Safe journeys home, Commander Hadfield and crewmates.
Floating in a tin can
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Category Archives: space
Turn your bloody lights off!
Manchester from the International Space Station last night.
Liverpool and the Wirral (you can see my Dad’s house from here).
Some place down south.
Is it any bloody wonder we can only see a handful of stars these days?
[All photos by Commander Chris Hadfield]
Postscript, 20:23: I just showed my Dad the middle photo, and, when we zoomed in, we really could see his house!
Small steps
In the early hours of 21st July, 1969, my Dad woke me (age 4), and carried me downstairs so that he could hold me in front of the telly as Neil Armstrong took a giant leap for Mankind. Mum thought Dad was crazy. I shall forever be in his debt.
I must have seen that footage several hundred times since, so I cannot hand-on-heart say that I remember the live event, rather than some re-run. But I saw it: that’s the important thing—as Dad fully appreciated.
Thanks, Dad.
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012)
HOLY CRAP, IT WORKED!!!
BBC: Nasa’s Curiosity rover successfully lands on Mars
The US space agency has just landed a huge new robot rover on Mars.The one-tonne vehicle, known as Curiosity, touched down at 06:14 BST (05:14 GMT) in a deep crater near the planet’s equator after a plunging through the atmosphere.
You know when people say something ‘isn’t exactly rocket science’? Well now you know what is. Our species’ awesomeness is confirmed yet again.
Now it’s time for Curiosity to start making crop-circles. It’s the only language the Martians understand.
See also:
Curiosity Rover update
Remember that frankly bonkers video I showed about how they hope to land the next scientific probe on Mars this coming August? Well, here are some of the lunatics who designed it, explaining their thinking:
What could possibly go wrong?
NO FUCKING WAY!!
Pardon my French, but that’s what I shouted (three times) when I saw this computer simulation of the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity Rover), planned for 6th August, 2012:
Sometimes, we should try the impossible.
Eat that, Transformers! We are a totally awesome species for even thinking this might work.
Postscript: See also Curiosity Rover update.
Go, Atlantis!
My mate Karen from the Beagle Project attended the last ever space shuttle launch last week. I am not at all jealous. Oh no. Not in the slightest.
Karen and 'Atlantis' last week.
She even managed to wangle herself a press pass (for which, read a ringside seat), courtesy of the Guardian, and has posted her account of Atlantis’s final lift-off on the Guardian science blog.
It’s stirring stuff. You should go and read it.
Go, Atlantis! (cc photo: Flickr user 'wicho'
Here is a Karen’s hand-shot video, raw and unprocessed:
Aren’t we a bloody amazing species?