Telstar Logistics

Look at the Amazing Habitat for Humans We Built in Outer Space

Sorry for the recent spate of NASA-related items, but with the imminent retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet, we really should enjoy all this while we still can.

In that vein, NASA has released a superb video that affords an amazing, up-close perspective on the amazing, improbable structure that our species built to serve as a semi-permanent habitat in outer space. The footage was captured a team of astronauts as they undocked from the International Space Station on May 23, and  one commenter on NASA's website put it, "Kubrick would have been proud."

So true! Of course, on some level, we'd expected the whole shebang to look a bit more like this:

Nevertheless, the detail on the real thing is mighty impressive. Let's zoom in (click to embiggen):

Serious wow.

So let's not quibble about the visual aesthetics. Here and now, NASA's wonderful original video did not include a soundtrack, so Telstar Logistics remixed it with the appropriately Kubric-esque "Blue Danube" and uploaded the whole thing to YouTube for your viewing pleasure. 

Nicely done, humans.

PHOTO: NASA

Contemplating Shuttle Endeavor Floating Over Oceania

Last weekend, Telstar Logistics flipped on NASA TV for a few minutes to unwind. We don't normally watch NASA TV as leisuretime entertainment, but we heard via the Twitter that Space Shuttle Endeavor was doing some formation flying with the International Space Station somewhere in Earth's orbit, and that sounded nifty. So we tuned in to watch.

The spectacle was hypnotic. Endeavor was flying 620 feet directly below the ISS. The shuttle's cargo bay doors were open, and the orbiter floated effortlessly above Oceania and Western Australia. 

It was beautiful. And given that this is Endeavor's last flight ever, the event also prompted a quiet moment as we absorbed the spectacle for all it represents -- because soon the sight of manned space shuttles drifting above the planet's surface is not something any of us are likely to ever again see in our lifetimes.

UPDATE: 1 June, 2011

Here's another awe-inspiring shuttle moment, just released by NASA:

Backdropped by a night time view of the Earth and the starry sky, the Space Shuttle Endeavour is photographed docked at the International Space Station on May 28, 2011. The STS-134 astronauts left the station the next day on May 29, after delivering the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and performing four spacewalks during Endeavour's final mission.

PHOTOS: Screen grabs from NASA TV, 28 May, 2011

 

Drive-Thru: Bad Wagons, Good Airplane Bars, Star Wars Grilled Cheese, and a Mountain of Dead Streetcars

Here's a round-up of a few recent items that caught the fancy of the Telstar Logistics executive team:

The Worst Station Wagons Ever Produced (Hooniverse)

Five Airport Bars Made from Actual Airplanes (Jaunted)

Adventures in the Abandoned Ships of Suisun Bay (Bearings)

The Grillennium Falcon is a Star Wars-Themed Food Truck in Alabama (Eater)

A Mountain of Dead Streetcars in Los Angeles, 1956 (Los Angeles Times)

1979 Chevy Impala + Pabst Blue Ribbon = Battering Ram Music Video! (Jalopnik)

A Mariner's Guide to Waves (gCaptain)

Thunderbirds Meets 2001 in the Skylon Spaceplane Render Animation (YouTube)

 

RIP: NASA Declares Spirit Rover Dead on Mars

It wasn't a fast drive, nor particularly long, but it will be remembered in the history books as one of humanity's greatest off-road adventures. After traversing almost 5 miles of Martian terrain, NASA's Spirit rover has fallen silent, and the agency thinks the vehicle has reached the end of its journey.

From the NASA announcement:

Spirit last communicated on March 22, 2010, as Martian winter approached and the rover's solar-energy supply declined. The rover operated for more than six years after landing in January 2004 for what was planned as a three-month mission. NASA checked frequently in recent months for possible reawakening of Spirit as solar energy available to the rover increased during Martian spring. A series of additional re-contact attempts ended today, designed for various possible combinations of recoverable conditions.

"Our job was to wear these rovers out exploring, to leave no unutilized capability on the surface of Mars, and for Spirit, we have done that," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Spirit drove 4.8 miles (7.73 kilometers), more than 12 times the goal set for the mission. The drives crossed a plain to reach a distant range of hills that appeared as mere bumps on the horizon from the landing site; climbed slopes up to 30 degrees as Spirit became the first robot to summit a hill on another planet; and covered more than half a mile (nearly a kilometer) after Spirit's right-front wheel became immobile in 2006. The rover returned more than 124,000 images. It ground the surfaces off 15 rock targets and scoured 92 targets with a brush to prepare the targets for inspection with spectrometers and a microscopic imager.

Here is one of the final images Spirit beamed back to Earth:

On the brighter side, the Opportunity rover is still rolling, and is now en route to a Martian crater 3 miles ahead. 

 

PHOTOS: Top, Rendering of a NASA Mars rover. Below, One of the last images from Spirit, both via NASA.

Hat Tip: BoingBoing

 

P-Funk Mothership Descends on Smithsonian Institution; Hootie Fans Still Not Entertained

The mothership has landed, but you won't find it at Area 51. No, this mothership previously belonged to Parliament-Funkadelic, and it's now headed to the Smithsonian Institution:

The funkiest UFO in the galaxy is about to land in Chocolate City.

The Mothership — the iconic stage prop made famous by legendary funk collective Parliament-Funkadelic — has been acquired by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture where it will help anchor a permanent music exhibition when the museum opens its doors in 2015.

“I’m about to cry!” Parliament-Funkadelic frontman George Clinton said over the phone from his home in Tallahassee on Wednesday. “They’re taking the Mothership! They’re shipping it out! . . . But I’m glad it’s going to have a nice home there.”

It isn’t the original Mothership. This 1,200-pound aluminum spacecraft was built in the mid-’90s — an indistinguishable replica, Clinton says, of the smoke-spewing stage prop he first introduced to slack-jawed funk fans in 1976.

This news made Telstar Logistics smile, not least because it also caused us to flash-back to a hilarious 1997 article in The Onion that envisioned the P-Funk mothership crash-landing at a Hootie and the Blowfish concert:

ROSEMONT, IL—Confusion and awkwardness resulted Monday when the P-Funk Mothership, outer-space chariot of Dr. Funkenstein and the Star Child, accidentally descended upon a sold-out Hootie and the Blowfish concert at the Rosemont Horizon arena in suburban Chicago.

"Thumpasaurus Peoples! You have summoned us through the Groove, and we have returned to refunkatize the planet!" said Dr. Funkenstein, the fur-bedecked, disco-booted Mothership Supreme Commander, moments before the popular South Carolina-based band was about to launch into the song "I Only Wanna Be With You."

Members of Hootie and the Blowfish, whose 1995 release Cracked Rear Viewsold over 14 million copies, were caught off guard by the arrival of the Mothership.

"The man who came out of the spaceship attempted to shoot me with something he called a 'Bop Gun,'" lead singer Darius Rucker told reporters. "Somehow I sensed it would be detrimental to my career as a singer."

Added a visibly distressed Rucker: "He also seemed to imply that if I let my mind go free, something would happen to my bottom."

The Onion piece ends with a comment that has since become a regular fixture of our lexicon:

"I did not wish to get 'funked up,'" said Roger Kleist, 33. "If I did, I would have attended a Dave Matthews Band concert.

PHOTO: The P-Funk Mothership in action

 

Superb Video of SpaceShipTwo's First Feathered Flight

Virgin Galactic just released a video that shows the first feathered flight of SpaceShipTwo:

Early on Wednesday 4th May 2011, in the skies above Mojave Air and Spaceport CA, SpaceShipTwo, the world’s first commercial spaceship, demonstrated its unique reentry ‘feather’ configuration for the first time. This test flight, the third in less than two weeks, marks another major milestone on the path to powered test flights and commercial operations.

SpaceShipTwo (SS2), named VSS Enterprise, has now flown solo seven times since its public roll-out in December 2009 and since the completion of its ground and captive -carry test program.

This latest flight saw a 6:43AM (local) runway take off for VSS Enterprise, attached to its WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft, VMS Eve. At the controls of the of the spaceship were Scaled Composites’ test pilots Pete Siebold and Clint Nichols whilst Mark Stucky, Brian Maisler and Brandon Inks crewed the purpose built, all composite, twin fuselage WK2.

After a 45 minute climb to the desired altitude of 51,500 feet, SS2 was released cleanly from VMS Eve and established a stable glide profile before deploying, for the first time, its re-entry or “feathered” configuration by rotating the tail section of the vehicle upwards to a 65 degree angle to the fuselage. It remained in this configuration with the vehicle’s body at a level pitch for approximately 1 minute and 15 seconds whilst descending, almost vertically, at around 15,500 feet per minute, slowed by the powerful shuttlecock-like drag created by the raised tail section. At around 33,500 feet the pilots reconfigured the spaceship to its normal glide mode and executed a smooth runway touch down, approximately 11 minutes and 5 seconds after its release from VMS Eve.

Here's the video, which clearly shows the transition to and from SS2's feathered configuration. Amazing. The good stuff starts at around 01:50:

PHOTO: Virgin Galacitc

The *Other* Millennium Falcon Spotted In San Francisco

There was no Wookie, no jump to hyperspace, and no bragging about making the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs. Nevertheless, Telstar Logistics enjoyed a chance encounter with the (tugboat) Millennium Falcon last week in Alameda, California while we were exploring the waterfront. And check out those AT-ATs in the background!

Here's another shot of the Millennium Falcon, as seen in 2006. Chewbacca must be below decks.

PHOTOS: Top, Telstar Logistics, Bottom, Michael Slater

Your Weather Forecast for Titan: Chilly, Stormy, with a Chance of Methane Rain

Headed to Titan anytime soon? Here's your weather forecast for the largest moon around Saturn. It'll be chilly, with temperatures around -200 Fahrenheit and below, and a chance of rain, so you'd better pack an umbrella. But no smoking, please, because apparently, when it precipitates on Titan, it rains methane.

From Wired Science:

Spring may bring methane showers to the deserts of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft recently saw a large, dark puddle appear in the wake of a storm cloud at the moon’s dune-filled equator.

“It’s the only easy way to explain the observations,” said planetary scientist Elizabeth Turtle of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, lead author of a study March 18 in Science. “We’re pretty confident that it has just rained on Titan.”

Aside from Earth, Titan is the only world known to have  liquid lakes, clouds and a weather cycle to move moisture between them. But on chilly Titan, where temperatures plunge to -297 degrees Fahrenheit, the frigid lakes are filled with liquid methane and ethane, not water.

Proposal: Send the MOMA a Retired Space Shuttle

Now that space shuttle Discovery has completed its last flight -- with the rest of the fleet set for retirement this year -- the New York Times reports that museums across the country are angling to add a retired shuttle to their collections:

This old vehicle — the space shuttle Discovery — is an object of fervent desire for museums around the country, which would love to add it or one of its mates, the Endeavour and the Atlantis, to their collections. (Financing terms can be arranged with NASA.)

The Times says the museums in the running include NASA’s Johnson Space Center,  the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan, the Museum of Flight in Seattle, the California Science Center in Los Angeles, the Museum of the United States Air Force, near Dayton, Ohio, and (of course) the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

We say: *yawn!* All aerospace museums, and all so predictable. Yet as Telstar Logistics noted before:

NASA researchers at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida have made a remarkable discovery: When you hang a well-traveled space shuttle from the ceiling of a very large building, the shuttle becomes a sophisticated piece of contemporary art. In the vein of Richard Serra perhaps? Combined with a twist of Damien Hirst?

So now we'll say it again. The museum that could perhaps make the most impressive use of a retired space shuttle is a contemporary art museum, like the MOMA in New York. Send one there!!!

PHOTOS: Shuttle Atlantis hanging inside the vehicle assembly building at Kennedy Space Center. Photos by Aviation Week.

If NASA Decided to Create a Super Bowl Ad...

... the space agency could do much worse than using this one created by YouTube user damewse.

(Tip of the space visor to @bcantrill)

Rocket on the Rails: All Aboard the NASA Railway

We've said it before and we'll say it again: A NASA logo makes anything look Space Age.

That's certainly true when talking about mundane machines, but even more so when the object at hand is a diesel locomotive. Extra credit because NASA's train is actually used to haul space shuttle rocket booster parts around Florida's Kenney Space Center.

It's like Thomas the Tank Engine meets The Right Stuff:

At the Wilson's Corners junction at the northern end of the space center, the NASA Railroad splits into two nine-mile stretches of track. Kennedy's mainline runs south, past the Vehicle Assembly Building and other Launch Complex 39 facilities before reaching the center's Industrial Area. To the east, a second line of track extends to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Each incoming shuttle-booster segment rests on a cradle in a custom-built railcar. A clamshell-like cover, hinged at the top, protects the hardware throughout the journey. Fully loaded, a single segment car weighs 513,000 pounds.

[...]

NASA uses switcher locomotives, which are brawny machines that move a lot of weight over relatively short distances. The first locomotives used by NASA were three Alco S2 locomotives obtained surplus from the U.S. Army. Built in the early 1940s, they worked well until the loads required to support the Space Shuttle Program proved beyond their capability. So Hoffman initiated the procurement process to buy the space center three EMD SW-1500 locomotives built between 1968 and 1970.

The 1,500-horsepower locomotives used today "have a lot of backbone," according to Bryant. "When we bring in the segments and the spacer cars, we've got probably close to 4 1/2 to 5 million pounds that we pull with one motor."

In addition to more familiar hopper cars and gondola cars, Kennedy's rolling stock includes cars modified or designed here. For example, Hoffman designed the booster structures car, capable of hauling additional shuttle booster components such as frustums and aft skirts. There are only two such cars in the world -- both in the space center's main rail yard.

"We've rebuilt the Air Force locomotives. We've built railcars. We've done painting," says URS Lead Mechanic Mike Stephens. He gestures behind him to the No. 3 locomotive, recently refurbished and topped with a new blue-and-white paint job. "I mean, this locomotive here, you can see how much better it looks than the other two. We're a pretty diverse group and we stay busy."

That expertise is essential, considering the dangerous commodities the railroad system so often has carried. In addition to the shuttle boosters, the NASA Railroad has carried nitrogen tetroxide, an oxidizer used as rocket propellant; Air Force Titan rockets; Navy Trident missiles; and the shuttle-based booster segments for the Ares I-X flight test.

 

UPDATE, 30 December, 2010

Reader Sarah Horowitz ups the rail-geek ante substantially with this bit of news:

Athearn is producing an HO scale model of the EMD SW1500 switcher in three liveries, including the NASA one! Pre-orders are now being accepted. To be delivered in mid-2011.

 

Photos: NASA

An Interactive Gallery of NASA Astronaut Spacesuits

The New York Times has published a fantastic interactive gallery of NASA spacesuits, such as as the Freedom 7 suit worn my Alan B. Shepard, above. The accompanying article is a must-read as well:

At its most basic, a spacesuit is meant to perform two nearly incompatible functions: protect the astronaut from the harsh environment of space, and allow the wearer to maneuver and work comfortably.

“The emphasis is on trying to develop a very mobile system while pressurized,” said Mr. Kosmo, who in 1961, fresh out of college with a degree in an aeronautical engineering, was asked if he’d be interested in a job described as working on “spacesuits, whatever they are.”

A pressure suit — a rubber bladder and a sealed helmet — allows the astronaut to survive in the vacuum of space. But a bladder is constricting when unpressurized, and when it is inflated movement becomes even more difficult, because moving the joints reduces the volume, increasing the pressure inside.

“When you pressurize it, it’s like working inside of a sausage,” said Joseph P. Kerwin, an astronaut aboard the Skylab mission in 1973 and the Apollo program “suit guy” — the astronaut who worked most closely with spacesuit engineers — for several years before that. “The whole trick in designing a spacesuit was to make it easier to move the joints inside that inflated balloon.”

An Awesome Illustrated Guide to Rockets of the World

An illustrated guide to all the world's major rocket systems, from physics professor Peter Alway's 1995 book Rockets of the World. Uber-high-res version here.

(via Jalopnik)

SPLASHDOWN! A Special Congratulations for Space X

Telstar Logistics gives hearty pat on the back to the team at Space X for completing their historic commercially launched orbital roundtrip spaceflight yesterday.

NASA to Reveal "Astrobiology Finding That Will Impact the Search for Extraterrestrial Life"

Has NASA discovered ET? Did it have a Close Encounter of the Third Kind? Did Barack Obama receive a signal from a distant galaxy that says "Klaatu barada nikto?" Or even worse, one that said "You will be assimilated!"

We don't know... yet... but the agency's announcement about a press conference that will take place this Thursday certainly sounds tantalizing:

MEDIA ADVISORY : M10-110

NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery
Science Journal Has Embargoed Details Until 11 a.m. PST On Dec. 2

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. PST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.

The news conference will be held at the NASA Headquarters auditorium at 300 E St. SW, in Washington. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website at http://www.nasa.gov.

UPDATE: Kottke has done some very nice background research about the people who will speak at Thursday's event. He also cites a Tweet from Alexis Madrigal discouraging speculation about a big announcement concerning extraterrestrial life. Hmmmmmm....

 

(Tip of the observatory to Paul Saffo)