The Troubadour: The Space Center Mascots VS the Olympic Mascots. A New Odyssey Flight Director. Earth and the Moon as Seen from Mars. A Flying Car

Hello Troubadours!
It's a perfect weekend for people like me who prefer overcast, drizzly days. Life couldn't be better! And for those of you who go into a depression when the sky is dark and foreboding, you have my sympathies and nothing more. It's our turn to enjoy a few days of delightful gloom.

Saturday at the CMSEC

Our Farpoint Cadets were busy at both space centers today. Pictured above is Isaac O., Jace B., Harrison B., and Dakota H. They just finished another successful Magellan mission.

Space Center Mascots vs. Sochi Olympic Mascots. Which do you Prefer?

The CMSEC has decided to reintroduce the public to their mascots in honor of the Sochi 2014 Olympics showcasing theirs. Above, the Sochi Olympic Mascots........OK, but how do they compare with the Odyssey Simulator's mascots? Who gets the gold medal, Russia or the Space Center? You decide.

Einstein and the ducks have been the Odyssey's Control Room mascots for five years (?). They look down from their high shelf and supervise, scrutinize and evaluate every Odyssey mission.

The Odyssey's 'sub'mascots lined up in front of the video monitor. The pink ducks have been been around quite awhile. The two yellow ducks are recent additions to the Odyssey's mascot family compliments of Nathan Young.

Nathan Young Given Odyssey Flight Director Certificate.

Nathan Young was shocked and bewildered this afternoon when Megan Warner, Director of the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center, told him that she was giving him his Odyssey Flight Director Certification. "Why,...... How?.....," Nathan questioned. "That mission went really bad. I thought for sure I'd flunked."
"That's just it," Megan explained. "Your crew was difficult and you handled them well. Flight Directors have to be able to handle rough crews and you did it."

I followed Megan and Nathan into the Odyssey Control Room for the official presentation of the Odyssey microphone - signifying Nathan's new status as Odyssey Flight Director. Nathan couldn't control his pride, as demonstrated in the photo above. "I did it, I did it," he mumbled under his breath over and over again. I told him to STOP and come back to Earth after he was seen asking people to pinch him to make sure he wasn't dreaming!

The Volunteering List Returns!

Megan directed my attention to a Space Center feature not seen since the Center closed in August 2012 for repairs and renovation. "It's the Volunteering List!" she proudly said as she framed the printed listed with her hands in a very Vanna White pose.
"Wow, flashback to happy times," I replied. "Things are really returning to normal around here."
"Yes Sir," Megan replied.

Earth and the Moon as Seen from Mars

From Space.com

NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars has captured its first view of Earth from the surface of the Red Planet — a striking image that shows our home planet as a bright light in the Martian sky, with the moon shining nearby. The Curiosity rover photographed Earth from Mars on Jan. 31 using the left-eye camera on its head-like science mast. You can see a video of Curiosity's Earth-from-Mars images here.The rover apparently watched the Martian sunset, then photographed Earth in the night sky about 80 minutes later, NASA officials said in an image description. [Amazing Photos of Earth from Space (Gallery)] "A human observer with normal vision, if standing on Mars, could easily see Earth and the moon as two distinct, bright 'evening stars,'" NASA officials said in the image description. Aside from some processing to remove the effects of cosmic rays, the Curiosity photographs are unmodified, they added. The Mars rover Curiosity snapped the photos of Earth from Mars during its 529th day on the Martian surface. The $2.5 billion rover has been exploring the vast Gale Crater on Mars since August 2012.