Philae: The Biggest Jump Ever

(Philae not to scale)

So, Philae bounced twice before coming to a halt. 'Bounce' does not quite describe it correctly. Philae did by far the biggest #jump ever. The f*cking tallest, longest, slowest JUMP ever done by a human made object (including humans). Without using thrusters, just by pushing off from a rock. That's something for the Guiness Book of Records.

And Philae was lucky as hell. It jumped about 1 km high and 1 km wide on a rock barely 2 km large. Had it jumped only a little bit more, then it would have missed this side of the comet and probably crashed head first into some other part. Philae jumped off very slowly at about 1/5 walking speed. Had it been twice as fast, then it would have left the comet entirely and it would be lost in space by now.

Lucky Philae.

This record will stand for a very long time. Jumping so high is only possible in very low gravity. Only on a small object with small escape velocity. This makes a jump very risky. If you jump too far, then you drift away into the darkness. Trying it would be foolish. But still, 50 years from now, there will be an astronaut/cosmonaut/taikonaut who happens to stand on a small celestial body for commercial or science reasons. And he/she will try to excel the Philae record. Probably with a recovery option. But it will still be difficult and dangerous. No safety leash is allowed for the record attempt to be valid.

_happy_bouncing()

PS: As André Côté (commenter here) and Neil Armstrong (famous moon lander) said: "A giant jump for a robot, a giant step for humanity".

A Busy Spaceport in Earth Orbit

This is not Science Fiction:

There is a big space station in earth orbit. It spans 2 soccer fields. It has the weight and pressurized volume of a Boeing 747.

The station has a current population of 12 people.

There are 6 (!) spacecraft docked:

• 2 russian soyuz crew vehicles
• 1 russian progress transporter
• a japanese HTV transporter
• a european ATV transporter
• an american space shuttle

2 x Soyuz TMA-20 & TMA-01M Russia	Progress M-09M Russia	HTV-II Kounotori 2 Japan	ATV-2 Johannes Kepler Europe	Space Shuttle Discovery USA

Never again will there be so many spacecraft including a shuttle docked. This is mostly due to the shuttle's retirement. Only two more shuttles will visit the ISS. Other craft will replace the shuttle.

With the Space Shuttle retiring and no improved reusable craft following, it looks like there has not been much progress in the last 30 years. But the completed ISS with 6 craft attached and 12 people is a much larger and developed space operation, than during the single-module days of Skylab and Salyut. A different order of magnitude:

Skylab	Salyut	ISS

_happy_undocking()

Science Fiction Comes True

This looks like an image from a Science Fiction movie. But it is not. It is reality.

The image shows a real astronaut in a real space station and a real earth through real windows.

We see astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson inside the cupola of the ISS space station. The cupola has been installed during Space Shuttle mission STS-130 on 15 February 2010. It is the largest window ever deployed in space.

The Space Shuttle era comes to an end. It seems to the public, that not much progress has been made. But there actually is development. The cupola image is one indication. And more than 100 Space Shuttle missions result in unprecedented operational experience in space. Another sign for advance is the fact, that the Space Shuttle was not the only one. There are other "returnable" launch systems in active operation (X-37B) created by organisations with a budget, that is larger than NASA's.
_happy_spacing()

The greatest technical achievement

I have never posted a Youtube video, but this is really magnificent.

A flyby of the the Orbiter Discovery at the ISS in full light. The sun is in the back of the camera and you can see the shadow of Discovery moving over the solar panels. This is the first non-computer generated movie of such a flyby with ISS in its final size with full solar panel equipment. The ISS is about the size of 2 soccer fields.

The completion of the ISS is the greatest achievement of modern technical engineering and at 100 Milliarden Euro it is one of the biggest wastes of money. But the money, that could save all children of the planet, is only a minor expense in times of war and economic stimulus packages.

Whatever the price tag, the ISS is the queen of human engineering projects.

(Honorable mention in the categories engineering and GDP usage at their time: the pyramids, the great wall, the grand canal, and the Qin Shi Huang mausoleum)

_happy_orbiting()

Tech Idole

Es gibt ein paar Leute, die ich wirklich bewundere:

• Robert X. Cringely wegen seinen unermüdlichen und mutigen Near-Term Vorhersagen und weil er das Gras wachsen hört. Seine Kolumne (jetzt: Blog) (jetzt: nicht mehr online) ist ein Geheimtipp für Leute, die Geld auf Technologie wetten.
• David Pulver für seine Weitsicht und die umfassenden Prognosen im Transhuman Space Setting. Es zeigt sich, dass er in vielen Dingen ziemlich richtig liegt. Das einzige was man ihm vorwerfen könnte ist, dass er 9/11 nicht vorhergesagt hat. Hätte er Jahr später geschrieben, dann hätte Negative Growth den Mars-Elevator doch zerstört.
• Douglas C. Schmidt weil dieser Mensch erstens C++ programmiert wie ein Gott und im gleichen Leben auch noch hunderte von Veröffentlichungen schreibt und viele Millionen an Drittmitteln einwirbt. Mehrere Fulltimejobs und trotzdem ein Privatleben. Das längste Resume, dass ich je gesehen habe. So unmöglich für Normalbürger, wie Half-Life 2 in 90 min.

wird fortgesetzt.

Abstandhalter

Mal wieder was aus dem richtigen Leben: Wie jeder Heimwerker weiss, mach man beim Fliesenlegen Abstandhalter zwischen die Fliesen, damit sie sich nicht verschieben oder gar ohne Luecke aneinanderstossen. Da verwendet man typischerweise sowas: Abstandhalter aus Kunststoff.

Was dem Heimwerker recht ist, ist der NASA billig. Als das Space Shuttle gefliest wurde hat man auch Abstandhalter eingefuegt, damit die Kacheln nicht aneinanderstossen und kaputtgehen. Wenn das Shuttle mal oben ist, braucht man sie nicht mehr. Aber manchmal schaut einer der kleinen Frechdachse muter zwischen den Kacheln hervor. Dann muss man ihn eben rausziehen. Das wurde dann auch heute vor Milliarden Fernsehzuschauern live zelebriert.

Ich praesentiere den beruehmtesten Abstandhalter der Welt:

Haette der Schlingel sich widersetzt, dann waere man ihm mit diesem selbstgebastelten Folterinstrument zuleibe gerueckt: