Category: Blog

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Writing update

The third book is well under way, and it’s proving to be more ambitious than the first two. I tend to avoid outlining, preferring to let things shape up organically. But there is just too much going on in this one to not have some sort of road map.  Ha ha, see what I did there? Of course you don’t, because you have no idea what the story is. But I did something.

I’ve always preferred to write privately and keep the curtain closed. But I’m going to open it a crack this time, as I go along, to help me stay on mission.

However, time spent writing here is time not writing there. So the crack will reveal only this: each day’s word count. These are rough draft numbers. Bulk production is the name of the game at this stage. Finesse comes later.

As of yesterday evening, I had 8366 words.

Today’s word count: 782.

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Buddies

Look at these two!

Kolor stitching | 62 pictures | Size: 14114 x 13209 | Lens: Standard | RMS: 3.47 | FOV: NA | Projection: Stereographic | Color: LDR |

See https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25790/perseverances-selfie-with-ingenuity/ for info on how the image was taken.

image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

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Ingenuity on the surface

Stop a moment and look at this image. The human eye loves a vanishing point image and this is a good one. Look at the way the tracks interact with features of the surface. Look at the other set of tracks to the right. Perseverance has been busy looking for just the right spot. Finally, look at Ingenuity, newly set on the surface of its new home, waiting for its chance to rise up and explore on its own.

image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Starship SN10

If you haven’t watched the Starship hop from yesterday, take a look at the official SpaceX feed. It doesn’t show the later explosion (yes, it blew up about ten minutes after landing), but there is some really great footage here. The transition to glide at 10:04 and the relighting of the Raptors at 11:41 stand out, but the whole thing is worth a watch.

image: screen grab from SpaceX video

Yes, the landing legs failed. Yes, it stands at an angle after landing. Yes, it blew up ten minutes later. That stuff doesn’t matter yet. The legs were a temporary solution, not the final design. The goal of this mission was to improve the glide and the flip-and-burn maneuver for landing. By those measures, this flight was a success.

Looking forward to SN11.

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Perseverance landing

Here are a couple of “Wow!” shots of Perseverance.
The first is the rover under parachute, captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Think of the timing (and luck) that went into this shot. Wow!

The second is Perseverance hanging beneath the sky crane, a literal jetpack that brought the rover within meters of the surface then gently lowered it to touchdown. Seriously: Wow!
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Perseverance on Mars

I took a few minutes last night to stand out in the cold and look up at Mars. That bright orange dot, right there next to the Moon: we built a robot, and we threw it at that dot, and that robot used its own wits to find the perfect landing spot, and now it sits there, ready to look for past life. On that bright orange dot, right there next to the Moon.

image: NASA/JPL-Caltech