Music and the Space Center

Hello Troops,
I get to work with scores of staff and volunteers as the Director of the Space Center. Each one is unique in his or her own way, but there are similarities - such as a common love of music.

Those of you familiar with a Space Center mission know it is an interactive play complete with lights, sound, the spoken word and music - lots of music. In fact, music plays almost nonstop in some form or another from the first word of the mission story to the last triumphant celebration or mournful death.

Our obsession with music, and the roll it plays in our missions, stays with us even when we aren't at the Center working a flight. For example, every time I go to a movie, I follow the story and listen intently to the sound track. I'm searching for that next great melody I'd like to use in a mission to convey a feeling or celebrate a victory or loss.

You'll often find the staff discussing music whenever they get together. They share awesome pieces with each other. You'll hear debates on what's good and what isn't and what works and what doesn't. In fact, one can't become a Flight Director without his or her own library of music. Part of their training includes demonstrating they know the correct use of music in flight to transform a room of computers into the bridge of a starship set 300 years in the future.

I'm pleased to see that most of my older staff have quite a good palette when it comes to music. I've heard them use everything from show tunes to classical to Hindu music in their missions (although I've yet to hear anyone use Country music in a mission but that's not to say it won't happen). I'm hoping our younger staff learn from the older and broaden their appreciation of music and the role it plays in our lives and in good storytelling.

I see snow falling on the valley below as I look out my living room window. It reminds me that Christmas is approaching and I'm OK with that. I don't like the snow but who doesn't like Christmas? One of my favorite things about the holiday is its music. Christmas carols, in all their variety, carry some of the best tunes written. They are songs we enjoy singing year after year.

To celebrate this time of year (even though its a bit early) I'd like to broaden the musical experience of my younger staff and volunteers by introducing them to some of my favorite music of the holiday season. This is the kind of music they normally wouldn't listen to, but in my never ending quest to urge them to broaden their choices along the FM dial, I'm going to present a few of them here on the blog in hopes they'll listen and say "That was good. I'd like to hear more."

Today I start with Bach. His Christmas Oratorio is one of my favorites. It was first preformed in Germany during the Christmas season of 1734. Then dismissed until resurrected again in 1834.

And now, Jauchzet Frohlocket - the opening piece of Bach's Christmas Oratorio - sung by the St. Thomas Church Choir of Leipzig, Germany. I chose this rendition of the piece because St. Thomas was Bach's home church and the church where the piece was originally performed in 1734. Bach was the church's choirmaster and sang in the choir as a boy.

Progress in Wars Against Comets

Comet Jets in action.

By Mark Daymont
Space Center Educator
From his Blog: Spacerubble

Congratulations to our scientists who study comets and asteroids. JPL EPOXI mission controllers managed to fly the spacecraft to within 800 miles of Comet Hartley 2 to get some of the best pictures yet of a comet in action, The picture above shows streaming jets of dust and gas coming off of the surface. This time scientists were able to pinpoint jets to particular surface features, something we haven't been able to do before. All I could think of as I saw the pictures come in was, "SO that's what a comet does!" The comet tumbles as it orbits around the sun, the surface warms up and begins spewing jets of stuff out into space, forming a cloud of tiny debris which is blown away from the comet itself by the action of the solar wind. Much later, as Earth moves in its own orbit around the Sun, it encounters remnants of this debris release, and the particles end up entering our atmosphere at extreme speeds, creating our meteor showers.

Japanese scientists made a breakthrough with the Hayabusa satellite, which captured some of the debris left behind either by comets or shattered asteroids floating in the inner solar system.

Asteroid bits captured in gel.

The Hayabusa spacecraft spent two and a half months flying around the astroid Itokawa in 2005. It captured buts of the asteroid floating around it, and made a return course back to Earth. The sample capsule plunged into the Earth's atmosphere and was retrieved. Scientists are now studying the particles to learn the composition of the asteroid.

Celebrations here in the Bunker. Our close reconnaissance of Comet Hartley 2 gives us unprecedented views of the enemy in action. We can actually see in the photos how the rock bomber releases its micro weapons into an orbit which the enemy hopes intercepts the Earth. Such tactical information may be of great use to us as we plan counter-operations.

Kudos to the Japanese who have actually obtained unexploded asteroid ordinance for us to examine. Scientists will use these pieces to begin unravelling the mystery of these enemy weapons which could cause untold devastation if they should happen to smack into our planet.

It's advances like these that keep our hope alive that we may yet find a way to protect ourselves from deadly attacks from the Comet Empire.

I've a Bone to Pick with Harry Potter

"Read All About It, Potter Fans Bring American Industry and Schools to a Halt. Millions Lost in Poor Productivity. Magicians Nationwide Fear Backlash"

Hello Troops,
It has come to my attention that several, and I mean several, volunteers and staff of the Space Center stayed up until the wee early hours of this morning in a darkened theater watching the latest installment of Harry Potter and Gang.

The consequences are obvious. They will arrive at school and work is a semi conscious state and stumble their way through the day. This will make for a very unhappy bossman who will not hesitate to muster my muggle powers of speech to keep you alert and on task.

So, a warning to my Potthead staff. We will be watching you....... Stay on the ball......

And, on a lighter note to try to bring some cheer to this threatening post, how about a bit of fun from Friday's Imaginarium:

Check Mate. Gruesome, but necessary.

The Cloud Factory
From our series of "Where do Things Come From".

And from our Series of "Thinking Out of the Box"
The Imaginarium's Traffic Signals