From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Tue Mar 4 14:30:23 2008 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:30:23 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] NASA TV TO BROADCAST MAIDEN LAUNCH OF EUROPE'S STATION CARGO SHIP Message-ID: <47CDA34F.4060008@gmail.com> NASA TV TO BROADCAST MAIDEN LAUNCH OF EUROPE'S STATION CARGO SHIP http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/mar/HQ_M08047_ATV_NASA_TV_Coverage.html HOUSTON - NASA Television coverage of the maiden launch of the European Space Agency's "Jules Verne" Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV, to the International Space Station will begin Saturday, March 8, at 9:15 p.m. CST. So maybe we will have two ways to outsource the resupply of the International Space Station, but then it is an INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION. :-) - LRK - Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/mar/HQ_M08047_ATV_NASA_TV_Coverage.html James Hartsfield Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 james.a.hartsfield at nasa.gov MEDIA ADVISORY: M08-047 NASA TV TO BROADCAST MAIDEN LAUNCH OF EUROPE'S STATION CARGO SHIP HOUSTON - NASA Television coverage of the maiden launch of the European Space Agency's "Jules Verne" Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV, to the International Space Station will begin Saturday, March 8, at 9:15 p.m. CST. Liftoff of the ATV on an Ariane 5 rocket is set for 10:04 p.m. CST from the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. Television coverage originating from the launch site will be provided by ESA and Arianespace. The launch coverage will air live on NASA TV and will include supplementary coverage originating from NASA's Johnson Space Center. The ATV launch window is instantaneous. NASA TV will continue its coverage until ATV's solar arrays are deployed, about one hour and 36 minutes after launch. If the launch is postponed, another opportunity is available Sunday, March 9. NASA TV coverage would begin at 9:45 p.m. CDT. The ATV reaches its preliminary orbit about nine minutes after liftoff. At that time, its engines will fire for eight minutes to place the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit. About 45 minutes later, a second engine firing will circularize the ATV's orbit prior to spacecraft separation. The ATV is a 22-ton unpiloted resupply ship that will carry up to eight tons of cargo to the complex. The vehicle will have the capability to reboost the station's altitude through its four primary engines. Along with the Russian Progress cargo craft that periodically carry supplies to the station, the ATV also will transport equipment, experiments and fuel to the complex. The spacecraft will be controlled by engineers at the ESA ATV Control Center in Toulouse, France, working together with flight controllers at the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside Moscow, and at Johnson. Once in orbit, the ATV will undergo four weeks of extensive systems tests, including two approaches to the station to simulate rendezvous and contingency techniques. NASA TV will provide live coverage of the automated flight activities for ATV when it is in close proximity to the station on March 31 and when it docks on April 3. A post-docking briefing from the Johnson also is planned for April 3. The ATV will remain at the space station until early August. When it undocks, it will perform a deorbit maneuver to burn up in Earth's atmosphere. Additional ATVs are planned for launch to the station in future years. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv -end- Snip ============================================================== India's Moon Mission Pushed To July First Week Bangalore, India (PTI) Feb 26, 2008 - India's first planetary mission, Chandrayaan-1, has now been rescheduled to take place in the first week of July as the mission personnel work overtime to sort out payload integration and launch-related issues. "We are targeting the end of June. We will try to make it in the first week of July," a senior scientist associated with the Rs 386 crore moon mission told PTI here on Monday on condition ... more http://www.moondaily.com/reports/India_Moon_Mission_Pushed_To_July_First_Week_999.html Snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Thu Mar 13 19:40:00 2008 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:40:00 -0700 Subject: [lunar-update] STS-123 to Begin First Spacewalk, Install JLP Message-ID: <9bb827dc0803131640n4e2f6437nbbd128fc0cf82f5c@mail.gmail.com> Live on NASA TV now. - LRK - --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html *STS-123 to Begin First Spacewalk, Install JLP* Mission Specialist Rick Linnehan and Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman will kick off STS-123's first spacewalk at 9:23 p.m. EDT. Their primary goal is to prepare the Japanese Logistics Module - Pressurized Section (JLP), the first component of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory, to be installed on the International Space Station early Friday morning. Their tasks will include preparing the JLP for unberthing from space shuttle Endeavour's payload bay. They will open the Centerline Berthing Camera System on top of the Harmony module. The system provides live video to assist with docking spacecraft and modules together. The two spacewalkers also will remove the Passive Common Berthing Mechanism, the round flange which can attach to another spacecraft or module. snip *Media Resources* ? STS-123 Execute Packages ? STS-123 TV Schedule ? STS-123 Press Kit( 4.4 Mb PDF) ? STS-123 Fact Sheet(433 Kb PDF) snip ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Time flies and so does the shuttle. An important addition to the International Space Station is Japan's Kibo laboratory. - LRK - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/ Today, space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station (ISS) at 00:49 p.m. (10:49 p.m. March 12 CDT). http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/mission/1ja/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html *Digital NASA Television via Satellite* In the continental United States, NASA Television's Public, Education and Media channels are carried by MPEG-2 digital C-band signal on AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, Transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization. They're available in Alaska and Hawaii on an MPEG-2 digital C-band signal accessed via satellite AMC-7, transponder 18C, 137 degrees west longitude, 4060 MHz, vertical polarization. A Digital Video Broadcast compliant Integrated Receiver Decoder is required for reception. Analog NASA TV is no longer available. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv -end- Snip ============================================================== http://www.nasa.gov/missions/index.html Current Missions Endeavour in Orbit on STS-123 MissionEndeavour delivers the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory and the Canadian Space Agency's two-armed robotic system, Dextre. ? Complete Shuttle Coverage ? Mission TV Schedule ? Interactive Mission Timeline ? Latest Images and Videos Snip ============================================================== http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/mission/1ja/1ja_news/ Today, space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station (ISS) at 00:49 p.m. (10:49 p.m. March 12 CDT). At 01:28 p.m., the hatches between the ISS and the space shuttle were opened and the STS-123 Mission crewmembers floated into the ISS. As soon as astronaut Doi entered the ISS, three members of the ISS crew welcomed him with big smiles; the ISS crew and astronaut Doi greeted each other with warm hugs. Shortly thereafter, the STS-123 Mission crew and ISS crew started their joint operations. Before the sleep period, they completed all of the tightly scheduled tasks, such as robotic transfer of the spacelab pallet (SLP) and preparation of the mission's first Extravehicular Activity (EVA) etc. Snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://news.altair.com/pipermail/lunar-update/attachments/20080313/c19cbc6a/attachment.htm From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Sun Mar 16 01:34:14 2008 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:34:14 -0700 Subject: [lunar-update] Figments of Reality - The Evolution of the Curious Mind Message-ID: <9bb827dc0803152234n502633c8g7254535d54ae6dd8@mail.gmail.com> Figments of Reality - The Evolution of the Curious Mind I am still watching the work on the new additions to the International Space Station while the astronauts work on installing the Canadian Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, (SPDM) *Dextre* robotics system to the station. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-123 http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html Is this for real? We are just up there going around mother Earth with a sunrise about every 92 minutes. http://suzymchale.com/kosmonavtka/issorbit.html Not long ago we were beating animals over the head with clubs, well maybe a few years back. Would the early cave man ever have thought he might be flying higher than the birds? How did we get here from there? http://www.kubrick2001.com/ I have been talking with David Robertson in England about trying to make software neurons that would work like our brain does. To get my gray matter working, have been reading a number of books about nerves, brains and what it means to be human. I just finished "Out of Control" by Kevin Kelly and "Figments of Reality - The Evolution of The Curious Mind" by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen. We are going to be going back to the Moon soon and it might be a good exercise to open our minds to new ways of thinking. Take a look at some of the clips below and check out some of the links and if you are in for a mind blowing expansion, check out the book. I bought my copy from Amazon.com, used, Hard Back, for $3.72 plus $3.99 shipping. I now have a lot more ideas of what I might do with large number of software neurons that work in mysterious ways. Our 14 month old granddaughter is walking, crawling through my chair barricades, kicking a ball back to me, and directing me to many new items in her field of view. She already lets you know what she wants and smiles when she pulls my coat off the chair to make it through the tunnel. What might she do on the Moon and will your intelligent cybernetic assistant be there to help as well? http://web.tuke.sk/kkui/dokumenty/AR2006.pdf [28 page pdf from Technical University in Ko?ice - http://www.tuke.sk/ ] http://www.tuke.sk/tuke?set_language=en&cl=en also http://web.tuke.sk/kkui/dokumenty/AR2007.pdf Department of Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence http://www.tuke.sk/tuke/for-students/for-international-students TUKE caters for a wide range of educational needs not only in the East-Slovak region, but throughout Slovakia and Central Europe, as in many specializations it is the only centre of education and research in this area. TUKE closely co-operates with other universities and with industrial organizations throughout the region and the Slovak Republic. Now to Figments of Reality. - LRK - _______________________________________________________________________ http://www.amazon.com/Figments-Reality-Evolution-Curious-Mind/dp/0521663830/ *Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind (Paperback)* by Ian Stewart(Author), Jack Cohen(Author) "that this matter is organised in a different manner. Most of the interesting features of our personal universes are people and their activities - friends..." Snip _______________________________________________________________________ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figments_of_Reality *Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind* (1997) is a book about the evolution of the intelligent and conscious human mind by biologist Jack Cohen and mathematician Ian Stewart . In this book Cohen and Stewart give their ideas on how the sentient human being evolved. Various chapters discuss scientific and philosophical ideas such as emergence and chaos, free will , perception versus reality, objectivity versus subjectivity, self-awareness, the ego and id, groupthink , and extelligence . A theme is that intelligence is an inevitable result of letting evolution progress for long enough. Topics are illustrated with humorous science fiction snippets dealing with a hypothetical alien intelligence, the Zarathustrians, whom Cohen and Stewart use as metaphors of the human mind itself, an alternative evolutionstory, and various philosophical concepts. _______________________________________________________________________ Dextre has arms. :-) http://www.space.com/spaceshuttle/ Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== ==> TEMPLARSER <== http://www.geocities.com/templarser/figments.html *Prologue* Fifteen thousand million years ago the universe was no bigger than the dot at the end of this sentence. A tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of a second before that - but there was no fraction of a second before that. There was no time before the universe began, and without time, there can be no 'before'. (As well to ask what lies north of the North Pole.) There was no space, no time, and no matter. But when the space that was coextensive with the universe had grown to the size of a dot, time had already begun to tick. The temperature within the dot was far too high for matter to exist, but there was plenty of what was required to create matter: radiation. The primal dot seethed with radiant energy. During time's first duodecillionth (10-39) of a second of existence, the universe was a 'false vacuum', a state of negative pressure in which every fragment of space repelled every other fragment. Space exploded exponentially, and in that near-infinitesimal instant the universe inflated from a tiny dot to a ball many light-years across as its negative pressure literally blew it apart. As the temperature dropped the false vacuum gave way to a true vacuum, a state of zero pressure, and the era of inflation ceased. The universe, now large enough to be interesting, continued to expand under its own momentum - but more sedately, at a rate of a few thousand kilometres per second. When time was one ten thousandth of a second old, the temperature of the universe dropped to a trillion degrees. Pairs of particles, one of matter, one of antimatter, were winking into existence and out again, born in and dying as fluctuations of radiant energy. Matter and radiation were in perfect balance. However, the balance between matter and antimatter was imperfect. For every 999,999,999 antiprotons there were 1,000,000,000 protons. From that imbalance came everything that we know. When time attained the grand old age of one second, the temperature of the nascent universe had fallen to a mere ten billion degrees. Electrons and antielectrons, colliding in pairs, filled the universe with bursts of neutrinos and antineutrinos. Neutrons, no longer stable, decayed into protons and electrons. Two minutes after time began (some say one and a half minutes, others three) the universe had cooled to one billion degrees, and matter as we know it began to assemble. Neutrons paired incestuously with their proton offspring to form creation's first atoms - heavy hydrogen, otherwise known as deuterium. Deuterium fused into helium and matter began to diversify. snip [If you have not read the book, then do take a look at the clips from the book as noted by *Melanie Mitchell *who heads the Adaptive Computation Program at the Santa Fe Institute in California - from New Scientist - 8 November 1997 - LRK] http://www.geocities.com/templarser/index.html snip ============================================================== http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/v5/psyche-5-33-scott.html The Evolution of Body, Mind and Culture Review of Figments of Reality by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen Alwyn Scott Department of Mathematics University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 U.S.A. snip Considering the dozens of books on the nature of consciousness that have descended upon us over the past decade or so, I opened Figments of Reality with some hesitation. Would this study of mind really "break new ground and develop profoundly thought-provoking and novel insights into the nature of evolution, science and humanity" (as promised on the dust-jacket)? Or should it be expected to sink - like Roderick Usher's castle - into the tarn of conflicting claims and counterclaims, leaving no trace on the surface? Happily, mathematician Ian Stewart and biologist Jack Cohen live up to the claims of their promoters. They have given us a book that presents novel ideas in a lively style, which the general scientific reader will be able to appreciate. Focussing attention on a few key issues, the authors dismiss much of the intellectual trivia that confuses current discussions of consciousness, showing little patience with theoretical arguments based on fictitious zombies and attempts to relate studies of consciousness to the vagaries of quantum theory. This book begins at the beginning, recognizing the obvious fact that mind emerged from living organisms and asking the readers to consider how intelligent life developed. Interestingly, almost half of the book is devoted to describing the biological context in which our brains evolved. Figments opens with complementary critiques of the related concepts of reductionism and a theory of everything, pointing out that both are problematic in the real world of experimental science. Diligently applied to the biological realm, a theory of everything runs afoul of a practically unlimited number of possibilities at higher levels of description. Similarly, current research in high energy physics - for all its intellectual brilliance and excitement - is unlikely to modify the facts of chemistry, upon which biology is based. Thus the biochemist, the cytologist and the physiologist have no professional stake in becoming knowledgeable about (say) quarks or Higgs bosons or string theory or whatever. Such fundamental concepts, as every bioscientist knows in his or her gut, are simply irrelevant to the development of meaningful models of living organisms. These rather obvious caveats - often blithely ignored by theorists in the physical sciences - are brought home to the readers of this book through an informative and entertaining discussion of game theory. Although some games (uninteresting ones) can be well played using simple strategies, all of the interesting games (chess, bridge, go, and so on) offer so very many possibilities that sure-fire generalizations about strategy are practically impossible. The course of evolution, Stewart and Cohen suggest, is of the second sort, where the rules of the game change over time and the aim is to stay in play. No argument there, but how has nature managed to discern and implement winning strategies in this most interesting of games? The answer is a phenomenon that the authors call complicity, a complex sort of positive feedback threading through interacting levels of the biosphere, and allowing unexpected causal loops to arise. As a striking example of how intricate complicit phenomena can be, the authors cite a parasitic flatworm that spends part of its life inside an ant, while its reproductive stage is inside a cow. The technique that nature has evolved to allow the worm to transfer from one animal to the other is described as follows. The parasite infects the ant, and presses on a particular part of its brain. This interferes with the normal behavior of the brain, which causes the ant to climb a grass stem, grasp it with its jaws, and hang there, permanently attached. So when a cow comes along and eats the grass, the parasite enters the cow. This three-way complicity (among worm, ant and cow) thus generates an emergent phenomenon (the clever reproductive strategy of the flatworm) which hardly seems amenable to reductive analysis. snip Why does Figments work so well? In part, of course, because both of the authors are skilled and thoughtful writers, but that is not alone sufficient as several recent books on the nature of mind by science journalists have clearly shown. In addition to demonstrating the necessary writing ability, the authors stem from appropriate professional backgrounds. One (Stewart) is a respected mathematician with a deep knowledge of current physical science, and the other (Cohen) is a biologist with wide appreciation for the varieties of living creatures. As one learns from this book, a thorough familiarity with both of these scientific realms is necessary for achieving an understanding of the nature of consciousness. If you are seriously interested in the scientific study of consciousness, buy Figments of Reality. And read it! Snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://news.altair.com/pipermail/lunar-update/attachments/20080315/50d27a65/attachment-0001.htm From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Tue Mar 18 22:03:29 2008 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:03:29 -0700 Subject: [lunar-update] Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90 Message-ID: <47E07471.3030202@gmail.com> Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90 http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/03/18/arthur-clarke.html?ref=rss --------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23697230/ COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90. snip --------------------------------------------------------------------- He will be missed. Certainly have enjoyed his books and movies. I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey before we went to the Moon while I was on active duty in the Naval Air Reserve and stationed at Andrews Air Force Base, MD . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film) - LRK - Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== http://www.space.com/news/080318-arthur-clarke.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7304004.stm http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23697230/ http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-clarke19mar19,0,393161.story http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080318/ap_on_en_ot/obit_clarke ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Tue Mar 18 23:58:16 2008 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:58:16 -0700 Subject: [lunar-update] Sir Arthur C. Clarke's Maelstrom II: Now a Living Memorial Message-ID: <47E08F58.4090301@gmail.com> Sir Arthur C. Clarke's Maelstrom II: Now a Living Memorial Received an e-mail from Jeroen Lapre' who is working on a short film based on Arthur C. Clarke's short story Maelstrom II. See note below. Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== Dear Maelstrom II Cast, Crew, Consultants and Friends, you have most probably heard by now the passing of Sir Arthur C. Clarke. I am very sad that I did not get the opportunity to meet him in person and show him the completed version of Maelstrom II. It was an honor to be introduced to Sir Arthur by my friend Jay Trimble, from NASA Ames, back in the year 2001. It was a privilege to have corresponded with Sir Arthur, and to be working on a digital short adaptation of one of his short stories. Maelstrom II is now a living memorial for Sir Arthur. I am determined to complete it with the original intention galvanized: to inspire people about this amazing Universe we inhabit. http://www.distant-galaxy.com/maelstrom2/MaelstromII.html Best wishes, Jeroen Lapre' Producer/Director Maelstrom II digital artist ILM ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Tue Mar 25 23:06:14 2008 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:06:14 -0700 Subject: [lunar-update] TRIPLE FLYBY ALERT: Space shuttle Endeavour has undocked from the International Space Station Message-ID: <9bb827dc0803252006v470b143fm24cf2b072406d769@mail.gmail.com> TRIPLE FLYBY ALERT: Space shuttle Endeavour has undocked from the International Space Station Ok, this is from the March 24, 2008 Space Weather News and I should have said something. You can watch activities on NASA TV and you can check out the over flies from the Space Weather links below and from Heavens Above link as well. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html It is Spring break for the grandchildren, dogs barking, and Sangad is in Thailand buying up the place. :-) Life gets interesting. :-) Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== Space Weather News for March 24, 2008 http://spaceweather.com TRIPLE FLYBY ALERT: Space shuttle Endeavour has undocked from the International Space Station and the two spaceships are now orbiting Earth in tandem. This sets the stage for a series of rare *triple* flybys, which many sky watchers will be able to observe on Tuesday, March 25th. It's a triple because three spacecraft are involved. First to appear is the European Space Agency's Jules Verne cargo carrier flying 2000 kilometers ahead of the ISS-Endeavour combo. Jules Verne is about as bright as a 1st magnitude star. Four minutes later, and even brighter, the space shuttle and space station follow Jules Verne across the starry sky--a spectacular sight! US and Canadian readers can find out when to look using our new Simple Satellite Flybys tool: http://spaceweather.com/flybys. (Note: We haven't forgotten about the rest of the world. Work is underway to expand our simple flyby predictions beyond North America to all parts of the globe. Stay tuned.) SOLAR ACTIVITY: Who says the sun is quiet? Two new sunspots are growing rapidly near the sun's equator. Just yesterday they were almost invisible; now the active regions are several times larger than Earth and are putting on a good show for anyone with a backyard solar telescope. Visit http://spaceweather.com for movies, photos and updates. snip ============================================================== http://www.heavens-above.com/ *Space Shuttle Mission STS-123* Endeavour has now separated from the ISS. Please use link below for predictions until landing. *ATV Jules Verne Launched* Europes unmanned space tranporter Jules Verne has been successfully launched. Please use the link below for visibility predictions. Configuration Current observing site: *Unspecified, 0.0000?N, 0.0000?E* select from mapor from database or edit manually Registered user login | Why register? Create new user account Subscribeto our AvantGo channel Satellites 10 day predictions for: ISS | STS-123 | ATV | Genesis-1/ 2 | Envisat | HST Daily predictions for all satellites brighter than magnitude: (brightest) 3.5| 4.0| 4.5(dimmest) Iridium Flares next 24 hrs| next 7 days| previous 48 hrs Daytime flares for 7 days- see satellites in broad daylight! Spacecraft escaping the Solar System- where are they now? Radio amateur satellites- 24 hour predictions (all passes) Selecta satellite from the database Height of the ISS- how does it vary with time snip Developed and maintained by Chris Peat , Heavens-Above GmbH *Please* read the updated FAQbefore sending e-mail. [image: DLR] ============================================================== NASA AIRS NEW SPACECRAFT'S MANEUVERS AND DOCKING TO SPACE STATION http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/mar/HQ_M08065_ATV-NASA_TV.html March 25, 2008 John Yembrick Headquarters, Washington 202-358-0602 john.yembrick-1 at nasa.gov James Hartsfield Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 james.a.hartsfield at nasa.gov MEDIA ADVISORY: M08-065 NASA AIRS NEW SPACECRAFT'S MANEUVERS AND DOCKING TO SPACE STATION HOUSTON -- Less than three weeks after its maiden launch, the European Space Agency's Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV, is set to begin a series of automated approaches and make an eventual docking with the International Space Station. NASA Television will broadcast the most critical maneuvers on March 31 and April 3, with commentary from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. During the docking, the spacecraft will be controlled by engineers at the ESA ATV Control Center in Toulouse, France, working with flight controllers at the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside Moscow, and at Johnson. On March 31, NASA TV coverage will begin at 9 a.m. CDT as the ATV begins an approach to the station from two miles away. A series of engine firings will bring the cargo ship to within 36 feet of the station before the Expedition 16 crew sends an abort command to move the ATV away from the complex for its final approach three days later. These maneuvers will test all of the ATV's vital systems, which are required for a safe automated linkup to the station. On April 3, NASA TV coverage will begin at 7 a.m. as the cargo ship closes in for docking to the rear port of the station's Zvezda service module. Docking is scheduled for 9:40 a.m. A briefing with NASA Flight Director Brian Smith will air on NASA TV at 11:30 a.m. Questions will be taken from media at participating NASA locations. The ATV will remain at the space station until early August. After undocking, it will perform a deorbit maneuver and burn up in Earth's atmosphere. Additional ATVs are planned to launch in the future. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv -end- ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://news.altair.com/pipermail/lunar-update/attachments/20080325/abb070d7/attachment.htm From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Wed Mar 26 22:14:28 2008 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:14:28 -0700 Subject: [lunar-update] Endeavour Lands at Kennedy Space Center Message-ID: <47EB0304.4030607@gmail.com> *Endeavour Lands at Kennedy Space Center* http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html Heralded by its trademark twin sonic booms, space shuttle Endeavour returned to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:39 p.m. EDT, concluding the STS-123 mission with a smooth touchdown on Runway 15. snp Down and safe, maybe you got a chance to watch NASA TV. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/ Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/landing_blog.html Welcome to NASA's STS-123 Landing Blog Video highlights from today's landing are selected from televised coverage provided by NASA TV. ? View Videos *Note:* All times are given in Eastern Time unless otherwise noted. 10:04 p.m. - The weather is pleasant and in the mid-60s with no rain in the forecast while Endeavour is on the runway waiting to be towed to the Orbiter Processing Facility. 9:54 p.m. - The crew members are being welcomed by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, Deputy Administrator Shana Dale, Kennedy Space Center Director Bill Parsons, Launch Director Mike Leinbach and other NASA and Japanese officials. 9:51 p.m. - The stairs are down on the crew transport vehicle and the astronauts have emerged. Some of the crew members are taking a walk around the orbiter for one last look at the vehicle. 9:45 p.m. - NASA's Astrovan will be arriving at the landing facility. The vehicle will carry the STS-123 mission team back to the crew quarters, where they suited up for this eventful mission more than 15 days ago. There they will undergo a complete medical exam and be reunited with their immediate family members. 9:35 p.m. - Endeavour's crew hatch has been opened. The astronauts have left the orbiter and entered the crew transport vehicle or CTV. The CTV contains beds and comfortable seats so that the astronauts can receive a brief medical checkup before stepping onto the tarmac. 9:32 p.m. - The final steps in 'safing' the vehicle are being completed. 9:15 p.m. - The recovery operations convoy has arrived. When the vehicle is considered safe from all potential hazards and free of toxic gases, the purge and coolant umbilical access vehicle will move into position at the rear of the orbiter. Following purge and cooling system connections, the crew transport vehicle moves into position adjacent to the orbiter access hatch on Endeavour's port side. 9:01 p.m. - It's been a little over 20 minutes since Endeavour and its crew touched down at Kennedy Space Center. The landing convoy will be gathering around the vehicle to work on "safing" procedures. 8:58 p.m. - The orbiter's hydraulic systems are being shut down. 8:50 p.m. - Work to safely shut down Endeavour's systems is continuing. 8:45 p.m. - The Endeavour crew returned to Earth after about 16 days in space including a record-breaking 12 days at the International Space Station. The mission concluded on its 250th orbit. 8:42 p.m. - The crew will now work through a checklist for shutting down the orbiter and "safing" the vehicle. 8:39 p.m. - Main gear is down and locked ? Main gear touchdown... Nose gear touchdown ... Touchdown! Endeavour has safely landed with its crew of seven astronauts at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The drag chute is deployed ... Endeavour's wheels have come to a stop. Welcome home, Endeavour, after completing a journey of more than 6,578,000 million miles! snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ==============================================================