Vacation

Giving my brain a break, resting my mouse hand and enjoying California wine country. If time permits, I hope to revisit NASA Ames... it's been 12 years since I've seen Moffett Field!

Normal activities will resume after the American Thanksgiving holiday, including processing entries for the Apollo T-shirt contest... feel free to email entries in the meantime, I'll check email now and then.

See you in December! :)

This Day In History (#8)

On November 13, 1971, the Mariner 9 Orbiter became the first artificial satellite of the planet Mars; it was thus the first space craft to successfully orbit another planet, only narrowly arriving before the Soviet Mars 2 and Mars 3, which both arrived within the month.

Mariner 9 exceeded all primary photographic goals by photo-mapping 100% of the red planet's surface, and also took the first close-range pictures of Mars’ irregular moons, Deimos and Phobos. Mariner 9


My favorite Mariner 9 photo is this stunning view of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system at nearly 80,000 feet. That’s 15-miles high… contrasted here to the largest volcano on Earth: Mauna Loa on Hawai'i Big Island. The Martian Mount Olympus is also considerably wider... if it rested in America, for example, it would fill the entire state of Arizona.

Launched in May 1971 by the Atlas-Centaur, Mariner 9 spent 349 days in orbit, and transmitted 7,329 images back to NASA, revealing polar caps, massive dust storms, wind and water erosion, ancient riverbeds, and a “grand canyon” stretching nearly 3,000 miles. This enormous "Valles Marineris" system is named after Mariner 9 in honor of its achievements.


After nearly a year, the spacecraft turned off when its fuel depleted, but Mariner 9 will likely remain in stable orbit until at least 2022, after which the spacecraft will enter the Martian atmosphere.

For my fellow computer geeks (hold your breath and remember this was 1971): Control of Mariner 9 was through a central computer with an onboard memory of 512 words, capable of 95 commands. Data was stored on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, which could store 180 million bits (slightly over 21MB).

Astronaut Cookbook

Hockey pal & faithful reader (maybe you noticed the pattern this month) Mrs. Rene L. over at Pages, Pucks & Pantry tipped me off to a wonderful new paperback by Charles Bourland and Gregory Vogt called The Astronaut's Cookbook!

I’m tremendously pleased to see such a tome on the market, since I still run into people who think both astronauts and flight analogs use Tang to wash down only freeze-dried fare or paste tubes. However, this little kitchen funhouse emphasizes that fresh fruits and vegetables are MUST HAVES for every mission, and also covers the various Space Food Types: Rehydratable Food, Thermostabilized Food, Intermediate Moisture Food, Irradiated Meat, and so on.

Excerpt:
"Satellites, lunar landings, space stations, robot rovers on Mars, solar and deep space observatories, and probes to the edges of interstellar space have sent back a flood of scientific information. Space exploration has fundamentally changed our lives, from the classroom to the marketplace to cyberspace.

Space food is a unique branch of nutrition science. [Creating it] is all about packaging, preparation, consumption and disposal. The primary driving force behind space food menu development is weight and volume. The less the payload carried by a rocket, the less thrust the rocket must generate to reach space."



True that! Everything placed on board for liftoff is measured to the last cubic inch and fraction of an ounce -- including the astronauts and their food. The book also covers the challenges of eating in micro-gravity and advises what to look for in your local market in terms of making your own space-worthy drinks, entrees, snacks, soups, salads and breads (hint: crumbly foods are a bad idea... stick with tortillas!)

Also, stories are not limited to the NASA food lab. The Russians insist up on their borscht, but look askance at American peanut butter. JAXA uses rice as a staple. Some foods, like onions and garlic, cross national lines but can still be divisive among crew members.

During the first long-term missions, Johnson psychologists included Hostess Twinkies in a care package to one astronaut, justifying it as comfort food. However upon receipt of the package for a re-supply mission to MIR, the Russians refused to deliver them because... wait for it... the package didn’t have an expiration date! The lab joked that Twinkies never expire, but the Russians weren’t going for it. The American aboard MIR had to make do with M&Ms.

DENIED.

True to any modern cookbook, it also feature some specialized recipes from famous chefs (including Emeril and Rachael Ray) and some of the more flamboyant astronauts. My personal favorites so far are Paula Hall's Chipotle Lime-Marinated Grilled Pork Chops and Joe Kewin's Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas.

Just in time for Thanksgiving! It's my turn to cook this year, won't my family be surprised...

Apollo 13 Artifact

Longtime reader and blog supporter Joe Neigut brought my attention to this noble artifact in Building 2 on the JSC campus, which served as the public visitor’s center before the larger "Space Center Houston" tourist facility was built.

Some of you other long-timers may remember Joe (the bedrest studies’ project manager) from a spot on FOX news during my Lunar Study, where we both spoke briefly. He’s the respectable looking one in the necktie; I would be the slacker in the reclined position ;)

I never would have spotted this on my own amid all the other artifacts, so it pays to keep your eyes open around every corner. Thanks Joe!

Inside the glass bubble is the Caution and Warning indicator panel from Apollo 13’s Command Service Module. These were the little buttons that lit up during the explosion that crippled the spacecraft, setting off a chain of events that would require all of NASA’s ingenuity to solve.

Clicket to Embiggen...

Excerpts from the official chronology of events on Apollo 13:

55:54:53 - Master caution and warning triggered by DC main bus B undervoltage. All indications are that the cryogenic oxygen tank No. 2 lost pressure in this time period and the panel separated.

55:56:10 - Haise: "Okay. Right now, Houston, the voltage is -- looking good. And we had a pretty large bang associated with the caution and warning there. And as I recall, main B was the one that had an amp spike on it once before.

55:56:30 - Duke: "Roger, Fred."

Gives me chills. Little did they know what that would mean in terms of their life-threatening situation, and what would occur over the next few days to get them back to Earth!

The inscription reads: With thanks from the crew of Apollo 13 to the men and women of the mission evaluation team and the mission support rooms for the assistance provided in effecting our safe return.

Signed by Mission Commander James A. Lovell, Command Module Pilot John L. Swigert and Lunar Module Pilot Fred W. Haise.

The rest of the Apollo 13 Command Module, Odyssey is on display at the Cosmosphere and Space Center of Hutchinson, Kansas.