Spaceflight

Colorado sheriff: Runaway balloon saga was hoax

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The parents who set off a worldwide drama by reporting their 6-year-old son was inside a flying saucer-like helium balloon hurtling over Colorado concocted the stunt to market themselves for a television show, a sheriff said Sunday.

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Alderden said the parents Richard and Mayumi Heene "put on a very good show for us, and we bought it."

The sheriff said no charges had been filed yet, and the parents weren't under arrest. He said he expected to recommend charges of conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, making a false report to authorities and attempting to influence a public servant.

Now who is the slightest bit surprised by this? I mean, seriously? That it completely captivated the media for most of Friday doesn't change the fact that the whole thing smelled from the very start.

Jim Downey

I first noticed the change on the way to Pittsburgh almost two weeks ago. Here and there, a blush of color amongst the green. A slight touch of yellow, a bit of red creeping in on the edges. Just accents.

On the way back almost a week later, there was more. Oh, it was still summer. But there was just a hint of the fall to come.

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On my walk with the dog this morning, I ran into some old friends who were visiting family a block over. She's now an L-2, made Law Review this year. Made the Dean's List both semesters last year. A former employee, who decided on going to law school after being out of school for some years.

"We should get together."

"Well, you're busy with school right now."

"Yeah, but I'm trying not to lose contact with all my friends. My personal life has to have some priority."

I smiled. "It's OK. Your friends understand the whole delayed-gratification thing. Do what's important now, secure your future - there'll be time for us to socialize later."

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OK, I must admit that I was a bit surprised to see a headline yesterday that the majority of Americans weren't even born at the time of the first Moon landing.

Damned kids are ruining everything!

Anyway, so, confession time for all you old farts: where were you when Neil took that 'one small step'?

I was at a Boy Scout camp in the middle of nowhere, Missouri. But fortunately, the camp operators made plans for this event, and the whole lot of us were sitting in a big arc watching a tiny little B&W television. Reception was miserable, the television screen was smaller than the monitor for my computer, and it seemed like I was about 150 feet away from the thing - but I got to see it happen, in real time.

How about you? Get to see it?

Jim Downey

Via Phil Plait, a glimpse into how far woo can go wrong:

Orbiter crashing into the moon

There is a Japanese lunar orbiter named Kaguya that is scheduled to crash into the moon today at about 2:30 pm ET. Scientists hope to learn something about the moon’s composition by observing the debris that is kicked up.

In many traditions, including astrology, the moon represents the feminine. It is the yin, the intuitive, the emotions. Women are connected to the moon by their menstrual cycles while they are fertile, and all beings, including the earth herself, are affected by the pull of the tides.

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Did these scientists talk to the moon? Tell her what they were doing? Ask her permission? Show her respect?

Wow.

Just . . . wow.

OK, I spent *way* too much time playing this game last night: Orbitrunner. And because I'm the kind of guy that I am, I wanted to inflict it on you.

It's actually a very interesting bit of gaming, for as simple as seems at first glance. Here's the description from the site:

Control the Sun with your mouse. Use it to manipulate the planets' paths. The Sun's pull gets stronger as planets get closer. If the gravity is at a right angle to the direction of travel, an orbit can form. Make sure planets don't leave the screen or collide!

Do you recognize these words?

"HOUSTON, TRANQUILITY BASE HERE.
THE EAGLE HAS LANDED."

Of course you do. That's the transmission sent to NASA Mission Control from the Moon on this date in 1969.

I was at a Boy Scout camp outside of St. Louis when it happened. That night, we all sat around a big firepit, and tried to watch a small black and white portable television with bad reception as Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) E. Aldrin, Jr. made the first human steps onto the Lunar surface and spoke these words (links to audio file on Wikipedia):

"That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."

And the world was changed forever.

So, where were you?

Jim Downey

(Cross posted to my blog.)

The toilet on the International Space Station is broken.

It's interesting to me that a system like that was not engineered to be redundant. Where is the backup plan? The spare parts at least?

On a slightly different note, I own an RV. It would be awful to deal with a broken toilet in the RV - and we could just go outside and find a public restroom - or a tree - if we had to.

This is a classic "we need to learn from this" moment. I mean, it's not like we are going to stop flying into space. It is only going to become more commonplace. A little thought and re-engineering of the freakin' toilet facilities seems to be in order.

Just remember, astronauts: If it's yellow, let it mellow. if it's brown, flush it down.

In spaaaaace!