Fingers astronomically crossed.

Where is Artemis 1 Right Now?

Yeah yeah yeah, I said I was going to stop using twitter, but sometimes I just want another app to format a link for me and CounterSocial isn’t working with WordPress.com yet so twitter it is.

Artemis Looks Back

Did you all wave when Artemis 1 took your picture?

Artemis I: Scrubbed

I’m pretty disappointed. NASA was supposed to launch it’s first Artemis mission today. It was going to test the Orion capsule and the SLS rocket (I think I have those titles correct, but I could be off somewhere) by launching it into lunar orbit and bringing it home. It is an unmanned mission, apart from a few mannequins, but it’s the first big test for the setup that should eventually put people back on the surface of the moon.

No dice though. No launch today. Hopefully they’ll have their issue (something to do with fueling, I think) sorted out soon and we’ll get our test. Fingers crossed, NASA.

Kirk in Space

90 year old William Shatner, Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, went to space today. He went on a Blue Origin rocket, aka Amazon. He is the oldest human ever to go to space. Fitting that it’s the cat who commanded the ship that took us to the final frontier.

When I heard that he was going today I was a little nervous. I was afraid he might get lost and I started wondering if he should have brought George Takei with him.

Yeah… that’s a Star Trek joke. I mean, come on. It’s the single most obvious attempt at humor in the history of the English language, or at least in the history of Western Civilization since Star Trek the original series was on the air. If you don’t get it, Takei played the guy who drove Shatner’s ship. Get it now?

Okay.

What a friggin’ day.

Good on you, Bill. I just hope Bezos paid for your ticket.

OSIRIS-REx

NASA put a probe onto the ground on an asteroid and vacuumed up some samples to bring home.

Can you believe what humanity can do when it applies science?

Yup, looking at you climate deniers, antivaxers, flat earthers, etc, etc.

Venus

A European/Japanese probe, on it’s way to Mercury, took a few quick shots of Venus as it flew by this week. Is there life in those clouds? Maybe. Will this probe give us an answer? Nope. Are the pictures awesome? Very much so.

Ceres

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is approaching Ceres.  Ceres is considered a Dwarf Planet as well as an asteroid.  Not only “an” asteroid, but the original asteroid.  It’s full name is 1 Ceres because it was the first object classified as an asteroid.

Back in 2006 when the whole Pluto-is-not-a-planet fiasco happened there was talk of Ceres being included in the list of planets. It was discovered in 1801 and for a number of years it actually was considered a planet before getting demoted to asteroid. Then in ’06 it was classified a dwarf planet instead of a planet. I felt bad for the little ball of ice. It was like it had been kicked in the teeth twice. I vowed at that time that I would be the first red head to walk on its surface.

How’s that working out for me?