THE WAIT IS OVER: Busy, busy week here at MPA. I won't attempt to recount it all here. Let's just concentrate on Thursday. Not just a normal Thursday, but one that involved us traveling south to help 44 third graders handcraft custom melting snowman cookies. That was the morning (and more on that later). The afternoon? We headed north, to Pacific Science Center to get in line to see "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," the latest movie in the epic sci fi franchise. We called ahead to ask about ingress details and were told we'd be sitting outside leading up until our 6 p.m. showing. We packed and dressed accordingly, and arrived at 2 p.m. ready to tough it out. I was kind of surprised by the line that was already there, four hours ahead of the showtime.
The kids set up shop and started playing Mario Kart for Nintendo Switch right away.
Surprisingly and happily, around 3, we were allowed to line up inside the facility. So then, we spent the next 2.5 hours marking time and waiting with other Star Wars geeks. There are worse ways to spend a Thursday afternoon.
There were eight in our party - CJ and Annabelle, their big bros Rick and Ken and their wives, and Christian and I. Happily, we were able to get great seats and enjoy the nearly three hour theater experience (including a special screening about the music of Star Wars, with composer and director John Williams). No spoilers here. I'm just going to say we can't wait to see the movie again. And again. THE DROIDS YOU'RE LOOKING FOR: Hot on the heels of the newest Star Wars movie, Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc. shared a video today titled "How close are we to a Star Wars droid reality?" The video features Paul G. Allen’s technical advisor Jeff Kramer speaking to the topic. Kramer is a Star Wars fan with an extensive background in robotics who talks about how Star Wars characters C-3P0, R2-D2 and BB-8 operate, and how some of their technological advances can be seen in present day robotics. https://youtu.be/6eOlJT3zl1s
STAR WARS IN SPACE: I thought our seats for last night's premiere of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" were pretty great, until today, when NASA announced that crew members on board the International Space Station will be watching the movie. Watching "Star Wars" in space? Doesn't get much better than that!
The press release read, in part:
So who is “The Last Jedi”? Is it Luke Skywalker? Is it Rey? Other theories? Crew members currently aboard the International Space Station won’t have to wait until they return to Earth to find out. Just as Disney did two years ago for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the company is sending Episode VIII to space for astronauts to watch in orbit.
Disney will uplink the film to the space station through mission control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Expedition 54 crew members, including NASA astronauts Joe Acaba, Mark Vande Hei, and soon Scott Tingle, look forward to watching the science fiction saga at their leisure while they’re living and working aboard the orbiting laboratory that will enable human and robotic exploration of galaxies far, far away.
FIRST FIRST LEGO LEAGUE: This weekend MPA was pretty much consumed with Annabelle's participation in First LEGO League. She is fortunate to have had the opportunity via Amelia's Club at The Museum of Flight. Since September, she and a handful of girls her age have been meeting at the museum each Saturday. This Saturday, she was there from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. getting ready for an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. competition at Ballard High School on Sunday. It's actually a complicated, intricate process and we'll blog more extensively about it in days to come. For now, I can share that the team did really well in their competition. They met all of their goals on the robot run, and did well enough in the presentations to win the teamwork award for having done a great job in meeting the competition's core values. By the way, I loved that the robotics competition tables had names like Lovelace and Hawking. GRATUITOUS: Apologies for the short blog post. Here are some Mt. Rainier shots as a consolation. I love it when fog settles in the valley and the mountain rises out of the mist.
And I'm not sure if this was a sunset or a sunrise, but it sure was pretty.
HOMEY: It seems like we're always on the go, because, well, we're almost always on the go. But sometimes we're home. And when we are, we are constantly visited by a trio of hummingbirds. The three buzz all over our yard and hang out at our feeder multiple times daily. Their very not creative nicknames are Reddy (he has a blazing red head), Lazy (she sits when she eats. Always) and The Other One. This is actually a Other One photo. She happened to be sitting at the time. HUNTING: Yesterday we went looking for a Christmas tree. We've had our beloved vintage aluminum one for years, but this first year in a new home made us want to get a real tree, too. One we could then plant, to be specific. I saw an ad for living Christmas trees - and live reindeer - at Kent East Hill Nursery. So, the kids and I headed up there yesterday. We checked out the reindeer, Twinkle and . *** was enjoying taking on an upside down Christmas tree with his antlers.
We moseyed out to the live tree section. There was not a lot to choose from (maybe 20 or so), and man, were they expensive (to me, at least). Most were around a hundred bucks, some were considerably more. Yikes. I started eyeing dead trees nearby, but those were half a hundred, with nothing but a carcass to show for it come January. I was about to say 'skip it' when I checked out one last tree. I saw the name "Korean" on its label and read it aloud, knowing CJ would be instantly sold. (He has a mild fascination with things Korean, ever since "Gangham Style" was popular, I think.) And so, Abies Koreana "Hostmann's Silberlocke," a Korean fir, joined our family.
It's not big, but it's pretty, and holds many Star Trek, Star Wars and Elvis ornaments, so what's not to love? Meanwhile, it has been clear for a few days, and the mountain has been putting on a show. I love it when fog settles in the valley. With the mountain rising in the distance, it looks like a misty dream world!
YESTERDAY ONCE MORE: There is an astounding website that recreates every compelling moment of the Apollo 17 mission. Check it out here: http://apollo17.org/
A FEW YEARS AGO: The photo above popped up as a Facebook memory today. If memory serves, we had just gotten off a bus and were walking up toward Key Arena, to go to our first "Deck the Hall Ball," an annual concert sponsored by a local alternative station. Annabelle was a whirling, and CJ was trying his best to be a nutcracker. Wow, where do the years go? HISTORY LESSON: Americans will forever remember Dec. 7 as Pearl Harbor Day. This morning, Paul Allen posted the first photos and video of the of USS Ward since its sinking off the Philippines. The 314-foot vessel is significant as it fired the first American shot in World War II on December 7, 1941, outside Pearl Harbor. Recently, the Philippine government for allowed Allen's RV Petrel to explore the historic ship.
https://youtu.be/DmpcrFuEmr8
Launched on June 1, 1918 during World War I, come Dec. 7, 1944, the USS Ward's target on that initial WWII strike was a midget Japanese submarine. While it got the first volley off, on Pearl Harbor Day, it became the target of a kamikaze that same day. Fortunately, the crew of the Ward was rescued before the vessel was scuttled. Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen’s expedition crew of Research Vessel (R/V) Petrel has documented the USS Ward (Destroyer No. 139) in its final resting place near Ponson Island in the Philippines. For more information, visit http://www.paulaleen.com
Today there was a Facebook Live event with the crew of RV Petrel, who explored the USS Ward on the ocean floor. (Oddly, the interview doesn't start until the 25 minute mark of the broadcast.)
NASA Astronaut Randy Bresnik posted this photo, taken from the International Space Station, today, saying, "As we reflect today, the beauty of Pearl Harbor is indicative of the beauty of the relations we have now with Japan and the Japanese people. — with World War II Valor In The Pacific National Monument."
Also on this day, Apollo 17's crew captured this amazing shot of our one and only Earth, back in 1972.
Such a stunning shot. And below, is an phenomenal "Earth Rise" composite shot the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter produced in 2015. EXPANDING: This morning, we checked out a graphic fromBigelow Aerospace. It showed how the The size of expandable space stations will have a quantum leap with the increase in the size of rocket fairings.
Pretty cool! Bigelow's first expansion module is already attached to the International Space Station.
We watched live coverage back in 2016 when the module was being expanded for the first time! The noises it made while expanding were interesting and a bit eerie!
MUSIC MARATHON: On Tuesday evening, we attended this year's incarnation of "Deck the Hall Ball," an annual concert hosted by KNRK, Seattle's 'alternative' radio station. (I put 'alternative' in quotes, because when a genre of music has been around 20 plus years and is very much in the mainstream, 'alternative' sounds like a misnomer to me. But I digress.) The concert was at Key Arena, the facility that used to host the NBA Super Sonics. Now, since the Sonics were stolen - er, left town - 10-plus years ago, it's home to the WNBA Storm, and holds concerts and other special events. We got to the venue a little before 3 p.m. and were on site for every single minute of the show, and definitely watched the vast majority of it. I have to hand it to the stage crew/producer(s). The flow of the bands was an amazingly well oiled machine. Every single one of them started on time. Impressive!
Deck the Hall Ball is a concert at KeyArena hosted by 107.7 The End, a
prominent local radio station. This year's Deck the Hall Ball (known as
DTHB25 due to it being the event's 25th incarnation)'s lineup was
composed of J GRGRY, J Roddy Walston and the Business, Joywave,
Portugal. The Man, ODESZA, The Lumineers, and The Killers.
The
concert began with JGRGRY spending several minutes mumbling about
something we couldn't understand. Then again, this may have been
affected by KeyArena's terrible acoustics and speakers (the stadium was
designed in the 1960s to look cool).
During most of JGRGRY's performance
and a bit of J Roddy Walston's act, we waited in the lobby for dad to
come.
Joywave is best known for their
collaboration with Big Data for the 2013 song "Dangerous".
Portugal. The
Man, the band that came after Joywave, spent several minutes performing
inane psychedelic compositions that tried (and failed) to be like Pink
Floyd. This went on to a poor cover of Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2.
Odesza prominently featured drummers on the front of the stage for
most of their performance.
The Killers, while they put on an otherwise entertaining performance, bizarrely decided to put a giant ♂ on a block at the front of the stage, which was there for their entire show. Meanwhile, three women who featured in their show for approximately 15 seconds were caged-in by cylinders branded with ♀s. The misogynistic implications that came with that seemed to have succeeded in alienating a large portion of their audience (me included).
My thoughts about the show align pretty closely with CJ's. JGRGRY looked to be trying his hardest to be Bowie/Ziggy Stardustesque. Sorry, only one human can do that act, and it has been done. J Roddy Watson and the Business worked hard and were entertaining.
Joywave had a distinctive sound.
Before the concert, I 'warned' the kids that Portugal. The Man is a jam band (known for playing long, looping things that aren't like 'normal' songs), and that their act would not sound much like their smash hit "Feel it Still" at all. (Fun fact: We heard "Feel it Still" all over Europe when we were there in September.
Anyway, I was right. PTM played jam after jam, looping in and out of their own stuff and some interesting covers. I think CJ's review might have been a little harsh, however. I think he would have liked their Floyd-inspired music more if he hadn't seen the real Roger Waters TWICE this year.
Odesza was so much fun! Their music is eclectic, often featuring guest vocalists on the more ballad-like numbers. Other times, their music is totally percussion driven, with a live drum line. Probably my favorite act of the night. I loved their 'spacey' intro, as well.
The Lumineers were professional, well polished, and you could tell they were used to being the headliners, ha ha. Very listenable. The last act of the night was The Killers. It was this band that prompted me to get tickets to this show, truth be told. Unfortunately, they kind of lost me the second their set lit up, before they even started playing. Now, I get that their current hit single is "The Man." I actually like the song (even though it's full of macho puffery, for lack of a better descriptor). That said, why you make the male symbol front and center on your stage for the whole show, I'm not sure what the point of that was. It was THE MOST IMPORTANT THING on an otherwise sparse set. Ironically, band members were obscured by the big male symbol at times. It lit up all sorts of different ways. It was just weird. I wasn't the only one who felt that way, either. All four of us after the concert chimed in with 'What was THAT all about?"
Anyway, all in all, overall I found the experience a bit on the disappointing side. And don't get me started about the 45 minute wait in a concession stand line. Unbelievable.
SIGN OF THE SEASON: This shot is a leftover from our visit to Pacific Place last week for their snow show the night the kids went to see "Holiday Inn."
ADD IT TO THE LIST: Here's part of my/our ongoing problem. A couple of days ago we walked into a building materials salvage/reuse store in search of flooring materials, and we saw these wood balustrades and furniture feet. I should have walked right past, but NO! They were only a dollar apiece and surely something could be done with them and then it took me about a third of a second to see that they simply HAD to be made into a chess set.
And so now we have 34 of the pieces (you need an extra queen you know) waiting to be transformed. A ridiculous purchase, really, given our already lengthy to do list, but ... sigh. We just couldn't pass them up.
So, when we're not busy remodeling our house or doing the bajillion other things we're doing, we'll tackle this. Some day.
MEGAVERSARY:For awhile now, CJ had been tracking a special webcast set for today. It was a Capcom event on the 30th anniversary of the iconic Mega Man video game series.
The event went live at 11 a.m. our time today. I'll let him tell you about what went down.
Today, Capcom (a prominent Japanese video game company) broadcast a
livestream on their Twitch (the most popular livestreaming service)
channel. The livestream was for the 30th anniversary of their Mega Man
franchise, which started on the Famicom/NES on 17 December 1987. The
franchise had not received a main series game in over 7 years, so the
stream was highly anticipated by fans of the franchise.
For
an hour before the main event, there was a pre-show. I did not see most
of said pre-show. The stream featured interviews with several Mega Man
series developers. One of the questions that many of the developers were
asked was "what is your favorite Robot Master?" Answers included Ice
Man (MM1) and Gravity Man (MM5).
The stream had
three big announcements. The first was that all of the Mega Man X games
(1-8) would be coming to the PlayStation 4, the Xbox One, the Nintendo
Switch, and PC. The second was that both volumes of the Mega Man Legacy
Collection, a collection containing games in the main series from 1 to
10, would be released for the Switch. The third was the announcement of
development for the long-awaited Mega Man 11, which is set to appear on
the aforementioned platforms in late 2018.
Technician load the 'golden record' Earth's official communication with extra-terrestrials, onto Voyager 1 - NASA photograph
THE VOYAGE CONTINUES:Some astounding and impressive news came across our desk here this morning (via social media, truth be told).
We read news about the Voyager 1 and 2 any time an article comes up and are always impressed that these spacecraft keep sailing along after four decades, no to our solar system's fringes.
Today's news involved the fact that a set of thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft were successfully fired up Wednesday, Nov. 29, after 37 years without use. Wow! Imagine trying to start your car here on Earth if it sat in your driveway for 37 years. Not likely that it would fire up. Now imagine your vehicle 11.7 billion milesdown the road ... Remarkable!
The press release from NASA read, in part:
Voyager 1, NASA's farthest and fastest spacecraft, is the only human-made object in interstellar space, the environment between the stars. The spacecraft, which has been flying for 40 years, relies on small devices called thrusters to orient itself so it can communicate with Earth. These thrusters fire in tiny pulses, or "puffs," lasting mere milliseconds, to subtly rotate the spacecraft so that its antenna points at our planet. Now, the Voyager team is able to use a set of four backup thrusters, dormant since 1980.
"With these thrusters that are still functional after 37 years without use, we will be able to extend the life of the Voyager 1 spacecraft by two to three years," said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
Since 2014, engineers have noticed that the thrusters Voyager 1 has been using to orient the spacecraft, called "attitude control thrusters," have been degrading. Over time, the thrusters require more puffs to give off the same amount of energy. At 13 billion miles from Earth, there's no mechanic shop nearby to get a tune-up.
The Voyager team assembled a group of propulsion experts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, to study the problem. Chris Jones, Robert Shotwell, Carl Guernsey and Todd Barber analyzed options and predicted how the spacecraft would respond in different scenarios. They agreed on an unusual solution: Try giving the job of orientation to a set of thrusters that had been asleep for 37 years.
"The Voyager flight team dug up decades-old data and examined the software that was coded in an outdated assembler language, to make sure we could safely test the thrusters," said Jones, chief engineer at JPL.
In the early days of the mission, Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter, Saturn, and important moons of each. To accurately fly by and point the spacecraft's instruments at a smorgasbord of targets, engineers used "trajectory correction maneuver," or TCM, thrusters that are identical in size and functionality to the attitude control thrusters, and are located on the back side of the spacecraft. But because Voyager 1's last planetary encounter was Saturn, the Voyager team hadn't needed to use the TCM thrusters since November 8, 1980. Back then, the TCM thrusters were used in a more continuous firing mode; they had never been used in the brief bursts necessary to orient the spacecraft.
Hats off to Aerojet Rocketdyn, who developed all of Voyager's thrusters. On Wednesday, the aged thrusters were tested for their ability to orient the spacecraft via 10-millisecond pulses. Due to Voyager 1's distance from Earth, the team working on the project had to wait while test results traveled through space, taking 19 hours and 35 minutes to reach a NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, California.
Upon receiving the positive results, "The mood was one of relief, joy and incredulity after witnessing these well-rested thrusters pick up the baton as if no time had passed at all," said Todd Barber, a JPL propulsion engineer.
The plan going forward is to switch to the TCM thrusters in January. To make the change, Voyager has to turn on one heater per thruster, which requires power -- a limited resource for the aging mission. When there is no longer enough power to operate the heaters, the team will switch back to the attitude control thrusters.
Because the thruster test was so successful, the team is likely to do a similar test on the TCM thrusters for Voyager 2 in a few weeks.
IT TAKES A VILLAGE: For a few hours this week, the kids and I worked on a monthly bulletin board we decorate. Its purpose is to highlight kids' birthdays that month. The hardest part is coming up with a different theme each month. We bandied about several ideas for December (Nutcracker, penguins, snowmen, reindeer), but settled on a gingerbread village for whatever reason. (Actually, probably due to my love of gingerbread.) We used colored foam sheets, cardboard, pufff paint, decoative tape, beads, buttons and more.
CJ helped cut out any a 'gumdrop' shingle.
And here's how it came together. (I blurred the students' names and birthdates in the photo below.) It's about 5 by 4 feet.
