General Discussion

(Whoa hey, new name?)

This was an incredibly touching read. Thank you for posting it.

@Firra (yep, new name! I'm feeling it! :D)

Today's is about the Challenger disaster, but I'm thinking I'll go easier just because it's the day after Apollo 1's anniversary and we don't need to feel everything two days in a row. I should have done what NASA does and done everything on the 25th, but...

[b]Day 19: 28 January 2018[/b] @VincentAnderlin @kallimabutterfly @NotarySojac @Firra @BezimiennyRaptor @Cunea @Kirmon64 @RainbowRay @SpottedSorex @OMGAKITTEN @NoDragonHere @TeenyTinyDragon [img]https://78.media.tumblr.com/660529b346e6cce1f8b03f432bc91ba1/tumblr_oswnabTMyq1txdeaio1_1280.jpg[/img] Today's the anniversary of the Challenger Disaster. Today in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after liftoff, killing its entire crew of seven. Among the crew was Christa McAuliffe, who was to be the first teacher in space. Christa is pictured above posing with the Space Shuttle Challenger the October before her disastrous flight. Instead of posting a writeup about the disaster as I did yesterday, I'm going to post one of my favorite poems. It was written by Rudyard Kipling in 1935, and it's stood the test of time. I always return to around this time of year as I reflect upon the disasters that came before us. [center][b]Hymn of Breaking Strain[/b][/center] [indent]THE careful text-books measure (Let all who build beware!) The load, the shock, the pressure Material can bear. So, when the buckled girder Lets down the grinding span, 'The blame of loss, or murder, Is laid upon the man. [i]Not on the Stuff—the Man![/i] But in our daily dealing With stone and steel, we find The Gods have no such feeling Of justice toward mankind. To no set gauge they make us— For no laid course prepare— And presently o'ertake us With loads we cannot bear: [i]Too merciless to bear.[/i] The prudent text-books give it In tables at the end 'The stress that shears a rivet Or makes a tie-bar bend— 'What traffic wrecks macadam— What concrete should endure— but we, poor Sons of Adam Have no such literature, [i]To warn us or make sure![/i] We hold all Earth to plunder— All Time and Space as well— Too wonder-stale to wonder At each new miracle; Till, in the mid-illusion Of Godhead 'neath our hand, Falls multiple confusion On all we did or planned— [i] The mighty works we planned.[/i] We only of Creation (Oh, luckier bridge and rail) Abide the twin damnation— To fail and know we fail. Yet we - by which sole token We know we once were Gods— Take shame in being broken However great the odds— [i]The burden of the Odds.[/i] Oh, veiled and secret Power Whose paths we seek in vain, Be with us in our hour Of overthrow and pain; That we - by which sure token We know Thy ways are true— In spite of being broken, Because of being broken [i]May rise and build anew Stand up and build anew. [/i][/indent]

[b]Day 20: 29 January 2018[/b] @VincentAnderlin @kallimabutterfly @NotarySojac @Firra @BezimiennyRaptor @Cunea @Kirmon64 @RainbowRay @SpottedSorex @OMGAKITTEN @NoDragonHere @TeenyTinyDragon [center][img]http://78.media.tumblr.com/971fe025a9ba5d7ebb4be0ef1d426145/tumblr_p1bqm8M0BS1qigaa4o1_400.gif[/img][/center] Today I'm focusing on happy things! Specifically, the launch of Apollo 8. Apollo 8 launched on 21 December 1968. It carried astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders to the moon. It was the first time humanity had ever left the Earth's gravity field, as well as our first time going to the moon at all. The crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to see the backside of the moon in person. Lasting from the 21st through the 27th, Apollo 8 got to spend their Christmas out in space. On their Christmas Eve broadcast, Bill read part of the verse [i]Genesis[/i] from the Bible. Later, someone tried to file a lawsuit against NASA for failing to separate church from state, but I'm pretty sure the lawsuit failed because... well, there's no real jurisdiction over space, so it was concluded that Bill was a-okay. Have you ever seen that post saying that since Jim Lovell was on both Apollo 8 and Apollo 13 that Apollo 13 is a Christmas movie? If you didn't get that joke before, you do now!

@GuidanceOfficer
Pinglist please?

@TheEngineer Yes, but especially if I can call you EECOM. :P

@GuidanceOfficer
Haha, go ahead X)

[b]Day 21: 30 January 2018[/b] @VincentAnderlin @kallimabutterfly @NotarySojac @Firra @BezimiennyRaptor @Cunea @Kirmon64 @RainbowRay @SpottedSorex @OMGAKITTEN @NoDragonHere @TeenyTinyDragon @TheEngineer [img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/276515100465299456/408074942790238209/sdo_flare.jpg[/img] This is an image of a flare taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. SDO is a NASA spacecraft that launched in February 2010. It seeks to understand solar weather, the sun's magnetic field, and how that magnetic energy is released as solar winds, variations in the sun's output, and charged particles. I'm sorry, I don't honestly have time to write much today. [url=https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/]Here[/url]'s the webpage for SDO if you'd like to learn more!

[b]Day 22: 31 January 2018[/b] @VincentAnderlin @kallimabutterfly @NotarySojac @Firra @BezimiennyRaptor @Cunea @Kirmon64 @RainbowRay @SpottedSorex @OMGAKITTEN @NoDragonHere @TeenyTinyDragon @TheEngineer [center][img]http://78.media.tumblr.com/eb8d646a15e21d62fae457880667db8a/tumblr_p3fr4wyj5J1rvtk1ao1_500.gif[/img][/center] Today's the 60th anniversary of the launch of Explorer 1, America's first artificial satellite! Explorer 1 launched aboard a Juno-C rocket, which was basically a four-stage redstone missile, from Cape Canaveral at 10:48 PM Eastern time on January 31 1958 (That'll be 19:48 FR Server Time, if you wanna do anything special.) The Soviet Union had the honor of launching the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into orbit on October 1957. Prior to Sputnik's launch, spaceflight had been kind of on the backburner in American politics. There were plenty of individuals who were pushing to get America's spaceflight program going--Wernher von Braun himself being one of them--but the federal government treated it as more of a nonissue than an actual possibility. Unfortunately for them, while the US had been ignoring the possibility, the USSR had been preparing to launch a satellite for a while, and... yeah. At the height of the cold war, you can imagine Americans' reactions to being one-upped by the Soviet Union, even if they'd basically launched a radio that beeped. Earlier plans for the first American satellite had to be scrapped; they'd been closer in size and mass to today's cubesats than Sputnik, and they didn't want to make it obvious they were rushing to get something done at the last minute, because that would set a Bad Image For Capitalism/Freedom/The United States As A Whole. Out of the chaos was born Explorer 1. As well as making it clear that America didn't intend to let the USSR rule space or whatever their cold war fears were, it was also their way of participating in the International Geophysical Year, an attempt at making scientific discoveries more accessible between the East and the West. While Explorer wasn't the first satellite with a mission payload (Sputnik 2 technically counts, I guess, even though Laika didn't last very long), it was the first satellite with a scientific payload. It included some instruments for measuring micrometeorite impacts, some temperature sensors, and a Geiger–Müller tube to detect cosmic rays. The latter helped Explorer 1 the first spacecraft to detect the radiation of the Van Allen belt, a field of charged particles held around the Earth by our magnetic field.

@GuidanceOfficer Cool story! I love how, despite the fears during the cold war, they inspired so many space missions. Also your description: [quote=Guidance Officer] even if they'd basically launched a radio that beeped[/quote] is the best description of Sputnik I've seen :) by the way, I forgot to mention I like your new username!