UARS Satellite Coming Down!

HEADS DOWN!

It's Duck-and-Cover time, folks, as a big piece of space junk is headed our way and just may hit someone! Sure, the chances of it hitting YOU in particular are about 1 in a trillion, but hey, you're on the planet, aintcha?

UARS in orbit.

NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is expected now to re-enter the atmosphere sometime late Friday the 23rd or early Saturday the 24th. As the trajectory becomes more clear, it seems that we Americans may be in it's probable fall zone. That zone could be an estimated 500 miles long.

UARS has had a good life, performing its research since 1991 in orbit of the Earth. It's a big boy, though, about 6.5 tons and the size of a school bus (why are things always related to the size of a bus or Rhode Island?) and it won't all burn up during re-entry. Scientists have estimated that about 26 pieces will survive to land on the ground. The fall through the atmosphere will cool the pieces so it shouldn't be hot when it lands. However, there are some coolants and reactants that could be harmful to human flesh so if you should find a piece, don't touch it(!) but rather notify local police and take lots of awesome pictures.

Mr. Daymont
Space Center Educator

A Diet Dew did the Trick.

Hello Troops,
I fired everyone including myself yesterday. Afterwords, I went to Harts, bought a Bill Chill, 32 ounces of Diet Dew with one squirt of cherry for extra flavoring, returned to the Center and rehired everyone - including myself. The Dew, did the trick and made things better.

I remember a verse from a Primary song, "If I had a wish then it would be.....". It goes on wishing the listener a Happy Birthday. IF I had a wish then it would be..... schools that give me accurate student counts!

An example, we had a school arrive with two classes of 27 and 28. They sent an email saying their classes were both 26. We use the Voyager and Odyssey for classes of 26. We open the Phoenix if for classes over 26. We had to scramble to get the Phoenix up and running and staffed for two missions. Of course, the school arrived late making thing more difficult.

So, if you're a teacher coming to visit the Space Center, I urge you to give us accurate student counts before you arrive so we can be prepared. We want to deliver the best possible field trip. That's only possible with accurate numbers and students well briefed on their missions before they arrive.

Thanks teachers in advance for helping!

How about a few Wonders of the Imagination from our favorite place, the Imaginarium....

Just in case you needed to

My favorite of the day

Again, we take care of our Dr. Who / Space Center fans.

Have a great day troops.

Mr. W.

Tatooine, Real? Perhaps it all Happened in Our Galaxy and Not a Galaxy Far Away!

Luke watching a double sun set on Tatooine.

Hello Troops,
I'm blown away by Kepler's newest discoveries, like the first known planet to orbit a binary star system. Yes, this is a real Tatooine like planet straight from Star Wars found by the Kepler Space Telescope.


Please take a moment and read the short article below. Then watch the two short videos showing the planet in motion around the double star.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepler-16b.html

Space is truly the final frontier. We live in interesting times. You gotta love technology!

Mr. W.