Mars, Math, & More

  
Photo: India Space Research Organisation 
UP & AWAY!:  Last night the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C25 launched from the pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh. I wussed out and did not get up to watch it live. :/  

By all accounts I've read, the launch was textbook. After orbiting Earth for a bit, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) will be headed for the Red Planet! India's first interplanetary mission, it's carrying five payloads. They are ...

• Lyman Alpha Photometer, an absorption cell photometer that measures relative abundance of deuterium and hydrogen from Lyman-alpha emission in the Martian upper atmosphere.
• Methane Sensor for Mars, designed to measure methane in the Martian atmosphere with PPB accuracy and map its sources.
• Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser, a quadruple mass spectrometer capable of analysing the neutral composition in the range of 1 to 300 amu with unit mass resolution. 
• Mars Color Camera, a tri-color camera that gives images and information about the surface features and composition of Martian surface.
• Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer measures the thermal emission and can be operated during both day and night. Temperature and emissivity are two basic physical parameters estimated from thermal emission measurement.

Lets hope its travel to Mars is as smooth as the launch was!

BETTER:  Today we did not touch the boring math textbooks. Instead, I spent a bit of time reviewing resources Dr. Jo Boaler shared in the "How to Learn Math" class I took online a couple months back. 

She recommended a number of Web sites, but the first five I checked out all required me to buy/download something, so I passed, cheapskate that I am. I wanted something we could use today, and before I buy anything, I want to research it. 

So, I moved on to Boaler's book list. She recommended a number of math puzzle books by Brian Bolt, including "The Amazing Mathematical Amusement Arcade." I previewed a few pages of it on Amazon.com and ordered it post haste. It should be here Thursday, and we're looking forward to it!

In the meantime, I thought I'd have the kids play some math games online. It's been too many moons since we've accessed the BBC's wonderful educational games, and so I poked around there for awhile before settling on Elemental. The game reeled us in with this lead: "Whether you're feeling as loud as thunder or as cool as ice, Maths, Science, and English will help you win this battle of the elements."

The kids really loved the fact it was a multi-player game, and that they could set up a private room, where just the two of them played against each other. 

After a few rounds of Elemental, Annabelle moved on to Spherox. The premise of the game is that he's lost in space and needs the player's help finding his way home (using math, English and science knowledge). 

Bottom line: Math today was much more fun than yesterday. In fact, they were begging to do more. :)

WEST SEATTLE WAY: In our seemingly never-ending saga to help Rick buy a house, we were back down to West Seattle today to meet an inspector at a property he's offered on. 

We got to the neighborhood a bit early, so we stopped for a quick play session at a nearby Myrtle Reservoir park, in the shadow of a really large water tank. 
                    

Then, we were off to what we hope is Rick's future home. The kids spent an hour plus reading Harry Potter books, and another hour plus playing in the yard, everything from old school hide and seek to some kind of ninja warrior action.  

PICKIN': Here's a leftover shot from Sunday afternoon, post Seahawks game. CJ was sporting a Go Hawks mohawk. :)