The scientific tourist #135 — AOSO
by Sam Wise in Astronomy, History, Sci / Tech Tourism, Space, Technology
Another fun / geeky shot from the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia — an engineering model of AOSO:
AOSO (Advanced Orbiting Solar Observatory) would have been a scaled-up counterpart of the Orbiting Solar Observatory spacecraft in the early 1960’s. It was supposed to consist of a series of polar-orbiting satellites to monitor the Sun and near-solar environment over a wide spectrum — from X-rays to visual light. While the AOSO program was cancelled in 1965 due to funding constraints, all was not lost — many of the instruments selected for the spacecraft were developed for and flown on the Skylab telescope mount, which flew in 1973.
Technorati Tags: Astronomy, History, Space, Technology
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Casual Friday — like a bolt from the blue
by Sam Wise in Odds and ends, Physics, YouTubing
Or in this case, maybe I should say from the black… Anyway, a gent named Tom A. Warner (doing lightning investigation as ZT Research) has taken some amazing super-fast video of lightning strikes. Here’s a 9,000 frames-per-second view of some lightning in Rapid City, South Dakota from earlier this summer:
H/T: Petapixel via Neatorama
Technorati Tags: lightning, Physics, weather
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The scientific tourist #134 — the Loon missile
by Sam Wise in History, Sci / Tech Tourism, Technology
This week’s image is of a JB-2 / KUW-1 Loon missile at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia:
If you follow either the history of military aircraft, or are a World War II buff, this should look pretty familiar to you — that’s because it’s a U.S.-made variant of Germany’s V-1 cruise missile. Having the same engine and essentially the same stats as the V-1 (2,200 pound warhead, 150 mile range) but with an improved guidance system, the Loon could be launched from the ground, ships (even submarines!), or dropped from an aircraft. The first Loon flew in 1944, but this was really too late for it to see combat in WWII. Still, it provided U.S. Navy and Army Air Force personnel with priceless experience in the handling and guidance of missiles before the program was cancelled in 1950.
Technorati Tags: History, Technology
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Casual Friday — Curiosity’s first steps… er… rolls
by Sam Wise in Astronomy, Space, Technology, YouTubing
The next rover headed to Mars took its first test drive last Friday — only a meter forward and a meter back, but baby steps are a good way to start:
Dwarfing its predecessor Spirit and Opportunity rovers, the Curiosity rover (previously known as the Mars Science Laboratory) is nearly the size of a small SUV when all its parts are unfolded. Or maybe this comparison (from page 3 of this document) is easier to see:
If things keep going to plan, Curiosity will be on its way to Mars next fall, arriving on the red planet in August of 2012.
Technorati Tags: Astronomy, Space, Technology
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Carnivalia — 7/21 – 7/27
by Sam Wise in Biology, Carnivalia, Humanity
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The scientific tourist #133 — Right whale
by Sam Wise in Biology, History, Sci / Tech Tourism
This week’s image is from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. — it’s a life-size model of a right whale:
Right whales are actually any of four species of baleen whales, which received their nick-name from whalers centuries ago. The idea was that these were the “right” whales to hunt since they tend to swim near shore, swim fairly slowly, and tend to float when killed (by weight, roughly forty percent of their body consists of blubber). In the early centuries of shore-based whaling, this meant they were nearly the only catchable large whales. Unfortunately, it also led to them being hunted to the brink of extinction by the middle of the 20th century.
Despite their slow swimming speed, right whales can be acrobatic and frequently jump clear of the water (a.k.a., breaching). Normally, this is entertaining for whale watchers — although one couple recently got an overly-close view of this behavior after they allegedly got too close to a right whale, provoking it.
Technorati Tags: Biology, History
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Casual Friday — not your everyday sort of ballet
by Sam Wise in Humor / Just for fun, Technology, YouTubing
I knew the Russians were big on ballet, but I never would have guessed the lengths they’ll go to in pursuit of the art form (direct link for non-Flash devices):
H/T: Popular Mechanics
Technorati Tags: Humor / Just for fun, Technology
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