Spreading Stardust

FINISHING TOUCHES: Annabelle finished a days-long art project this afternoon, putting the final (of about 2,423) plastic beads into place on Ziggy Stardust's face. Below, you can see she's closing in on being done.

Once all of the beads are in place, you cover the pattern with parchment paper and then use an iron to slightly melt or fuse the beads together. 

That process is always a little dicey, because you don't want to over melt them and lose the pixel effect, but if you under-iron them, the whole darn thing falls apart. Also, while you're ironing, invariably some of the beads flip sideways - especially on a big project like this - and then things get tense. 

Mercifully, in the end Ziggy came together fabulously. Long live Bowie. Gone but never forgotten. No doubt he'll be inspiring all kinds of art projects for generations to come.

PONDERING PLANETS: We're working hard on the picture book project. And though we're in the homestretch, we keep coming across "little" things that need changing or fixing or updating or altering, and so the finish line seems to keep getting pushed further away. Sigh. But we shall persevere!

Today's research for the book involved making sure we were well-versed in how Pluto is different than the eight inner solar system planets. To that end, we read the article "What Is Pluto?" part of the NASA Knows! (Grades K-4) series.

We also had to research how big the equator of Jupiter is. According to Space.com's article "How Big is Jupiter?" Jupiter has a mean radius of 43,440.7 miles (69,911 kilometers), which is about one-tenth the mean radius of the sun. Interestingly, Jupiter's rapid rotation causes it to bulge at the equator. Isn't that interesting? (In case you're wondering, Jupiter's diameter is 88,846 miles, and it spins once every 9.8 hours. That's a short day!

And our book research also had us calculating the distance from the Ohio/Indiana border to Washington DC.

Turns out it's about 525 miles, and would supposedly take about nine hours to drive, per our Mapquest query this morning.

Meanwhile, on Mars, the Mars Science Laboratory rover keeps on rollin.' We loved this selfie it took, which NASA shared today.

The photo shows Curiosity at "Namib Dune," where the rover's activities included scuffing into the dune with a wheel and scooping samples of sand for laboratory analysis.

            Image: NASA/JPL

We couldn't help but notice the big holes in MSL's wheels. Hope they are good for many more miles. ...

A DATE WITH THE BARD: One of the items we knocked off our 'to do' list today was getting reservations to see William Shakespeare's First Folio when it comes to down this spring. It will be on display at the main branch of the Seattle Public Library. 

Published in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, the First Folio is the first and most comprehensive collection of the plays of William Shakespeare. It's considered one of the most important books ever published, as without it, his masterpieces including Julius Caesar, Macbeth, As You Like It and The Taming of the Shrew might have been lost to the ages. 

According to the British Library, it is estimated around 750 First Folios were printed, of which 233 are currently known to survive worldwide. The folios contain manuscripts of 36 plays. More: http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/shakespeares-first-folio
As part of the event, Seattle Public Library will have lots of special Shakespeare-related programming. You can learn more about it here: spl.org/shakespeare.

MPA will definitely be reading up on Shakespeare before we go see the precious artifact.

Challenging

      PHOTO: NASA
DAY OF REMEMBRANCE: Not gonna lie. I dread this day. 

I have dreaded January 28th ever since 1986.

In the wee small hours of January 28, 1986, I was holding a colicky baby overnight for hours, passing the time watching CNN. There was wall-to-wall coverage of the launch of space shuttle Challenger since one of the astronauts on board this mission was a school teacher, Christa McAulliffe. Overnight, I watched all the pre-flight prep, and felt a growing uneasiness, for whatever reason.

The spacecraft launched at 8:39 a.m our time. When it the spacecraft cleared the tower, I shrugged and chalked my terrible misgivings up to fatigue. I put baby Rick down in a bassinet and headed for the shower. Guess everything was fine. 

I emerged from the shower to see my worst fears realized. Faces of loved ones onboard Challenger searching the sky, bewildered.

Challenger was lost.

Thirty years ago today.

Fast forward to 2016, we started our morning watching live coverage of the memorial service being held at Kennedy Space Center on NASA's Day of Remembrance.

I just love the photo up top, of a worker at Rockwell painting the spaceship's name on the orbiter. Bet he was proud to be working on that project.

By comparison, the photo below is heart-wrenching. It's a piece of what was left of Challenger.

      PHOTO: NASA
This 9.5 by 16-foot segment is part of Challenger's right wing. It was discovered by Navy divers about 12 nautical miles northeast of Cape Canaveral in 70 feet of water, on April 18, 1986.

NASA uses today, the anniversary of the Challenger disaster, to remember all of those who lost their lives as part of their space program. Here's a short video about the remembrance.
https://youtu.be/Nq7f97dtmR4


When we visited Kennedy Space Center for the launch of STS-132, the second to last flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis, we visited the astronauts' memorial. Heart wrenching then and now.

FRIDAY MORNING: Tomorrow morning (Jan. 29, 2016), a 45-minute webcast on the NASA DLiNfo Channel starting at 8 a.m. Pacific time will be all about the Synthetic Muscle™ experiment on the International Space Station. A polymer chemist from Ras Labs will be on hand, talking about about the investigation to test radiation resistance of an electroactive polymer. Sounds cool, doesn't it?  The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, or CASIS, manages the U.S. National Laboratory on board the ISS, and sponsors this experiment. During the event, the public can ask questions via Twitter using #askDLN or via email to DLiNfochannel@gmail.com.

For more info, visit http://www.nasa.gov/dln.

Projecting

PHOTO PROJECT: This morning, we finally got around to test driving a fun Christmas gift, the "Instant Lab Universal." 

What the device lets you do is somehow use an app to magically capture a photo from your cell phone and print it out on old school Polaroid-style photo print paper.

CJ and I carefully read the instructions and followed them step-by-step.

However, our first attempt at making a print was an exercise in frustration. 

We hopped online and found this helpful tutorial. After watching it, we were successful the second go-round. 

https://youtu.be/wF7gZkSqYr4?list=PLEMjS5mq7RUrqpiKuNWfzCiGmM0RLTGTA

The photo at the top of the blog was captured from my phone by the device, and appeared on the photo paper. Fun!

MAKING HIS CASE: CJ has been after me to watch a video about virtual reality. Today, we finally did that. 

Specifically, the 7-ish minute opinion piece was titled, "Still Skeptical of V.R. - Five Challenges for Virtual Reality." It was produced by a group called Extra Credits, which works to make video game design approachable. Their YouTube channel has over 650,000 subscribers.

The video makes some legitimate points about troubles facing virtual reality systems as they try to make inroads into the market place. Those obstacles include delayed implementation; splitting the market (right now the VR headsets on the market are not bundled with a specific system); video game developers not being all in when it comes to designing games for VR peripherals; VR games that aren't great, which means they don't get good reviews, and that limits the audience. Also, the price tag is prohibitive for most at the present. 

It will be interesting to see how VR develops over time. 

IN REMEMBRANCE: This week is always a somber one, as within a few days' span, it is the anniversary of the fatal launchpad fire of Apollo 1 (Jan. 27, 1967), the tragic loss of the Challenger astronauts (Jan.28, 1986) shortly after takeoff, and the loss of Columbia's crew upon re-entry to Earth's atmosphere (Feb. 1, 2003).

Tomorrow, NASA will pay tribute to those crews, as well as other NASA colleagues who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery. We'll be watching on NASA TV starting at 7 a.m. Pacific Time on the 28th for a live special from the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

The program is scheduled to include keynote speaker Barbara Morgan, a retired astronaut, 
Walt Disney World’s “Voices of Liberty,” speaker Robert Cabana, Director of Kennedy Space Center, a reading of names by retired astronaut Jon McBride and a flyover by Florida Air National Guard.

I'll never forget standing under the platform at Launch Complex 34, in 2011. That ground has been the site of such great sorrow (Apollo 1) and triumph (men on the moon!).

I also spent some time on these benches in a quiet corner of the site. 

"The conquest of space is worth the risk of life" - Gus Grissom, Cmdr Apollo 1

IN PROGRESS: Today we got back to work on a picture book project that seems to be in Year Two of development. We're so close to being done. I think maybe four pages tops (out of what will be about thirty total). Fingers crossed we can finish it within the week!

Weekend Rewind

PLAY TIME: Friday night was the finale of the play CJ was involved in, "Ariadne's Thread -The Adventures of Theseus and the Minotaur."

It was a packed house both nights of the play's short run, and prior to each play, we served up 150 plus spanakopita portions on demand. I think we're ready to open a restaurant. :)

CJ is the tall kid on the left-hand side of the stage.

WEEKEND FUN: Saturday, we had a good time with out-of-town visitors (hi Nonnie and Bops!). We went to Card Kingdom and Cafe Mox, where we played the board game Concept.

Later in the afternoon, we went to see "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" again. It was awesome again. 

Sunday, we took it easy, watching football and building some rockets.

 We picked up these papercraft kits last fall during a traveling NASA Space Launch System exhibit at The Museum of Flight.

Having put a couple of similar NASA papercraft models together before, we knew that these kits aren't for beginners. We're here to tell you that the SLS rocket project was a bit of a bear, especially building the solid rocket boosters.

We also went for a sunny Sunday stroll down along the waterfront. We parked near the Louis-Dreyfus grain terminal, and checked out the ship in port at Pier 86.

It was from Greece, and called Maverick Guardian.  According to MarineTraffic.com, the vessel was built in 2012, and it weighs 82740 tons. 

Since yesterday, it has left Seattle. As of Monday night, it was off the west coast of Canada.

We checked out the rose garden in Centennial Park.  Since our winter has been pretty mild, I figured we'd find a few roses. My hunch was right.

The kids did some rock climbing. The gentleman sleeping under the enormous boulder didn't seem to mind.

 And we checked out the art installation in the shadow of the old Seattle Post Intelligencer sign.

ART PROJECT: Annabelle continues to churn out the artwork. Below is a "Nonnie" pony she drew this weekend, and a Perler bead owl she made.

 She's also working on a big David Bowie piece.

She found a great Ziggy Stardust face photo, pixelated it, and printed it out with a grid atop it. 

 Now, she's painstakingly working on placing each bead in the perfect spot.

It's going to be amazing when she's done!