“We were under approximately 4 Gs when the engine cutoff, which gave us a good jolt forward during the deceleration and then a good jolt back into the seat after the third stage ignited. I looked at Anton and we both began to giggle like school children.”
nasa.tumblr.com Why is Mars small?
Here’s an article on the formation of the Solar System and why Mars is smaller than expected.
It’s interesting that Mars is small. It’s interesting to think about the formation of the Solar System. But what I find particularly compelling is the description of three distinct hypotheses, each just as likely to be correct as the others.
The Planetary Society Colors
Here’s a wonderful story about Alan Bean.
“Every color in Alan’s heart was there on the Moon, in its craters and rocks and hills, because a human was walking in that world — an artist — and wherever humans go there is color. All the color.”
X (formerly Twitter) The New Space Race
Everybody is getting involved!
Actually, this is part of an annual rocket festival in Thailand and Laos called Bun Bang Fai.
https://www.facebook.com/SciTechUniversedotcom/videos/1930087523924044/UzpfSTEzMjc0NTA3MDgzOTI1MToyMTMxNzU4MDk0NjI4NDM/
Alan Bean has died
“the more I thought about it the more I realized there were young men and women at NASA in the astronaut office that could fly the shuttle as good as I could or better, but I was the only one interested in trying to do this other job.”
That other job was to paint.
NPR.org The Expanse is saved!
Approaching Mars
Humans to Mars Report 2018
“The Humans to Mars Report (H2MR) is an annual publication that presents a snapshot of current progress in mission architectures, science, domestic and international policy, human factors, and public perception regarding human missions to Mars – and highlights progress and challenges from year to year. By doing so, H2MR provides stakeholders and policy makers with an invaluable resource to assist them in making decisions that are based on current facts rather than on the dated information and speculation that sometimes tends to persist in the public arena where Mars is concerned.”
https://www.exploremars.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/H2MR_18_Web.pdf
Gemini interior
Here’s a video from 1965 on the state of the art in manned spaceflight. Jump to 4:04 for a tour through the interior of a Gemini capsule.
One Year
I find this video mesmerizing. You are down there somewhere, going about one year of your life. What were you doing from July 2015 to July 2016? The question I keep coming back to is: was it important?