NASA's InSight lander placed its seismometer on Mars on Dec. 19, 2018. This was the first time a seismometer had ever been placed onto the surface of another planet. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
IN PLACE: Exciting news from NASA - InSight, their latest Mars lander, is doing so well, it's ahead of schedule. Already, the lander has placed a seismometer on the Martian surface. From what we read before the probe's landing, that wasn't expected to happen until well into 2019.
In a press release, InSight Project Manager Tom Hoffman, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, explained, "InSight's timetable of activities on Mars has gone better than we hoped. Getting the seismometer safely on the ground is an awesome Christmas present."
It's kind of a big deal. "Seismometer deployment is as important as landing InSight on Mars," according to InSight Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt. "The seismometer is the highest-priority instrument on InSight: We need it in order to complete about three-quarters of our science objectives."
The seismometer will be measuring "marsquakes" (you didn't expect them to be called 'earth'quakes did you? ;) ) Scientists hope to deduce the depth and composition of the layers of Martian soil by studying the waves captured by InSight's seismometer.
Next up for InSight: Getting level. Right now it's sitting at about a 2- to 3-degree tilt. Engineers will level the lander, and once it's in the right position, seismometer measurements should commence.
GALE FORCE: Thursday evening we received a warning from our insurance company. No, we hadn't missed paying a bill. Rather, the warning was about an upcoming weather event where we live. On Thursday, Dec. 20, winds of up to 60 miles per hour were expected. It certainly was blustery this morning, starting at a little after 9 a.m. at our place, just south of Seattle. Lots of places lost power. Fortunately, we were spared.
North of Seattle, up by Mukilteo, check out this ferry making its way across choppy waters. I told the kids I'd kind of like to be on board for a ride like that. It would be exciting, for sure.
IT'S A WRAP: We have spent hours and hours wrapping dozens of gifts over the past couple of days. I can't believe there are only five days to go until Christmas.
Check out the Dollar Store 'treasure' we scored today to help us keep track. Wrapping gifts is kind of mindless work (well, at least the way we do it), so we listened to some music to help make the time pass. Today's excellent choice was a cool set from one of our contemporary favorites, twenty one pilots.
FUN WITH FONDANT: Busy weekend, as usual. While the kids and Christian went for a quick trip down south, I stayed home and worked on a 'little' project, namely making 30 melted snowman cookie kits. We had a date with a class full of third graders on Monday afternoon, and so I had some work to do.
First, I had to hand cut all of the melted snowman bodies. Then I had to make marshmallow fondant. So. Much. Marshmallow fondant. I made about eight pounds of white and two pounds each of green and brown. Oh, and I had to make three dozen gum paste carrot noses (or snowses, as I like to call them). And we had to cut parchment rectangles (for pressing/shaping the fondant, and round up pounds of sprinkles of different colors and shapes, and more). Oh, and then we had to make the heads out of crispy rice.
We reported to Kent Elementary at the appointed time. We've gone there this time of year in years past to help the class of CJ and Annabelle's oldest brother, Rick, make the snowman cookies. Rick has moved on (he's teaching in Vegas now), but we returned to Kent to make the cookies with one of his former teacher friends.
On each student's desk, we placed parchment, the fondant, a body, a head, and a nose.
Once they got the basics out of the way, they could get to customizing!
It's always so much fun to see how different all the little snow people are! Check out the headdress and legs on the one below.
And I think it was just so sweet how the snow person (below) had a gummy teddy bear tucked into its scarf. I also love the pink Unicorn Os cereal buttons on it.
This snowperson was a Seahawks' fan, right down to its eyes!
And how adorable is this snowman? That little hat? And the arms placed just 'so'!
Each of the kids was given a 'to go' box to tuck their creations (and the leftovers) into.
Later, at home, I told the kids that they should make their own snowpeople, too. Clearly, we had a few leftovers.
CJ came up with this cute creation. I like its surprised expression, and the pattern on its trunk.
In news that will surprise no one, Annabelle used the carrot 'nose' as a horn ...
and created a melted snow unicorn. I love its ears!
How cute is that?!
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: On Friday morning, CJ, Annabelle and Christian headed south to check out the Christmas ships display on the Willamette River. A cousin of Christian's kindly invited them to view the show from her houseboat. On the way south, they stopped in Vancouver to visit family friend Glenn and have lunch with him. (Glenn wound up joining them for the light show, too!)
Before the show, the kids and Christian stopped by Oaks Park. I'll have CJ tell you about a nature walk they took in the neighborhood.
On 15 December 2018, during a trip down to Portland, Oregon, my family (excluding my mother,) while waiting for a party (in anticipation of that night's Christmas Ships celebration), went on a short walk on the Oaks Bottom Loop Hike, present on a nature reserve. We had gotten to the trail from an outdoor area near Oaks Park, which itself is best known as an amusement park.
Near the start of the hike (or at least where we started,) a large mural of wildlife painted on the side of the Portland Memorial Mausoleum was visible. According to OregonHikers.org, this is the largest hand-painted mural in America.
Arguably the most interesting part of the (otherwise-unremarkable) walk was the sight of a coyote climbing the dirt wall near us. The coyote briefly gazed at us before going on its way up the wall.
According to Wikipedia, the 2009 mural was painted by by Dan Cohen of ArtFX Murals and Shane Bennett. The muralcovers approximately 43,485 square feet across eight surfaces. You can see some thumbnails of it here: https://racc.org/public-art/search/?recid=2924.89
Annabelle can tell you a bit about the Christmas ships. ...
The Annual Christmas Ship parade is an organized event that takes place in Oregon, crossing the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. When we saw them, it was as part of a party with many of our relatives on the Willamette River on a houseboat. The Christmas ships were less than 10 feet away from the houseboat, providing us a great view of each one. While it was cold and windy outside, the boats persisted with animated light shows and displays strewn across them. A few of my favorites included one with floating, glowing jellyfish hanging from the back of the boat. Another one I enjoyed was stylized to look like a large Rudolph head, complete with flashing red nose and large antlers. This is an annual event and they're still making their rounds, so see when and where you can catch them on their site at https://www.christmasships.org/ !
My friend Glenn took some video, and was kind enough to let me share it with you.
ENGINEERING LESSON: Today's STEM education came from YouTube. It's a terrific video by former NASA engineer Mark Rober. He was tired of porch pirates making off with his deliveries and so he engineered the hell out of a booby prize for would be thieves.
This video is definitely worth 11 minutes of your time.
FLICKER OF HOPE: It did my dark heart well to read this tidbit today, from US National Weather Service Seattle Washington: "Less than 30 seconds of daylight left to lose in Seattle until winter solstice. After that, we gain 50 seconds by the New Year."
Hooray! This December has seemed so over-the-top (or should that be under-the-blanket?) dark. Let there be light!
