To the Moon

HOWDY: We hit Goodwill today. Guess what Annabelle found there? It looks super with her pink guitar.

We also found a couple of board games (one promoting reading, the other is Creationary, a LEGO building game), and several sets of Brain Quest cards at a bargain price. They'll be great for Rick to use in his classroom.

A BOLD PROCLAMATION: We started our day by watching a live rebroadcast of John F. Kennedy's famous "Moon Speech." It played at 8:15 our time, the exact time he gave the speech 50 years ago today at Rice University.

Here, JFK gets an explanation of the Saturn V launch system from rocket man Dr. Wernher von Braun, with NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seaman over Wernher's shoulder. Photo: NASA, of course

The speech set the United States on a course of space exploration. In part, Kennedy said, "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
RUBBED THE RIGHT WAY: Today was about as close to back-to-school as we get. We returned to the school in Shoreline where the kids take a weekly science class. (They were also happy to see the playground, eat the popcorn and visit the library there again.)

Once class started, it was good to see that they haven't forgotten classroom manners and how to listen and follow a teacher's directions. :)  Annabelle is one of just two girls in the class. She's also the youngest. But no big deal. With three older brothers, she's used to being outnumbered and out "aged."

Today they did some rubbings of coins and textiles. In doing so, they discovered details that they hadn't noticed before about the articles. Interesting ...

Jet Set

Above, CJ and Annabelle check out the cockpit of a Boeing 727

GOING TO BOEING: On Monday we finally knocked one item off our 'to do' list. We took a tour of the mammoth Boeing jet assembly facility and Payne Field in Mulkiteo, WA, about 25 miles north of Seattle.

 The facility is home to the 747, 767, 777 and 787 Dreamliner production lines.

Our tour was at 2, but we got on site about an hour early. That allowed us time to wander around the gallery in the Future of Flight Aviation Center and check out some displays.

A couple of enormous engines got our attention right away.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the front side of a Rolls Royce engine. RRs are installed on many a Boeing jet.

The side of the engine had a neat-o high tech peek inside, so we could get an idea of what's going on inside the engine's metal housing. Rolls Royce also has an educational, interactive "build your own engine" feature on their Web site: http://www.rolls-royce.com/interactive_games/build/flash.html and a "Journey through a jet engine" feature: http://www.rolls-royce.com/interactive_games/journey02/flash.html

 There was also a pretty Peugeot engine on site.

A few minutes before 2, we wound our way to the tour entrance tunnel. While we waited, we sat (in decommissioned first class seats and watched some video about Boeing's history. At about 10 until 2, they started taking tickets.

We started off in a posh theater in the Future of Flight building where we viewed an 8-minute movie about - you guessed it - Boeing!  Then, we boarded a bus. First, we wheeled around Paine Field for a bit. There we saw jets ready for delivery to dozens of airlines from around the world, everything from China to Cambodia, Japan to Poland.

Next, we crossed the highway and went to the aircraft assembly building.

photo: Maurice King - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Boeing_Everett_Plant.jpg

When you drive by it at highway speeds, you think, "Damn, that's big," but when you're actually inside it you think "Damn, that's HUGE!!!" I've been inside the mammoth Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, but that place is absolutely dwarfed by the Boeing facility. Our tour guide told us that it's the largest building (by volume) in the world, but Wikipedia says that it's 5th largest. Hmm. ... The Guinness Book of World Records gives it the number one spot, though, so that's good enough for me (472 million cubic feed or 13.3 million cubic meters).  Our tour guide said Disneyland and 12 acres of parking would fit inside the Boeing Everett plant. Or, picture  75 football fields fitting on its 98-acre footprint.

It's definitely like its own city, complete with a fire department and security force, plus on site electrical substations and a water treatment plant, as well as a medical clinic. There are 2.33 miles or 3.7 kilometers of pedestrian tunnels running below the factory. We walked in them to get from one production line to another.

Anywho, the facility opened in 1967, to produce the historic 747 jumbo jet and it has expanded several times since then. Today, it has and I think we were told it has over 30,000 employees, six Tully's coffee stands, and 11 restaurants or cafes, as well as an on site daycare and athletic club.


I wish I had pictures to show you from the tour, but photography of any kind is verboten, darn it!

The tour lasted about 90 minutes. 

We deboarded the buses and exited  through the gift shop (of course!). Before leaving the Future of Flight building, we went back down to the gallery as the kids wanted to try out something our tour guide had told us about - software that would allow them to design their own plane and have it printed out at the gift shop. Bet you can figure out which plane was designed by whom.

FROM ON HIGH: Sept. 11 will forever be a day of remembrance in the United States. Everyone alive then no doubt recalls where they were when the terrorists attacked. Astronaut Frank Culbertson was on the International Space Station as the events unfolded. Here's a photo that captured the aftermath at the Twin Towers.

At the time Culbertson said, "It's horrible to see smoke pouring from wounds in your own country from such a fantastic vantage point. The dichotomy of being on a spacecraft dedicated to improving life on the earth and watching life being destroyed by such willful, terrible acts is jolting to the psyche, no matter who you are."

Of course, we talked lots about 9/11 and CJ conducted some of his own, independent research online. And last night, we watched a documentary about the second plane to slam into the World Trade Center. Damn hard to watch. Eleven years hasn't softened the blow much, if at all.

Wonderful WiiKend

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR LANDMARK: On Saturday, we headed down to Seattle Center to revel in the Space Needle's 50th birthday celebration. There were promises of free rides, food and fun and they made good on those promises!

We headed to the funway, just north of the Space Needle. There, the kids took on the challenge of a neat-o ropes course. It was a little bit sketchy for them in a couple of spots, but they soldiered through, victorious!

They also rode a swing at the base of the Needle. Talk about a ride with a view!

And Elvis was on hand to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his filming "It Happened at the World's Fair" in Seattle. 

The kids also enjoyed some luscious cupcakes in the cupcake competition tent. (Bananas Foster is pictured below. I'm assured by CeeJ and Bee my banana cake is better. ;) )

And they had fun doing some art projects  and physical contests (a sack race and a tug of war) on the Mural lawn.

SUNDAY FUNDAY: Sundays are usually pretty low key around MPA, but this was no ordinary Sunday. A few weeks ago in one of the many Nintendo related emails I receive, we got notice about a preview of the Wii U console, which is set to be released around the holiday season. I thought CJ and Annabelle might be interested (har har!), so I signed them (and Christian) up.

Friday we got notice they were to show up at an event space on Capitol Hill from 1 p.m. to 2: 30 p.m. They were there early and left late and had a great time.

CJ had been counting down the days until his "Wii U Experience and when Sunday morning came, he was raring to go." Annabelle was stoked, too. 

 The kids test drove several upcoming titles, including Just Dance 4, New Super Mario Bros. U, Game-n-Wario, SiNG (a karaoke game), Wii Fit U Trampoline Target and Luigi's Ghost Mansion. They loved them all.

Though being Mario's brother is a full time job, Luigi had enough time to stop and pose with the kids. 

And here CeeJ and Bee are doing their best Mario impersonations - that is, before they ate the chocolate moustaches!

Here's what the kids had to say about the experience. Annabelle is first. ...

Yesterday I went to the Wii U experience, and the games there were very fun. these games included Luigi's Ghost Mansion, Game & Wario, Just Dance 4 (never gonna give you up!) and Super Mario Bros. U. all of these games included the Wii U tablet and used them in different ways as controlling a ghost, selecting a song/level, etc. etc.

The Wii U experience provided cookies draped in fondant, and drinks like berry lemonade. We had our picture taken with Luigi, got chocolate mustaches (yum!) and played lots of games. The games were very addicting, I mostly like Super Mario Bros. U because it was like New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but had baby Yoshis(yay!)!
Over all, i would give it a 10/10, i was very good an

And the cookies (and chocolate mustaches!) tasted very good, the berry lemonade too. The Wii U experience was crowded, but still fun. They had contests and trivia, both very fun. Like I said before, I give it a 10/10.

And CJ weighs in ...

I went to the Wii U Experience yesterday. There were lots of great demos, like Nintendo land, and Just Dance 4. There were foods too, such as the cookies, the water bottles, the lemon juice, and the chocolate mustache. For some weird reason, unrelated to the event, there was a Nintendo 3DS that was in the middle of the room, with New super Mario Bros. U in the 3DS, but it was still fun. Also, there was Just Dance 4, which had Never Going to Give You Up by Rick Astley, ( Is Ubisoft rickrolling us?) Rock lobster, and Moves like Jagger. Overall, I think that the trip deserves a 10/10 for the fun games, and the different use of the gamepad for every game.

THEY SEE ME ROLLIN': A great image from the Martian surface popped up in my Facebook feed this morning from several sources. It's Curiosity's three left wheels (complete with their 'JPL'-in-Morse code tread). The shot below is a combination of two images that were taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 34th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Sept. 9, 2012). In the distance, beyond the middle wheel, is the lower slope of Mount Sharp, the rover's eventual target.  
                           

The MAHLI camera is located in the turret of tools at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm. The main purpose of MAHLI is to acquire close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil at the rover's Gale Crater field site. The camera can focus on targets ranging from a distance of about 0.8 inch (2.1 centimeters) to infinity. 

Gruffy

TRICKY: The kids received a new issue of Highlights and I flipped through it this morning. They have a new science themed section and one of the stories explained why a straw looks broken when you look at it sitting in a glass of water.

I quickly grabbed a glass of water and a straw and replicated the 'trick,' and called the kids over ready to astound them. ;)

In my best all-knowing Alec Trebek/sanctimonious voice, I instructed the kids to study the glass and asked them why the straw appears to be broken.

I stood back, smiling smugly and giving them a couple of seconds to think about it, eager to share with them my new found knowledge ... until Annabelle piped in with, "It's because of the refraction of the light!"

Doh! My shining moment was stolen. How DARE she know the answer!? hahaha

As Highlights explained, when you look at an object, it's the light that's bending, not (in this case) the straw. When light is going through different mediums it can be bent or refracted differently. In this instance, the light changes direction when it goes from air into the water, or vice versa. 
 
MOHAWK ROCK: This afternoon we tuned in to our favorite Internet based radio station, Third Rock Radio at 1 p.m. They were having a guest DJ at that time slot, NASA Mohawk Guy (Bobak Ferdowski) became a sensation following the night of Mars Science Laboratory's landing. The vast audience tuning in was expecting to see a bunch of old school, button down shirt and tie wearing dudes, not a young guy with a mohawk and stars dyed into the short hair on the side of his head. 

Ferdowski played a nice mix of music, everything from Fire + Ice to Japandroids. Good stuff. Wouldn't be surprised if they invite him back some time. That is, if he has time time. He's probably a little busy in his job as flight director for MSL's cruise mission phase and director for the surface science mission.

GRUFFY: About 7 this morning CJ asked me who the Billy Goats Gruff are. I told them they're characters in an old folk tale. I hopped onto YouTube hoping to find a picture book on line featuring the story. There were scads of them. We watched.

I also found a Web site that featured three different tellings of the story. I had the kids read each of them and then asked them to then make a couple of columns on a sheet of paper and compare and contrast the versions.

Under "Compare" Annabelle came up with these items
- Two stories used trolls, two used wolves
- All of the stories used 3 goats
- In all the stories the goats are called "gruff" (except the German one). Note to Annabelle - hmm, guess that doesn't mean in ALL then, does it?

CJ came up with these 'Compare' items
- In all the stories there are three billy goats
- In all the stories the goats find ways to take advantage of the antagonist (?! yes, he wrote this!)
- In all of the stories the antagonist gets hurt badly
- In all of the stories the younger goat tries to pin it on the older goat to avoid getting eaten

For contrasts, we have Annabelle's first
- In all the stories the billy goats live in a different place than the other stories
- There isn't a bridge in all of them
And CJ's
- In one story the antagonist is a troll, in the other it is a wolf
- In one story the goats are called Gruff, in the other they have no names
- In one story, the antagonist tries to eat the goats because they have bellies. in the other it's because of  how fat they are

BEE IN A BLENDER: I received an email today from a Photoshop wizard letting me know he'd used some photos of mine of Annabelle in ballet class to create a composite image. Check it out, it's neat-o.
http://society6.com/AndreVillanueva/Photoshop-Creative-Magazine-Issue-93-Preview-1-of-2

Old School Exploring

INTOXICATING: Annabelle was sitting on the couch this afternoon, pink sparkly guitar strapped on, ready for practice. She'd gotten through the less-than-compelling "Sight Reader 2" exercise a couple of times but she just couldn't focus, for on the TV (with the sound muted) was a NASA-TV program about propulsion. 

"I want to watch this!!!" she practically begged while the above was on the screen. ...

Seriously, who am I to say 'no'? 

I'm going to have to up my game if she keeps this up. Which she will.

EARLY EXPLORER: Today I remembered to consult the handy-dandy "This Day in History" calendar for September that I'd made up a couple of weeks ago. Glad I did, because according to it, today is the day the Magellan expedition completed the first circumnavigation of the globe (in 1522).

First we talked about what "circumnavigation" meant. Then, we talked about explorers. On a daily basis, we talk about astronauts 'round here, and I told the kids that the astronauts are all explorers and adventurers, but back in the day, there were many pioneers who really didn't know where they were going. In 1969, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins knew the moon was there and that they had a target of the Sea of Tranquility. But rewind a few centuries and explorers had no such assurances. They just knew something was out there and they wanted to go find it, so they set off to discover the unseen.  

Magellan's story is a fascinating one. Born in Portugal, though he was orphaned at 10, he had the good fortune afterward of being assigned to the Queen's castle as a messenger. There, he learned about navigation and explorations of the time. In his 20s, he asked the king of Portugal to underwrite his journey to the Spice Islands. When he was refused, Magellan turned to the king of Spain. He agreed because Spain was looking for a better, westward route to Asia than around the southern tip of Africa.  However, since the quest was uncharted and Magellan was unproven, it was hard recruiting shipmates. Many were prisoners released in exchange for signing on. 

A fleet of 5 ships (the Santiago, San Antonio, Conception, Trinidad and Victoria) set sail in Sept. of 1519. It took them over a year to find the route around the southern tip of South America (now known as the Strait of Magellan). It was rough going, and the captain of the San Antonio bailed on the mission, leaving four ships.Magellan made it to Guam, but never as far as the Spice Islands, as he was a casualty in the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines Islands, reportedly taking a stake to the heart and a poison arrow to the foot. His boat was burned and his body left behind. 

In the end, only one of the five ships (the Victoria) made it back to Spain.

Detail from a map of Ortelius - Magellan's ship Victoria

Only EIGHTEEN of the original crew of 250 men made the 'round trip. Yowza. 

BTW, Magellan is the one who named the Pacific ocean, his "peaceful sea" tag inspired by its (relatively) calm waters.

DON YOUR GLASSES: Have some funky red cyan 3D glasses sitting around? I do from the Mars Science Laboratory Tweetup/launch. :) They came in hand for the Super Awesome 3-D image (below) from NASA's Curiosity. It was taken from the rover's Bradbury Landing site inside Gale Crater, using both the left and right eyes of Curiosity's Navigation camera. 

You'll note that between the rover on the right, and its shadow on the left, is the rover's eventual target: Mount Sharp. It's about the height of Mt. Rainier, for a Northwest folks' frame of reference (however, the the mountain's highest peak is not visible in this frame). 

Per NASA, "This full-resolution, 360-degree stereo panorama was taken on sols 2 and 12 of the mission, or the 2nd and 12th Martian days since landing (Aug. 8 and 18, 2012). It requires viewing with the traditional red-blue 3-D glasses, with red going over the left eye. The right and left stereo pairs are also available for creating your own 3-D imagery."

It's totally worth checking out the right view:  http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/683940main_pia16140-Righteye.jpg
And the left: http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/683937main_pia16140-Lefteye.jpg

The Future is Now

HELLO, HELIOSPHERE!: It was 35 years ago today that Voyager 1 launched.  I not only remember the launch, I remember events leading up to it, especially some of the data that was being loaded onto the first-of-its kind space probe.

As a kid, I was absolutely enthralled upon learning the probe contained a gold-plated audio visual disc ("Sounds of Earth") that carried photos and sounds from Earth. Images included photos of our planet and a map of our solar system, the sounds of a baby crying, whales 'speaking' and waves breaking on the shore. The files were in case intelligent aliens intercepted our probe, and this golden record was the story of us. 

There were printed greetings from President Carter and U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. There was also a collection of Earth music, including works by Mozart and Chuck Berry singing "Johnny B Goode."

As far as we all know, the golden record is still intact as Voyager 1 is poised to break on through to the other side - beyond our solar system.

Of course, along the way, Voyager 1 has taken in many amazing sights.  Like this one - a photo of Jupiter taken on Feb. 25, 1979. 

Check out that Great Red Spot! At that point, Voyager 1 was 5.7 million miles from Jupiter. Hard to believe. (Do yourself a favor and take a moment to check out this collection of approaching-Jupiter shots Voyager 1 took. They've been stitched together into a beautiful video: 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jupiter_from_Voyager_1_PIA02855_max_quality.ogv)

Both Voyager 1 and 2 have explored all the giant planets of our outer solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune; 48 of their moons; and the rings and magnetic fields of those planets). 

As of today, Voyager 1 is just over 18,211,258,021 kilometers from Earth. It is the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune and the longest-operating NASA spacecraft ever. 

To honor this anniversary, we watched a couple of really interesting Voyager 1 videos:  They're short and fact-filled.

The second video we watched (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/voyager20120820.html) had a really simple (kitchen sink) demonstration of how the heliosheath works to protect us.

I loved how as we were watching the videos, CJ was comparing what we were hearing to facts he'd learned about Voyager in the super cool "National Geographic Angry Birds Space" book we got at the Angry Birds Space launch party at the Space Needle a few months back. 

And I LOVE this sweet photo taken by Voyager 1 on Sept. 18th, 1977, as it bids adieu to Earth and our moon. 

THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT: The garden continues to produce. Christian and the kids pulled up about a dozen carrots yesterday. Most were in the 4- to 6-inch range, but there was this lunker.

And some were puny, too. Here, Annabelle makes her "is not amused" face, per the post-Olympic Internet meme.

MEASURING UP: On our "to do" list this morning was measuring up the addition's floors so we could go out to Lowe's and order the flooring for it. It was a good math exercise for the kids. First, they had to make sure they were using the measuring tape correctly and next, they had to learn how to calculate square footage, by multiplying the room's length by its width. 

Once we had our actual total, they then had to help me figure out how many more square feet we needed if we were going to order the industry standard 10 percent overage (to account for waste).

HISTORY OVERHEAD: This morning during the kids' breakfast, since "My Little Ponies Friendship is Magic" was over, we switched to NASA TV. Good call.

We watched a looong space walk outside the ISS. One of the space walkers was Suni WIlliams, and via a Facebook post by NASA, I learned that while we watched, Williams became the record holder for total spacewalk time by a female. Fantastic!

Suni Williams and Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide successfully completed the installation of a Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) today. It wasn't easy due to misaligned threads and stripped bolts - stuff we've all struggled with down here on planet Earth from time to time. 

Not Back to School Day

CLINGING TO SUMMER: Many kids - and adults - went back to school today, but not the student body of MPA. We decided to celebrate our non-traditional schedule by going to a (very small) amusement park, Bullwinkle's Family Fun Center in Edmonds.

It was our first trip there. An instant attraction was the water bumper boats, which the kids hadn't experienced before. They had fun floating and shooting (a small stream of water) at each other.

They were pretty wet when they were done, so for the second go-round, they both donned ponchos. I couldn't help but think CJ looked like Emporer Palpatine.

They also drove the standard bumper cars, and played some putt putt golf. I think it's only the second time the kids have played miniature golf. Annabelle's short game is a little rough, and in putt putt golf, it's all short game ;) . On the other hand, CJ scored a hole-in-one on hole 11! Go CeeJ!

One of Annabelle's favorite attractions was a bungee-assisted trampoline, where they got to bounce several feet high. "I feel like I'm on the moon!" Annabelle kept exclaiming with glee.

 CJ wasn't as enthused. He didn't really trust the apparatus.

While we had fun for sure, if I were mystery shopping the place the review would not have been stellar. The facility was completely devoid of sparkle and shine, and some spots were just rough looking, including this durpy dragon, whom Annabelle tried to impersonate, complete with peeling paint and covered by dead vines.

By and large, the staff who worked there seemed to be zombies, definitely not in love with their jobs, and not in like with working with kids, either.

In other news, I can't tell you how many times today I thought of Rick, starting his new job as a third grade teacher at Kent Elementary School. I have no doubt the kids loved him and he did great.

MARK YOUR LUNAR CALENDAR: You'll want to save the date of Sept. 22 on your calendar. It's International Observe the Moon night, inspired by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's mission to scout the moon.

Today, Jet Propulsion Laboratory posted a video about the event on Facebook. The video is fantastic. Not only does it inform people about Observe the Moon night, it does a wonderful job of explaining why we always see the same "face" of the moon - a topic that can be tricky to describe to kids (or adults for that matter!) I'd highly recommend checking it out: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=1135

PUT YOUR THINKING CAPS ON!: Another day, another NASA contest. The one I posted about yesterday had to do with choosing a target for the Cassini mission, but it is only open to grades 5-12, which took Bee and CJ out of the running. The contest announced today involves naming an asteroid, and it's open to students around the globe. From the NASA press release: "Students worldwide have an opportunity to name an asteroid from which an upcoming NASA mission will return the first samples to Earth. "Scheduled to launch in 2016, the mission is called the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx). Samples returned from the primitive surface of the near-Earth asteroid currently called (101955) 1999 RQ36 could hold clues to the origin of the solar system and organic molecules that may have seeded life on Earth. NASA also is planning a crewed mission to an asteroid by 2025. A closer scientific study of asteroids will provide context and help inform this mission. The competition is open to students under age 18 from anywhere in the world. Each contestant can submit one name, up to 16 characters long. Entries must include a short explanation and rationale for the name. Submissions must be made by an adult on behalf of the student. The contest deadline is Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012." The asteroid in need of a name was discovered in 199 by the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research survey (LINEAR) survey at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. The asteroid has an average diameter of about one-third of a mile (500 meters).

There's a Web site with more info about the contest, and NASA Goddard has a cute video about it, too. 

Before you get too crazy with your asteroid name ideas, know that there are rules for naming asteroids. For example, it has to be 16 characters or less long, and it's preferably one word. It has to be pronounceable (in some language) and written using Latin characters. Naturally, it also has to be non-offensive. And it cant' be identical with or too similar to an existing name of a minor planet or natural planetary satellite.