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

What? Pluto's Having a House Guest!

My post the other day about Pluto got me all fired up about the little planet. (Dwarf planet just isn't politically correct. I think it hurts his feelings.) So I did some further investigation into our distant friend. What I found out was that NASA has sent a probe to the icy world. Did you know that? I didn't... You would think a nerd such as myself would have known SOMETHING about this mission.

Well anyway, the mission is called "New Horizons" and the craft was launched on January 19th 2006. As an interesting side note, the probe is carrying some of the ashes of the man who discovered the planet, Clyde W. Tombaugh.

The cool thing about the mission is that it will be approaching Pluto in 2015. The probe will be at its closest point on July 14th 2015. From there, it will head on to the Kuiper Belt to explore that region of our solar system.

Here is a cool link to NASA and information about "New Horizons"
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

I'm looking forward to what they find out about the now defunct planet. Maybe they will have to change their mind and re-instate it's planetary status.


-Red
www.jeffjake.com
www.facebook.com/jeffreyrjake
Twitter @MortisG187

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
www.facebook.com/jeffreyrjake
Twitter @MortisG187

Contact Jeff by email at author@jeffjake.com