Of Masks and Manikins

           Credits: NASA/David C. Bowman

SMART DUMMIES: News of NASA's campaign to return to manned spaceflight continues to come in, one milestone after another. 

Recently, crash test dummies outfitted with modified Advanced Crew Escape System suits were placed in the crew seats of an Orion test capsule during a drop test at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. This test is in preparation for Orion's future splashdown landings in the Pacific Ocean.

Engineers drop an Orion test capsule with crash-test dummies inside into NASA Langley Research Center’s 20-foot-deep Hydro Impact Basin to simulate what the spacecraft may experience when splashing down in the Pacific Ocean after deep-space missions.

Credits: NASA

Data from the dummies will help engineers ensure astronauts aren't injured during splashdown.

“Not only can we learn how the structure reacts to a water impact in these tests, but we can also understand how splashdown loads are transmitted to the seats and crew,” said Mark Baldwin, crew injury lead for Orion prime contractor, Lockheed Martin.

Some of the sensors on the dummies measure localized responses at the head and neck, to protect against common impact injuries like concussion and spinal fracture.

This recent test was the fourth vertical drop test. In the coming months, five swing tests of the capsule with the fully suited dummies will be conducted.

Eventually, and Orion capsule will be placed atop the powerful Space Launch System rocket, hopefully for NASA’s journey to Mars.

HAPPY WOOKIEE: The woman who won the Internet today is a mom in Texas who loves Star Wars. Candace Payne posted a video of herself trying on a Chewbacca mask that has built in sound effects. Hilarity ensured. The video had over 70 MILLION views in 24 hours. 

Being the big Star Wars fans we are, of course we had to rush right out and buy one (not an easy task, as they were selling like hotcakes after the video went viral).

We ordered ours online from Target, and picked it up this afternoon. The kids experimented with it in the car. Here's Annabelle trying it on for size. ...

Poor CJ found out that being a Wookiee isn't all that easy. ...

Lift Off

BARRED:  This afternoon, as we were delivering  sunflower cupcakes to a neighbor in need of a pick-me-up, as we drove toward our 'hood's hub I remembered it was Thursday and that meant drop in art day at the library.

Annabelle immediately perked up and so after the cupcake drop was complete, we hustled to the library. She was literally skipping with joy as we headed to our destination. 

I'll let her tell you a bit more about the session. ...

Today I went to a fun drop-in art class at our local Seattle Public Library. The library has drop-in art classes every Thursday, from 4:00 to 5:30. Today, we made soap! The ingredients we used were rose petals, chamomile, lavender, flax seeds, coffee beans, scents (we used sweet-grass or tangerine. You only need 1 or 2 drops, because the scents are very strong,) and for the actual soapy part, glycerin. First, put rose petals, chamomile, lavender or flax seeds, along with coffee beans if you want, plus a drop of scent into a soap bar mold. (you can also put a marble inside for extra fun! When you use the soap enough, you’ll be able to get the marble out!) Melt the glycerin until it’s a liquid. Then, you pour the glycerin into the mold! While we waited for the soap to harden (about 20 minutes), we did scribble drawing! To make a scribble drawing, you just scribble on you page and then draw what you see in the lines! Once your soap hardens, you can pop it out of the mold and wrap it in tissue paper. These little bars make great gifts!

Annabelle eked every one of the 90 minutes out of the session. Our house certainly smells lovely because of her efforts. 

PRESENTING:  Today, it was CJ's turn to share with peers a topic he's researched for the past few weeks, human-fueled climate change. 

CJ came out wearing this for the presentation. I promptly sent him back to his room to reconsider his wardrobe for such an important topic. 

Once he got his clothes in order, the rest flowed nicely.

In fact, he got a standing ovation from his classmates when all as said and done. :)
Here's a link to the graphics CJ used during his presentation. 
http://prezi.com/bd92wc6q43p_/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

ROCKET REMODEL: Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows we're scavengers. We love finding treasures for free or next-to-nothing. 

Recently, a resident of our neighborhood posted they had a surplus rocket on a Facebook group. This rocket happens to be a kids' play structure. Immediately, a number of people weighed in saying they wanted it. We were lucky enough to be gifted it. 

It's a neat little unit. Sturdy, stable. No sharp edges. The slide is commercial grade, in good shape. The rocket fuselage is made from wood and compressed fiberboard, painted.

We're definitely going to repaint it before it goes to its new home. I think it needs to look more Saturn V or SpaceX than Fisher Price.  That, and it needs lights. And some sort of sensory station in the crew capsule - lots of toggles and buttons! And a star map inside

its nosecone. This will be a fun project. We've always wanted to build a better rocket! 

Stay tuned for progress shots.

Sing a Song

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Yesterday afternoon, CJ and Annabelle took to the stage yesterday afternoon as part of the talent show at their school. They were super stoked to have special accompaniment from big brother Kennedy!

https://youtu.be/oehK-7KRN9w

PANDA-MONIUM:  The kids continue to be involved in a social issues class twice weekly. They've been working on presentations that involve environmental issues as of late. Annabelle chose to talk about pandas, because, as she put it, "They're black, white and ADORABLE." 

She talked about the habitat of the pandas disappearing, pandas disappearing, and why we should care. 
http://prezi.com/kwct0fggtbj1/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
And she made "Panda Packs" to hand out to the audience members.  

SCIENTIFIC METHOD: Annabelle is going to take the state's standardized test for fifth graders tomorrow morning. 

In preparation, a couple of weeks ago, she/we took the online practice test. It was pretty darn straightforward. Here's a sample question ... 

Um, yeah. This is not rocket surgery.

But one thing we wanted to brush up on were the steps involved in the scientific method. We went to YouTube for a catchy song that might help cement the steps into the mind. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIFz_-KzURY

Moving Targets

GARDEN PARTY: We spent a few hours Friday afternoon helping a community garden get established, and working on a community-involved art project.

I was mostly at the art table, helping kids decorate and melt plastic cups into Chihuly-inspired art objects.

Meanwhile, CJ and Annabelle toiled in the garden. CJ worked hard shoveling buckets full of soil amendments.

Much mulch was moved and plants were planted. It was 80-degrees plus in full on sunshine. Everyone worked up a sweat, and I made two runs for Popsicles!

SATURDAY AT SAFECO:  Saturday night, we headed to the stadium district for some fun. We went early and shopped at the always interesting Uwajimaya. 

We made our way to the stadium in time to see Moose Man (Annabelle's Moose hat prompted him to seek us out).

We also spent some time along the bullpen wall, where Angels catcher Geovany Soto tossed Annabelle a batting practice ball.

 And we arrived in time to collect some Mariners' swag, including Kyle Seager bobblehead dolls. Sweet!

 We also had time to visit the kids' zone on the 300 level above home plate. 

 The kids played some virtual baseball, and got a sense for just how big Big Unit Randy Johnson is.

They also posed in some cutouts for photo opps, but they set up was kind of creepy. The scale is wrong. 

It gives the poser no neck and the faces are too big. :0 

WHO ARE YOU?: Sunday night, we had an amazing time at Key Arena, in the company of living rock legends, The Who.

More on this later, as the show deserves its own blog post!

MOMENTOUS CIRCUIT: Monday, May 16, marks the day the International Space Station has made its 100,000th orbit of the Earth. 

The space station has been in orbit for over 17 years (!), and during that time, over 1,922 research investigations have been performed. More than 1,200 scientific results publications have been produced as a result.

Art & Park

WOODSY: After class today, we headed to one of favorite neighborhood destinations, Discovery Park. The kids rode the zipline and the dogs sniffed around for a half hour. 

Later in the afternoon we returned to the other side of the hill, this time our destination was the Magnolia branch of Seattle Public Libraries. What enticed us to visit there today was news that they have a drop in art workshop on Thursday afternoons.  Annabelle was super excited by that idea, and was the first in line waiting to get in.

Their project this afternoon was making a 'galaxy in a jar.' The process involved putting a layer of stretched out cotton balls into the bottom of the jar, adding glitter, adding a tempura paint and water mixture, and repeating the process layer-by-layer until the top of the jar is reached. Annabelle preferred to call it a nebula in a jar, given its cloudy appearance. 

While she had fun, CJ and I toiled with more practice for the state standardized math test. Good times. There was one answer on their test we're both convinced they have wrong.

WE'RE MELTING: We started our morning helping on a community art project. Local students colored plastic cups with Sharpies, and we melted them down to make them look artsy. The project is inspired by some of Dale Chihuly's work.

I just happy that after about six hours of working with a heat gun, melting plastic and kids, there hasn't been a single snafu - not even a close call.

It's a good exercise, really, as it involves learning about the safe handling of tools and requires good communication between the heat gun wielding person and the tooling person.

DRAGON DOWN: Yesterday, SpaceX's Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, carrying over 3.700 pounds of important cargo, including science and technology samples. Dragon had been attached to the International Space Station since April 10. When it arrived it was carrying 7,000 pounds of supplies. Dragon is currently the only station resupply spacecraft able to return a significant amount of cargo to Earth.

           Photo: SpaceX
One of the things Dragon had during its return was the spacesuit worn by NASA astronaut Tim Kopra during a January spacewalk. Engineers on the ground want to get a close look at it in hopes of determining what the source of water leaking into it that meant an early end to the spacewalk after Kopra reported a small water bubble inside his helmet.

Afternoon Delight

STADIUM BOUND: This afternoon we made our way to a bus stop atop our hill. There, we were waiting on the #24 - the bus that takes us to our happy place. Safeco Field. (Happy coincidence, Ken Griffey Junior's number was 24.)

The bus was a bit late, but we made our way to 'our' seats just ahead of the first pitch.

Lucky for us, G&G decided to go to the game, too, and they were in the good, nice seats behind home plate. We made a bee line to meet them,and let's just say we seriously self-upgraded our cheap 'weather day' student tickets ($12) and had the best view we've had in a looooong time!

The Rays had their young gun Chris Archer (above) going. Fortunately, Mr. Archer had a terrible first inning and it was 4-0 after one. 

However, the Rays kept plugging away and, to our chagrin, the Rays' Corey Dickerson hit a grand slam in the sixth, tying the game. The horror!

The Ms and Rays exchanged another run, and it was tied 5-5 after the regulation nine innings.

Fortunately, in the bottom of the 11th, Mariners catcher Chris Iannetti was the lead off batter. he walked up and smacked a home run to deep center field. Game over, Mariners win!

Meanwhile, in other ballpark shenanigans, the kids and Christian celebrated Ken Griffey Jr. during the middle of the fifth inning. All season long, the city is celebrating Junior's election to the Hall of Fame.

Here's the big screen version of the kids and Christian celebrating Griffey (they're above the "to Cooperstown."

One thing I learned today I'd never known despite my dozens upon dozens of trips to the stadium is that the baseball player depicted in the cast iron end of every row of seats in the stadium is Fred Hutchinson. 

Annabelle informed us of that fact today. She said while she was out and about, she saw a sign in the stadium sharing the fact.

These days, you hear "Hutchinson" in Seattle and you think hospital. While I'd also remembered hearing he was an athlete, until today, I had no idea just how big a deal "Hutch" was in baseball.

A pitcher - and sometimes pinch hitter! - he played for the Detroit Tigers for years, and then went on to be a manager for three MLB teams, including the pennant-contending Reds. However, he was stricken with cancer in his early 40s, while he was the manager of the then pennant contending Cincinatti Reds, and died at 45. 

Fred Hutchinson's surgeon brother, Dr. William Hutchinson (1909–1997), created the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, as a division of the Pacific Northwest Research Foundation.

Shining Stars

STARING AT THE SUN: I had trouble sleeping Sunday night (well, early Monday, really), because I knew we wanted to be up early for an astrological event - the transit of Mercury (or, in other words, Mercury passing between Earth and the sun).

It is kind of a big deal because Mercury only passes between Earth and the sun about 13 times a century. The last time it happened was in 2006, when CJ and Annabelle were still just toddling around. 

The event was underway by the time the sun rose in Seattle, a little after 5:30 a.m. However, there was a problem: A thick carpet of clouds covering the entire sky, with no sun to be seen. We were hopeful for a glimpse, though, as the transit continued through 11:40, and the clouds were moving some. 

By about 8:30 or 9 a.m., we could see the glowing orb and we had our eclipse viewers ready. They gave us a nice, safe view of the sun, but we couldn't make out Mercury without magnification. 

We tried some binoculars with the filter, but that didn't work either. We also tried our telescope, but that burned a hole in the filter. Oops. Won't make that mistake again. 

This NASA photo shows you what we didn't see. Mercury is seen in silhouette, in the lower third of the image, as it transits across the face of the sun Monday, May 9, 2016, as viewed from Boyertown, Pennsylvania. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Judging by how tiny that speck is in the heavily magnified photo, it's no wonder we didn't actually see Mercury yesterday. But as I pointed out to the kids, we were staring at the sun while Mercury was transiting, so in a way we did experience the event.

WINNINGEST: The Mariners have finished up a road trip and were back home last night. We thought we'd join them in Safeco Field for the evening. 

We started out in center field pre-game, per usual. There, we watched Mariners' ace Felix Hernandez warm up.

Per not usual, we had tickets in the King's Court - a golden cheering section for beloved Mariners' pitcher Felix Hernandez. We'd never sat in the court on the main level before (we'd sat in "Upper Court," the cheap seats version of King's Court), and were curious about the experience.

We all agreed that the King's Court is a fun idea, but the reality of it is a little less than ideal. First of all, it was mainly populated by 20 somethings who apparently put a lot of effort into "pre-funking" it. (Translation: A number of them were borderline sloppy drunk even before the game started.)

Second, every time Felix gets two strikes on a batter, the King's Court crowd stands up and holds up their "K" cards and chants "K! K! K! K! ..." hoping to help him strike out the batter. (a strike out is recorded as a K in a baseball scorebook). When the cards go up, you can't see a darn thing - not Felix, not the batter, not anything but a sea of posterboards. So that's super frustrating.

I guess one of the 'perks' of sitting in the King's Court is that, if you're loud or outrageous enough, you have a pretty good shot of getting on the big screen and/or the television broadcast. And so, people put a *lot* of effort into being loud and outrageous, which is a distraction to the game, as well.  And I can report that the selfies-per-capita in the King's Court is undoubtedly higher than the rest of the stadium's selfie ratio.

So all in all, we're glad we have experienced the King's Court, but by the seventh inning, we made our way up to the more vacant back rows of it to escape some of the 'fun' outlined above.

Regarding the actual game, the King didn't have his best stuff last night, but it was good enough to keep the Mariners in it. And fortunately Mariners' Ketel Marte had the best game of his career. The switch-hitting shortstop had four hits, including a go-ahead three-run homer in the sixth inning.

Felix Hernandez picked up the win with seven innings of two-run ball as he moved past Jamie Moyer for the most victories by a pitcher in Mariners history with 146. Hernandez gave up just four hits with two walks and two hit batters as he improved to 3-2 with a 2.27 ERA.

So lucky for us, we saw history being made on Monday. Hernandez achieved the milestone of becoming the Mariners' winningest pitcher ever. That fact sparked conversation on the way home about whether or not winningest is a word. I am firmly in the "yes, it is" camp on that. Look, it's on the scoreboard. That makes it legit, right?

It was nice that there was a pre-recorded message from Jamie Moyer congratulating Felix on breaking his record.