I saw this one in NASA's 2009 "Healthier You" Calendar (in October), and then later, through ProBlogger Blogging Tips.
Either way, I think it's from Tyler Westcott, and I think it's inspirational. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
It's the wrong time of day to be doing this - it's been scientifically proven.
I'll try again in about 6 hours.
But I won't blog from my shower or bathroom.
Really.
I'm the biggest advocate of de-regulation, and yes, energy prices have gone up (although not extremely lately), but even I can't understand why the prices are so high.
This article from the Houston Business Journal in August tells us that we had the highest home utility bills in the nation. It compares Houston to Portland, which isn't a fair comparison at all in July. What it doesn't say is what the average price per kilowatt-hour is ... which is the real valid comparison.
What is true is that customer service can really suffer, as one of my co-workers now knows.
Even more amazing is that Texas electric provider deregulation doesn't seem to be uniform across the state. My in-laws in Austin and Huntsville didn't realize that they have to choose their electric providers ... do they not have a choice?
If you live in the Houston area, or in Texas (or for that matter, anywhere), what's been your experience? Let us know in the comments.
It's been about a month since Hurricane Ike hit us. And while everyone in the Houston area certainly has not gotten completely back into their pre-Ike routine, there's still some funny memories from the MSM buildup for Ike.
In closing, I'm left (and am leaving you) with three images for Ike. Then, I won't blog about Ike anymore. Really.
1. Some dude in a bear outfit playing on the Galveston Seawall while the storm surge was coming in ... (Hat tip: Mike McGuff)
2. A streaker over in Beaumont (Hat tip: Lou Minatti)
3. Last, but not least ... Geraldo Rivera biting it on the Seawall.
Work was great yesterday. I got to see the 17 Soyuz crew dock to the International Space Station, which they managed to do about 5 minutes ahead of schedule (and since I happen to manage and monitor that schedule, I should know ...).
The 17 Soyuz crew consists of the new Expedition 18 Commander, Michael Fincke, as well as the Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov (who is also a veteran on the ISS, albeit with a visiting Shuttle). It also includes the 17 Soyuz Visiting Crewmember Richard Garriott (who is the son of the Apollo and Skylab Astronaut Owen Garriott).
Soon after the docking and ingress, the crew had a public relations event with visitors at Mission Control in Moscow (where, naturally, the docking was also being closely monitored). There, Mike's wife Renita and his children (Chandra, Tarali - who was born on Mike's first tour to the ISS, and Surya) were able to speak and see Mike again on orbit.
After my last experiences with Mike on orbit, the whole thing brought me a sense of deja vu. I'm definitely looking forward to his latest upcoming expedition.
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Related links:
Space.com, New Crew, Space Tourist Arrive at Space Station
... Blogger is a better place to blog than the free version of wordpress (wordpress.com).
I didn't realize this until I started blogging there. Blogger seems to have quite a bit more flexibility in what I can add to the site than the free version of wordpress.
Any other bloggers out there agree with me ... or have a different opinion? LEt me know in the comments.
BTW - I've decided to repost all the postings I had at wordpress over on this site.
As I’d mentioned earlier, Texas is actually an early adopter of wind power (and my school’s positioning itself well). Now comes news out of Norway that they are looking to build a floating wind turbine there. Also, CNN says that T. Boone Pickens is looking to get into wind energy as well.
However, look before you leap in investing in wind energy. FuturePundit reports that wind turbine costs are up for both offshore and onshore sites, with offshore sites being much more expensive.
As just an average guy, here’s some questions I have:
1. What would happen in a hurricane to all those offshore sites? (Granted, the situation is no different than for offshore oil rigs. And of course, onshore sites are not immune to weather problems.)
2. How is the energy generated by the windmills transmitted to the power grid? (I’m assuming some sort of AC power conversion, much like existing high-tension lines.)
3. Is there a larger issue of grid support costs? That is, the wind energy is collected out on the Great Plains but the electrical load is on the coasts – how much investment in the electrical grid is required to get the wind energy to play a significant role in offsetting the overall electrical national electrical load?
Let me know if you have any thoughts in the comments.
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Related links:
Slashdot (5/27/08) Giant Floating Windmills To Launch Next Year
Slashdot (5/23/08) Oil Billionaire Building World’s Largest Wind Farm
It wasn’t the Chinese mission (although that was good).
It wasn’t the ATV reentry (although that was good, too)
It’s not even the funding that Congress & the President will provide for more Soyuz vehicles (which was needed - but they probably held their noses while they signed, given the political tension with Russia lately) …
No - the best news was the first launch of a private rocket. Assuming they can repeat the task, it is a paradigm shift for how low Earth orbit access can be done.
Way to go, Spacex! Definitely better results than the last time I mentioned Spacex!
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Related links:
Digg.com: The Chinese Space Walk
SPACE.com: European Spaceship’s Death Plunge Caught on Film
Chair Force Engineer: For SpaceX, a Golden Opportunity
Commercial Space Watch: National Space Society Statement on SpaceX Falcon 1 launch
Digg: Space X Did It — A Private Rocket is in Space!
Space.com: Countdown Coverage: SpaceX’s Fourth Falcon 1 Launch
Spaceports: FALCON-1 MAKES HISTORY: GOES ORBITAL and MUSK CELEBRATES!
Slashdot: On Fourth Launch Attempt, SpaceX Falcon 1 Reaches Orbit
Spaceports: Orbital Science Corporation’s Taurus-2 May Seek Human Launch Rating!
It was a day my parents probably thought never would happen. And it was a day we were looking forward to with a little bit of fear, due to my Dad’s Alzheimers. But … we had it! And it was fun - even my Dad agreed.
We had a mass for my parents. (Well, OK, I’m stretching the truth a little bit. It was the standard 5:00 Saturday mass.) But it was also the exact date of my parents anniversary … who could have planned it better?!? We were concerned that the priest would ask Mom & Dad to renew their vows - which in Dad’s condition would have been awkward. But instead, the priest and deacon gave them a blessing.
After the mass, we headed over to the Villa Capri restaurant. The food was delicious. My only regret there was that I was busy helping with the entertainment. I was in charge of the music, which I was able to pull off with a laptop and an i-pod (maybe I have a second career as a DJ?).
We played a lot of Sinatra music for my parents - which was OK since there wasn’t a lot of dancing. However, I did manage to play my Mom & Dad’s song, “All the Way”, by old blue eyes, and everyone joined in the dancing.
It was great seeing friends and relatives (even ones from Chicago who had NEVER been to Texas!). And we all braved the Gustav predictions.
Mom had suggested we make some toasts, so I came up with an impromptu toast, reminding everyone of what had happened in history in 1958 via “that font of knowledge, wikipedia”. NASA had graciously provided 50th anniversary banners all up and down NASA Road 1 … although I’m told that had something to do with the fact that it’s NASA’s 50th anniversary this year. ;*)
My only regret was that I was not able to make it to the UH football game … but they spanked Southern 55-3, so I think everything worked out fine anyway.
This past year, I was fortunate enough to go on two ACTS retreats - one as a retreatant, and one as a “retreatee”. My wife was also fortunate enough to do the same thing (men and women go on separate retreats).
“ACTS” is an acronym which stands for Adoration, Community, Theology, and Service. An ACTS activity typically consists of a weekend retreat where retreatants engage in discussions, activities, and prayerful reflections centered about the Sacraments and Roman Catholic liturgy/catechism. It is a powerful event for both the retreatants and the “retreatees” (former retreatants who assist in all preparation and execution of the retreat).
Most ACTS retreats are for adults. However, in July, both my wife and I were fortunate enough to assist in our parish’s first ever Teen ACTS retreat, with our oldest son being one of the retreatants. It was a beautiful experience that I highly recommend any adult or teen take the opportunity to do if they get the chance.
Sorry about not posting more frequently. The next few blog entries will be about some things that have happened in my life over the last several months. Don’t worry - it is mostly good news. I’ve just been waiting for the right time to blog about it.
So, with those “teaser” statements, get ready for some good stuff!
We are more-or-less settled back into our house since Ike. We lost all of our refrigerated food (and probably our freezer in the garage … it still reeks after being treated), as well as quite a few tree limbs.
The tree limbs and rotten food have been removed, and we have power restored to our house. However, I finally got the chance to drive down parts of Todville road in Seabrook - very close to Galveston Bay. Almost every single house had a 4 foot pile of furniture, carpeting, and other debris which will take a long time to be hauled away. I also saw about 100 refrigerators off of Red Bluff Drive in Seabrook, just sitting out in an open field.
In short, our neighbors to our immediate east and south (not to mention down on Galveston Island and on the Bolivar Peninsula) will take quite a while to recover from all this. Now is the time for us to roll up our sleeves and help our near neighbors out. I was on graveyard shift on console this week, so I couldn’t do that … but the rest of my family did. And we’ll need to keep it up for the next several months.
Well,
More precisely, I won't be updating this particular blog anymore. Instead, I've moved to WordPress!
You can find my new, hopefully-improved blog at http://mcc0rmick.wordpress.com/.
See you there!
- Bob
Well,
We hung out in Austin for several days, waiting for the chaos in Houston to subside a bit. In addition, my brother in law drove by our house & told us we had no power, so there was no sense in heading back to Houston just to forage for gasoline, ice, and food. We came back on Thursday (18 Sept), to find that some of our old fences had fallen, and our front and back yards had tons of tree debris in it ... but nothing through the roof!
My brother in law had an air-conditioned apartment above his garage in League City, so without a generator for power, we decided to stay there while we'd clean up our house and wait for the power to come back. After cleaning out our refrigerator and our yards, we came back when power was reestablished to our house yesterday afternoon.
It will still be a while before things return to normal here. Our neighborhood came out OK (relatively speaking): we are close to the water and storm surge did affect parts of our little city and definitely parts of Clear Lake as a whole, and other people still do not have power to their homes. But all in all, we will recover and be the better for the experience.
I'd been keeping my eye on Hurricane Ike when it was in the Atlantic Ocean. As everyone knows, it took an unfortunate turn into the Gulf of Mexico, and ultimately, right on top of where I live!
I also had the "opportunity" to be on console during the runup to Ike's landing. Per NASA rules, we started making preparations for shutting down JSC (and Mission Control), and relinquish ISS control to a control center close to Austin, as well as to Huntsville, Alabama. During my shift, the predictions were such that the eye of the storm would pass over the far eastern corner of Matagorda Bay, which, given the predicted storm intensity, was just on the edge of my decision to evacuate. I figured if the track went any further east, Seabrook would not be safe.
In Mission Control, we wound up handing over ISS control at 4 AM on Thursday, but my last shift ended at midnight Wednesday. During my last shift, my wife called to tell me that there was a local run on gas, as everyone was topping off their cars, per local government direction. As a result, I made sure to do the same thing before I got home. But I was kind of wound up with the day's events ... I checked too many things out on the Internet. As a result, I didn't get to sleep until about 3 AM.
At about 7:30 in the morning, my supervisor called up to let me know that JSC was taking administrative leave to shut down the center, and that if I left, I should call him so that he could keep track of who evacuated or not. Just after I hung up the phone, the local news reported that our zip code was in a mandatory evacuation area, and that the predicted track was going to go over Galveston. My wife and I had seen enough, so we started to make plans to head to
New Waverly where my Mother and Father in law live, just as we had for Hurricane Rita, and I called my supervisor back to let him know. However, we also realized that the track was probably going to take the storm in that direction. In the process of letting everyone know where we were going, my wife called up her sister in Austin, who offered to take us in. We took her up on her offer, as we realized it would be safer than New Waverly (and definitely safer than Seabrook), and I called my supervisor back again. My wife and I decided not to pack as much as we had for the Hurricane Rita evacuation, but still would up taking 6 hours to pack. So, we took off for Austin at 2:30. We knew from our past evacuation that we wanted to avoid crowds, but we headed up Interstate 45, then turned west down Beltway 8 - and that's where the traffic started.
However, both us had our cell phones and Key Maps, and were able to stay on side streets parallel with Beltway 8 until we got to the southwest side of Houston. From there, we saw that Beltway 8 traffic was light, so we got back on Beltway 8. We thought we would do well to get on the Westpark tollway, but it was backed down right at the Beltway 8 intersection. So we came up with an alternate plan - go up to Hwy 290, then proceed west on FM 529 all the way to Bellville.
Things seemed to take forever to get through Houston, but once we got past the Cypress-Fairbanks area and were in the country, there was no problem. Of course, this was at 6:30 - we had already been on the road for 4 hours. We pulled into Bellville and had dinner at a Dairy Queen with a number of other people who also seemed to be evacuating the Clear Lake area.
After dinner at the DQ, we decided we'd drive up Texas 35 to Milano, and then come down US79 to get to Austin. This route would take us into Austin from the north - we figured the southern approaches to Austin from Houston would be crowded with Houston traffic. And indeed, it did - we are now staying to the west of Austin, in the Lake Travis area.
Before we had left home, we had registered our cell phones and e-mail addresses with the El Lago City Website. Now, we're getting e-mails and phone calls from the city of El Lago and from the Johnson Space Center which tell us when and where things are gonna opening. It doesn't look like JSC is going to open till Thursday. Furthermore, the reports indicate that there's no power into El Lago, and news reports indicate that gas, ice, and food are in short supply. Since I don't need to get back to town until Thursday at the earliest, I'm in no rush to get home, just to sweat it out with now power/Air Conditioning.
While all these was happening. my mom and dad evacuated to where my brother lives in the woodlands. Apparently they lost power, and things got a little rough for them. But my brother brought them to where he works at Fox Sports, and they stayed there overnight.
'cuz I definitely don't like Ike.
Dude - you invaded NORMANDY. Stick with that plan!
Just to make the reports sillier, the ants were named after the entymologist (I think I got that spelling right?!?), whose last name was Rasberry.
The ants do not look like Raspberries (aaah, a different spelling). Instead, they're called "crazy ants" - smaller ants that tend to move quite a bit quicker than an average Texas fire ant, and tent to wobble as they move about.
To add to all the hysteria, the Crazy Ants are apparently stowaways that got here from the Houston Ship Channel, which is why they are at JSC, and they are apparently attracted to electronics.
Speaking of Fire Ants, that's one good thing about them - they apparently eat fire ants. So maybe they are a good "alien"?
;*)
ISS considered one of the top ten satellites orbiting the Earth (includes the Moon)
According to this article, SpaceX and Elon Musk will attempt another countdown attempt sometime between the end of this month to the beginning of the next.
As I've said before - great! I hope they're successful.
On an equally important note: as some of you know, there is currently a planned gap between the retiring of NASA Space Shuttle flights and the start of NASA's successor vehicle, the Orion, of anywhere from 3 to 5 years (all depending on governmental funding). The Orion is designed similar to an Apollo capsule, but larger: it's meant to carry 4 crewmembers. The vehicle is boosted to orbit on a Solid Rocket Booster and External Tank designs based on Space Shuttle efforts.
When NASA is ready again for missions to the Moon, another follow-on vehicle (Ares V) will be used to lift lthe Altair Lunar Lander to orbit. Ares V is also designed around more SRBs and the Shuttle's External Tank. Orion and Ares V will rendezvous and dock with each other, and then go in tandem to the Moon. But before the Lunar missions can start, NASA will use Orion by itself to keep the crew on the Space Station.
But what to do about the Space Shuttle to Orion launch gap, and the need to have crews on the ISS in the meantime??? Currently, NASA is dependent on the Russian Soyuz vehicles to provide the "lifeboat" function needed on ISS. And there's an issue with the Soyuz vehicles - the last two vehicles used for returning the crew to Earth have undergone problematic "ballistic reentries",which expose the crew to much greater g loads then the nominal entry profile (as well as other potential risks). So, "staying the course" may have technical risks above and beyond Russian launch dependency.
Enter SpaceX and Elon Musk. They are currently building a vehicle under NASA's COTS program which will provide unmanned logistics support (propellant, food, water, etc) to ISS. However, the COTS program has a possibility of requesting a human-rated vehicle - which NASA is currently studying whether to do or not. To make things more interesting, SpaceX's CEO has already stated that he could "eliminate" the gap.
Now, I am not working with COTS in any way, so I have no true technical insight as to whether Musk's statement is a boast or a highly probable event. But what if he does show up with a workable, human-rated vehicle in 2011? What of all the design efforts into Orion - and why would NASA need it 4 years later?
It makes me wonder whether the $ being spent on Orion might be better programmed straight into Ares V.
P.S. - Here's a neat video of the proposed SpaceX/Dragon rendezvous and docking for ISS. Check it out!
A big congratulations to our Japanese partners now, for both a successful 1J/A and 1J mission!
I worked a lot on 1JA but not much on 1J ... and this was a good thing, since I was a "Team 4" (reserve) member for the 1J mission.
Everything was successfully installed over both of these flights, including (among other things)...
1JA:
- the new Robotic equipment
- A successful tile repair test onorbit
1J:
- Installation, activation, and ingress of Kibo (the Japanese Lab), and the Japanese Robotic Arm
- Fixed the Toilet
I didn't work much on the mission, but I went on console after the Shuttle undock. One interesting thing that happened was the Japanese Earthquake. The epicenter wasn't really close to Japan's Mission Control, but they called us & told us about it during the earthquake. They felt its affects, but nothing was damaged at Mission Control.
As for the follow-on flights - first, NASA will have to fix the launch pad. Discovery's latest launch revealed quite a bit of damage post-flight (I've seen the pictures - bricks were blown throughout the "outfield" of the pad, into the fence (knocking it over somewhat), and into the lagoon beyond it! There was about 10-15 feet of bricks missing from the flame trench as a result.
And as another side note: My own toilet needed repairs over the weekend. You can see my handiwork below. Am I now qualified to go to ISS!?! ;*)
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