RBSP Van Allen, Here We Come Part Three

This is the last post on the Radiation Belt Storm Probe.
This phase of the mission is transporting all the parts of the Atlas V rocket to Cape Canaveral, getting the rocket in place and all the checks before lift off.

The first picture is of the launch pads  by, Mrmiscellanious, Wikipedia Commons.

The rest of the pictures are from NASA.

First is a drawing of the Florida location of Cape Canaveral. Right after that is a satellite image of the part of Florida that has Cape Canaveral.

There is a first stage with the booster underneath that gets the rocket up into space. This is what is on the covered barge. The first stage is on a truck inside.

I’m not sure at all where this is, but it’s a great picture of the booster on the end of the first stage.

The next four pictures show them driving the first stage to the launch pad. The rocket is assembled to be in position for launch by using an elevator that goes up to the very top of the frame that holds the rocket in place.

Here, they are lifting up the first stage and putting it into place on the frame.

Now the first stage is upright in the frame. The end that has the yellow on it is to put the second stage on top of it. It’s kind of like screwing on a top of a jar, but they don’t turn the capsule to secure it to the Atlas rocket.

This is the second stage being moved into position to be put on the first stage.

Here is a picture with the second stage above the first stage. They guys are up a level on the frame to check things out.

This picture shows the Atlas V covering on top of the first stage.

Here are the probes in the capsule on board the truck.

Next are the pictures of putting the probes in their capsule on top of the second stage and what the Atlas V looks like when it’s all put together.

Next are pictures of getting ready on the launch pad.

Ignition

Lift Off

Van Allen, Here We Come

 

RBSP Van Allen, Here We Come Part Two

The two probes with the solar arrays have been tested and are ready to be transported to Cape Canaveral in Florida. The first thing that needs to be done, is to package them properly so that they don’t get damaged in transit.

First, a satellite image of Cape Canaveral  by, NASA. All the pictures are from NASA.

I was going over the information I have on this mission and started getting confused. There was too much for only a second post. I will do a third post that shows how they put together the rocket to get the probes into space.

At the lab, they are ready to set up the probes to travel.

Next, they lift one of the probes and place it on top of the other.

I’m not sure, because the photos were a tad confusing, but I think they put the top one on and take away the white panels around the bottom one. at least, that what it looks like.

Now. they put the probes into the container that will take them up into space.

Now the probes are in their lovely container.

Tucked away.

Now they lift the lovely cover and will put it on a truck.

The last picture is of the truck heading toward Cape Canaveral.

 

 

RBSP Van Allen, Here We Come Part One

The Van Allen Radiation Belt surrounds the Earth. It protects the Earth from things like solar winds, flares and other energy that speed toward earth. Without the magnetosphere and the radiation belt, we’d be toast.
That is as technical as I get on this subject.

RBSP stands for Radiation Belt Storms Probe.

I split the process of the mission into two parts. This part is about preparing the probes. The second part will be about getting ready for the launch.

I’ll start with two pictures of solar flares. All the pictures are from NASA.

A diagram of the Earth’s Magnetosphere.

Two diagrams of the Van Allen Radiation belt. The red line is the route the probes will travel to have a look at the belt.This shows how the two probes will circle the belt. One will be higher than the other.

I’m showing these two pictures of the two probes once they are in space to help explain the vast amount of preparation for this mission.
The first picture is the separation phase of the probes.

This second picture shows the deployment of the array. The array   collects information from the radiation belt. The panels in the lab, before they put them on the body of the probe.

The body of the probe being lifted to go on the test stand.

Two pictures of the body of the probe on the test stand.

Putting on thermal blankets on the body of the probe.

Two pictures of checking things out.

Spin test.

Three pictures of putting on the panels.

Checking things out.

This is the array.

This last picture is of both probes going through a magnetic swing test. They do this to calculate the magnetic force of the probes so that they can deduct this amount from the magnetic readings they will get from the Van Allen Radiation Belt.

Spider webs

Spider webs are works of art. When you see one, it has taken the spider a bit of time to weave the delicate stands in that pattern. How they know how to do that is beyond me.
The webs show up best where there is frost, dew or mist. If the light is behind them, they glimmer until they dry.

I found some pictures of spider webs that are amazing. They are from Wikipedia Commons.

By Anne Burgess

By, Camec

By, Alasdair MacNeill

By, Serena from Europe

By, Dan Fuhry

The last picture is from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is the lowest spot on earth. This was enough to make me look into it. The fact that there is a lot of salt in it made me wonder about it.
I found some maps and pictures of it. It is in the Judean desert between Israel and Jordan.

The maps.

By, CIA World Facebook

Satellite image of Jordon  by, NASA

Satellite image of Israel  by, NASA

Satellite images of the Dead Sea  by, NASA

These are pictures of the Dead Sea. They are from Wikipedia Commons.

By, Dieter Manske

Dead Sea from Jordon area  by, Yosemite

Dead Sea, Jordan  by, Bernard Gagnon

By, Pete from English Wikipedia

Dead Sea from Israel  by, xta11

Dead Sea from Israel  by, xta11

Salt at the Dead Sea, Israel  by, xta11

Quala Beach  by, Tepert

Dead Sea Reflection  by, Elijah van der Glessen from Edmonton, Canada

The last picture is by, Ester Inbar.

 

North Carolina State Flower, Flowering Dogwood

I know very little about the state of North Carolina. What I do know is people visit it and come back saying how wonderful it is and that they are going back to the state. There is natural beauty with both mountains and ocean beaches.

I found all of the pictures at Wikipedia Commons. The exceptions are the two pictures of Dogwood flowers.

Two maps.

US map of the states  by, EPA. North Carolina is way over on the right side and is gray.

Topographical map of North Carolina  by, NASA

The state flower is flowering Dogwood., In the spring, the flowers bloom  in white and pink.

From all free download

From forestwanderer

The state vegetable is the sweet potato.

By, Jerome SAUTRET

The state red berry is the strawberry.

By, Nedko Ivanho

The state blue berry is the blueberry.

By USDA

The state tree is the Loblolly Pine.

By, sipeoria, English Wikipedia

The state stone is the emerald.

By, Vzb83

The state plant is the Venus Flytrap.

By, User: Mmparades

The Appalachian Trail runs through North Carolina.

At Newfound Gap  by, Billy Hathorn

The state bird is the Northern Cardinal.

By, Mike’s Birds

The next two pictures are of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

By, Ken Thomas

Blowing Rock  by, Zainurazvi

Out to the coastline. This is a satellite photo of the North Carolina coast by, NASA. It has barrier islands.

The state shell is the Scotch Bonnet.

By, Joshymarks

This is a NASA picture of Roanoke Island.

This is  the New Roanoke Marshes Light at Manteo  by, Riley.

A picture of a Lighthouse at Ocracoke  by, Sedna10837, English Wikipedia.

A picture of Cape Hatteras by Laura Sturtz, National Park Service.

A picture of the Outer Banks  by NOAA.

The last picture is of the state horse, the Spanish Mustang. These are wild Spanish Colonial  Mustangs on the Outer Banks  by, Joye.

Spices on the Oregon Trail

I was out for a bit this early morning and it is so humid. It is soupy and warm. We are supposed to get rain showers and perhaps a thunderstorm. The weather reports make no mention of when the humidity will go away.

Sweet spices may be taken for granted today, but in the mid 1800s, they were not easy to come by. The prices could be too high for some spices, so that a family about to set out on the trail, couldn’t buy them.
I found five pictures of nutmeg. I have to show them to you. I didn’t know much about nutmeg, except it comes in a little container. There’s more to it than that. It’s grown in the United States as well as other countries. I don’t know how easily the families could get it for the trail or if they wanted to use it.

I’ll start with two maps.

Oregon Trail  by, National Park Service

NASA Topographical map of the Oregon Trail with the line drawn by Matthew Trump, Wikipedia Commons.

I want to show a couple pictures of covered wagons. It still amazes me that families packed up their worldly good in them ant got to Oregon.

By National Archives and Records Administration

By, Larry D. Parks, Wikipedia Commons

 All the rest of the pictures are from Wikipedia Commons. Here are the pictures of nutmeg.

Nutmeg on a tree  by, Joe Raw

By, W.A. Djatmilko

By, W. W. Djamilko

By, David Monniaux

By, Jorge Barrios

Two pictures of cinnamon. The first one is the sticks and the second is ground cinnamon.

By, photo8

By, The DeliciousLife

This is a picture of whole ginger  by, Masari66. It is from Pakistan and was very expensive.

The last picture is of baking powder  by, Terabyte. They used either this or baking soda. Baking soda and powder look alike. If you got them confused, you’d have to taste them. Of course, you’d have to know what each tasted like. They were used to make biscuits and such rise. Yeast is alive and if they had it, it had to be in the form of a starter dough. Not an easy thing to make or keep.

 

Dust Bowl

There was a major drought in the Great Plains from 1931 to 1939.
The winds blew across the prairies at about 40 miles per hour. These winds from the west lifted the dry soil into the air and carried it eastward. Most of it landed in the Atlantic Ocean.

This is a complicated topic and I have found information to try to explain what happened to cause such a devastating time.

Here’s a satellite photo of North America from NASA. I wrote in the names.

Here’s a map of the Great Plains.  It’s from Wikipedia.

A topographical map of North America by NASA, modified by Captain Blood, Wikipedia Commons.

This is a topographical map of the area of the Rocky Mountains. It shows the east side of the mountains where the Plains begin.

Winds blow from west to east. This is because the earth rotates and the motion makes winds move around the globe.
Here, I tried to show how the winds come west, hit the Rocky Mountains, go over the mountains and then barrel across the flat plains. Before the mountains, there can be rain, but the rain doesn’t make it over the mountains.

This is a satellite picture of the Arizona dust storm in 2011. NASA

This picture shows some prairie land  by, National Park Service.

The next two pictures are recent prairie photos  by, Blamfoto, Wikipedia Commons.

The next pictures are of the dust storms in the 1930s.
They are from:
National Archives and Records Administration, NARA
United States Department of Agriculture, USDA
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA

Rolla, Kanasas  NARA

Liberal Kansas  NARA

NARA

Oklahoma  by,Arthur Rothstein 1915-1985

This picture from the USDA doesn’t say where it is.

The next two pictures are of Spearman, Texas.

NARA

NOAA

In Colorado

By Arthur Rothstein 1915-1985

By, Arthur Rothstein 1915-1985

Dallas, South Dakota, 1936  USDA

This is from South Dakota, NARA

The last picture is of Baca Colorado, Easter Sunday, 1935  by, N. R. Stone, NARA.

Woolen Clothing on the Oregon Trail

If it got chilly at night or in September on the trail, woolen clothing came in handy. It would have been too heavy to wear during the heat of the day.
It was a long process to get from the sheep to the shirt.
I found some really good pictures. They are from Wikipedia Commons except for one which is from USDA and I will label it.

First are the two maps.

Oregon Trail  by, National Park Service

NASA topographical map with trail line by, Matthew Trump.

I’ll start at the beginning of the process.

By, Dickbach

Next are two pictures of wool.

By, Cgoodwin

By, Ken Hammond, USDA

This is a picture of spinning wool into yarn.

By, Jeekc

Two pictures of colorful wool yarn.

By, sahradesertfox

By, Roy & Danielle

A picture of a wool sweater.

By Liralen Li

The last picture is of a ball of wool yarn with a cat attachment  by, Loliloli.

Before The Dust Bowl of The 1930s

I went looking for the main reasons the dirt blew across the plains states during the 1931 to 1939 drought.
The Homestead Act of the late 1800s allowed farms to be too small. What that did was make the fields become over used and over grazed by animals. That was later corrected.
World War One had farmers in the plains states producing a lot more wheat. This left a lot less grasslands to keep the soil moist and in place.
Machines came along and in the 1920s, this caused a lot of fields to be smoother instead of left with dirt and grass clumps. it was easier to plow and so more land could be cultivated for crops.
Ranches also played their part. Huge amounts of land were grazed by cattle and sheep. This leveled the grasses and left the soil vulnerable to winds and drought.
The farming practices used in the 1920s were designed for humid areas with more rain and not for the plains states.
The 1920’s was called the Roaring Twenties because money was to be had and machines advanced to do jobs more quickly.
Contour plowing is also blamed for causing soil to fly. This was a way of plowing on slopes and the rows of plowed dirt flowed along the curves of the land. It was supposed to plow deeply and prevent rains from carrying the soil downhill.
There have always been periodic droughts in the plains states. The winds blew across the land at a fierce rate. I’ll do the information about the winds in the plains states when I do the Dust Bowl post.
I have pictures about the fields. They are from Wikipedia Commons.

Here are two maps.

The North American Prairie

By, USDA

This picture is of a Kansas  winter wheat field awaiting harvest by, Billy Hathorn. It is from 1972 and shows how a wheat field usually looks.

This is a tractor at work in an Iowa field, 2009  by, Sarn Beebe.

This is a McCormick Twine Binder in 1884  by US Government.

This is plowing with horses, before machines  by USDA.

This is contour plowing  by, USDA.

Haskell county Iowa, Kansas, plowing with the one way disc plow, said to have caused trouble by smoothing the dirt. Smooth dirt would be picked up the winds very easily. Picture taken by, Irving Rusinow, Nation Archives and Records Administration, US.

This is in Haskell County Kansas, cattle grazing in a wheat field  by, Irving Rusinow, NARA.

The last picture is my little joke about what to blame for major problems.  The picture was taken was by Richard Webb.