Day of Discovery

image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
ONE LAST TIME AROUND: Today was all about STS-133, the launch of space shuttle Discovery.

At 9 a.m. we turned on NASA TV to watch the preparations for a 1:50 p.m. lift off, our time.

Today's launch was extra special for a number of reasons. First, it marked Discovery's final glory. Since being put into service in August of 1984, Discovery has flown 39 space missions. Amazing!

Today was also special in that it marked the first time a humanoid robot was sent to Earth's outer space. On board Discovery is Robonaut 2, or "R2" (of course!) for short. The kids and I took a crash course on R2 this morning. It was easy, thanks to NASA's Web site. There we learned that R2's primary job for now is teaching engineers how dexterous robots behave in space. We watched one video that showed how R2 adapts its movements to work around and with humans. We could also see how amazingly dexterous its fingers are. (R2 was built in a GM-NASA partnership. Seeing it operate, it's easy to imagine why GM would be interested in a robot like R2.)

Right now, R2 doesn't even have legs! However, It is hoped that through upgrades and advancements, one day R2 will venture outside the station to help real astronauts make repairs or additions to the station or perform scientific work. The ISS is set to be R2's forever home; there are no plans to bring him back to earth.

Today's launch was also special to us because it's the first one since we went to the Space Coast and sat on the Causeway, witnessing the launch of STS-132 in person. What a thrill of a lifetime that was!

While that was impossible to beat, it was fun today to be able to see every little step of the mission on NASA TV. (When we were on the Causeway, for hours all we had was a spot on the sand and a faint, faraway voice broadcasting the countdown from time to time.) Today, we watched the six astronauts don their flight suits and then get on the bus to make their way to the launch pad. We heard interviews with former astronauts and had steady updates from Mission Control regarding systems and the weather. We watched the astronauts climb into the tiny cockpit, and heard them going through voice and instrument checks. It was fascinating to watch.

CRAPPYNAUTS: Seeing the astronauts having to sit in such cramped quarters, laying on their backs with their legs up in the air for two-plus hours before liftoff gave me an idea. ... I told the kids to assume the position ... :)
I (jokingly) told them they were going to have to spend the next two hours like that, without moving. No food, no bathroom, no scratching an itch on your nose. Nothing.

"Has it been an hour yet?" CJ asked about 30 seconds into our experiment.

"I'm hungry. Those oranges (for breakfast) were NOTHING," Annabelle complained about 2 minutes in. About a minute later she added, "OK, I think I lost movement in my feet."

I cajoled them into staying like that for all of 5 minutes before letting them sit up. I think they have a new appreciation for what the astronauts go through.

THE OTHER DISCOVERY: As the countdown clock ticked down, we did some other homework, including reading another chapter in our little Lewis and Clark workbooks from EdHelper.com, and completing some comprehension questions about it. The kids were totally NOT into that today. Maybe too much blood rushed to their heads while they were astronauts in training. ;)

TO A T: At one point today, CJ asked me, "What does 'T-minus' mean?" I told him I *thought* it was short for time, and that when people are counting down to something they often say T-minus and then the amount of time left until the event occurs. I did a little research to be sure and found out that was a good enough explanation.

INTO ORBIT: At 1:53 p.m. Discovery roared skyward. "It's as bright as the sun!" Annabelle said of the initial rocket fuel burn, echoing something her dad said was we watched Atlantis blast off last May. We watched the booster rockets fall away from the shuttle, and eventually its separation from the big orange external tank. We listened to mission control track it for another hour or so, and eventually NASA TV began running some pre-produced features about the mission (R2, the crew, the history of Discovery, and so on).

IN OTHER NEWS: Since we checked out the book "Kitchen Science Experiments" at the library yesterday, Annabelle has been begging nearly non-stop to do an experiment. So, once the shuttle was safely in orbit, I gathered the items needed to do a simple experiment involving yeast.

First, I asked the kids, "What do you know about yeast?" They both knew that it's an ingredient in pizza dough and bread.

"And aren't they alive?" Annabelle said, staring at the jar of yeast on the counter. I told her that yeast is a tiny plant-like microorganism and that there are many types or strains of yeast. The Fleishmann company's Web site has a good primer on yeast, BTW.)

I told them that when I'm making pizza dough, in order for the yeast to multiply and help the dough rise, I have to put it in warm water - not too hot and not too cold, just like a shower - and I have to feed it sugar.

We put warm water in two plastic bottles. We added a tablespoon of yeast to each and in only one bottle, we added a tablespoon of sugar. We topped these bottles with balloons, which cut off the oxygen supply to the yeast. And waited ...
Before too long, we noticed a foamy substance starting to form on the top of the bottle with sugar in it. According to our book, "When the trapped oxygen (in the bottle) runs out ... (yeast cells) switch to anaerobic respiration." And during this process, carbon dioxide is produced. Where would that carbon dioxide go? I asked the kids ...
Turns out, it filled the balloon on top of the sugar-fed yeast bottle. Cool! Meanwhile, the balloon over the water and yeast only bottle did nothing but droop, as the yeast in it wasn't respirating. Fun stuff!