Monthly Archive for September, 2009
I didn’t really make an announcement or anything here, but I got a job. My friend Angie’s boss was super interested in hiring me ever since he caught wind that I might be coming down here. So now I work for EFillRX, an innovative concept in pharmacy. We have two locations in two big doctor’s offices in Louisville. You can get your script right there at the office or we’ll mail or deliver it to you. I think it’s a really great idea and from a business standpoint it’s pretty awesome, too. We have hundreds of patients built in, and easy access to the prescribers. Also, people tend to be on their best behavior when going to the doctor’s office, so no one treats us like dirt.
The downside is I had to take a pay cut initially (but I get a company car for deliveries, which is really really really nice) and I’m only getting about 30 hours a week. But my boss is fantastic, the stress level is like 0.1% that of Meijer, and I work in a professional setting where people are respectful and there’s not a box of cornflakes or a bakery manager with too big of an ego in sight.
I sent this as an email to my friend Brad, but I’m posting it here because it’s an interesting round-up of some current space missions.
Planck/Herschel
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/planck/
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/herschel/
The Planck spacecraft will survey the entire sky and measure the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation: the heat left over from the big bang. It, along with the Herschel Observatory, orbit the Sun-Earth L2 point.
The Herschel Observatory is a space observatory that covers the far infrared and sub millimeter wavelengths. It focuses on four areas of study:
- Galaxy formation in the early universe and the evolution of galaxies;
- Star formation and its interaction with the interstellar medium;
- Chemical composition of atmospheres and surfaces of Solar System bodies, including planets, comets and moons;
- Molecular chemistry across the universe.
The Kepler Mission
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/
Kepler trails behind Earth in solar orbit. The Kepler telescope has the largest mirror of any telescope outside of earth orbit (1.4m, Hubble’s is 2.4m). Kepler is a planet hunter that’s permanently pointed to stare at a small part of the sky, but surveys a huge sampling of stars. Kepler’s goals are to:
- Determine how many Earth-sized and larger planets there are in or near the habitable zone of a wide variety of different types of stars.
- Determine the range of size and shape of the orbits of these planets.
- Estimate how many planets there are in multiple-star systems.
- Determine the range of orbit size, brightness, size, mass and density of short-period giant planets.
- Identify additional members of each discovered planetary system using other techniques.
- Determine the properties of those stars that harbor planetary systems.
Kepler’s preliminary results are forthcoming, but it will be a few years until we get much news from its observations.
The Hubble Space Telescope
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/
Hubble is probably my favorite, because it does a lot of general astronomy stuff in the visible spectrum.
STS-125’s refurbishment of Hubble provided two new instruments and repaired two that had failed. We’re just now starting to see data from after the servicing mission in May. The school-bus sized instrument is still probably the single most important thing mankind has ever built to increase our knowledge of the physical universe. Hubble carries six instruments, most of which are self-explanatory:
- Near Infrared Camera & Multi Object Spectrometer
- Wide Field Camera 3 (covers the visible spectrum, near infrared & near ultraviolet)
- Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (measures the properties of ultraviolet light)
- Advanced Camera for Surveys (the premiere instrument, covers ultraviolet through near-infrared)
- Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph
SOHO
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/
I’m frequently enchanted by the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory’s pictures of the sun. Mostly because from Earth you’re not supposed to stare at the sun and I’ve always wanted to. The Sun is the life-giver to our planet and the most convenient star we have to study. I really just can’t stop looking. SOHO is also the discoverer of over 1,500 comets, keeps track of sunspots, solar flares, and CMEs, as well as space weather.
MESSENGER
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/main/
The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging probe just flew by Mercury today. MESSENGER has given us the most detailed pictures of Mercury to date. The only other data we have is from Mariner 10, which flew by Mercury and thus only imaged about 1/2 the planet. MESSENGER flew by Mercury today (Sept 29) and is scheduled to enter orbit in March of 2011.
Cassini
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/
The Cassini orbiter was launched 11 years ago and has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004. The primary mission is complete, and funding was secured for an extension through 2010. Cassini carried the Huygens probe that landed on Titan and has continued to return spectacular images of the jewel of our solar system. Most recently Cassini has been studying the rings during Saturn’s equinox with the sun.
Of interesting note is that shortly after Galileo discovered Saturn’s rings they vanished, no doubt confusing the fuck out of Italy’s favorite heretic. The reason for this was that Saturn was at equinox and the thin rings weren’t visible edge-on with Galileo’s technology.
New Horizons
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/
New Horizons is the fastest-moving man-made object. Ever. It passed by Jupiter on its way to Pluto. It’ll fly by Pluto in 2015. The people working on the NH team are pretty god damned bitter that Pluto’s not a planet anymore. Once the flyby is complete it’s expected that the probe will go on to study other objects in the Kuiper belt. My name is on a CD on the spacecraft, which will leave the solar system by 2029.
WMAP
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/
The WMAP mission has taught us more about cosmology in 8 years than we’ve ever learned, ever. The Planck mission is similar and has higher resolution.
Voyager
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/
The Voyagers are still working, amazingly 30 years after launched. Their mission now is to study the limits of the solar system, the drop off of the solar wind, and the nature of the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space. One of them will return in a few hundred years and nearly destroy Earth.
“I am so excited about the Kepler mission. This is the second most important thing our species has ever done, right behind inventing the concept of delivery pizza.”
I’m headed back down to Louisville now. Just wanted to say goodbye to everyone in Kalamazoo. To those who’ve been good to me: thanks! To those who haven’t: I hope you die in a fire.
But seriously, good people are hard to find, and I found some pretty good people here. You know who you are.
Check out the INFO tab on my facebook for my new address & check there for details on when you can see me next.
Keep on keepin’ on…
Guster :: Keep It Together :: Come Downstairs and Say Hello
Dorothy moves to click her ruby shoes
Right in tune with dark side of the moon
Someone, someone could tell me
Where I belong
Be calm, be brave, it’ll be okay
No more messing around and living underground
Or new year’s resolutions
By this time next year I won’t be here
I turn on MTV, the volume’s down
Lips move, they say
It’ll be okay
To tell you the truth, I’ve said it before
Tomorrow I start in a new direction
One last time these words from me
I’m never saying them again
and I shut the light
and listen as my watch unwinds
To tell you the truth, I’ve said it before
Tomorrow I start in a new direction
I know I’ve been half-asleep
I’m never doing that again
I look straight at what’s coming ahead
and soon its going to change in a new direction
Every night as I’m falling asleep
These words repeating in my head
Voices calling from a yellow road
To come downstairs and say hello
Don’t be shy, just say hello
To tell you the truth, I’ve said it before
Tomorrow I start in a new direction
I know I’ve been half-asleep
I’m never doing that again
I look straight at what’s coming ahead
and soon its going to change in a new direction
Every night as I’m falling asleep
These words repeated in my head
Okay everyone… I’ll be leaving for Louisville on Wednesday 16 September or Thursday at the latest, depending on what people wanna do. If anyone wants to hang out… now would be the time…
For those of you wondering, starting the afternoon of Wednesday, 9 September until sometime Saturday evening on 12 September I’ll be out backpacking/hiking/camping with my friend Brad in Ludington State Park.
This is where we’ll be:
I expect to be out of cellphone range most of the time. Also, there’s no power where we’re going so I more than likely won’t even have the phone turned on. I’m even dropping my Macbook off at the Apple store for repairs, so I’ll be pretty incommunicado on all fronts until then.
Brad and I plan to emerge from the wilderness Saturday evening, so we’ll be catching up on things then. And eating steak.
Your JoshQuote™ of the day:
I’m like, a booger factory.
