MetaFilter posts tagged with Astronaut

the composer of the future meets the city of the future

avocet — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:29:53 -0800

In 1985, Houston was preparing for a party: 1986 marked the city's 150th birthday, the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Texas, and 25 years since the opening of NASA's Johnson Space Center, the hub around which the city's aerospace industry blossomed. In comes French synthesizer pioneer Jean Michel Jarre, the "composer of the future", known for his spectacular 1979 Bastille Day show that attracted a million people to Place de la Concorde, and for being the first Western musician to play China in 1981. With the Space Shuttle Challenger due to take off on mission STS-51-L in January, Jarre penned a piece for Mission Specialist and saxophonist Ron McNair to record in space. The nation watched as McNair and his crewmates prepared for their journey and waved goodbye, only to perish in a haunting and iconic explosion. As Houston mourned the loss of the seven crew, who called the city home during their preparation for spaceflight, Jarre wasn't sure if the upcoming festivities should be held, but was convinced by astronaut Bruce McCandless that the show must go on. On April 5, 1986, 1.5 million people gathered downtown to witness Rendez-vous Houston, a massive tribute to America's pioneering spirit that used the city as its backdrop. The entire concert is also on YouTube – you don't get a sense of the scale or the visuals from this vantage point, but it's a pretty phenomenal set. Also, the traffic jam caused by the event inspired a memorable music video.

"Ring it Out"

zarq — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:29:53 -0800

Last fall, the Canadian Space Agency asked students to design a simple science experiment that could be performed in space, using items already available aboard the International Space Station. Today, Commander Chris Hadfield conducted the winner for its designers: two tenth grade students, Kendra Lemke and Meredith Faulkner, in a live feed to their school in Fall River, Nova Scotia. And now, we finally have an answer to the age-old question, What Happens When You Wring Out A Washcloth In Space? Additional Videos Commander Hatfield is Canadian, and has been recording videos for the CSA from the ISS during the current mission, which they have been uploading to their YouTube channel. Playlist. The vids cover random trivia about living in space. There's also an inspirational message and a discussion or two of other experiments the astronauts have been conducting. Background * NBC's Cosmic Log: What happens when you wring out a washcloth in zero-G? Now we know. * Mashable: What Happens When You Wring Out a Washcloth in Space? * CSA Press Release Expedition 35: Photos * Commander Hadfield's Tumblr * NASA's Flickr Photo Set for Expedition 35. Previously on Metafilter * Gorgeous photos of earth tweeted from the International Space Station * Space jam Other Stuff * The Greatest Conversations To Ever Happen On Twitter Between Real Astronauts And The Cast of Star Trek * Reddit IAmA: I Am Astronaut Chris Hadfield, currently orbiting planet Earth.

Swimming with Spacemen

get off of my cloud — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:27:24 -0800

How astronauts train for spacewalks in NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory bonus spacefun: Canadarm2 simulator.

Gorgeous photos of earth tweeted from the International Space Station

gingerbeer — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 08:29:47 -0800

Commander Chris Hadfield (previously!) and Thomas Marshburn are tweeting photos they are taking from the ISS. Hadfield, in particular, is tweeting amazing shots of islands, geographic features, brushfires in Australia, and daily life on the ISS. He's got a lot of photos of his native Canada, as well as a little outer-space rooting for his favorite hockey team. The Canadian Space Agency has a Chris Hadfield World Tour Photo Challenge More details on some of his photos and the mission: Astronaut Snaps Amazing Photo of Volcanoes from Space Chris Hadfield aims to inspire 'global awareness' from space

Check out my space station crib

Brandon Blatcher — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 10:34:12 -0800

Astronaut, and Expedition 33 Commander, Sunita Williams gives a tour of the International Space Station.

Astronaut Art

homunculus — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 19:40:46 -0800

Alienation by Graziano Panfili. Aeronauts by Vincent Mattina. Animal astronauts by rubbishmonkey. [First two Via]

Fetch, NASA, Fetch!

Brandon Blatcher — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:01:37 -0800

Veteran astronaut Tom Jones thinks NASA should nab an asteroid.

Physics Demos that are Out of this World

quin — Thu, 31 May 2012 07:19:15 -0800

Science off the Sphere is a video series by Don Pettit aboard the ISS showing off the neat things you can do in zero-gravity. 1.) Bistro-nauts 2.) Dancing Droplets 3.) Thin Film Physics 4.) Lenses and Vortices 5.) Fun with Antibubbles (antibubbles) 6.) Earth in Infrared 7.) Space Soundwaves 8.) Goo! Bonus: Barry White and a non-Newtonian fluid [Don Pettit previously]

I am zucchini - and I am in space.

Laminda — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:08:35 -0800

Bloggernaut Don Pettit brings you Astro-Z in Zero-G: The Diary of a Space Zucchini.

Astronaut with a camera - an amazing combination

quin — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 08:00:51 -0800

Dutch astronaut and physician André Kuipers brought his camera aboard the International Space Station and took some photos in his spare time, the results are breathtaking. Buzzfeed picked out some of the most spectacular, though there are many more in the photostream worth checking out (including one of my favorites): • The Richat Structure in Mauritania • Paris at night • From space I wish you all a very exciting and colorful year! • Veins' in the Somalian desert • Over the Tibetan plateau with the Himilayas, Butan and Napal in the background • Denmark with Copenhagen, Norway with Oslo, Sweden with Stockholm in the distance, northern Germany and beyond. And the Aurora Borealis of course • Beautiful reflection of the Sun in a Brazilian river • (Airplanes 242 miles below.) On their way to America • Over the Southern Lights between Antarctic and Australia • Sahara sand treks hundreds of kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean • Sea ice spirals near Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia • The different layers of the atmosphere can be seen during sunrise and sunset • Detail strong winds at White Sands • Sunlight reflects in the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas. Corsica, Sardinia and northern Italy • Sahara sand pattern • Snowy Canada. River or a millipede? • Wave pattern in the Indian Ocean. I wonder if they are above or below the water surface and how tall they are • Lake Powell and Colorado River. Awesome place. Green warm water, white/red rocks, blue sky. And nobody around • Meteor crater in Canada • The Alps look very tempting, but I don't have my skis with me... • The moon looks the same from the ISS as it does on Earth. Only we see it rise and set again and again. • A year ago I saw it from a plane and tweeted that I wanted to see these colours from space. Here it is. Salt Lake City. • Sahara sand pattern. • The Earth by night. • ISS Commander Dan Burbank @astrocoastie has an eye for beautiful cloud formations • Aircraft make patterns in the sky • How we see the moon. Sharp and slowly moving towards or away from the horizon • The Pacific is a great source of colourful images. One of the Gilbert Islands • Africa meets Europe - Strait of Gibraltar • Foam clouds • For an experiment I had to be quiet for 10 min, so I looked out the window. And saw an active Etna • Australia is an extraordinary continent with beautiful structures • Comet Lovejoy by Cdr Dan Burbank @astrocoastie, on launch day. One of the first who spotted it

Video of aurora from orbit

Kattullus — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:03:15 -0800

Auroras Underfoot is a short documentary about auroras by NASA, which uses high-definition images taken by International Space Station science officer Don Pettit of aurora from orbit. Pettit writes about the difficulties of taking photographs from orbit and other subjects on his blog.

Frequent travel may be required

twoleftfeet — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:02:08 -0800

NASA is hiring new astronaut candidates. Positions are open for all qualified U.S. citizens. Somewhere between 9 to 15 applicants will be selected. You need a degree in Science. There is a drug test. You must be between 5 ft. 2 inches and 6 ft. 3 inches, so you can fit in a Soyuz spacecraft.

Astronauts who got creative about their experiences

Brandon Blatcher — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 15:50:43 -0800

Over 500 people have traveled into outer space. While many have written books about the experience, only a few have used more creative means to express what they saw and felt. Here are a few: :: Alfred Worden :: For three days in 1971, he circled the moon alone during Apollo 15, as his two crewmates walked on the moon below. As they journeyed back from the moon, he become the first person to do a space walk in deep space. In 1974, he wrote a book of poetry based on his experiences, Hello Earth! Greetings From Endeavour!. Here are few samples, found around the net. Oceans, July Launch and Cycle Here's a few more (Hello Earth! Cycle, Oceans, Quietly Like a Night Bird) from the Kate Bush forum, where it's speculated that some of his poetry inspired her. An interview with Worden. The audio portion is only a small part of the written version. :: Alexei Leonov :: The first human to walk in space and later, commander of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first joint mission between American and Soviet Union. Even as a child he was interested in art, so it was natural for him to continue painting and drawing after he had traveled into space.. Here's couple of his paintings: "Open Space" "The Moon. First Moments After Landing" :: Alan Bean :: Became the fourth man on the moon during Apollo 12, later commanded a Skylab mission. Deeply inspired by walking on the moon, he quit NASA to become a full time artist. The distinction of being the only artist to travel to another world earned him a spot on the Colbert Report. :: Story Musgrave :: Mission Specialist on six Space Shuttle missions, Musgrave has lead an extraodinary career as a doctor, scientist, pilot and astronaut. A recital of Spacial Speed. More of his poetry is at the same site. Another recital, this time of "Mother Earth".

What Yuri Gagarin Saw

homunculus — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:07:18 -0800

First Orbit. "On 12th April 2011 it will be 50 years to the day since Yuri Gagarin climbed into his space ship and was launched into space. It took him just 108 minutes to orbit Earth and he returned as the World's very first space man. To mark this historic flight we have teamed up with the astronauts onboard the International Space Station to film a new view of what Yuri would have seen as he travelled around the planet. Weaving these new views together with historic voice recordings from Yuri's flight and an original score by composer Philip Sheppard, we have created a spellbinding film to share with people around the World on this historic anniversary." "First Orbit will have its planet-wide premiere from 7.07am British Summer Time (6.07am GMT) youtube.com/firstorbit and on over 600 screens around the world in 60 countries. In the UK the BBC will screen it on their giant city centre screens across the country at exactly the same time as Gagarin made his flight 50 years ago – 07:07 BST on 12 April."

And a great big blue sky below

filthy light thief — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:03:16 -0800

32 images of the earth from the blackness of space, many with spacewalking astronauts in the foreground, presented in a Big Picture style. (via) The sources of most images are cited, and often point back to NASA.gov-hosted images (2nd gallery) and the Flickr gallery of NASA/ESA astronaut Paulo Nespoli (who has been on the Blue before).

Cory McAbee's odd creative output

billb — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:28:07 -0800

I totally overlooked The American Astronaut (2001) and perhaps others did too? Musician and indie filmmaker Cory McAbee has a history as a huge misshapen head, has been to Reno, been a lounge act for the seedier offworld colonies, been smuggling illegal female embryos for the Jovian mining concerns, & been a father. McAbee's 2-man interplanetary ships tend towards diesels with 1905 wallpaper ...and porcelain washbasins for when you're not dry-shaving to please the ladies. He offers a unique take on the asteroid miners' spaceport bar and their all-male pastimes. He reminds us that regardless of future genetic catastrophes, still we'll always have male pregnancy. And what's up with the odd religion practiced by those hypersapient zero-G Nevada silver miners? Yes, I too need to know about Th' CHART. More recently we find that Stingray Sam is not a hero, but he does do the things that folks won't do that need to be done. McAbee's stuff is available online; I'm picking up my copies now, so he won't have to hurt me.

Space Project

puny human — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:05:50 -0800

Space Project from photographer Vincent Fournier. "Playing on the stylised notion of a sci-fi utopia, Fournier’s otherworldly photographs of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah and the Atacama Desert Observatories in Chile – alongside a series of surprisingly stringy trainee astronauts - offer an alternative view of the world, unseen by many and known by few."

You have 25 minutes to save Moonbase Alpha

jjray — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:42:33 -0800

Year: 2025. Mission: Save Moonbase Alpha after critical systems were damaged by a meteor strike. A free Steam-powered 3D-immersive game from NASA. Windows only.

awwwwwww

DZack — Thu, 20 May 2010 22:04:07 -0800

Crater face: "Astronaut risks life and limb to bring two moon pimples together for love."

Falta unas cuantas horas para el despegue! Que bonito se siente!!!

desjardins — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:11:44 -0800

José Hernández was a migrant worker when he first started to dream about becoming an astronaut. He is the first astronaut to Twitter in Spanish from space on shuttle mission STS-128. NASA wasn't happy about the controversy he caused when he advocated for the legalization of undocumented immigrants. He is not the first Hispanic-American to fly on the space shuttle. Hernández is a national hero in Mexico and has been invited to dine with President Calderon.

Circling the lonely moon by yourself, the loneliest person in the universe, weren't you lonely?

miss lynnster — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:10:44 -0800

Astronaut Michael Collins – "I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified façade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or Communist; blue and white, not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied."

Twits in space

Catfry — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:01:02 -0800

Astronaut Mike Massimino is twittering his experiences today, as he undergoes preparations for launch to the Hubble Space Telescope. He is supposed to keep up the updates during the entire mission.

Vampire Lincoln meets Zombie Platypus

BuddhaInABucket — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:41:55 -0800

The Official Creebobby Comics Archetype Times Table

"Gravity pretty much is irrelevant"

homunculus — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:57:22 -0800

Does a boomerang thrown in space return to its pitcher? It does indeed. [Via]

Space, to lick the very fuzzy navel of the heavens

oxford blue — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:59:43 -0800

Ever wondered what life is like on the International Space Station? Wonder no more. Excitement!

Yuri getting ready for velo and Sergei warming up TVIS. Got a master alarm and the red light for "other" (warning) on the caution and warning panel

Drama!

End of the workday. Disc 2 of Apocalypse Now. Found "Kurtz" .

International Intrigue!

Shep is in the habit of reading the form 24 to the last "bykvia" and this slows things way down. For instance, misinterpreted the English letters "st"on the form 24--thinking this meant the Russian word "stranitsa" (page) when it really stood for "step". (Too early in the a.m.)

High-tech thriller!

Attempted backup of SSC file server (20 minute procedure) Hardware configuration requires saving files and shutting down SSC2 to get at the PC extender. Extender won't go on File Server until hardware is removed, which requires shutting down FS, and removing PC card bracket and ethernet card. More restarts required to get things going. Backup procedure unexpectedly shuts down FS. When restarted, FS comes up but network is down. FS is down again. Sergei helping with the troubleshooting--already spent 2 hours on this and still not working. Something wrong with the power supply? We swap supplies with the router--FS is working. Then the suspect power supply starts working again. We're stumped. The good news is that the network is up. The bad news--we will probably see this again.

Even the quotidian, in space, takes on a different feel!

Dinner in the wardroom as usual. Decided not to go for the ham and smoked turkey--saving this for tomorrow.

And that's just for the first month... Of course, if being an astronaut doesn't tickle your fancy, there's always astronaut-herding opportunities.