Cool Whirled

image credit: NASA

HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU: Christian came across this photo today, and I just had to share it here. It's a self-portrait taken by NASA astronaut Mike Fossum. What you see is actually a picture of the the visor of his spacesuit's helmet. The curved surface shows a fish-eye reflection of Fossum's gloved hands and his camera, with the ISS and Earth in the background. It was taken on July 12 of this year, during a spacewalk.

Fossum is currently an ISS inhabitant, and he'll be getting some new company tonight, shortly after 9 p.m. our time, as that's when the three-man Expedition 29 crew that launched Sunday night from Kazhakstan is set to arrive. I wonder if they're going to take their Angry Bird on board ...

We watched the docking of Soyuz and the ISS with great interest. The kids both remarked how the (Russian) screen we were watching reminded them of the game they played yesterday at The Museum of Flight (where they had to spacewalk and capture the Hubble). The graphics were remarkably similar. In the photo above (a pic I took of my PC screen), you can see the capsule trying to line up with the ISS.

In other NASA news, here's the subject line from an email I received today. NASA Accepting Applications For Future Astronauts. Cool! In case you're wondering, minimum qualifications include "a bachelor's degree in engineering, science or math and three years of relevant professional experience. Successful applicants frequently have significant qualifications in engineering or science; or extensive experience flying high-performance jet aircraft. Educators teaching kindergarten through 12th grade with these minimimum degree requirements also are encouraged to apply."



SPIN CYCLE: Doing laundry as homework?! Sure enough, that was the kids' assignment from their science class this week. In science they're studying textiles, and this was a continuation of the lab they started last week in class, where they purposely stained a fabric swatch and then used various means/methods to try to get the stains out.

The homework was to do a load of laundry at home and notice before and after differences. We decided to use the kids' laundry basket as our test case. Out of it, we extracted a stained turtleneck of Annabelle's. I pointed out to the kids that plenty of other articles of clothing were, no doubt, likewise stained, but that the white shirt showed the spots the worst.

I suggested the kids might want to try to "Shout it out" when it came to the white shirt. They have no pop culture tie in to that phrase, so they took turns - one would squirt the Shout while the other screamed at the top of their lungs. Good times.  

Next, we took the laundry down to the basement, where the kids stuffed the washer full. We fired it up and they watched it whirl around for a bit. And yes, I know, we mixed our whites and colors ...

Sorry if the suspense is killing you, but we didn't yet check to see if the Shout worked on the chocolate stain. Stay tuned for further developments!

ROLLERGIRL: We spent just a few minutes playing around in the alley today. Annabelle decided to give her skateboard a go. She was tentative at best. Baby steps. ...

MORNING MEETING: We started our day off with a wonderful hour hosted by rockstar astrophysicist and Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson broadcast live from the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). His guests were NASA astronauts Mike Massimino and John Grunsfeld, both of whom were crew members on STS-125 and worked on Hubble Space Telescope repairs. AMNH curator Michael Shara was also on hand to answer questions about the museum's new exhibition Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration.

It was a fast, fun hour. The group fielded questions from students on hand as well as the "Twittersphere" as deGrasse Tyson called it. We didn't submit any questions, but loved hearing all about everything from space walks to to doing the Moon Walk in space.

Afterward, Annabelle said, "I learned a lot of interesting stuff about space. I definitely did not know they wore Huggies pull up diapers under their space underpants (during a spacewalk)."


CJ said, "I like (learning about) how they train - by going in the desert or maybe going in a big pool of water to simulate space. Thanks for letting me listen to it mom." :) 
 
BANNER DAY: We've been counting down the days until the release of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid 6: Cabin Fever." The series is far and away CJ's favorite thing to read.
 
Well, today was that day, and we scored a copy of the book at our neighborhood grocery store, of all places. I love these "Diary of .... " books (because the kids love them so), and wish a new one came out every day, not just one a year or so.
 
Annabelle read the entire book during CJ's 90 minute acting class. He started it before his class and finished it tonight before bedtime.
 

After he finished, CJ declared, "It's a good book. In fact, I think it's the best one yet." He quickly recanted this, however, saying "all of them are the same good."