Preparing To Go To Mars + ISS Video

The International Space Station (ISS) will be testing a new module that will eventually help toward long duration spaceflight to places like Mars. If that isn't cool enough, the module, named BEAM, will be delivered by the private SpaceX Dragon spacecraft in 2015!  This is another example of the private industry taking on the challenges of spaceflight and coordinating not only with the US government, but the other governments involved with the ISS as well. I've covered the previous SpaceX launches here.

The astronauts inside of the ISS will be testing the BEAM module to make sure it is up to task. If you want to check out where they'll be testing, check out this video from inside the ISS that I found this while browsing CNET's Australian site.

In her final days as Commander of the International Space Station, Sunita Williams of NASA recorded an extensive tour of the orbital laboratory and downlinked the video on Nov. 18, just hours before she, cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency departed in their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan.

If you can't see the video below, click here.

Shampoo Physics

iO9, via Nature, has a great article about the physics of shampoo. - why do little drops of shampoo sometimes jump out while you're pouring it onto an angled surface? Sometimes it looks like grease popping off of a hot pan!

When you pour a liquid such as shampoo onto an angle surface, at first the liquid piles up a bit at the bottom of the surface, effectively lubricating that surface.. When new liquid is applied on this lubricated surface, it goes very, very fast and will bounce upwards if it hits a dent or smashes into the end of the surface.  The momentum that the liquid builds up is enough to escape the surface!

For the details, check out the iO9 article by clicking here!

Columbia's Final Mission Began Today

The STS-107 crew, clockwise from top: Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla, Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Laurel Clark and David Brown, Pilot Willie McCool, Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon and Payload Commander Michael Anderson.

There are many people that are willing to put their lives on the line for what they believe in. We are most familiar with the police officers and firemen of their city. It's important to note that scientists, especially in the field of space exploration, are literally headed into the unknown to help us understand the world and universe that we live in.

On Jan 16, 2003, space shuttle Columbia blasted off on its final mission. Columbia had a long and distinguished career, having served in NASA's first missions in 1981, assisted with the flight of the Spacelab space station, and helped service the Hubble space telescope.

This particular mission was less buzzworthy - it "was dedicated to research in physical, life, and space sciences, conducted in approximately 80 separate experiments, comprised of hundreds of samples and test points.". These experiments are all crucial.  NASA does not take lightly the fact that it is sending human beings into space to perform these experiments.  

Unfortunately, Columbia disintegrated upon reentry on February 1, 2003. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe wrote a statement that day with the following words.

We trust the prayers of the Nation will be with them and with their families. A more courageous group of people you could not have hoped to know— an extraordinary group of astronauts who gave their lives—and the families of these crewmembers. They knew exactly the risks. And never, ever did we want to see a circumstance in which this could happen.  

We diligently dedicate ourselves every single day to assuring these things don’t occur. And when they do we have to act responsibly, accountably and that is exactly what we will do

Blessings to all affected by the loss of Columbia.

CES 2013 Wrap Up Video & Tweets

Last week, I attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. Below is a video of some footage that I took on the floor. Unfortunately, my microphone adapter broke so I was not able to hold any interviews - gotta get that fixed for next year!

If you can't see the video below, click here.

Also, I've embedded a list of Tweets that I shared if you weren't following the action last week. Check it out! If you can't see the tweets below, click here.

CES 2013: A Few Sessions of Interest

The exhibit hall of the Consumer Electronics Show is finally open to all, which is kind of like a large electronic Ikea with the sound multiplied by a thousand.  Even though the convention center is much larger than an Ikea, I can actually navigate it better. Funny how that works.

Instead of blow by blow tech product coverage that is better offered on large tech sites such as CNET and The Verge, I want to focus on the sessions and panels that had the most impact to the future of science and technology. .

I saw the premiere of a great documentary called Silicon Prairie. It focuses on the importance of internet outside of standard tech hubs of New York in California, and highlights many businesses in the Midwest of the US that are often overlooked by the tech press. One that really made me say "wow" was a farmer in Virginia runs a website connecting farmers with high volume consumers, eliminating the middle man.  The trailer is below.

Afterwards, the group behind the documentary held a Q&A session. There were many great points made during this session, mainly around the dangerous laws such as SOPA that are designed to hamper internet growth. The point was consistently made that our representatives in Congress need to know about the local businesses that are powered by the internet.  They need to be accountable for this when they meet with the rest of federal government and make sure that decisions about internet regulation made by our government is an informed one.

I also attended an excellent panel called CNET's Next Big Thing, which covered emerging themes in tech and what we should not only expect, but dream about for the near future of technology. It was one of the more popular sessions of the conference so far, and the room was HUGE:

Hosts Molly Wood and Brian Cooley of CNET moderated a panel of tech visionaries to discuss the future. One of my favorite points came from Mark Cuban, who stated that the problem that most companies have is that they try to take an existing problem and automate it, instead of trying to prevent the problem from ever occurring.  The example used was washing and drying clothes - instead of finding a way to make it easier to get clothes from a washer to a dryer, why not eliminate the need for both separate cycles at all? These are the kinds of challenges that seem impossible at first, but will stretch us to be able to do things that we could only dream of before.