Fly Me to the Moon

Photo credit: NASA

FINAL MISSION: Forty years ago today, the enormous (363-foot high!) Apollo 17 roared sky- and spaceward from Pad A, Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center. Apollo 17 was the final lunar landing mission. 

It was a nighttime launch (12:33 a.m.), and the fire in the sky show was spectacular! On board were astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, commander; astronaut Ronald E. Evans, command module pilot; and scientist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt, lunar module pilot.

There's a great video of the Apollo 17 lift off on YouTube featuring network TV and NASA footage. Watching the behemoth Saturn V clear the pad is SO different than space shuttle launches. You can (and should!) view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmwc8E9fCLI&feature=youtu.be
The best part is when you can hear the crew chatter as they're climbing.  

Last December, we had a chance to visit the San Diego Air and Space Museum, which was featuring a special NASA exhibit at the time. On one of its walls was this quote from Cernan, the last words ever spoken on the moon. ... 

Forty freaking years it has been. And now we can't even launch our own astronauts to the International Space Station in low earth orbit. Ugh. 

REPORTERS: In an ongoing effort to get the kids writing more frequently and in a more structured manner, I asked them to write a report, Annabelle was assigned Cuba and CJ was assigned Puerto Rico. 

First, we talked about elements one would expect to see in a report, such as a little history about the place, something about its geography/location, something about the government, and something(s) about the people (languages spoken, customs, food, etc.). I asked them to write a paragraph about each of the elements listed above, and I also told them a good reporter never uses just one source, and so they could not just use Wikipedia. 

I was working around the house as they worked on their computers. I was impressed when Annabelle pumped out a fact filled report post haste.   CJ took longer to write his. They each emailed me their 'final' reports, and later that afternoon, I read each of them and proceeded to freak out. 

First, Annabelle and I had a discussion about plagiarism. ... I asked her if she had just copied and pasted sections from Wikipedia into her report. She said she had, and seemed genuinely surprised that that was a bad thing. I think she thought she was just being efficient. She was mortified when I told her in the Real World the consequences of doing that can be devastating. So, we went over how to read, glean facts, and then include them in your own writing without straight up copying it. 

Then, turning my attention to CJ's report ... well, it was just crappy. He touched on half the elements he was supposed to, and what he did write was lame sauce. And so, I rejected his report, as well. 

Their second versions were markedly improved, though we've still got a long ways to go.  Interesting factoid we all learned yesterday. Check out the flags from Cuba and Puerto Rico. Do you know which is which?

Neon Moon

                                                  NASA/JPL-Caltech/MIT/GSFC
TEEVEE: Right after My Little Ponies ended this morning, we switched over to NASA TV.  :)

What a treasure trove it was. We started off by watching amazing images returned by Ebb and Flow, the twin satellites mapping the moon using precise microwave measurements,  

The satellites are flying in tight orbits around the moon, at about the same height a commercial airliner would orbit Earth. In the photo above, ted corresponds to mass excesses (bumps) and blue corresponds to mass deficiencies (craters). The map shows more small-scale detail on the far side of the moon compared to the nearside because the far side has many more small craters.

And here's a video of their findings ... 

TANDEM DREAMS: At some point early this a.m. CJ migrated his way up to our room. At about 5:55 he was more than ready to get up and start his day, but first he wanted to tell me about the dream he just had. He said he was dreaming about the 2016 presidential elections, and it was a candidates debate and the debate degenerated into "whether or not Americans like their bacon too crispy" and the news anchor/moderator got fired on the spot for letting that happen.  LOL!

But what I found REALLY funny about his dream was while he was dreaming that, at the very same time I was also having a dream about the 2016 presidential election and whom the candidates would be. Quite the coincidence, no?

SANTA WATCH: Since December 1, the kids have been keeping tabs on Santa's activities via the NORAD Web site: http://www.noradsanta.org/en/ .

For most of the year NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command has to worry about the mission of aerospace warning and control for North America. However, in December, all that mundane stuff is set aside for their important Santa tracking duties.

There's an absolutely charming story regarding how NORAD got into the Santa tracking business. It seems back in 1955, a Colorado Springs based Sears Roebuck & Co. ad misprinted a telephone number for kiddies to call Santa. The number in the ad rang through to the commander's operations hotline. Doh! Fortunately, the director (Harry Shoup) had a sense of humor and civic obligation, and he had his staff check the radar for Santa. Thereby, a tradition was born.

In 1959, when Canada and the US created a bi-national air defense command called North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the tradition of tracking Santa continued, and it has lived on through today.

Thanks to the magic of the Internets, NORAD is more popular than ever, and each day their Web site adds another game and more info about the Jolliest of Elves. It's an exciting, engaging way for the kids to get into the holiday spirit.

LIT UP: Thanks to a Facebook post by the White House, we caught some of the live broadcast for the National tree lighting ceremony. This year marks the tree's 90th anniversary.  The tradition dates back to 1923, when President Calvin Coolidge lit a 48-foot fir tree featuring 2,500 red, white and green bulbs. It's been lit in times of war and peace, depression and prosperity.

A sign of the times, of COURSE the National Tree has its own Web site. There, we discovered a neat-o interactive history lesson for kids (and adults) in the form of an interactive timeline (http://www.thenationaltree.org/timeline/) 

In addition to ogling a pretty tree, we got to hear holiday songs performed by the likes of Phillip Phillips, The Fray, James Taylor, Colbie Caillat, Jason Mraz, and more. Cool!  You can watch some or all of what we saw here: http://thenationaltree.org/tree-lighting/

The National Tree's Web site even has fun holiday cards you can email people. Check 'em out here:   http://www.nationalparks.org/holiday-2012/ecards.

 ..

Earthlings

Image credit: NASA's Earth Observatory/NOAA/DOD

SPARKLE PLENTY:  We've all seen photos of Earth at night, taken by satellites. But today NASA released the latest, greatest versions of said photos were released. Stunning! Seriously, doesn't it look like fine art?

The photo is a composite of data from the Suomi National Polar orbiting Partnership satellite. The images were taken over nine days in April of this year, and 13 days in October. According to the NASA press release, it took 312 orbits to get a clear shot of every parcel of Earth's land surface. The data from these passes were mapped over existing "Blue Marble" imagery of our planet to give this amazing new view.

Here's the view in motion ...

SPACE SPIDER: Sad news to report. Nefertiti, a spider that traveled 42 million miles (!) aboard the International Space Station, has died.

After her long and storied service, the astro-spider was sent to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.  There, she promptly died. :/  Guess once she had a taste of space, all this Earthbound stuff was beneath her, so to speak. ;)

The kids and I followed the spiders in space program. It was an experiment designed to determine if the spider could catch its meals in a micro gravity environment. (It could!)

MAPMAKERS: This afternoon in science class, the kids used a transparency film to trace the model of the school grounds they made last week.

Once they had their transparency, they each used graph paper to draw maps with keys.

While the kids were working on coloring their maps, I heard CJ tell a frustrated tablemate, "Don't worry, it doesn't have to be like Michelangelo."

LOL.

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

DRIVEN: Today we did the I-5 thing - heading down south just before 7 a.,m. and returning this afternoon, home by 5-ish.

We had a special delivery to make. CJ and Annabelle have decided a young friend of theirs would use their train table way more than they do, so we cleaned it up, said a poignant 'goodbye' to some beloved toys and delivered them to a friend in Portland this morning.

By noon, we were heading back across the Columbia River to Vancouver, to stop and say 'hi' to the grandparents, just in time for lunch, lucky us. :)

G&G have already done a whole lot of Christmas decorating. It was fun to see all the Santas, nutcrackers and such.  CJ and Annabelle also demonstrated some songs they've learned on the guitar.

MOBILE CLASSROOM: With some six hours in the car, there was plenty of opportunity for some 'seat time' learning. The kids did two math assignments in their book, and I quizzed them on the multiplication tables.  They quizzed each other about the states, using a neat kind of fan deck of cards we scored at Value Village a couple months ago. They also did some reading (Nintendo Power, Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and Science News). And we sang along with a whole lot of Christmas carols. So, our "captive" time was productive.

OPPORTUNITY "WALKS": While Curiosity is getting all the press, let's not forget about the hardest working rover on Mars, Opportunity.

Launched in 2003 for what was supposed to be a three month mission on planet, that little workhorse is still getting the job done. Go NASA!

The latest job for Opportunity has been to complete a "walkabout" of a crater rim site called Matijevic Hill in honor of the late Jacob Matijevic, who led the engineering team for the twin Mars exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity for several years. 

The white lines above show how Opportunity drove about 1,160 feet (354 meters) in a counterclockwise circuit around Matijevic Hill in October and November, bringing the total miles driven on the mission to 22 miles (35.4 kilometers). The rover's travels are helping researchers ID the best places to further investigate.

So far, two top contenders are Whitewater Lake, a is light-toned material that science team members believe may contain clay, and Kirkwood, which contains small spheres with composition, structure and distribution that differ from other iron-rich spherules, nicknamed blueberries, that Opportunity found at its landing site and throughout the Meridiani Planum area it has explored. 

Cool stuff!

D'Lightful!

TWINKLE, TWINKLE: Early this evening we headed across Lake Washington to Bellevue, destination the Bellevue Botanical Garden. 

Normally, a botanical garden in wet western Washington wouldn't be anything to look at this time of year, but boy oh boy, does this place put on a show, using over a half million lights to create a breathtaking holiday display.

Over the weekend, I learned about Garden D'Lights somewhere on the Intertubes, and read that the next three nights are free (instead of the $10 it would have cost our family to go in normally). So off we went.

Photos don't do this place justice. Even as I was shooting them I was thinking, "It's not going to translate," The photos can't capture the 3D nature of the displays, the animated elements, and what it was like to be immersed in the environment. But I continued shooting anyway. ... 

This photo is of a stream that was actually moving, with illuminated, moving 'salmon' actually making their way up it. And the icicles on the tree were 'melting.' It was MUCH cooler in person.

The kids loved this sea serpent. It even had smoke coming out of its nostrils!

ELF TALES: Friday night we watched "Elf," a super funny movie starring Will Farrell as Buddy, a human raised as an elf in the North Pole. Buddy travels to New York City to find his real father, and hilarity ensues. 

The movie prompted me to ask the kids to write their own elf story this morning. I asked them to title it "Charlie the Angry Elf." 

Here's Annabelle's version. ...

Once upon a time there was an elf named Charlie. Charlie, unlike the other elves, was very very grumpy. He never celebrated Christmas, and was always very non-cheery. The other elves always tried to cheer him up, but nothing seemed to work. They tried "spreading Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear" but not even that helped! So they sent him to where the "special" elves go. That made him even grumpier and madder, because he was bored of listening to that jack-in-the-box song so many times. Soon, he quit one night, while everyone was sleeping. he wandered off into the snow, only to figure out he needed a place to rest. So he built an igloo. He stayed there for the night, and in the morning, havoc had come upon the workshop. There were reports of a "missing elf" and "unmade toys that need to be made."

Charlie, unknowing this, made himself a "filter" so he could drink water. He also caught fish, and never went back to the workshop. He made himself a fire for the night and slept.

Tomorrow, he peeked out his window, and saw many, many, elves looking for him. One even pasted a poster ON his window! He was furious, "They must want me BADLY," he thought. He never came out until the elves were gone. Then, he came out of his igloo, only to find out there were MILLIONS of posters upon it! Then he saw that it's a big deal if one of your FRIENDS is missing, not just a man. So he went back to the workshop, and everything returned to normal.
THE END

CJ decided his elf would be named Bob. Here's Bob's story. ..

Bob the Angry Elf A story by CJ Kisky Once there was a elf called Bob. Bob liked to make toys, like most other elves. In Santa's workshop as a newbie, he wanted tom learn how to make toys, so he went to elf school. One day, when he found out that he was falsely suspended for "saying bad things about Santa during time when you were making toys saying: SANTA TREATS US LIKE SLAVES!" It made Bob angry of course, so he called Santa and told him that it wasn't him. Santa told him to come to a meeting, so, the following morning, Bob came to the meeting. When Bob came to the meeting, he saw plenty other Elves and Santa in some chairs at a table. Santa told the elves to watch some security camera footage from the time it was said. When it was said in the footage, it showed that it was said by Carl. When the elves found it out, they gasped in shock, and found out that it was reported by the Larry brothers, because they saw it as a chance to get Bob, who they disliked. After that, Carl and the Larry brothers were suspended for doing bad things.

BREAKFAST IN THE GREAT GALLERY: Saturday morning, we went down to The Museum of Flight for the reception for photographers (that's me) and their families who had their works displayed in the museum's juried "Spirit of Flight" photography show.

It was cool to be in the museum during off hours. Our small group (about 20 people or so) had the Great Gallery to ourselves.

The kids enjoyed pastries and fruit and Annabelle (the subject of my photo) was very impressed with the trophy we brought home. :)

The museum has a towering Christmas tree in their lobby, covered with all sorts of air- and spacecraft ornaments, of course. 

MEANWHILE, ON MARS: This morning, we listened in on a bit of a news conference that was held at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. One of the things we heard was the latest news about the Mars Science Laboratory. Still no sign of Little Green Men, but the good news is now MSL has used its full array of instruments to analyze Martian soil, and all parts of MSL are working wonderfully. The roving laboratory has found a complex chemistry within the Martian soil, including water, sulfur and chlorine-containing substances, among other ingredients per a NASA press release.

The Mars news inspired CJ to play around a bit with his Hot Wheels Curiosity rover. Here, MSL is patrolling Gale Crater. 

THE VOYAGE CONTINUES: Meanwhile, on the edge of our solar system, Voyager 1 continues to head for the Great Unknown. Launched in 1977, right now it's the most distant human-made object, approximately 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) away from Ol Sol.  

This artist's rendition, courtesy of NASA, shows Voyager 1 in the "magnetic highway"

During an update at the American Geophysical Union meeting today, NASA scientists say they believe Voyager 1 is in the final area it has to cross before exiting our solar system and entering interstellar space. They are carefully monitoring magnetic field data, watching for changes that would indicate Voyager has crossed over into interstellar space.

These days, it takes a signal from Voyager 1 about 17 hours to travel to Earth. Not bad, given it's such a looooooooong distance call.