Sunday, October 26, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
So I don't know what to say, but MIT has most of it's courses free, online, and open-source.
Even with occasional notes and video aids from the instructors.
I'm so excited, I was going to be adding my sketch book into an old physics notes book -oddly enough it's really similar to the one that they now sell in the Art Cellar.....
so look at this MIT Courses Cataloged Online
pretty awesome right?
I really really like that stuff. AND i can get an MIT physics education now, I mean, what's a BFA gonna do? Put me more in debt? Now I have a way to pay this art shit off.
Even with occasional notes and video aids from the instructors.
I'm so excited, I was going to be adding my sketch book into an old physics notes book -oddly enough it's really similar to the one that they now sell in the Art Cellar.....
so look at this MIT Courses Cataloged Online
pretty awesome right?
I really really like that stuff. AND i can get an MIT physics education now, I mean, what's a BFA gonna do? Put me more in debt? Now I have a way to pay this art shit off.
check out Star Trek - it's awesome
go to Memory Alpha
it's a Star Trek wiki -
That's what the first page says about the site.
I think that the aesthetic of star trek is the most awesome thing ever really. Conduits? Cycborgs? Aliens? Computers that talk to you? so good
go to Memory Alpha
it's a Star Trek wiki -
Memory Alpha is a collaborative project to create the most definitive, accurate, and accessible encyclopedia and reference for everything related to Star Trek. The English-language Memory Alpha started in November 2003, and currently consists of 29,191 articles.
That's what the first page says about the site.
I think that the aesthetic of star trek is the most awesome thing ever really. Conduits? Cycborgs? Aliens? Computers that talk to you? so good
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Satellite Studying the Sun Is Falling Out of Orbit
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
There will be no saving Solar Max this time.
The three-ton spacecraft, known formally as the Solar Maximum Mission satellite, is slowly but inexorably falling out of orbit, descending at a rate of more than half a mile a day.
It is now predicted to come crashing into the atmosphere as early as Nov. 29.
Although nearly all of the craft should burn up in the upper atmosphere, some fragments could survive re-entry and fall on equatorial regions of the world. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration says any debris would most likely fall in the ocean and so should not pose a serious threat to populated areas.
A more exact prediction of the time and place of the satellite's fiery plunge will not be possible until an hour or two before it is to occur. Was Captured and Repaired
In trouble once before, Solar Max in 1984 became the first craft to be captured and repaired in space by shuttle astronauts. The craft was left in a higher orbit for almost six more years of fruitful observations of the Sun. But the space agency turned down scientists who pleaded late last year for another rescue mission by astronauts and decided to let the laws of gravity take their course.
The decision underscored the limitations on the availability of the shuttles to handle important missions. Given the large backlog of shuttle payloads, a consequence of the Challenger disaster in 1986, NASA officials could not squeeze in a second Solar Max rescue without causing further expensive delays for science missions with higher priority.
''The final decision, after two years of agonizing over it, was to say no to Solar Max, even though it's been a super spacecraft,'' said Charles Redmond, a NASA spokesman in Washington.
The distress of another spacecraft in orbit influenced the decision. The 11-ton Long Duration Exposure Facility, or LDEF, is also losing altitude rapidly and must be recovered, if at all, no later than February. The big satellite, placed in orbit in 1984 by the same shuttle crew that repaired Solar Max, is an inert platform carrying samples of electronics, metals, plastics and other materials to determine how they hold up when exposed for a long time to cosmic rays, solar radiation and micrometeorites.
The platform was originally supposed to be brought back to Earth for examination after a year in orbit. That retrieval by a shuttle was postponed for scheduling reasons and then put off indefinitely when the Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff Jan. 28, 1986, killing all seven crew members. Considered More Worthy
''A lot of us would have liked to go and get Solar Max, refurbish it on the ground and relaunch it,'' said Dr. Dale W. Harris, the deputy director for flight projects at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. ''But if there could be only one rescue mission, it was thought that getting the data from LDEF was more worthwhile.''
Space agency engineers argued forcefully that the platform's 57 experiments in material endurance were crucial for the design of the $30 billion space station, which is supposed to have an orbital lifetime of three decades. Officials of the Pentagon's Strategic Defense Initiative wanted to examine the platform to learn how to insure the long endurance of space-based antimissile weapons.
As a result, astronauts in late December are scheduled to fly the space shuttle Columbia to a rendezvous with the big satellite, grab it with the shuttle's long mechanical arm and haul it into the cargo bay for a return to Earth. The mission is tentatively set for liftoff on Dec. 18.
Both the big satellite and Solar Max - indeed, all spacecraft in low Earth orbits -are being buffeted by the effects of the Sun as it reaches a peak of turbulent activity that occurs every 11 years. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said ''unprecedented high levels of solar activity'' began last March and this was undoubtedly reducing the operational life of some spacecraft. It is just such solar activity that Solar Max was designed to study.
Dr. Joseph Gurman, the chief Solar Max scientist at the Goddard center, said the primary effect on spacecraft comes indirectly from the Sun's enhanced emissions of ultraviolet radiation at times of peak sunspot activity, a period know as the solar maximum. The increased ultraviolet radiation heats Earth's upper atmosphere, causing it to expand outward.
Even in the most placid of solar times, enough atmospheric molecules reach the altitudes where they cause some friction against Earth-orbiting spacecraft. The drag tends to pull a craft down a few miles each year, unless it is equipped with propulsion systems capable of regaining altitude. In the last few months, the ultraviolet emissions have risen sharply, and spacecraft are now encountering more atmospheric friction. Frequent Magnetic Eruptions
In addition, magnetic eruptions on the Sun are occurring more frequently during solar maximum and producing intense solar flares. The flares bring a rain of high-energy particles that produce communications-disrupting magnetic storms and auroras in the Earth's atmosphere. The increase in magnetic and particle activity in Earth's vicinity acts as a brief but even stronger drag on orbiting craft. Within two days of a solar flare last month, Solar Max's rate of descent went from a half-mile a day to more than one mile.
''I guess the flare hurried things up,'' Dr. Harris said, explaining the change of the spacecraft's predicted demise from mid-December to Dec. 3, by some calculations, or Nov. 29, by others.
According to studies conducted for NASA, several pieces of Solar Max, weighing from 25 to 400 pounds, could survive the re-entry and reach the Earth's surface. The debris could strike anywhere between 28 degrees north latitude and 28 degrees south, which is the part of the world over which Solar Max is traveling. More than 75 percent of the area is water, Dr. Harris said, but it also includes parts of Africa, South America, India, Southeast Asia and Australia. The only parts of the United States at any risk are Hawaii, southern Florida and the southern tip of Texas.
''The probability of doing damage is very, very small,'' Dr. Harris said.
If the LDEF platform is not retrieved, it could rain even more debris on Earth. But neither it nor Solar Max is considered as great a hazard as the Skylab space station, which weighed nearly 100 tons and came down 10 years ago. Fragments hit the Indian Ocean and some remote areas of Australia, but caused no known injuries or serious property damage. No Propulsion System
Dr. Harris said Solar Max has no propulsion system so cannot be raised to a higher orbit or aimed for a re-entry point avoiding land. Engineers will not have any communications with the craft in its final days, as it tumbles out of control and loses its antenna lock on Earth. Radar tracking observations should provide an hour or two of advance warning of the craft's plunge.
Solar Max was originally lofted by a rocket into a 356-mile-high orbit in 1980. But it was designed to be serviced by the shuttle, and so in 1984 the astronauts replaced some failed components and left the craft 310 miles in orbit. It is now down to 190 miles. By the time it descends to less than 180 miles, engineers figure, Solar Max is likely begin its fiery plunge.
Solar Max continues to return data on the Sun, including observations of the recent flares and the collision of a comet into the Sun in September. Engineers are also extracting measurements on the spacecraft's performance for use in future designs.
As much as he and other solar physicists regret the impending loss, Dr. Gurman said Solar Max had returned data for almost 10 years, just short of a full solar cycle, and Japan, the European Space Agency and the United States have plans for more ambitious spacecraft missions to study the Sun in the next decade.
Mission planners at the Johnson Space Center in Houston are making a careful study of the other endangered spacecraft, LDEF, as they plot the maneuvers necessary for the space shuttle to find and retrieve the craft. Al Pennington, a flight director, said the platform had descended from its original altitude of 290 miles to 232 miles and is predicted to be at 210 miles when the rescue mission is launched.
Because of the rapidly changing position of the spacecraft, Brian D. Welch, a spokesman at the Johnson center, said flight controllers would be making ''exquisite refinements'' in the rendezvous strategy up to the day and hour of liftoff.
- taken from The New York Times
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
There will be no saving Solar Max this time.
The three-ton spacecraft, known formally as the Solar Maximum Mission satellite, is slowly but inexorably falling out of orbit, descending at a rate of more than half a mile a day.
It is now predicted to come crashing into the atmosphere as early as Nov. 29.
Although nearly all of the craft should burn up in the upper atmosphere, some fragments could survive re-entry and fall on equatorial regions of the world. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration says any debris would most likely fall in the ocean and so should not pose a serious threat to populated areas.
A more exact prediction of the time and place of the satellite's fiery plunge will not be possible until an hour or two before it is to occur. Was Captured and Repaired
In trouble once before, Solar Max in 1984 became the first craft to be captured and repaired in space by shuttle astronauts. The craft was left in a higher orbit for almost six more years of fruitful observations of the Sun. But the space agency turned down scientists who pleaded late last year for another rescue mission by astronauts and decided to let the laws of gravity take their course.
The decision underscored the limitations on the availability of the shuttles to handle important missions. Given the large backlog of shuttle payloads, a consequence of the Challenger disaster in 1986, NASA officials could not squeeze in a second Solar Max rescue without causing further expensive delays for science missions with higher priority.
''The final decision, after two years of agonizing over it, was to say no to Solar Max, even though it's been a super spacecraft,'' said Charles Redmond, a NASA spokesman in Washington.
The distress of another spacecraft in orbit influenced the decision. The 11-ton Long Duration Exposure Facility, or LDEF, is also losing altitude rapidly and must be recovered, if at all, no later than February. The big satellite, placed in orbit in 1984 by the same shuttle crew that repaired Solar Max, is an inert platform carrying samples of electronics, metals, plastics and other materials to determine how they hold up when exposed for a long time to cosmic rays, solar radiation and micrometeorites.
The platform was originally supposed to be brought back to Earth for examination after a year in orbit. That retrieval by a shuttle was postponed for scheduling reasons and then put off indefinitely when the Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff Jan. 28, 1986, killing all seven crew members. Considered More Worthy
''A lot of us would have liked to go and get Solar Max, refurbish it on the ground and relaunch it,'' said Dr. Dale W. Harris, the deputy director for flight projects at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. ''But if there could be only one rescue mission, it was thought that getting the data from LDEF was more worthwhile.''
Space agency engineers argued forcefully that the platform's 57 experiments in material endurance were crucial for the design of the $30 billion space station, which is supposed to have an orbital lifetime of three decades. Officials of the Pentagon's Strategic Defense Initiative wanted to examine the platform to learn how to insure the long endurance of space-based antimissile weapons.
As a result, astronauts in late December are scheduled to fly the space shuttle Columbia to a rendezvous with the big satellite, grab it with the shuttle's long mechanical arm and haul it into the cargo bay for a return to Earth. The mission is tentatively set for liftoff on Dec. 18.
Both the big satellite and Solar Max - indeed, all spacecraft in low Earth orbits -are being buffeted by the effects of the Sun as it reaches a peak of turbulent activity that occurs every 11 years. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said ''unprecedented high levels of solar activity'' began last March and this was undoubtedly reducing the operational life of some spacecraft. It is just such solar activity that Solar Max was designed to study.
Dr. Joseph Gurman, the chief Solar Max scientist at the Goddard center, said the primary effect on spacecraft comes indirectly from the Sun's enhanced emissions of ultraviolet radiation at times of peak sunspot activity, a period know as the solar maximum. The increased ultraviolet radiation heats Earth's upper atmosphere, causing it to expand outward.
Even in the most placid of solar times, enough atmospheric molecules reach the altitudes where they cause some friction against Earth-orbiting spacecraft. The drag tends to pull a craft down a few miles each year, unless it is equipped with propulsion systems capable of regaining altitude. In the last few months, the ultraviolet emissions have risen sharply, and spacecraft are now encountering more atmospheric friction. Frequent Magnetic Eruptions
In addition, magnetic eruptions on the Sun are occurring more frequently during solar maximum and producing intense solar flares. The flares bring a rain of high-energy particles that produce communications-disrupting magnetic storms and auroras in the Earth's atmosphere. The increase in magnetic and particle activity in Earth's vicinity acts as a brief but even stronger drag on orbiting craft. Within two days of a solar flare last month, Solar Max's rate of descent went from a half-mile a day to more than one mile.
''I guess the flare hurried things up,'' Dr. Harris said, explaining the change of the spacecraft's predicted demise from mid-December to Dec. 3, by some calculations, or Nov. 29, by others.
According to studies conducted for NASA, several pieces of Solar Max, weighing from 25 to 400 pounds, could survive the re-entry and reach the Earth's surface. The debris could strike anywhere between 28 degrees north latitude and 28 degrees south, which is the part of the world over which Solar Max is traveling. More than 75 percent of the area is water, Dr. Harris said, but it also includes parts of Africa, South America, India, Southeast Asia and Australia. The only parts of the United States at any risk are Hawaii, southern Florida and the southern tip of Texas.
''The probability of doing damage is very, very small,'' Dr. Harris said.
If the LDEF platform is not retrieved, it could rain even more debris on Earth. But neither it nor Solar Max is considered as great a hazard as the Skylab space station, which weighed nearly 100 tons and came down 10 years ago. Fragments hit the Indian Ocean and some remote areas of Australia, but caused no known injuries or serious property damage. No Propulsion System
Dr. Harris said Solar Max has no propulsion system so cannot be raised to a higher orbit or aimed for a re-entry point avoiding land. Engineers will not have any communications with the craft in its final days, as it tumbles out of control and loses its antenna lock on Earth. Radar tracking observations should provide an hour or two of advance warning of the craft's plunge.
Solar Max was originally lofted by a rocket into a 356-mile-high orbit in 1980. But it was designed to be serviced by the shuttle, and so in 1984 the astronauts replaced some failed components and left the craft 310 miles in orbit. It is now down to 190 miles. By the time it descends to less than 180 miles, engineers figure, Solar Max is likely begin its fiery plunge.
Solar Max continues to return data on the Sun, including observations of the recent flares and the collision of a comet into the Sun in September. Engineers are also extracting measurements on the spacecraft's performance for use in future designs.
As much as he and other solar physicists regret the impending loss, Dr. Gurman said Solar Max had returned data for almost 10 years, just short of a full solar cycle, and Japan, the European Space Agency and the United States have plans for more ambitious spacecraft missions to study the Sun in the next decade.
Mission planners at the Johnson Space Center in Houston are making a careful study of the other endangered spacecraft, LDEF, as they plot the maneuvers necessary for the space shuttle to find and retrieve the craft. Al Pennington, a flight director, said the platform had descended from its original altitude of 290 miles to 232 miles and is predicted to be at 210 miles when the rescue mission is launched.
Because of the rapidly changing position of the spacecraft, Brian D. Welch, a spokesman at the Johnson center, said flight controllers would be making ''exquisite refinements'' in the rendezvous strategy up to the day and hour of liftoff.
- taken from The New York Times
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