The Troubadour

Monday, August 26, 2013

A New Troubadour Feature. Dave Wall Marries! New Simulator at Lakeview. Technology Destroys Lives. Star Trek Cookies. The Imaginarium.

Hello Troops,
I'm sitting at my desk in the London Room at Renaissance Academy (which also doubles as the Farpoint's world headquarters. Doesn't that sound impressive?). A new, perhaps interesting feature has been added to The Troubadour. Look at the top of the right side bar. The Troubadour is the place where my 23 students go to remind them of their due assignments and projects. It will be your small window into the operations of an above normal Utah 6th grade class in an above average Utah charter school located on a wind swept northern bench of Utah County.
Think of what you get by reading The Troubadour: news from the different space education centers, space and science news, the Imaginarium and now posts highlighting the day to day story of an over the hill, nearly ready for pasture sixth grade teacher and his class of patient and smart 11 and 12 year olds. Could live online get any better? I think not.

Today's Motivational Thoughts
A teacher's way of motivating his students to do their work and pay attention in class.

Historically, many individuals have been afraid to pursue careers in the sciences because they fear that they will not be able to keep up—that they lack the mathematical skills necessary for pursuing a career in physics, astronomy, or similar fields. And to many people, the fear of not excelling, of not being a leader in their field, of not earning a substantial income…it is akin to death. But fear should not stand in your way. Generally speaking, a monotonous life that makes you miserable is not much of a life. So reach for the stars--literally. Watch a Youtube video on this subject.

Dave Wall Marries? Pigs are Flying and Snow is Falling in the Nether-regions

Congratulations to Dave Wall, the designer and builder of the Space Center's original Odyssey Simulator, on the occasion of his wedding to Amber Boehm this last weekend. The Space Center's oldest veterans remember Dave fondly and join us here at The Troubadour in wishing Dave and Amber the very best as they journey through life together.
The wedding was awesome. Amber's wedding march started with the Imperial Theme from Star Wars before transitioning into something more appropriate. Amber is as big a sci-fi, fantasy fan as Dave. They make the perfect couple. Dave and Amber will make their home in Draper at the top of the mountain overlooking both Utah and Salt Lake Counties.

Dave and Amber

The First Pictures of Lakeview Charter School's New Simulator at Saratoga Shores

Space Center fans are excited to see progress on Lakeview Charter School's new simulator, the USS Leo. Casey Voeks is seen in the photo below looking like he's helping with the construction. Those of us who know Casey know that the photo was most likely staged. The same thing happened at the Discovery Space Center. A picture was being taken of the ships under construction. Casey took a hammer and jumped into one picture, thus giving the viewer the illusion he was right there the whole time, mucking in with the rest.

Congratulations to Lakeview Charter School and to the Discovery Space Center on this major accomplishment.

"Make sure you get the hammer in my hand."

A Very Sad Testimony to our Modern Age.
This super-short video will make you depressed about how much time you spend checking your phone.

What do you do about it?

Space, Science and Engineering News

Check out the incredible Maersk Triple-E. It's the largest ship in the world. It can carry 182 million iPads or 36,000 cars on a voyage from China to Europe.

Snowball Earth

During vast ice ages millions of years ago, sheets of glaciers stretched from the poles almost to the equator, covering the Earth in a frozen skin. Conditions on the "snowball Earth," as scientists refer to it, made the planet a completely different place.
"We're essentially talking about another world," said Linda Sohl of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.
In May, Sohl spoke with a small group at a lunchtime seminar, later posted online, about the evolution of the understanding of the snowball Earth and how it has changed as technology has improved.
Read More

How to Make Star Trek Cookies
http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/2013/05/simple-star-trek-cookies/

The Imaginarium
Turing the ordinary, into the extraordinary

Proof that things can get worse

Kevin gets an A for imagination

The Forever Alone Bench

The purpose for that thing on his head alludes him

The Yellow Submarine Car

A little more creativity wouldn't go amiss

I wonder if he had to take off his shoes?

A new kind of watermelon is created

The world's worst road in Russia

The Keyboard Throne

Maybe not the best Halloween decoration for a retirement home

And people still pass them on the right

Sunday, August 25, 2013

A New Odyssey is Under Construction! The First Week of School. Awesome Video. Space News. The Imaginarium.

Construction Begins on New Odyssey Simulator

You read it correctly. The Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center at Central School will soon be the home to a new Odyssey simulator. As you recall, the Odyssey was removed during last year's Space Center renovations. It was necessary, but sad for hundreds who considered the Odyssey their favorite Space Center simulator. The old Odyssey's electricals were not up to par.
There were other problems needing correcting, but the cost of making the repairs was close to the cost of taking out the old and building a new.
Construction began last week. The Odyssey II will be built in the same room as the Odyssey. It will share a wall with the Voyager instead of the library (the librarian is overjoyed I'm sure). The Odyssey II will hold up to 10 people. Every station will be wheelchair assessable.
The Space Center will be able to take up to 42 students per class once the Odyssey II opens for business. This brings the Space Center back to full field trip operations: two classes per day instead of last year's one class per day. Pictures and regular construction updates will be available as they are made public.

The First Week of School: Four Days that Felt Like 100 Years

How was your first week of school?
I'm holding on by the skin of my teeth at Renaissance Academy. For all practical purposes I might as well be labeled a new first year teacher. After all, the 1989-1990 school year was the last time I taught a full time 6th grade class. I'm fine with classroom management; its the new Utah Core Curriculum I've got to master.
I've got a fine, cooperative class who've shown remarkable patience as I've stumbled about trying to teach new material and remember their names. After spending hours at the school this weekend, I feel confident about the names and the language arts program. I believe next week will be smoother.
I'm sure many of my old staff and volunteers would have enjoyed watching me waffle my way through the first few days. There is nothing like seeing the old boss sweating buckets underneath while looking surprisingly cool and collected on the outside. Its a skill you perfect when working as a flight director knowing that anything and everything will go wrong eventually. You learn to hide disasters from your crew or make them think it was all a part of their mission.
A new week is upon us. Let's be great and do our best.

Mr. W.

Amazing 9 year old, great voice and awesome use of tech.

Space and Science News

International Space Station: Second Spacewalk in a Week

Cosmonaut Misurkin during Thursday's EVA.

It's not easy to do two spacewalks in a week, but cosmonauts Misurkin and Yurchikhin just did that. On Thursday during a spacewalk of nearly six hours, they performed maintenance and inspections, and worked on a laser communications experiment until they discovered the base was loose and would require more planning and work than they had time for.

Congratulations to the Russians! Cosmonauts unfurl the flag of Russia during that nation's Flag Day.

Astronaut Nyberg works on the Combustion Integrated Rack.

During the last week the ISS crew continued station maintenance, EVA suit preparations, experiments, and normal spaceflight routines. Karen Nyberg worked on the Combustion Integration Rack, monitoring experiments in weightless combustion. She also performed experiments with the In-Space3 equipment, studying how certain fluids react in a magnetic field in zero-gravity.

Was the camera upside down? Parmitano at work.

Italian astronaut Parmitano installed an Ethernet hub in the Columbia module, and assisted astronaut Cassidy in testing air samples throughout the station for any possible biological contaminations. In a closed environment, it's essential to keep a lid on wastes and molds that could interfere with life support.

From Houston's MIssion Control, engineers began the task of moving the station's robotic arm to a different location near the Kibo module. They are preparing for moving experiments from the Japanese experiment rack to other parts of the station exterior.

UFO watchers go an unexpected sighting during the spacewalk as some strange object was seen by Chris Cassidy floating mysteriously near one of the Progress spaceships. It turned out to be an antenna cover.

Now it's an Identified Flying Object.

ISS: Russian EVA breaks time record

NASA computer image of spacewalk in progress. Credit: NASA and NASASpaceFlight.com.

Yesterday morning cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin set a new Russian spacewalk duration record, coming in from the EVA after 7 hours and 29 minutes of maintenance and preparation for the new module coming later this year.

Yurchikhin outside the ISS, installing cable TV. I mean, installing cables for future power routing.

In fact, the cable routing was to extend ethernet wiring from the Zarya and Poisk modules, in preparation for the new module to replace the expiring Pirs module. AT one point in the EVA, cosmonaut Yurchikhim was positioned attached to the Russian cargo boom arm and moved into a working position outside Zarya to work on power cables.

Yurchikhin on the Strela robot arm.

While Yurchikhin continued preparations for the module installation, Misurkin installed an experiment on the outside of the Poisk module and then worked on cable installation as well. This was Misurkins second EVA, and Yurchikhins 7th (!). The EVA was the 172nd ISS spacewalk.

Pictures from Docking the HTV4

Astronaut Nyberg in the cupola, practicing docking with the Robotic Arm controls. The view from the cupola windows is extraordinary. Images today from NASA, in the Image Gallery for the ISS mission. Good to see my tax dollars at work!

They make it look too easy, but it's not. On August 9, Japan's HTV4 automated cargo spacecraft reached the International Space Station and was carefully guided to docking through a collaborative effort of the astronauts, Japan's mission control, and NASA's mission control. Following a textbook-perfect series of grappling and robotic arm maneuvers, the craft was docked at the Node 2 docking port. That's the same docking port used by SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft (currently on Earth). What doesn't show in the pictures are the thousands of hours of practice, preparations, and troubleshooting that goes into making sure these systems work perfect every time. And the astronauts make it look good.

Just before Docking: Get your cameras ready... Cassidy and Nyberg in the cupola with HTV4 seen floating above Earth yet some distance from the ISS.

And it's also not just a simple matter to get the spacecraft up to the ISS. There's quite a complex dance of maneuvers, thruster firings, communications relays and a myriad of system checks that ensure that the cargo arrives on time. Well, at least safely. NASASpaceFlight.com has a great article on the techniques used to get the HTV4 into position for the astronaut crew just before grappling. You can catch lots of information here: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/08/japans-htv-4-berths-with-the-iss/

Much closer now. Better get the arm ready.

Nyberg working the robotic arm controls. Although this picture was taken during a training session on board the ISS, the actual scene would have been no different.

And the spacecraft is caught...

HTV4 will stay at the station for some time, as the crew removes the cargo and eventually fills the craft with garbage, waste, and broken or discarded equipment. Some months from now the HTV4 will be undocked, and sent to burn up in the atmosphere over an empty ocean. SpaceX's Dragon will be arriving at the same Node 2 docking port early in 2014.

By Mark Daymont

Farpoint Educator

The Imaginarium

Making the Ordinary, Extraordinary