Going and Going

SO SERENE:  If you look at this photo (above), you might think we spent a glorious day, relaxing along the shore, soaking up the sun, kicked back with not a care in the world.

That is not how we spent our day. Our trip to the beach was work - picking up a couple of rocks for a craft project. 

Today, we made two dozen or so intricate fossil cookies, around 20 sunflower and ladybug cupcakes, 18 custom pet rocks, and finished up some spirit/pom pom gloves and colorful wearable crayon holders. Our house looks like a craft store exploded.

Tomorrow is a craft fair at the kids' learning center, and the kids have been keen on participating. We're as ready as we're going to be. Wish us luck.

FINAL:  This afternoon, we watched the last lectures for our short (four-week) geology course, 

"The Dynamic Earth: A Course for Educators," from the American Natural History Museum via Coursera.  We also took and aced the final test, so now, pending getting passing grades on the field trip reports the kids filed about local geological features, it's just a matter of waiting to get the "graduation" certificate. 

INSTRUMENTAL:  Big news out of NASA over the past couple of days. They have selected the instrumentation that will be on board a probe headed to Europa, the intriguing, icy moon of Jupiter which is suspected to have an expansive saltwater ocean under its frozen crust. 

The NASA/JPL-Caltech photo above is a view of Europa's surface from NASA's Galileo mission. Pretty cool, no?

A new mission to Europa is still in the formulation stage.  The nine science instruments selected for the future mission were listed, as follows in a NASA press release: 

Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS) -- principal investigator Dr. Joseph Westlake of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Maryland. This instrument works in conjunction with a magnetometer and is key to determining Europa's ice shell thickness, ocean depth, and salinity by correcting the magnetic induction signal for plasma currents around Europa.
Interior Characterization of Europa using Magnetometry (ICEMAG) -- principal investigator Dr. Carol Raymond of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California. This magnetometer will measure the magnetic field near Europa and – in conjunction with the PIMS instrument – infer the location, thickness and salinity of Europa’s subsurface ocean using multi-frequency electromagnetic sounding.
Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE) -- principal investigator Dr. Diana Blaney of JPL. This instrument will probe the composition of Europa, identifying and mapping the distributions of organics, salts, acid hydrates, water ice phases, and other materials to determine the habitability of Europa’s ocean.
Europa Imaging System (EIS) -- principal investigator Dr. Elizabeth Turtle of APL. The wide and narrow angle cameras on this instrument will map most of Europa at 50 meter (164 foot) resolution, and will provide images of areas of Europa’s surface at up to 100 times higher resolution.
Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON) -- principal investigator Dr. Donald Blankenship of the University of Texas, Austin. This dual-frequency ice penetrating radar instrument is designed to characterize and sound Europa's icy crust from the near-surface to the ocean, revealing the hidden structure of Europa’s ice shell and potential water within.
Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System (E-THEMIS) -- principal investigator Dr. Philip Christensen of Arizona State University, Tempe. This “heat detector” will provide high spatial resolution, multi-spectral thermal imaging of Europa to help detect active sites, such as potential vents erupting plumes of water into space.
MAss SPectrometer for Planetary EXploration/Europa (MASPEX) -- principal investigator Dr. Jack (Hunter) Waite of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), San Antonio. This instrument will determine the composition of the surface and subsurface ocean by measuring Europa’s extremely tenuous atmosphere and any surface material ejected into space.
Ultraviolet Spectrograph/Europa (UVS) -- principal investigator Dr. Kurt Retherford of SwRI. This instrument will adopt the same technique used by the Hubble Space Telescope to detect the likely presence of water plumes erupting from Europa’s surface. UVS will be able to detect small plumes and will provide valuable data about the composition and dynamics of the moon’s rarefied atmosphere.
SUrface Dust Mass Analyzer (SUDA) -- principal investigator Dr. Sascha Kempf of the University of Colorado, Boulder. This instrument will measure the composition of small, solid particles ejected from Europa, providing the opportunity to directly sample the surface and potential plumes on low-altitude flybys.

TASTY!: We thoroughly enjoyed today's new-to-us produce experience. It might not be much to look at (my bad, blurry cell phone photo doesn't help), but the golden nugget mandarin is delicious, and definitely a new favorite!

SHE'S GONE:  This weekend, we were sad to learn of the passing of Nina, the beautiful gorilla who lived in Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo since 1968.  

We had seen Nina many times over the years, and it was always a melancholy experience, really, seeing such an intelligent creature forever captive. 

This photo I took of her a couple of years ago reminded me a bit of "American Gothic."

We're sorry she's gone, but I guess she's finally free, in a sense.