First American in Space

May 5th 1961, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. launches into space in the Freedom 7 space capsule. He is the first American to travel into space. His historic flight only lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles.

Freedom 7

He was also the fifth man to walk on the moon.

Thank you Alan for your contribution to the United States space program. 

-Red

www.jeffjake.com

Elvis Has Left The Building! Or Maybe Not.

A few weeks back I did a post about the Voyager space craft. (2/25/13) In that post I gave you an update of the Voyager 1 & 2 as of March 2012. After 36 years both of the probes continue to send data back to NASA.

Well the Voyager 1 probe has hit the headlines this month. The data that was received from the craft initially indicated that it may have left the solar system. That would make it the first man made object to reach interstellar space. At a distance of 11.3 billion miles, equipment measured a drastic change in radiation levels. At first, this was thought to be a sign that the little probe had left the solar system.

However, after going over the data, the lead on the project issued a statement that Voyager in fact has not made it to interstellar space. Kind of a bummer.

Here is a link to the recent press release.

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/20/science/la-sci-voyager-20130321


Don't you hate that... get all excited... pop the cork on the champagne... pull out the party hats... kiss that cute co-worker... only to find out... whoops.. we were wrong. Now... it's just uncomfortable.


-Red
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Email Jeff at author@jeffjake.com

Vger (Any Star Trek Fans Out There?)

In the movie Star Trek The Motion Picture, one of Earth's probes returns home. In its time away from Earth the Voyager 6 craft had become much more than what it was when it left our solar system. An interesting concept to say the least.

What go me thinking about Voyager, was an app for the iPhone that my good friend Blaine showed me this weekend. It was a NASA app that gave you all kinds of information on current and older programs. While browsing the various items the app had to offer, I came across the Voyager 1 & 2 status. To my surprise both craft are still providing information to NASA scientist.

Both craft were launched in 1977 and visited Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 continued on to visit Uranus and Neptune. Here are some of the images that these spunky little craft sent back to Earth.

As of March 2012 - Here is the status of both Voyager craft:

Voyager 1 was at a distance of 17.9 billion kilometers (119.9 AU) from the Sun.

Voyager 2 was at a distance of 14.7 billion kilometers (98.3 AU).

Voyager 1 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.6 AU per year.
Voyager 2 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.3 AU per year.

There are currently five science investigation teams participating in the Interstellar Mission. They are:

1. Magnetic field investigation
2. Low energy charged particle investigation
3. Cosmic ray investigation
4. Plasma Investigation (Voyager 2 only)
5. Plasma wave investigation

Five instruments onboard the Voyagers directly support the five science investigations. The five instruments are:

1. Magnetic field instrument (MAG)
2. Low energy charged particle instrument (LECP)
3. Cosmic ray instrument (CRS)
4. Plasma instrument (PLS)
5. Plasma wave instrument (PWS)

One other instrument is collecting data but does not have official science investigation associated with it:

6. Ultraviolet spectrometer subsystem (UVS), Voyager 1 only

Makes you wonder if Start Trek The Motion Picture could actually happen... Pffft... Whatever.


-Red
www.jeffjake.com
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Twitter @MortisG187

Contact Jeff by email at author@jeffjake.com

How the Ancient Roman's Built a Space Shuttle Booster

First let me say that I got this topic from a good friend of mine. I'm not sure why I haven't shared it with you yet... but here it is. As those of you who are regular to Ramblings know, I'm a bit of a sucker for history. So this was right up my alley.

In a discussion, my friend made the comment that the Roman's had an impact on our space program. Of course I was like... "Say what?" Come to find out, it's true. You see, in ancient Rome, the powers that be came together to agree on a standard width of a chariot's wheel base. Okay you say... what does that have to do with our space shuttle? I'm getting there... hang on. So, with a standard width set, the Roman roads were built with that measurement in mind. As the years past and other people started using wagons and carts, it was easier to just use that same standard width so that the wheels would ride in the groves worn into the road from the chariot's. (Some of these roads still exist today.)

So when the peoples of Europe came to the new world, they brought their tools and standards with them... and so, our first roads also were based on the chariot's wheel base. Now here is the cool part. When the railroads came into existence, guess what.... Yep, they used the same measurement. So our train tracks are based on the wheel base of a Roman chariot.

Now here is where it gets to the bread and butter. The tunnels the train track go through are based on those dimensions. The rocket boosters for the shuttle had to be taken by train through those tunnels. Viola, the Romans decisions almost two thousand years ago, affected our space program.

You can go here to read the article that I found.

-Red
www.jeffjake.com
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Twitter @MortisG187

Email Jeff at:  author@jeffjake.com

Felix Baumgartner’s Epic Leap - Data Review

Felix Baumgartner - October 14th 2012

Many of you may remember that back in October 2012, Felix Baumgartner made history with the highest and fastest “sky dive” in history. It’s taken a while to crunch all the numbers and find out exactly how epic that jump was.

Here is a break down of what Felix did back on October 14th, 2012:

He reached a speed of Mach 1.25 (Folks, there are jet planes that can’t move that fast)That means he was moving at 843.6 mph or 1,357.6 kmh

He jumped from an altitude of 127,852.4 ft (38,969.4 m)

They also noted his heart rate:

His pre-launch heart rate was 40-100 bpm

During his ascent 60-100 bpm

His heart rate maxed as he exited the capsule at 185 bpm

During his free fall his heart rate was 155 - 175 bpm

It was at 169 bpm when he hit Mach 1.25

Then during the parachute descent it was 155 - 180 bpm.

Baumgartner experienced 25.2 seconds of absolute weightlessness during the initial stage of his free fall.

He entered a period of turning and spinning that reached a maximum rate of 60 revolutions per minute and put the 43-year-old in a “flat spin” position for about 13 seconds.

He was in “freefall” for 4 minutes, 20 seconds.

Let’s face it, Red Bull really can give you wings. LOL

-Red

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Twitter @MortisG187

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Cold Welding

This is COOL. Did you know that in space, if two pieces of metal touch, they become one piece. It doesn't happen on Earth because our atmosphere puts a layer of oxidized material on the surface of the metal.

My first thought was how in the world do they work with anything in space. I would think this would be a problem when they went to use a wrench on something. Then I thought maybe they coat everything with rubber or something. Nope, apparently anything brought up from Earth has the oxidation already.

I'm not going to try to go into the science on the topic. But if you want to know more, here is the wikipedia link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_welding 


How's that for a cool factoid! (Get it... cool... LOL)


-Red

www.jeffjake.com
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Twitter @MortisG187

Email Jeff at: author@jeffjake.com