Some (okay, a very few) of you already know about the ISM Flickr group. Now, we have TWO (!) groups:
So, if you’re a shutter bug (or, in this case, a Ctrl-` bug), come and join these two groups in Flickr, and show off those pics.
And, yes, the models in bikinis go in the events group too.
*Wed 7pm SLT Nov 12th -“Bravo for BravoPort!” fundraising auction at the b! Donor Park on ISM’s 2nd island, Spaceport Bravo. The campaign to save the Museum’s BravoPort island. Get the latest news here at the ISM blog page “Auction Items!”
http://slispaceflightmuseum.org/blog/?page_id=172
Performance by Kala Pixie at 6pm SLT [one auction item is a gift certificate for one free Kala Pixie performance for yourself and friends].
Fourteen avatars have donated one or more hours of their time giving personal tours of their SciLands science-themed islands and builds, or letting you pick their brains in their specialties of scripting, building, shopping, giving concerts, or show production.
Nov 11th - Latest auction item! Earth Primbee - how to make machinama, filming and production.
Nov 10th - Hours donated by Prospero Frobozz - an astronomy talk, Pooky Amsterdam -shopping expertise or how to produce a show, Kat Lemieux - tour of International Spaceflight Museum, and Roger Amdahl - an hour on how to design science exhibits & a tour of his.
Nov 3rd - Curious George, Director of MICA [Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics] offers an hour’s social on astronomy to you and your group, since MICA’s island is still in procurement and not yet tourable. And ISM members builder Opal Lei and Becka Finesmith offer two one-hour dance sessions each as your partner - at times mutually convenient!
Nov 1st - Patio Plasma of Exploratorium & ‘Splo SciLands islands offers a tour, and Georgianna Blackburn offers a Sigma Aldrich tour.
Oct 31st - zazen Manbe of SciLands’ Science School offers a SciLands tour, Felixx Shepherd of Garden of DaVinci, Kalepa offers a tour and also a carbonite slab with a person embedded in it, an L$390 value, Hackshaven Harford offers a tour of NOAA’s SciLands meteorology islands, and Jimbo Perhaps offers a tour of his rocket builds.
Oct 21st - From Particulator Articulator Kala Pixie: “a certificate for one free show, with however many people they want to bring.”
Oct 20th - Hackshaven Harford of Maya Realities offers a *six month* subscription to their premium sim/island metrics services in SL, a U$300 value!
Oct 19th-SciLander Max Chatnoir of Genome offers a tour of her isle & visit to Gregor Mandel’s Abbey, where he puzzled out laws of inheritance in his plants. And yes, there is a Gene Pool on Genome as well. Max is Mary Ann Clark, Professor of Biology at Texas Wesleyan University.
Image : Courtesy NASA
Today (10th November 2008), communication was lost with the Mars lander Phoenix. The mission operations centre believe it has finally succumbed to the extreme cold of the Martian winter. The mission, which went way beyond its original operational time of 90 days, cost nearly $500 million but everyone involved with the mission believes what was gained was worth so much more. Over the time Phoenix has been in operation it has sent back terabytes of data including approximately 25,000 images of the Martian terrain, detailed images of the area around and under the lander and performed some groundbreaking (literally) experiments. Many with unexpected results. The data from the mission will take many years to fully analyse.
This weekend, the UK marks “Remembrance Sunday”.
On November 11th 1918 at 11am, the first world war came to an end. To honour those that gave their lives not just in that war, but every conflict that has followed, Ceremonies are held all over the country on the Sunday closest to 11th November. Wreaths are laid at the foot of war memorials in every city and town. Two minutes silence are observed at 11am (GMT) which is a pause for reflection on those that gave so much for future generations.
Very often, out of military necessity, comes mankind’s biggest breakthroughs that enable it to continue its journey of discovery. Every major conflict sees some advances in technology that allow us all to lead better and more fulfilled lives. World War I saw Aeroplane technology advanced in leaps and bounds. It was the first war to extensively use aircraft as both a defensive and offensive tool. The biggest and probably most profound breakthroughs however, came in World War II. Two technologies that have since changed the world came to public notice and both were deployed as weapons of mass destruction. The development (and deployment) of the Atomic Bomb is an infamous example. Not so widely known though, is the development of the V2 Rocket by German Scientists led by Werner Von Braun. The V2 was the first ballistic missile and was used by the Nazis during World War II to destroy many cities, principally London. It flew at Mach 5, the first manmade object to do so. It had a very advanced guidance system that accurately (by the days standards) guided the payload to its eventual destination. It could be argued the Von Braun and his team developed the modern discipline of Aerodynamics. Because the V2 flew so fast, its shape became an important factor in the range and effectiveness of the weapon. The V2 had a brand new propulsion system that made it many times more powerful than conventional rocket propulsion systems.
Sadly, the V2 was developed for destruction, but after the war, Werner Von Braun assisted the US (and some of his colleagues assisted the USSR), in developing advanced rocket technology. Although much of this was further used for destruction (enhancing the range of Inter-continental ballistic missiles for example), Some went on to further more worthwhile causes. The technology used in the rockets first developed by Von Brown had the potential to produce enough thrust to provide the 11m/s^2 acceleration required to escape the Earth’s gravity and send men to the Moon. This directly led to the Saturn V rocket. This technology allowed us to put artificial satellites in orbit to provide communication and information. We can collect data on climate change. Perhaps map the lifespan and activity of the Sun, and the presence of threats from Comets and Asteroids and Gamma Ray sources. GPS satellites (also developed for military use) guide emergency medical staff and fire crews to where they are needed.
Often, a human life is measured in the contribution it makes to those that follow. Though we shouldn’t applaud Von Braun on his ethics, we can applaud him for the groundbreaking technology that he developed. Although used to take many lives during World War II, paradoxically, the loss of those lives have given mankind its greatest possible chance of survival. So this remembrance Sunday, Not only remember those that fought and gave their lives so that others may live. Remember those that died from the technology developed to destroy, that may one day be the salvation of Mankind.
In the top picture from left to right, Planners Gamel Goodfellow, Becka Finesmith, Paradox Olbers, Kat Lemieux, Marcus Olbracht, Arisia Vita, and Opal Lei look at the central area honoring Kirra Ball’s donation of the Spaceport Bravo sim to the ISM.
ISM Planners looking at this Opal Lei prototype
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Bravo/167/193/89 is the permanent home of the Donors’ Monument now, down on the lower roof below and to the right of the American flag. More iterations will produce the final design.
Jet Burns of NASA coined this acronym, MOC-UP, in Jan 2007 to express one of the greatest advantages of VW [Virtual World] distance-collaboration.
This past month we had a bit of a scare, with some annual corporate expenses for our nonprofit as well as the new responsibility of paying land use fees for Spaceport Bravo. Our members and friends came through for us at the last minute, for which we thank them all profusely! But we would like to avoid the need for emergency fundraising. To that end, we now have several ways for friends of the ISM to provide support.
Please see our Donate page, or go to the Sponsorship page, or directly to our Donation Subscription page for more information on ways to send us donations. Of course, if you are in Second Life and want to donate Linden Dollars, you can use any of the tip jars on Spaceports Alpha or Bravo. The ones that look like pickle jars with a tiny rocket in them will launch a rocket when you make a donation — the larger the amount, the bigger the rocket!
ISM Tipjars
Whatever way you choose to help out, we thank you very much! We couldn’t do it without you, and that’s the literal truth. Thanks!
On the 22nd October, the Indian moon probe Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft launched from a southern Indian launch pad. Aboard it is a special camera, called an X-ray spectrometer (C1XS). This camera was developed in the UK at the Rutherford Appleton Laboroatory in Oxfordshire . The samples of the moon collected by the Apollo missions only tell us what the surface composition is like in a few places. It is like deducing the surface composition of the Earth by sampling soil in Boise, Idaho, Manchester England and Bhopal, India!
PSLV on the way to the launch pad (Photo: ESA/ISRO).
The Indian probe will orbit the Moon and gather information about it’s surface, including its composition, using C1XS. Of particular interest is the level of Magnesium it will find on the surface. This would be a good indicator of whether the moons surface was Molten at some time in its life (Magnesium would float to the surface). The ratios of Iron to Magnesium will also indicate its post molten history.
In addition to C1XS, other instruments will map the moons magnetic anomolies, produce 3 dimensional maps of the surface and drop a probe that will impact in the surface. The probe carries a video camera, mass spectrometer and and an altimeter. It will produce images of the decent along with data about the atmospheric composition of the moon as it plummets towards the surface.
Chandrayaan-1 was launched using a modified version of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle , A model of this vehicle is included at the ISM.
What do the ATV, the Mars Exploration Rover, and the F-1 Engine have in common?
They’re all at the ISM, and sponsorships are on auction this week. Well, those three and the Nearest Stars to 10 Parsecs exhibit, which is hidden high above the giftshop annex inside the VAB. These are four of our newest exhibits, never before sponsored.
Auctions end on October 27. Sponsorships will begin on November 1, 2008 and end on April 30, 2009.
* Automated Transfer Vehicle (Item # 120321473572) SLURL / info
* F-1 Engine (Item # 120321475345) SLURL / info
* Mars Exploration Rover (Item # 120321476292) SLURL / info
* Nearby Stars to 10Parsecs (Item # 120321477371) SLURL / info
To submit a bid on eBay:
1. Go to http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZism_exhibits
OR
a. Go to www.eBay.com .
b. Click on “Advanced Search” near the top.
c. In the Search panel on the left, choose “Items by Seller”.
d. In the “Enter seller’s User ID” field, type “ism_exhibits” and click Search.
2. Go to the exhibit you’d like to sponsor, enter a maximum bid amount and click Place Bid.
The Voyager spacecraft have far exceeded their original goals of studying the outer planets and gone on to feedback some important data about the region called the “Termination Shock”. This is where the Solar wind slows considerably from around 1 million miles per hour to a quarter of a million miles per hour. It is the start of the outer boundary where the Suns influence start to give way to Inter stellar space.
Now, the ibex probe has been launched to investigate some of the phenomena discovered by the Voyager spacecraft and go on to investigate what the Voyager spacecraft can expect to encounter when they reach the Heliopause. This is the point at which the influence of the Sun is perfectly balanced with the influence of the Inter stellar medium.
The launch of ibex was unusual. Rather than being launched at ground level, it was dropped from a jet and then propelled into Earth orbit aboard a Pegasus rocket.
CyRos Captain Cypress Rosewood playing at the helm
Cypress demonstrates his musicianShip, dressed for the occasion. His 3rd ISM concert is the first of a monthly series - practically speaking since Cypress does real life tours too, it will be 8 or so concerts a year.
30 avatars enjoyed Cypress’s return to the ISS exhibit high above both the world and Spaceport Alpha.
Space shuttle Endevour linked to the ISS at ISM
The full set of concert snaps are at flickr.