The New Galileo's Maiden Overnight Camp

Hello Troops,
Well, after a year in design, development and construction, the new Galileo is running its first Overnight Camp at this very minute in the cafeteria.  We attempted to run its first private mission on Tuesday but it turned out to be a disaster.  There were so many bugs in every system the mission didn't get off the ground.  It was all good though because we made a detailed list of everything that went wrong.  We've been working through that list all week. Tonight the new Galileo attempts another launch into space.

It's 9:37 P.M. on Friday.  The Overnight is full swing in all our ships.  I'm going to away from my desk for a moment and go to the cafeteria to check on the new Galileo's mission.  I'll be right back with a full report.......

Galileo Update:  9:43 P.M. December 11, 2009
     Our new Galileo appears to be a power hog.  Kyle reports the a circuit breaker was tripped when they tried to use the air compressor (regulates the compressed air for the ship's upper and lower hatch) and the smoke machine.  I found them restarting the ship.  It was funny because our Programming Guild is the crew for this test mission.  Stacy told them she'd send in a programmer to get their computers up and running inside the ship.  Matt reminder her that the ship was full of programmers!

     Their core computer is too slow.  It's an older tower Mac.  Alex came in and picked up one of our spare Mac Mini's.  We'll swap the computers to see if we can't speed things up.  One of the ship's two air conditioners isn't putting out cold air.  It appears we will be making a trip to Home Depot to purchase another air conditioner - in December!

It's 9:51 P.M.  I'll take a moment to get a picture or two for you.  Stand by......

Sorry for the blurred images.  Don't know what's wrong with my camera and I'm too tired to figure it out.

We are hosting students from Mountainville Academy and Wasatch Elementary tonight.  OK, I'll post more as developments occur.

Mr. Williamson

Space News. Wednesday, December 9, 2009

White Knight 2 carries the new spacecraft in the middle.

Monday saw the debut of the successor to Spaceship One, which was the first civilian spacecraft to reach suborbital space and return the astronaut safely to Earth, repeating the event within 2 days. SpaceShip 2 was presented to the public at SpacePort America, under construction in Las Cruces, New Mexico. This tourism space project is the brainchild of Burt Rutan, the genius aircraft designer who invented many advanced concepts for private and commercial aviation. The project is funded by Sir Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Atlantic airlines and Virgin music stores. The company created to run this project is called Virgin Galactic.

SS2 secured in the middle launch position.

SpaceShip 2 has been named VSS Enterprise (I wonder why that name?...). It will carry six paying passengers on a sub-orbital ride into space to experience weightlessness and a superior view of our planet Earth, before returning through the Earth's atmosphere. Passengers supposedly are paying up to $200,000 per ticket and there is already quite a list. Test flights could begin any day now, and paying public flights are scheduled to start no earlier than 2011.

This is the real deal. For the price of the ticket, anyone will be able to go into space. Once this project is running well and additional spacecraft are added to the fleet, it's expected that Virgin Galactic will work on developing Orbital flight operations.

The pictures I've included are by Jeff Foust, who runs the websites NewSpace Journal (http://www.personalspaceflight.info/) and Space Politics (http://www.spacepolitics.com/).

Mark Daymont
Magellan Flight Director
http://spacerubble.blogspot.com

Well, That Put's It All In Perspective

Hello Troops,
Ever sit outside and look at the stars in the night sky and wonder where you belong in the grand scheme of things? You may feel you are a very small cog in the great gears of multiple bureaucracies. And you may be. You may feel you have very little control of your life. And you may not. You may feel no one has your back. And they may not. You lie in bed, staring at the ceiling, worrying about things that seem overwhelmingly important to you - but are they really?

Your perspective of the world and universe revolves around a few family members, a few close friends, school mates, work mates, and perhaps a few others here and there in a club, church, or some other social organization. This little circle of people you 'hang out' with play a large roll in your understanding of who and what you are.

Take a moment and think of the people in this "Who I Am" circle. They have power over you because you've given it to them. These people help you create your self concept - the feeling of who you are. They help you form your self image. When they talk you listen. If they are upset, you are upset. In other words, you really care about what they think when it comes to you.

Now, how many people are on that list? Compare that number with the number of people in your town, county, state and nation? There are 6 billion people on this planet and your self image is dictated by how many people?

A word of advice. If your "Who Am I" circle is really big (as it can be for teenagers that freak out of anyone at school mentions the pimple on the end of their nose) may I suggest you rethink your perspective. A well grounded person pulls his self image from inside rather than outside. His "Who Am I" circle of people that help him form his self perception is very small. Their self image isn't dictated by the large group. It comes from inside - from a small group of people.

Now, let's take YOU and put YOU in the grand scheme of things.

Here YOU are on Earth. Asleep in bed, dreaming of lands far away. Look how our world compares to our nearest neighboring planets.

And now you see YOU compared to all the other planets of the solar system.

Wow, add the sun and look how small the Earth is.

Our sun is a light weight compared to several other stars.

And how about comparing our sun to some of the largest stars in the universe. Our sun is only 1 pixel is size!

There are more stars in our galaxy than grains of sand on all the Earth's beaches. And how many galaxies are there?

This is the Hubble Deep Space Field. Take a penny outside at night. Hold it as far from your eye as possible toward an empty section of the night sky. Imagine how small Lincoln's eye is against that empty night sky. The picture you see above is a picture of what really exists in that tiny space occupied by Lincoln's eye on the penny. Each one of those lights is an entire galaxy!!

And in all the wonder and grandeur of the universe please remember there is only one YOU!

So, be kind to yourself and don't let yourself get beat up over small things. You are unique. You are a human. You have self awareness. You can comprehend the universe. And as far as we know, we are the only intelligent life in the universe. If there are others, then they are rare, very rare indeed. You are a miracle so don't forget that the next time you freak out because someone gave you a funny look.

Mr. Williamson