Streaming NASA.TV

I love this stuff. I wanted to put a streaming viewer of the ongoing Endeavor mission on my blog and remembered that a video podcaster was doing this via Ustream. I’d used this source last Spring when I watched the landing of the Mars Phoenix lander. Funny that there was nothing available directly from NASA but that this video podcaster was taking the NASA stream and making it available using the Ustream.tv embed viewer. I love this stuff. jbb

Launch of the Shuttle Endeavor Part 3 - 7:55 PM ET

Wow, that happened way 2 fast. Leaving the parking area is going 2 take much longer than Endeavor’s 1st orbit. Video 2 follow. 08:20 PM November 14, 2008 from Twinkle

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Launch of the Shuttle Endeavor Part 2 - Waiting for the Launch

Some folks watch a NASA documentary and fall asleep with five-seconds of the first acronym. My buddy Dan is one of those guys. We’d just started the Astronaut Hall of Fame tour and as much as he wanted to be there for the launch the first video we watched made him groan. I had no idea how we were going to do with the five-hour wait for the launch itself. Here’s my twitter rendition of the wait:

* Camped out @ Astronaut Hall of Fame waiting 4 Endeavor launch. Next time need lawn chairs. Picnic b4 launch http://snipurl.com/5hi61 4:04 PM Nov 14th from Twinkle
* Shuttle video play-by-play on big screen stuttered, then they switched 2 tape. Hope my twittering didn’t tax the network 4:07 PM Nov 14th from Twinkle
* Next time, besides lawn chairs, need backpack full of food & drink, also need to bring my Nintendo DS. Or maybe a book. Nah,definitely my DS 4:14 PM Nov 14th from Twinkle

Here’s my video version of this part of the event:

Launch of the Shuttle Endeavor Part 1 - Astronaut Hall of Fame Tour

One of the first things that I knew that I wanted to do when I decided to move to Florida was to attend the launch of a space shuttle. I really should have gotten my feet wet in this area back during the summer before my course started but it just didn’t happen. Then I read in ArsTechnica that there were only 10 more shuttle missions left before NASA would end the program on May 31, 2010. I definitely needed to make the pilgrimage to the Kennedy Space Center. Of course if I was going to make the trip I’m going to do more than just show up and watch the launch, thus the Astronaut Hall of Fame Tour (Kennedy Space Center tours are closed on launch days). jbb

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Mars Phoenix Lander Farewell

I knew someone had to put together a video of clips from the Mars Phoenix short life… I’m not one to anthropomorphize my own computers or gadgets but when I got my first “tweet” from the lander I was touched in a way that went past scientific curiosity:

• parachute is open!!!!! 7:50 PM May 25th from web
• come on rocketssssss!!!!! 7:53 PM May 25th from web
• I’ve landed!!!!!!!!!!!!! 7:54 PM May 25th from web
• Cheers! Tears!! I’m here! 7:55 PM May 25th from web
• Now.. I still have some other milestones ahead. Solar panels will open in 15 minutes after the dust has settled here. 7:56 PM May 25th from web

MarsPhoenix whole tweet record listed below (remember it goes from oldest on the bottom to newest on the top). I didn’t realize that the tweets began twenty days before the landing).

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Mars Phoenix Mission “Ends”

Watching the landing of the Mars Phoenix probe was one wonderful geek highlight last Spring. Alas, I’ve gotten a bit busy and haven’t been paying as much attention as I should. Then I heard the following sad message on Monday:

From Gizmodo:

This is My Farewell Transmission From Mars

If you are reading this, then my mission is probably over.

This final entry is one that I asked be posted after my mission team announces they’ve lost contact with me. Today is that day and I must say good-bye, but I do it in triumph and not in grief.

As I’ve said before, there’s no other place I’d rather be than here. My mission lasted five months instead of three, and I’m content knowing that I worked hard and accomplished great things during that time. My work here is done, but I leave behind a legacy of images and data.

In that sense, you haven’t heard the end of me. Scientists will be releasing findings based on my data for months, possibly years, to come and today’s children will read of my discoveries in their textbooks. Engineers will use my experience during landing and surface operations to aid in designing future robotic missions.

But for now, it’s time for me to hunker down and brave what will be a long and cold autumn and winter. Temperatures should reach -199F (-128C) and a polar cap of carbon dioxide ice will envelop me in an icy tomb.

Seasons on Mars last about twice as long as seasons on Earth, so if you’re wondering when the next Martian spring in the northern hemisphere begins, it’s one Earth-year away—October 27, 2009. The next Martian summer solstice, when maximum sunlight would hit my solar arrays, falls on May 13, 2010.

That’s a long time away. And it’s one of the reasons there isn’t much hope that I’ll ever contact home again.

For my mission teams on Earth, I bid a special farewell and thank you. For the thousands of you who joined me on this journey with your correspondence, I will miss you dearly. I hope you’ll look to my kindred robotic explorers as they seek to further humankind’s quest to learn and understand our place in the universe. The rovers, Spirit and Opportunity (@MarsRovers), are still operating in their sun belt locations closer to the Martian equator; Cassini (@CassiniSaturn) is sailing around Saturn and its rings; and the Mars Science Laboratory (@MarsScienceLab)—the biggest rover ever built for launch to another planet—is being carefully pieced together for launch next year.

My mission team has promised to update my Twitter feed as more of my science discoveries are announced. If I’m lucky, perhaps one of the orbiters will snap a photo of me when spring comes around.

So long Earth. I’ll be here to greet the next explorers to arrive, be they robot or human.

It’s been a great pleasure to have Mars Phoenix guest blogging for us, reminiscing back on a successful mission via its personality conjurer, the great Veronica McGregor at JPL—maintainer of Phoenix’s famous Twitter feed. Just as Doug McCuistion from NASA said on the news conference today, it’s certainly more of an Irish wake than a funeral today. We’re drinking to you tonight, little buddy. You can see all of Phoenix’s previous entries and the official press release announcing the end of Phoenix’s mission.

The Matrix Runs on Windows (XP, NOT VISTA!)

Sometimes after all of the political stuff and musings on religion it takes a giant step in the direction of silliness for it all to make sense. Thank god for YouTube and CollegeHumor…

And just in case you were still taking your life too seriously…

Is it me, or does Times New Roman look a lot like Ryan Block formerly from Engadget?

It’s a New Day

From the time I voted on the Wednesday before and up through election night I held my hope close to my chest for fear that I was just setting myself up for disappointment. Having voted in every election since Jimmy Carter in the 70s it certainly wasn’t for fear that somehow the Democrats were going to find a way to snatch defeat in the face of victory. I was very used to that. But in the past eight years I’d gotten to the point where it was clear that the process was being stolen by the powerful and in the case of the 2000 election the one group, the Senate, that could have done something about that election chose to look the other way. I mean, it’s one thing to get beaten fair and square or watch one’s candidate do something stupid deserving defeat, but it’s quite another thing to see such blatant disregard for “fairness,” or obvious conflict of interest. So, for the most part I “checked out” when it came to the political process over the past eight years, while I watched the powers-that-be drive my chosen profession, teaching, to the ground. What changed for me in this past election was the ray of hope I found in this young man from Illinois who spoke with such amazing passion and thought. And where did I hear him for the first time? It was in Will I Am’s original “Yes I Can” video. My interest was piqued. And then eventually I decided that if I was so concerned about this election getting stolen that I needed to get off of my ass and do something about it. I only volunteered a single Saturday morning, but it was a good first step. And when the election turned out to not be stolen, my first reaction was the snarky party cartoon that I posted. But that post only hid the deeper feeling of hope reflected in Will I Am’s new song, It’s a new day.

Here’s the original video that caught my interest and made me think twice about what this election could mean, the original Yes We Can - Obama Song

Music: It’s a New Day by Will I Am

p.s., I spent my election night watching/listening to Leo Laporte with Jason Goldbery from SocialMedian and it was a great conversation with interesting guests. Leo rocks!

…And then the next morning

November 4th, 2008

As much as I’ve wanted to, I just haven’t had the time to sit down and do any serious blogging. Thus, I’ve had to resort to recording my feelings on this important day via the 140 character repository of wisdom and subtlety known to most as Twitter… Here’s my feed from this amazing day:

• happy voting day USA twitterverse 10:45 AM Nov 4th from TwitBin
• @sarahlane sounds like a perfect way to spend election day. That’s my girl!!! 12:41 PM Nov 4th from TwitBin in reply to sarahlane: “Know why it’s good to be jobless? I’m going to sit in front of the TV watching crappy election coverage all damn day. DRINKING BEER. NAKED” 12:39 PM November 04, 2008 from web
• watching election results on CNN (sound usually off) & live stream from twitlive.tv election 08 w/ leo laporte, & upgrading mbp HD 8:52 PM Nov 4th from TwitBin
• cnn projects obama victory w/ closing of the west coast voting 11:10 PM Nov 4th from TwitBin
• don’t wanna go 2 sleep thinking obama won only 2 wake up like I did in 2000 & 2004 to see the hope stolen from me. Don’t want that… 11:17 PM Nov 4th from TwitBin
• good concession speech, sen. mccain. time for a second beer… 11:38 PM Nov 4th from TwitBin
• @drkiki we resemble that remark.”all the nuts roll south,” but even we can seize the moment to act beyond everyone’s expectations. Cheers! 12:23 AM Nov 5th from web in reply to drkiki: It had to be a great campaign to make Florida go blue.12:05 AM November 05, 2008 from Election 2008
• This one’s for you, USA (see below), a percentage of u are gonna want something stronger 12:23 AM Nov 5th from Twinkle

(should I be concerned that this is my 2nd beer reference in as many blog entries?)

Cnet’s news.com ran an excellent article titled: 10 election tweets worth remembering. I found #4 and #1 absolutely wonderful:

4. As voting lines reached record lengths around the country, CrunchGear blogger Peter Ha told everyone via Twitter to calm down: If you can wait three+ days to buy a damned iPhone then you can wait (in) line to vote, a**hats.

1. And our official “best election tweet” award goes to Twitter user JHix, who wrote about his voting experience: Officially just played the worst video game ever. You mark people with an “x” and then wait almost forever to find out who won.

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