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23 November 2011
MSL Launch Info
MSL is ready for a launch on Saturday, and the forecast is looking good! In preparation for the launch there is a bunch of great information about the mission available online.
Curiosity as Art
This morning I heard a bunch of really interesting status updates from all of the instruments but I can’t tell you about them. Instead, here are some artist’s renditions of MSL, courtesy of the folks at Unmanned Spaceflight.
18 November 2011
Mapping the Moon
As a reader of this blog, you’re probably at least passingly familiar with the progression of maps of Mars, from the first fuzzy sketches, to the intricate maps of “canals” to today’s exquisite data. But maps of our closest neighbor – the Moon – have also evolved quite a bit. For a nice pictorial history of moon maps, and an explanation for the names of some of the lunar features, go check out this post over on The Awl.
15 November 2011
Earth at Night and Spirit Rover Time Lapse
Over the last couple of days, I’ve seen two awesome time-lapse videos making the rounds on the internets. Here they are for your viewing pleasure:
6 November 2011
Ask an Astronomer Podcast: Mars Attacks!
A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by fellow Cornell Grad student Laura Spitler for the Ask an Astronomer podcast. We mostly talked about MSL and the Gale crater landing site. Laura also interviewed Dan Tamayo, yet another Cornell grad student about the connection between the word “Tuesday” and the planet Mars. Now that it’s a little closer to the MSL launch, you can find the podcast here.
1 November 2011
Solar System Learn-to-Read App
A while back, I was contacted by a company that makes iPad apps to teach kids to read and also teaches them about science. They were interested in doing a picture book about the solar system and wanted me to write the minimal text. I agreed and we wrangled with conveying some key information about the solar system using only a few hundred words. It’s surprisingly hard, but I think we managed to do pretty well.
31 October 2011
Lasers, Lunar Landings, and LRO
The young man was very interested in my work. I described how the tunable laser worked, how we were able to measure carbon dioxide and why it mattered. He was genuinely interested lasers and asked about other uses. I explained that laser can be used for cutting steel, measuring how fast cars are traveling, and as guide stars for observatories. I mentioned that scientists are able to accurately measure the distance to the moon by bouncing the lasers off or reflector arrays placed there by the Apollo astronauts. As I talked about the astronauts on the moon, I watched this guy’s face change. He thought for a minute and asked something like: You think we landed on the moon?
27 October 2011
Occupy Science!
A collection of space and planetary-themed parodies of the 99% movement, including a couple that I made myself!
23 October 2011
Cell Phone Spectrometer
Working with light and spectrometers is a part of my job. I worked with lab-built spectrometers and tunable lasers as a grad student at Montana State. At Los Alamos I worked with a mock-up of the ChemCam spectrometers and laser system. I still work with spectrometers at Apogee Instruments. I am also a smart-phone nerd. Recently, I stumbled onto an article about research using a modified cell-phone to enable doctors to perform in-situ analysis by turning the phone into a microscope or spectrometer.
