Practice Makes Perfect

The crew of STS-133 completed a practice run today, and all went well. Discovery Commander Steve Lindsey, pilot Eric Boe, and specialists Alvin Drew, Tim Kopra, Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott are now headed back to Houston, the place they take astronauts so they won't be that sad to leave Earth.

Discovery, which launches on Nov. 1, will spend 11 days in space. It will deliver the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), which will provide additional storage for the station crew, spare components (c'mon, just say "spare parts") and the Express Logistics Carrier 4, which holds large equipment (refrigerators? buses? backhoes?). It will also carry Robonaut 2 ( R2), which you think they would have named Robonaut 2, Device 2, so it could be R2D2. Who's naming these things?

Once Discovery launches, R2, which is inside the PMM and will become a permanent resident of the ISS, will be the first human-like robot in space.

But Garrett is not going, so who really cares? Not this blog.

(Actually, this blog does care because this blog loves the space shuttles and space in general. Almost as much as this blog loves Garrett. But at least it will give Garrett a chance to see the Yankees, with the highest payroll in baseball, beat up on the Rangers, who have the fifth lowest.)

RIP, John Huchra

John Huchra, a professor of cosmology at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the man who (with two women, Margaret Geller and Valerie de Lapparent) mapped the universe and turned conventional theory about galaxies on its head, died last Friday. His mapping of the Coma Supercluster was possibly the most famous map of the universe ever made, largely because it looked like the stick figure of a person. The supercluster was in the middle of a "Great Wall" of galaxies with a length of about six hundred million light years. It confirmed that the galaxies in the universe are arranged in sheets and walls surrounding large nearly-empty voids.

“His passing has upset more of us than I remember for any other astronomer,” said Tod Lauer, an astronomer at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, in a New York Times obit.

We Are Not Alone, and I Hope They Don't Come for Garrett

Ever since I discovered how big the universe actually is, I have been convinced that we are not alone in it. I mean, we are a tiny blip in an itty bitty portion of the Milky Way, and there are, according to a 1999 Hubble estimate, roughly 125 billion galaxies in the universe. Other estimates go as high as 500 billion. Regardless of how many billions we accept as true, the question remains: Why in the world would we think it possible that we are the only intelligent life out there?

Anyway, last Monday, seven USAF personnel talked to the National Press Club about how they believe that aliens are out there, AND they are interested in our nuclear weapons facilities. The six former officers and one ex-enlisted man said they either personally saw UFOs hovering over nuclear missile silos or nuclear weapons storage areas in the 1960s, '70s and '80s or heard reports of such from their subordinates.

Three of the former Air Force officers said that UFOs hovering over silos around Montana’s Malmstrom Air Force Base in 1967 appeared to have temporarily deactivated some of the nuclear missiles.

Meanwhile, one of the largest telescopes in North America, the 72-inch All Sky Optical SETI scope, owned by The Planetary Society and operated by a Harvard University team, is looking for pulses of light that would confirm contact with extraterrestrial life. According to the Society, the telescope, with its cutting-edge processors, crunches, in one second, more data than what is stored in all books in print.

I hope we find something. But I worry that, if they find us and they figure out how smart and funny Garrett is, we could lose him.

The Planetary Society Takes a Stand

The Planetary Society has written a letter expressing concern about the four NASA appropriations bills currently before Congress, noting that they make short shrift of the manned space program specifically for exploration and that they are unfocused and scattered. The bills, according to The Society, which is populated with people a lot smarter than me -- or our Congresspeople, for that matter (people like Jim Bell, Bill Nye, Louis Friedman, Dan Geraci and Neil deGrasse Tyson), dwell too heavily on the continuation of low-Earth orbit missions to the detriment of real astronomical research.
Its particular complaints are laid out in the letter to House and Senate leadership (which you can find here):

• None include a plan to restore U.S. technical capability to launch astronauts to space once the shuttle is retired. At best there are directions that -- even if followed -- will likely lead to a “launch gap” years longer than was planned, even with Ares, and certainly longer than could be expected from the commercial launch industry, if they are supported.
• Instead, we support government – private partnerships to develop U.S. designed and built commercial launch vehicles, proven ones like the Atlas and Delta, and new ones like the Falcon.
• No exploration goals are set other than vague citations of building capability to ultimately fly to destinations beyond Earth orbit. Instead, we support identification of specific targets such as going beyond the Moon for the first time, then to a near-Earth asteroid, then to the orbit of Mars, and then to Mars itself. As Gemini and the early Apollo missions engaged the Nation on the way to the Moon landing, so too can steps into the solar system engage the Nation on the way to Mars.
• The various bills push to start “heavy-lift launch vehicle” development sooner than proposed by the Administration, despite having no destinations or flight goals for such a rocket for at least a decade. We strongly support American development of a deep-space rocket, but we believe that premature development through political legislation rather than technological studies could result in huge waste and eventual delays. Thus, we suggest support for a technology program to develop and evaluate competing approaches and to complete a preliminary design before committing to the final selection. A shorter actual development time will lead to a lower-cost project.
• The Administration’s proposed exploration and space technology programs are deeply cut. This exacerbates the situation of the past decade when NASA technology programs were eviscerated and the agency was unable to develop new technologies that could reduce cost or enhance performance. We support restoration of NASA’s proposed technology funding.

But that's not the only problem. Emily Lakdawalla, The Society's Science and Technology coordinator, believes that few are paying attention to the incredible research that is being accomplished by unmanned spacecraft. She writes:

I'm sick and tired of people equating "NASA" with the manned space program, and failing to realize the bounty of amazing discoveries being made through the eyes of the 20-odd robots that we Americans have built and are currently operating across the solar system. Like the Planetary Society's leaders, I believe that our (and this time "our" means "humanity's," not just America's) space program must include both manned and unmanned components, and that the two must work hand in hand. But I'm frustrated again and again by the lack of respect and recognition for what our robotic missions -- and all the men and women who work for NASA and universities and aerospace contractors who make contributions to our unmanned program -- are accomplishing.

And to prove her point, she links to this amazing chart.

When you think of the astounding discoveries of the last several decades, not adequately funding NASA makes no sense. The low-Earth orbit stuff is great (how else would we see the ISS fly over every now and then?), but we (and by "we," I, like Emily Lakdawalla, don't mean Americans; I mean humanity, need to reach beyond the successes of the Space Shuttle era to find that next Earth that Garrett talked about in the interview below.

Garrett Speaks!

Well, I talked to Garrett for about 40 minutes for what was supposed to be a 15-minute interview, and the only reason I hung up was because I was afraid NASA would send its goons to come bonk me on the head. (Not really. I don’t think NASA has goons. They’re all at NOAA.)

As I said earlier, I didn’t want to ask the usual questions, and I am woefully unequipped to ask him questions about his pre-astronaut career, seeing as how his official biography notes that, “His multiphase fluid mechanics research provided the first experimental evidence of the presence of shock waves in unsteady cloud cavitation,” and, as Stephen Colbert once said about something, “I don’t know what any of the words in that sentence mean.”

So I did two things: I asked him what I would want someone to ask me if I were an astronaut, and I asked him stuff I was just plain curious about. And friends and sisters tossed in a couple questions.

And guess what? This may come as a total surprise, but Garrett is funny and interesting. So I’m just gonna let him take it away…

What is your first memory of the space program?

Well, I was a year-and-a-half old when Apollo 11 touched down, so I don’t really have much memory of that. What I do remember is we had an old Super 8 movie projector that we watched mostly home movies on, but we had one reel of a show about the Apollo 11 mission. It is one of my earliest memories and probably one of the strongest influences on me. I watched that thing over and over. You know how those little Super 8 reels would break? I would splice the tape back together with Scotch tape. It got to the point where the weight of the Scotch tape was greater than the weight of the Super 8 tape.

I do remember watching the first space shuttle launch and thinking that was pretty cool.

We have this idea about astronauts that they are all people who grew up lying on their backs in their backyard, looking up at the stars and saying to themselves, “I want to go there.” Is that true?

Not really. I just didn’t think it was possible. Growing up in New Jersey, it just never occurred to me that I could become an astronaut. Maybe a doctor, or, later in high school, an engineer. But I was always fascinated with the National Air and Space Museum. I remember we went there as a family, and we split up. We were told, “You’ve got two hours, and we’ll meet back under the Spirit of St. Louis.” After two hours, I said I would need more time. They ended up leaving me for two days. They went to see the Lincoln Memorial and all the other sites.

If you weren’t the coolest astronaut on the planet, what would you be?

I usually tell people I wanted to be the center for the Knicks. That obviously wasn’t going to work out when I failed to get any taller than 5’4”. By the way, I still think I could have done a better job than Ewing. But I was happy working at TRW, so I probably would have ended up working as an engineer. I know one thing: It wouldn’t have been as fun.


What’s the weirdest thing you have to do in training?

There’re a couple things, but the best one is you have to make a mold of your butt. It’s part of the Soyuz training in Russia, because they make individual linings for the seats. It’s pretty cramped in there, and when the Soyuz “lands” – and you can put that in quotation marks – it’s kinda like being in a car crash. In the shuttle, I have to really pay attention to touchdown, or I will miss it. With the Soyuz, there’s no mistaking it. So they give you a seat that fits very, very well.

Anyway, they bring you to a place in Moscow where they manufacture the hardware and suits and stuff, and there’s what looks like this little bathtub. They put you in your underwear and not much else, and fill it up with plaster. Then they lift you on a winch and lower you. They try to keep it warm. Then about eight people come in and put their hands in it. They put their hands everywhere! Then they pull you back out with the winch and hoist you up, and you look back down, and there’s a perfect mold of your butt.


You like SCUBA diving, rock climbing, snowboarding, canyoneering and stuff like that. You’re kind of a daredevil in real life. Do you have to keep that in check when you’re in space?

Really, it comes in handy – not the types of activities, but how do you do those things and still make it safe? How are you smart about it? You try to accomplish things in a manner that mitigates the risk. I don’t go out for the adrenaline rush. It’s more of an intellectual exercise. It’s the same in space. It’s all about problem solving.


Tell me what it was like at the end of that arm when you were installing the antenna during your last EVA and you were, what? 50 feet out at the end of a boom? Did David Bowie’s Space Oddity (Ground Control to Major Tom) ever run through your head?

The best part was when I was going one direction, I was carrying big pieces of equipment. I had my hands full but only half the time. On the return trip, I had nothing, so I took out my camera. That was fun. The view was incredible. It was an amazing experience. I knew that part of the EVA was the risky part of the thing. I mean, you’re out there completely exposed to micrometeorites and space debris. When you’re working outside on the space station, you’ve got a whole space station on one side of you. So that tempered the excitement a bit. The best part was when I got stuck on the end of the arm for about 25 minutes. People ask, “Wasn’t that scary?” But it wasn’t. It was very relaxing. I knew there was nothing I could do about it. I was entirely dependent on the people on the ground. Afterwards, I was really concerned about timeline, knowing we had a certain amount of time to get everything done. But this was kinda like a snow day. It was the only time I really relaxed.

And I never thought of that song, but it’s one of the many songs I had on my Ipod up there.


You lived in the Aquarius habitat at the bottom of the sea for two weeks. What’s the coolest thing you saw when you were living underwater?

A hammerhead shark. I was inside the habitat, and we had one diver outside on an umbilical. I was doing an ultra-sound experiment. I was imaging Emma’s (astronaut Emma Hwang’s) kidneys, and they had intentionally put in a delay on what they could see, but the sound was real-time. So I was taking images, and doctors in Houston were looking at the screen. They were seeing this kidney; I was seeing this kidney. Then I looked up and saw a six-foot hammerhead shark right outside the window. And they were hearing me in real time, but the images were delayed. So I yelled, “Holy @*#!” They were looking at the screen, thinking one of her kidneys had just exploded.


You and (actor) Jane Krakowski were in elementary school together in Morris County, N.J. Was that a particularly entertaining elementary school class?

At the time, none of us knew what was ahead. We did have a school play we were both in, and the last time I saw her, she presented me with a photo of the play that her mom had taken. Really, I have no idea why my acting career never took off. But it is kind of fun now to reconnect and compare notes.


You’re an astronaut and your sister, Lainie, is a world-renowned specialist in the prevention of youth violence. How much do the rest of the ladies at the club hate to see your mother coming?

The funny thing is my family is Jewish, and my mom lives outside of Boca (Raton). Basically, my mom is still low on the totem pole. I think she’s still disappointed that her kids didn’t turn out to be doctors or lawyers.


How big can the space station get? Could it be like a hotel?

It’s huge right now. It could totally be a hotel. All you’d have to do is clear out the scientific gear, and put in an ice machine. When you fly into it, you feel like you’re on the Millennium Falcon being sucked into the Death Star. When you are looking through the overhead windows as you’re approaching it, it looks like a bright star. Then it grows, and you can see the shape of the solar arrays. The wings get bigger and bigger, until, on final approach, it completely obliterates your view. You can’t even see the solar arrays in your peripheral vision. It’s really too big to be taken in, and you’re still quite a distance away. The enormity is special. The interior volume is about the size of two 747s. People ask me if I felt claustrophobic, but I didn’t. Not at all. It’s like stepping into the Grand Canyon. In the shuttle, there’s always something you can reach, so you have to learn all over again how to move. When astronauts first get off the shuttle and move into the space station, they are really stupid-looking because they keep grabbing for things to hold onto.

The difference between the shuttle and the space station is that moving is really fun. When you push off from a wall, you’re no longer floating, you’re able to fly. Like you’re superman.


What is your favorite space movie?

Wow. I don’t know if I have a favorite. I loved the original Star Wars and Star Trek II, The Wrath of Kahn. And 2001, A Space Odyssey. I guess it would be one of those three. Oh, The Right Stuff’s great, too, and the book is fantastic.


Outside of Earth, what is your favorite planet?

Man, you took away Earth. Usually when people ask me that, they don’t take away Earth, so that’s always my answer! But, without Earth, I guess I’d say Mars, because I’d love to go there. It’s got an amazing topography – mountains taller than Everest, canyons the size of the United States. Plus, I think it’s highly likely that we’ll find some form of life there. We are tantalizingly close. Life is much more tenacious on earth than we expected; we’re finding it where we never thought we would. With Mars, I’d be more surprised if we never find life than if we do.


This week is the anniversary of the day that Pluto was demoted. Do you have any sympathy for Pluto?

I had nothing to do with that. People occasionally ask me about that in an accusatory tone. But that kind of thing is not my job. I understand the reasoning, and it’s probably correct. That’s all I’m saying.


If you could choose six people, living or dead, to be on a space shuttle with for a month-long mission, who would they be?

I could go with the easy answer and say Megan Fox. But, really, the easy answer is my wife, Simone. She would have loved to have gone. Given half a chance, she’d be strapping in. And I know this is not gonna make you happy, but Derek Jeter. He has some of the characteristics that make for a great astronaut – the ability to maintain perspective and a sense of humor in difficult circumstances. A good example of that is, there was a World Series game where the batter hit a triple with runners on first and second. Both runners scored, but the Yankees challenged one of the runners for not touching second base. So Jeter gets the ball and touches second and turns to the umpire, who says, “Which runner are you challenging?” Jeter says, “The first one.” The umpire says, “He touched the base.” Without missing a beat, Jeter says, “Okay. The second runner.” Who maintains their wits about them in a situation like that?

An easy choice would be my current colleagues – the guys on the last mission. Any of those guys would make for great crew members. Also, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Colbert might actually do pretty well, but I think Jon would miss New York too much.


If travel in deep space were possible, where would you want to go?

Basically, anywhere where there’s the potential for an Earth-like planet. The most amazing thing would be to find another Earth. I mean, Jupiter is great, and Saturn’s rings are stunning, but there’s nothing on the surface of gas giants. So I’d want to look for new mountains to climb and seas to sail on.


Finally, you met with President Obama to talk about the space program. What was discussed?

We didn’t really talk to him about policy. He asked us what we are going to do, and we each gave our own answers. He asked more about our recent mission, just general questions. We were there with the administrator and assistant administrator. If he had wanted to talk policy, he would have done it with them.

Mostly, he just joked around. He’s got a great sense of humor. He didn’t have any prepared comments; it was just very laid back. I mean, we were in the Oval Office, and it was just very casual. I’ve been in the Oval Office before; we met President Bush. He had a 15-minute-long presentation about the history of the office. It was very impressive. But President Obama just welcomed us and started asking questions. He didn’t have a prepared speech.

NASA Celebrates Star Wars

What all the cool kids are wearing these days.

Stay Tuned!

We are about to have a Q&A with Garrett on this blog. If you are looking for the answers to questions like, "What's it like in space?" this will not be the Q&A for you. I have way too much respect for Garrett to do that kind of thing. Plus, Garrett is way too cool for that. So, if you are interested in the minutiae of Garrett, stay tuned. If you want to know what it's like in space, go to NASA's website. I mean, how many times can you say, "Well, there's that gravity thing"? Seriously.

Meanwhile, the NASA channel is re-showing all the stuff it did last year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Apollo. Watch it. It's very cool.

Also, the blog's friend, Todd Leopold, who is an entertainment editor for CNN, is doing a piece on "The Romance of Space" and how we've kinda lost it. Garrett will be featured prominently. I will post the piece here when it is posted on CNN.

The JWST: Hubble Times Two.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is set to launch, God willing and the creek don't rise, in June 2014, thus overlapping with the Hubble, which should cease transmission (RIP) some time that year. The telescope has a 21-foot-diameter primary mirror, making it the world’s largest orbiting observatory in any wavelength when it begins operations. It also will be the largest infrared (IR) telescope in existence.

More than 7,000 astronomers who have been involved with Hubble over its two decades of service are expected to use Webb. The difference between the two: Webb’s IR range will allow it to see objects 10-100 times more faint than Hubble can, opening the door to the universe’s earliest days. The Webb’s greater resolving power in infrared, and that wavelength’s ability to see past dust that obscures light from the universe’s earliest days, is expected to give astronomers images of events just 250 million years after the universe was born, in other words, when the universe was pretty much still a toddler.

According to NASA, "seeing that far back will reveal clusters of the Universe’s earliest objects as they were being formed, says JWST Senior Project Scientist John Mather, a Nobel Laureate at Goddard. Astronomer Marcia Rieke of the University of Arizona expects to see disks of matter becoming planets around stars."

This is more NASA: "Observing the physical and chemical properties of planetary systems and their potential for supporting life are among Webb’s major goals. The telescope should be able to see relatively small planets—a few times the size of Earth—that Hubble cannot, says Gardner. But it also will have greater sensitivity to the atmospheres of stars closer to Earth. It even can provide close-ups of planets within the Solar System, so long as they are the duller ones like Mars, not bright Venus or Mercury, which would overpower its optics at so close a range."

The Webb dwarfs previous telescopes. After the vibration of launch, the mirror assembly must be unfolded into what the design team calls its “rough shape.” That process involves lifting each of the 18 primary mirror segments free of its launch hooks. Each of them is computer-controlled in six degrees of freedom, plus a seventh that pushes or pulls the center of the mirror for radius curvature adjustment. Each mirror has its own actuators to control these movements. After the mirrors are unhooked, the actuators must achieve a “wave front” alignment for each one to a tolerance of 20 nanometers—1/5,000th of a hair.

A full-sized mock-up will go on public display June 1 at the 2010 World Science Festival in New York City’s Battery Park.

Garrett Comes Home. Oh, and Those Other Guys

Okay, a day late and a few dollars short. But Atlantis came home beautifully. Some interesting things I learned on my trip to Florida (I am going by what Mary told me, so if any of this is wrong, blame her. Although she does know her stuff):

The BIG (as my brother-in-law, Jon, calls the VAB or Vehicle Assembly Building, is so big that it has its own climate.

The path that the shuttle rides on from the BIG to the launch pad is paved with stones from some river in Tennessee. Why? Who knows? Mary says it may be one of those low-bid deals from the contractor who built it. I do know they are pretty stones, and it's a loooonnnnggg path, so I guess some river in Tennessee is a bit deeper than it used to be.

Cool stuff at KSC, including launch pads, is not very well marked. And KSC (or rather, Canaveral Air Force Station) is very big. So if you don't know where you are going, you can spend a bit of time trying to find what you are looking for. And they don't have maps. So you drive on ICBM Road and Titan Road and Saturn Lane and Moonwalk Court (I made up some of those), and hope you find what you are looking for. We did, eventually.

For you birders out there, the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, right next to KSC, is a wonderful place to be; partly because there are driving paths and you don't really have to get out of your car to bird-watch, although, if you're like us, it's a constant "Oh! Stop the car! Stop the car! I think I just saw a (spoonbill, hawk, avocet, gator, willet, glossy ibis)!" You know you are jaded when you say, "Oh! Wait! Wait! Never mind, it's JUST a great blue heron." We did see a juvenile cottonmouth chow down on an unfortunate fish. Best thing (aside from the wildlife) is you can look in the distance and see KSC.

Some people are stupid. Mary and I stopped numerous times along the road out of the refuge to pick up plastic McDonald's cups, beer cans, etc. Who is insensitive enough to toss that kind of trash out in a wildlife refuge?

Watching the NASA channel during a mission is pretty cool. Mary and I were driven indoors because of a Biblical plague of lovebugs and turned on the teevee. Someone on the ISS was asking someone at Mission Control how to find the scissors. The question was not "Where are the scissors?" It was "What is the location of the scissors?" The answer was a good five minutes long and involved stuff like "the right compartment, the second node," etc. But it was clear that the guy answering knew exactly where the scissors were. Now, why they needed the scissors is beyond me. I know Garrett did not need a haircut.

Nothing we saw the entire time we were there made us think we had made a mistake in creating this blog. Garrett is just one awesome dude.