Atlas V, Launching Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity

The Atlas V rocket is a marvel. This rocket put the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity into space.
Curiosity weighs 1,980 lbs. She’s the size of a small SUV.

The pictures are from NASA.

Curiosity, a big, bold, beauty.

Curiosity had a heat shield.

There is a parachute inside to slow down the approach to Mars when landing. Biggest one ever used for landing on Mars.

A drawing of the parachute helping to slow down the aeroshell.

And a back shell.

This is a drawing of what the aeroshell looked when it is in the atmosphere of Mars during the landing stage.

A drawing of how Curiosity landed.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter saw Curiosity’s heat shield as she was landing.

A drawing for a closer look at the Sky Crane. Curiosity talked to him on the way down and he listened. You’ll see the ropes which are called a bridle to place Curiosity on the ground. They used pyrotechnics, like the stuff for fireworks to cut the ropes once she was on Mars.
As a side note, NASA, JPL was out of contact with Curiosity for a full 7 minutes while she went down through the Mars atmosphere. They didn’t know that she was okay until she sent the first image of Mars. I imagine that they really hoped she’d land on her wheels and not her side.

Curiosity Landed on August 6, 2012.

Back to Curiosity going to the launch pad and Atlas V.

Curiosity was put into a crate to travel from California to Florida. She is in an US Air Force C-17.

This is a diagram of the Atlas V rocket. It’s from Lockheed Martin who built it for NASA.  You are on your own.

Atlas V common core booster going to the launch pad.

Atlas V common core booster and the booster (first stage) being placed in launch frame.

Atlas V Centaur upper stage being lifter to go on top of the common core booster in the launch frame.

I’m putting in a picture of the Atlas V rocket during fueling. That’s not Curiosity on top.

This is the logo for the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity.

They call this Payload fairing. I call it a capsule. The capsule is about to be lifted to the top of Atlas V.

The first word of Curiosity’s tweet: WHEE!

A part of another tweet by Curiosity: LET’s LIGHT THIS CANDLE!

The last two pictures. Atlas V and Curiosity launch. November 26, 2011.

Kazakhstan Steppes, Soyuz TMA-05M Lands, November 18, 2012

Three astronauts landed in a remote area of the Kazakhstan Steppes yesterday, in the dark. They had been at the International Space Station.
Their names are:
Yuri Malenchenko, Russia
Akihito Hoshide, Japan
Sunita Williams, NASA

The Map

Satellite Image of Kazakhstan from NASA. The lake is named Lake Balkash and it is turquoise. I’ll do a post on the lake and the rest of Kazakhstan at another time.

Next are two pictures of the Steppes  by, Vmenkov, Wikipedia Commons.

The first is north of Shu, Zhambyl Provence. The second is Central Kazakhstan, Aqmola Privince.

This is a picture from 2006 of technicians unloading cargo from Soyuz TMA-7.

A picture of the Soyuz TMA-7 landing, including a greeting party. By, NASA/Bill Ingalls.

This is a picture of the Soyuz TMA-O5M on its way to launch in July 2012. By, NASA/Carla Cloffi.

The last picture is of the Soyuz TMA-O5M landing, November 18, 2012.

 

Waterspouts

Waterspouts are tornadoes over water. They are also called cyclones.
I read in the news this morning that there was a large waterspout near Australia.
I read that if you are in a boat and see a waterspout, don’t try to get closer to it to get a better look. You shouldn’t be doing that. Instead, the advice is to go away from it and at a ninety degree angle.

I found wonderful pictures of waterspouts.

Here is the Environmental Protection Agency US Map of the States. The red arrow on the right shows where the Carolinas are located. The red arrow at the top shows where the Great Lakes are located.

The first three pictures of a waterspout by Captain James Ezell. They were taken off Carolina Beach. If you look carefully at the second  picture, you can see the waterspout forming. In the third picture, you can see the waterspout on the surface of the water.

Next is a picture taken off Summerland Key of four waterspouts  by, Thepainguy, Wikipedia Commons.

This is off the Florida Keys  by, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

A picture of a waterspout on Lake Ontario, The Great Lakes  by, NOAA.

A waterspout on Lake Huron, The Great lakes  by, NOAA.

The last picture is a waterspout, but I don’t know where it was located. It was taken by, NOAA.

 

 

Birds Gliding on The Thermals

I was told that birds glide on the thermals. Well, that was confusing. What it means is that when there is hot air rising in the sky, the birds glide on it. They don’t flap their wings and they look like they are have a good time.

I’m starting with three pictures I drew that show the basic idea of hot air rising.

If you look up in the sky and see birds floating around, they are gliding on the thermals.

Swallow Tailed Kite in Florida  by, Joe Nicholson, Nature Photographer, Bugwood.org

Andean Condor  by, Colegata, Wikipedia Commons

Bald Eagle  by, SriMesh, Wikipedia Commons

Red Kite  by, Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK, Wikipedia Commons

Red Tailed Hawk  by, Segea, English Wikipedia

White Bellied Sea Eagle, Wallabi Island, Australia  by, Sascha Wenninger from Melborne, Australia, Wikipedia Common

Lesser Kestrel Falcon  by, Lip Kee, Wikipedia Commons

This last picture is of a California Condor  by, the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Cruise Ships

The first frosts has made the green plants that don’t like the cold, black. Most of the leaves are down from the trees. It is that time of year when things look gray.

I was shopping today and people seemed to be frowning a lot. There didn’t seem to be much enjoyment in the stores.
I thought about why people take cruises. They get to go on board a ship and the crew takes care of everything. It is a great vacation for those who like being around people.

These are pictures of some cruise ships. The pictures are all from Wikipedia Commons, except for the first one.

Royal Caribbean has three largest of all cruise ships. I found pictures of all three. They were built in 2007.

Independence of the Seas  by, Emmuhl, lb. Wikipedia

Freedom of the Seas  by, Squrerigger

Liberty of the Seas  by Roger Wollstadt

The last picture is of another cruse ship. It is named Navigator of the Seas  by, HG32.

 

 

 

Tumbleweeds

Tumbleweeds are a familiar sight in old western movies. They roll across dry lands and seem to have a romantic air about them.
In reality, Tumbleweeds take a lot of water from the ground.
Tumbleweeds detach from their roots and roll away.
There are a number of plants that become Tumbleweeds.

By, Pardelsky, English Wikipedia

The rest of the pictures are from Wikipedia Commons.

By, Jez Arnold

By Renjishino

by, Mark Holloway from Beatty, Nevada, USA

In Chelan Washington  by, A.Balet

By, Kline

By, Edmond Meinfeld

This last picture is by, Chanel Wheeler.

Mars Odyssey Orbiter, A Reboot after Eleven Years

Mars Odyssey is a robotic spacecraft that gathers information, including images and sends it back to Earth. Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) listens to Odyssey talk and talks back to her. She also relays what the Mars Rovers say to JPL.  In a way, for Mars, Odyssey is gossip central.

Mars Odyssey Orbiter was launched on April 7, 2001.

Odyssey reached an orbit around Mars on October 24, 2001. JPL had to adjust her orbit until she was where it needed to be.
This is a basic diagram of what instruments are on board.

There is a very complicated explanation of all this, but I’m not the one to give it. I am easily confused.

This is a picture of Odyssey over Mars as drawn by an artist.

Odyssey had some parts wearing out. JPL put Odyssey on safe mode so that they could switch over to the back up system. The back up system hadn’t been booted since 2001, before she was launched.
During the switch over, Mars Reconnaissance took over the duties for Odyssey. Mars Reconnaissance is a newer robotic spacecraft orbiting Mars.
A picture of Mars Reconnaissance.

JPL rebooted the back up system on Odyssey and she was up and running. The first bit of data they received was from the Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity.

A picture of Opportunity.

The other rover has more than one way to talk to JPL, but she uses Odyssey as well.

The last picture is of the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity.

Total Solar Eclipse, November 12, 2012

The total solar eclipse can been seen in Australia. There won’t be another one until 2015.
A solar eclipse happens when the moon is between the Sun and the Earth.

The Maps.

World map by, Ktrinko, Wikipedia Commons. Australia is in the lower right corner.

In Australia, the eclipse can be seen in Queensland and Northern Territory.CIA World Facebook Map, modified by Mark Ryan, Wikipedia Commons.

All the pictures are from Wikipedia Commons.

Two diagrams of a solar eclipse.

By, Khanc

This is a picture from 1889, from Popular Science Monthly, Volume 60.

This picture was taken in Keelung City, Taiwan May 21, 2012  by, SSR2000.

A picture taken in 2009  by, KKchowchow.

This last picture was taken on May 20, 2012 in Ogden Iowa, US  by, Gummigoof.

Some Fossils

I was interested in fossils when I was a kid. They seemed so odd. I had trouble understanding that fossils were not the plant or animal from long ago, but a petrified, so to speak, version of them. It seems that the animal or plant dies and slowly they change into the stone form.
Dinosaur bones are fossils.
There are imprints on stones that are fossils and who animal fossils.
For the rest of the facts, you are on your own.

The pictures are all from Wikipedia Commons.

By, User:DanielCD

This fish fossil is from the Green River formation  by, Dider Descouens. It’s the Green River that the Oregon Trail followed.

The next five pictures are plant fossils.

From Clare Family Florissant Fossil Quary, Florissant, Colorado  by, Slade Winstone.

The next four pictures are by, Ghedoghedo.

The last picture is of petrified wood  by, Jon Sullivan.

US Army Corps of Engineers, In Memory of The 11th Hour, The 11th Day, The 11th Month,1918

This day is one of sorrow. It is when the Armistice was declared to end World War One.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers was begun by the Continental Congress in June of 1775. The US Congress formalized it in 1779. In 1802, it was made into the form that continued to expand until it was as large as it is today.
There are about 38,000 people, civilian and military that work in the USACE. They do a broad range of work that included environmental projects, like dredging rivers.

Except for one picture, all pictures are from the USACE. I’ll label them.  Some pictures don’t have dates.

The Map. This shows the USACE districts in the US.

West Point Military Academy was started in 1802. It is in New York State on the Hudson River.

This is a picture of the concept plan of West Point.

West Point, as it is today  by, Ahodges7, Wikipedia Commons.

Here are pictures of USACE projects that start in the 1800s up to the present day.

Pontoon bridge across James River, Virginia,  1864.

Gatun Lock Construction, Panama Canal, March 12, 1912

Dredging New York Harbor

Testing for toxic chemicals in the soil.

Proctor Lake, Texas

The last picture.  Launch Complex, Cape Canaveral, Florida by NASA. It was started in 1961.