Evie's Blogs

SpaceX has had an incredible mission. They completed the preliminary maneuvers near the ISS, and were cleared to go ahead and get close enough to the station for the robotic arm to be able to grab hold of it. This was all successfully done, and the Dragon Capsule was brought in to dock with the station, making history, by being the first ever commercial company to both fly to space and reenter Earth's atmosphere, and berth with the ISS. The mission will come to an end in several days, when the Dragon Capsule will be released from ISS, returned to Earth for a splash down landing in the ocean, and be recovered for reuse.

Success!!! The Falcon 9 launched successfully at 3:44am EST May 22nd. All systems were nominal, stage separation completed nominally, Solar arrays deployed successfully, and the Dragon capsule is now making its way toward the International Space Station. Stay tuned for more mission updates!

Way to go SpaceX!! This is the beginning of a new commercial era in space exploration.

*** Update - The launch was aborted at T-0.5 seconds, due to high chamber pressure in engine #5. Next launch window is May 22nd at 3:44am EST, and another window the following day, May 23rd 3:22am EST. Keep you posted on changes. ***

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Commercial Space and Me

Views: 1321 | Comments: 11
Last by Eli on Jan 29, 2013, 7:44am

I've been job hunting for a while. Sent out hundreds of resumes, filled out countless applications, had phone interviews, unofficial meet and greets, official interviews, tests, take home tests.. you know the drill. Nothing seemed to be panning out.

Imagine my surprise as I suddenly found myself with not just one, but two incredible job offers both in the Commercial Space field.

I never understood why people said that when you have too many choices, you end up confused and blankly staring into nowhere.

Now, I do understand.

That is pretty much where I found myself. I mean, come on! Two, incredible job offers, each of which I would have been more than thrilled to take! Both offers arriving within days of each other.. Who could possibly think choices were a good thing?!

I went deep into 'Ponder' mode, and spent about a week there. Yea, sure, it looked like I was right there with you in the same room, partaking in that conversation.. but no, I was not. My mind was a bazillion miles away. Thinking about the alternatives.. Job 1 or Job 2..? Location 1 or location 2..? I must have made up my mind about 500,000 times, and then changed it again. Each time, clearly, had a different outcome. I must have created quite a few alterna . . . More

Final flight of the Shuttle

Views: 8448 | Comments: 12
Last by Evie on Nov 10, 2011, 6:08pm

It would seem as though the end of an era is upon us. Tomorrow, will be the last scheduled launch of the NASA Space Shuttle. Or at least, that's what the current plan says. Never know with that Florida weather. Regardless of the date, there is only one mission left in the old bird. After which, NASA will recall it's vehicles, and the shuttle will be retired. For good.

I'm not typically one who cares much about so called historical events. However, I do find myself thinking: 'Awww.. no more shuttle.. Awwww'. Yes, there are 2 'Aww's in there. I'm as surprised as you are.

Being the space nut that I am, I spent much of my childhood day dreaming about what it would be like to take a ride up to space in that thing. So much so, that I in fact became the first person to land on the newly repaved landing strip runway at Cape Canaveral.

It was back in the early 80's. My family and I flew to FL to spend the summer with my grandma. During our stay, we took a road trip up to the Cape, and the eager little toddler that I was got on a facility tour bus with the big kids. My parents came along too. The bus took us all around the complex. No I don't remember any of this, but I do h . . . More

Oops.. My bad!

Views: 675 | Comments: 0

Theme blog days are back at LabSpaces!

And this time around, we will be discussing: Major work screw ups that we happened to be involved in, in some way, or another.

For your reading pleasure I will leave you with 2 stories to check out. Both are true accounts of things that happened to me, or rather, that I happened to..

Enjoy!

Rocket science doesn’t always go the way you plan

My bad day at work. *Disclaimer: No living creatures were harmed during said day.

These are indeed older posts, so if you follow me, you may have actually read them already. In which case, thank you for reading, and sorry for the lack of new content. I wanted to partake in this awesome theme, but couldn't think of any new stories that don't pale in comparison to the aforementioned ones..

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. . . More

Athene's 'Theory of Everything' - A new take on neuroscience in relation to quantum physics

Views: 79824 | Comments: 135
Last by translyvania on Mar 18, 2013, 11:47am

Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to speak with Chiren Boumaaza, aka Athene, who you may know as the extravagant internet celebrity, and professional gamer.

If you haven't heard of him, he's a record holder in World of Warcraft and online poker, and plays the main character in a series of videos on a popular youtube channel with well over 340,000 subscribers.

'Athene' is known for crashing gaming servers, with the aid of his massive army of followers, who just love to be part of the controversy and trouble Athene is so well known for.

Over the past year, we haven't heard much from him, and it seemed as though he had fallen off the grid. Recently Chiren broke his silence, and announced that his disappearance was due to being very busy, conducting new research in the fields of quantum mechanics, general and special relativity, and neuroscience. He continued to say that this research is culminating in significant new discoveries that will be presented in a documentary named 'Athene's Theory of Everything'. This was definitely an unexpected turn, and caused quite a stir, and some confusion within his fan . . . More

Hybrid Rocket Motor Ignition!

Views: 2447 | Comments: 5
Last by Evie on Jan 11, 2011, 4:44pm

Ever wonder how a hybrid rocket motor gets lit up?

You may recall from my previous post about hybrid motors, that they consist of 2 separate parts - a hollow tube-like component filled with solid (in itself inert) fuel, and a tank of oxidizer fluid with some plumbing that forces the fluid to get flushed through the aforementioned hollow part of the tube-like solid fuel.

That's cool and all, but without the presence of a spark that can light this whole thing up, and start the chemical reaction, all you are left with is what we in the biz call a 'cold flow'.

A 'cold flow' means just that, no spark, no fire, no reaction, just some cold fluid flowing through some solid rocket fuel. To the observer, this is typically rather uneventful. Though it is kinda cool to watch.

*This entry contains a YouTube video*

Cold Flow test. The mass flow rate change was the testing of different positions of valve opening settings.

Now, cold flow tests are great to have. They prepare you for the real deal. You get to test all your instrumentation, validate your sensors, make sure your timing sequences are . . . More

Gravitational Waves and LISA

Views: 944 | Comments: 6
Last by Dov Henis on Feb 05, 2013, 2:46pm

Back in the early 1900's, one of the many cool things Einstein found through his theory of General Relativity, was the theoretical existence of these things called Gravitational Waves.

As their name suggests they are predicted to be ripples, or fluctuations in the curvature of Space-Time, that propagate the way waves would, emanating from a source such as a black hole, neutron star, binary star, or any other ridiculously super massive object.

Apparently, Space-Time itself is curved, and becomes more or less curved depending upon the objects held in it. The more massive the object held in space-time is, the more curvature develops there.

When a highly massive object moves or gets accelerated, it affects that Space-Time significantly enough to cause these ripples or waves. The energy the waves carry and transport is called Gravitational Radiation, which travels at the speed of light and loses strength as it propagates, but never stops or even slows down.

Although there has yet to be direct observation of these waves, there is plenty of data to support their existence in the form of indirect observation. Like the observations of orbits of binary pulsars, that seem to be losing orbital energy at the exact rate that General Relativity predicted they w . . . More

Project for Awesome!

Views: 1922 | Comments: 0

Hello boys and girls!

Today's post is going to veer a bit from the usual science-y topics, and will be dedicated to increasing the world's awesome quotient.

You may be thinking to yourself, 'Wow! Increasing world AWESOME sounds like a great idea! But, how can we do that?'

Well I am glad you asked!

As it turns out, there is a large group of people who has been actively doing just that since 2007.

You may be familiar with the online phenomenon that is the Nerd Fighters, of Nerd Fighteria, under the leadership of the VlogBrothers.

The VlogBrothers is a YouTube channel, created by the brothers Hank and John Green, for the purpose of keeping in touch with each other. If you have some time, you should really check out their videos, 'cause they are very entertaining, and you will definitely learn something. Their correspondence videos were so awesome to begin with that over time they got more and more people following them.

These followers are now kno . . . More

Cloaking and invisibility - Very cool new concept

Views: 825 | Comments: 7
Last by Dov Henis on Jun 24, 2012, 1:05am

Last week we heard that researchers from Imperial college London, have published a study dealing with newly engineered metamaterials. These materials allow for light hitting them to be sped up or slowed down. Doing this, creates a zone with effectively no light, rendering that zone, and everything in it, hidden from sight, or invisible. The press release can be found here.

Our vision sensors, or eyes if you like, seem to work by collecting light rays from the environment. Waves of light hit objects, bounce off those objects and get picked up by the eye. The light then enters the eye through the cornea, passes through the pupil, and hits the retina. The picture there is received upside down, and it's up to the brain to take over and flip it around, do some filtering, put it all into context and perspective, and hopefully not pull too many tricks on us, as it often does..

Basically one could argue that it makes no difference how accurate your vision sensors are, as it still all depends on the programming and functionality of the brain, to interpret the data and make sense . . . More

The Lagrange points – Nature’s parking spots

Views: 2907 | Comments: 7
Last by Evie on Nov 09, 2010, 10:05am

Physics is cool.

It turns out that in the big bad dark vastness of the ever expanding, contracting, and moving universe, you can find certain spots that are always at rest.

Well I mean that’s all relative. They’re at rest relative to more massive bodies orbiting in their vicinity.

Say you’ve got your Sun and you’ve got your Earth, and you’re a much much smaller object, like a satellite, or space telescope. Well as it turns out, there are 5 points in space, not too far from both those bodies, which if placed at, you would appear to be holding your position steady with respect to both those large bodies.

This means, that even though you’re in motion, the Sun is in motion, the Earth is in motion, and the rest of the galaxy is hurling toward the unknown, you will still be in very good company. Your Earth and your Sun will literally always be there. In the same exact (relative) spots.

I think that is pretty damn cool.

What you're seeing here is an animated sketch of the relative motion of the bodies in question. The big yellow ball in the middle is the Sun, the blue small one is the Earth, and the labeled green points are the 'parking spots'. This pic is from Wikipedia, . . . More

Rocket science doesn’t always go the way you plan

Views: 890 | Comments: 8
Last by Evie on Nov 02, 2010, 10:43am

A while back I posted a great story (ok well I thought it was a great story) about a bad day at work that I had.

In continuing with the telling of what bad days at work are like, I thought you might like to know what happens when a rocket test goes a little bit not exactly right. As with my last ‘bad day’ post, no one was hurt, and no damage was done.

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Sometimes you go to work in the morning and you think to yourself ‘self, this is going to be a good day’, and self thinks back at you ‘yea, yea this is going to be a great day!’

Well in this case self was wrong.

As with many things in life, rocket science does not always go the way you want it to. During my time in the biz, I, like anyone else, have had some good days, some bad days, some happy days, some mad days, and also some scary days.

This day, had its scary moments.

It all started during my first week on the job. I was told I’d be working with the VP of engineering. I was told we’d be working on setting up a sub scale rocket motor test stand, to be used asap to test various fuels. I was told I’d be learning fro . . . More

Space Junk - It isn't going to clear itself!

Views: 9646 | Comments: 8
Last by Evie on Oct 30, 2010, 2:45pm

You may be asking yourself what is this space junk I speak of, and why am I bothering you with this.. Well, I am glad you asked!

Space Junk is pretty much anything that is left over, discarded, or no longer functioning, that happens to orbit our little globe here.

It can be debris from a space collision, left over parts from rockets, satellites, launch vehicles. Any object that is left adrift, floating in space in our immediate vicinity.

As you may be aware, the growing problem of space junk is becoming more real with every new launch that occurs.

You see, every single satellite system, shuttle mission, or top secret government experiment that is launched into space, requires (at this point) rockets to get there.

As they ascend and maneuver themselves into their target position, they shed large amounts of solid components that have served their purpose, and are no longer required. These can be burned out motor cases, or smaller connecting rings that held the separate stages of the rockets together, or even nuts and bolts that have been ejected.

These shed components, they don’t go anywhere.. they just hang out in orbit for a really really long time, till they eventually come crashing down to Earth. Usually burning up and dis . . . More

Your help can last a lifetime. Contribute, if you can, to DonorsChoose. Every dollar counts!!

Views: 276 | Comments: 4
Last by Evie on Nov 01, 2010, 9:06am

DonorsChoose.org is a great idea. It allows anyone and everyone to help out with as little or as much as they choose.

Basically school teachers in the US who find themselves in need, make a request, explaining exactly what they are missing from their classroom. They tell you what it is they need that would be of tremendous help, they explain what they need it for. And how it's gonna help the kids learn, and love science, possibly just as much as you do!

If you can spare a few minutes and a couple of bucks, you can be responsible for making a kid fall in love with science. A love that can last a lifetime.

You the donor, get to pick exactly where your money goes. There are literally thousands of 'projects' you can choose from. I am sure if you browse through the list, at least one will be near and dear to your heart. And perhaps you will choose to donate a few dollars to the cause, in place of your morning coffee.

As a huge bonus, this month, under 'Science bloggers for students', all us science bloggers are trying to get as many people involved as possible. You see, for every dollar you donate, HP will match it, and we'll get double the impact and double the help!

So what do you say? Can you throw a couple of . . . More

What would I be doing if I weren't doing rocket science..?

Views: 2139 | Comments: 27
Last by Evie on Oct 22, 2010, 2:05pm

What would I be doing if I weren't doing space stuff?

That is an excellent question, and I am glad you asked!

Ok, as you all probably have guessed, I am a total space cadet. And if I were living in a time when space travel/exploration was going on, I'd be the most awesome, kickass, galactic tour guide this side of the universe. But for the time being, seeing as that is not an option, read on for some of my other choices.

Wow, well the world is filled with so many wondrous things that I find absolutely fascinating. Oh man, there is SO much I'd be doing if I had infinite money and time.

First of all, of course, I'd become a Kung Fu master and be a top of the line Ninja. 'Cause I mean, who wouldn't, right? Think about it, the stealth moves, the swift action, the cool outfit! While I was at it, I'd probably pick up some skills with the katana sword as well. That would certainly come in handy.

Once a full fledged Ninja, I would be free to roam the globe undetected. I'm sure I'd end up in a cozy grassy patch staring at the sky and picking pretty flowers. What? I love flowers. And skygazing.

Next on the list, still in the realm of science, would be researching communication with Dolphins . . . More

First potentially 'Habitable' planet discovered, other than Earth of course

Views: 10038 | Comments: 13
Last by anonymous on Apr 22, 2012, 3:48pm

Did you hear the news? It would appear our astronomers have found a planet named Gliese 581g, not too far from us, that according to the data, could possibly sustain life as we know it.

Cool!!! This is very exciting! Of course this does not mean they found life on the planet, or that they even have a way to do so, 'cause they don't at the moment. But it does tell us there are other places in this universe that could potentially be not-too-hostile for life as we know it to exist, and possibly for us to explore/relocate to.

The discovery was made by astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The scientists used data from the HIRES spectrometer at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, and the HARPS at the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile to come up with this data.

They looked for evidence of 'wobbles' in the movements of stars to locate new planets. If a star were to move unhindered across the night sky, its path or trajectory would be smooth. But if it were to 'wobble' or make a slight off-tra . . . More

How not to board a plane

Views: 3787 | Comments: 14
Last by Future Corpse on Sep 18, 2010, 8:08pm

Back in my early days of college I was in a long distance relationship. Yes, we were silly, young, in love.. Aww how sweet.. (I think I'm gonna hurl).

We were also broke college kids who worked really hard and scrounged up everything we could to pay for plane tickets. I was always on the lookout for cheap last minute flights. I was living in Gainesville, Florida at the time.

Not exactly a major airline hub, to say the least. The closest major airports were Jacksonville and Orlando, which were each about a 2-2.5 hour drive, plus parking, gas, the occasional speeding ticket.. you get the picture.

You can imagine my excitement when I awoke one morning to find an incredible super cheap flight offer in my inbox. And it was out of the Gainesville airport no less

The flight left THAT DAY. It was too good of an offer to pass up. I booked that shit faster than Gerty-Z can trigger the flood control system on LabSpaces, and proceeded to do the happy dance.

Like I said I was a broke college kid living in a low tech apartment. No washer dryer, no d . . . More

Water vapor found around star and why theories are just theories

Views: 960 | Comments: 8
Last by katesisco on Jun 01, 2011, 2:12pm

I'm excited about this new finding. Not only because water is a good thing to have in the far reaches of space, but because the new theory of how the water got there came into existence by analyzing new data, and discarding an old theory.

It is so important to remember that everything we think we know about stuff, can be totally turned around when new or additional information becomes available.

Back in 2001, water vapor was discovered in a cloud around a Carbon star named IRC+10216. It is the most studied carbon star to date. A Carbon star has an atmosphere containing more carbon than oxygen. The two elements combine to form carbon monoxide and the reaction continues until all the oxygen is consumed, leaving carbon atoms free to form other carbon compounds. This gives rise to the Carbon star's characteristic red 'sooty' look.

Located roughly 500 light years from Earth, IRC+10216 also known as CW Leonis, is about 4 times as massive as our Sun. Size wise, if placed in the center of our own solar system, it would sprawl out beyond . . . More

What I wish I knew.. while I was in school

Views: 598 | Comments: 7
Last by Evie on Sep 08, 2010, 4:37pm

I was having trouble coming up with a topic for this one. Not that I don’t have tons of ‘what I wish I knew before’ scenarios, I do. But I’m not done learning from most of them just yet. I don’t have a pretty and neatly wrapped box set of advice with a bow on top that I could pass on to you at this time.

I asked my good college bud Boonsri Dickinson (check out her latest post on SmartPlanet) what she thought. She said she wished she knew that grades didn’t matter. I very much agree on this one. So that’s the wisdom I am imparting upon you today.

I can only speak from my own experience when I say this. Grades are not everything. They’re just not. It seems that the only time they come into play is if you’re after a very official type government job. And even then, there are ways around the GPA barrier.

Everyone I know from my work life, the people I respect the most there, the people I know that went on to start their own successful businesses, the ones who are more creative and intuitive than the . . . More

My first Job Interview - The Interview (part 2 of 2)

Views: 2394 | Comments: 8
Last by Evie on Sep 19, 2010, 6:52pm

If you've read part one of the series, you must be giddy with anticipation and can't wait to find out what happened next!

It was finally time. Interview time.

The conference room was ready and awaited us. Six of us, and only one other girl. All in one room, all competing for the same job. Awkward..!

The first one to greet us was the HR guy. He explained how this was going to happen. We were to spend the first 45 minutes with him, talking about general company stuff, then we'd have 45 min with the CEO and founder, 45 min with the VP of engineering (complete with facility tour), and finally after that we get to begin the round of interviews. We would each have 5 one on one 30 minute interviews with engineers from the various departments. Yikkes!!!

I was scared, and I couldn't understand how no one else heard my heart pounding.. sounded like African drums.. I just wanted to get the interview part over with, so I could relax. But the one thing I learned, which I think is the most important thing to know when facing such interviews - Listen to what they say, these people will tell you exactly what they want to hear from you, they will tell you what they are looking for and what they expect you to be. I was so so happy to have heard th . . . More

My first real job interview – The set up (Part 1 of 2)

Views: 1320 | Comments: 5
Last by Evie on Sep 03, 2010, 3:31pm

Geeka's latest post about how she ended up a scientist inspired me to write this one.

It happened totally by accident. I wasn’t even looking for a job. I had just begun graduate school at the University of Florida, and was working on an MS degree in Mechanical Engineering. I was thrilled to have gotten a TAship and free tuition. I loved my advisor, he was my fav professor. And I was lucky enough to be a TA for the lab portion of a controls class he was teaching.

One night while home flipping the remote, I found myself watching the discovery channel. The Black Sky documentary about the Ansari X prize - The race to space - was on. That is totally MY kind of thing!

They showed SpaceShipOne and I got all excited. I told my roomies (jokingly.. kinda) that I’d do anything to work with those guys, never really expecting that to actually happen. I was so excited about the thought of commercial space taking shape that the next day in lab I told everyone about it, and how I was willing to wear a silly uniform too if that’s what it took to be part of something like that. They mocked me of . . . More

Life outside of America

Views: 1255 | Comments: 21
Last by Evie on Sep 21, 2010, 11:50am

I’ve been out of the US visiting with my fam who live in northern Tel Aviv in Israel, for a lil while now. I love the US, I miss it. Everything is so very convenient, and cheap. Go ahead and disagree if you like but most of the stuff you can buy there is about quadruple the price in other places.

It has come to my attention that many peeps really don’t realize how different life outside the US can be. And also how lucky they are to be in such a free open country. Of course it has got many many downfalls that I find appalling and absolutely despise much of the legislation in various areas, but over all, it really is the land of opportunity.

I had a rant on fb a while back about Transformers 2. Terrible movie, don’t see it. The comments I got on it led me to realize that duh, how could most people know what its like in other places that they’ve never been to? They can't.. That’s where I come in.

If you have seen Transformers 2, you may remember the part where they transport over to the middle east, which is where the big fight goes down, mainly the pyramids of Giza. Other than the geographic inaccuracies which are horrendous, what really annoyed me was the ridiculousness of the situation. A yellow, brand new, sports vehicle, shows up at th . . . More

Flight 101

Views: 877 | Comments: 8
Last by Evie on Sep 11, 2010, 3:18pm

Hello boys and girls! Welcome to Flight 101!

I think it’s time we all got on the same page when it comes to understanding how a plane stays in the air.

Those are pretty nifty things, aren’t they? Airplanes? Did you ever wonder how it is they stay up there? Even though they are heavy as hell, and should come crashing down? Well.. No, it’s not magic, and it isn’t big J up in the sky giving a helping hand, it’s not even 'cause of all the people in the various houses of prayer throwing their hands up and chanting.. Nope. It’s actually just physics, geometry, and fluid mechanics at play.

This is a simplified explanation, 'cause it can get pretty messy and heavy on the math, but the concept itself is simple, and I think it’s worth knowing. Plus you will totally be able to impress the person seated near you on your next plane ride. *Note: you should probably avoid using this as a pick up line. Results may vary.

So, how do planes stay in the air? Lift! Lift is what we call the upward force that combats gravity, and keeps the plane afloat in the sea of gaseous molecules that make up our atmosphere. In order for Lift to be produced, the air and the plane must be in motion relative to each other.

Let’s take as an example, a 2D s . . . More

Net Neutrality - Don't be EVIL Google!

Views: 1302 | Comments: 8
Last by Evie on Aug 17, 2010, 1:58pm

Net Neutrality is a very important issue.

If you’re not familiar with the term, here’s how Wikipedia describes it:

“Internet neutrality is a principle proposed for user access networks participating in the Internet that advocates NO restrictions by Internet Service Providers and governments on content, sites, platforms, on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, and no restrictions on the modes of communication allowed.

The principle states that if a given user pays for a certain level of Internet access, and another user pays for the same level of access, then the two users should be able to connect to each other at the subscribed level of access.”

Net Neutrality is all about safeguarding your freedom to choose what sites you visit, without being restricted or hindered. You should have the ability to check out both CNN and MSN, you should be able to watch videos on YouTube, and Vimeo. That sounds fair.

But what if for instance, and this is JUST an example, CNN were to strike a deal with an internet service provider and say hey, if we pay you some extra money, would you provide higher bandwidth to CNN sites and lower bandwidth to our competitors . . . More

Look! A flying car!!

Views: 655 | Comments: 5
Last by robert on May 06, 2011, 2:00am

It's a bird! It's a plane!! No wait... It's a car!

No, I’m not kidding, it really is a car that flies. I don’t know how I missed this, but apparently this concept has been around for a few years now.

A group of MIT engineers got together and started a company called Terrafugia who manufactures this car-plane hybrid.

Cool name. As you probably guessed, it’s derived from the Latin words ‘Terra’ meaning Earth or ground, and ‘Fugia’ meaning escape.

What you’re looking at is the Terrafugia Transition. As the name suggests, it actually does transition between plane mode and car mode. In under 30 seconds no less! The transition itself is just the flip of a switch, which commands the wings to unfold and lock into place, or fold back up allowing you to drive away.

The car plane runs on regular gas, available at any gas station. How convenient! It even gets really good gas mileage in car mode, about 35 mpg. (Just like my pretty little civic did..)

This is a neat promo vid they made, kinda cheesy at times, but provides some good info.
. . . More

I too have been tagged! So Im responding.. Please note this turned out insanely long. I am sorry.

Views: 976 | Comments: 8
Last by Evie on Jan 29, 2011, 10:40am

I too have been tagged with a blog meme by Dr Becca.

If you don’t know me, I am that person who has the weirdest stuff happen to them. Stuff you wouldn’t totally believe even if your bff told you. Like that one time when there was that warrant out for my arrest.

It all started one night when I was driving back to Gainesville, from Miami. That’s 350 miles, a 5 hour drive, if you stop for a pee break at the turnpike rest stop. I was driving my little dropped black civic, with the super dark tints, extra loud and large exhaust complete with air intake, and custom grille. Those were kinda common.

I was speeding. Duh. I caught a glimpse of the cop and slammed the breaks. She clocked me at 89mph, and was kind enough to give me a ticket for 79, I was lucky. She then asked for my insurance.

You know how you get the new card in the mail a few days before the old one expires, well I had the new one with me, but had already thrown the old one away, so she gave me a ticket for having no insurance papers. No big, just mail it in and pay a $7 fine and you’re done. For the speeding part, just take online traffic school, and they automatically mail in your certificate of comp . . . More

Intro about me and science

Views: 613 | Comments: 6
Last by Evie on Aug 02, 2010, 4:40pm

Ok, I guess since everyone else seems to be doing it, I’ll say a lil something about me.

Hiiiiii, I’m Evie, and I love science!

It started the instant I came into existence. Yup, I have always been a science nut. I remember being a tiny toddler, pointing up at the Moon and Stars wondering how soon before I could go there myself.

Funny story, my first word, or so I’m told, was ‘Self!’ as in, I wanna do that by myself.

I soon figured out that I should probably not rely on anyone else to get me to the Moon, and therefore set my sights on finding my own way there. So that’s pretty much what I’m doing now, working in commercial space.

I always wondered about the concept of time as well, time travel, parallel universes, the vastness of our own universe. Over the years I’ve tried plenty of times to cross through the looking glass in search of new adventures to go on.

Along the way I stumbled across the wonders of chemistry with the pretty atoms and molecules, and the cool bonds they form, and the electrons and protons they’re made up of. So I picked chemistry as my major in high school. Yea, we had to do that where I grew up, and it led me to finding the fields of particle physics and quantum mechanics which I instant . . . More

My bad day at work. *Disclaimer: No living creatures were harmed during said day.

Views: 1541 | Comments: 11
Last by Tideliar on Nov 08, 2010, 9:41am

Have you ever messed up at work? Did it happen when you were still a n00b? Did it cause you to fear losing your job? Well, if you’re asking me, I’d have to say, Yes, Yes, and Yes.

It all started as an ordinary day, there I was at the cube farm, looking over some data I had been gathering from previous experiments. I was in the midst of running some tests that I came up with myself. The goal was finding new and improved fuel formulations for the hybrid motors. I was excited. The planning and initial testing were done, and it was time for some real messy hands on lab work. I grabbed my stuff and drove down to the rocket making facility.

Unlike the cube farm, which was a pretty bustling place, the testing area was only busy during actual testing, and before 4pm when the machinists went home. By the time I got there, I had the whole (freezing) warehouse to myself. I liked working alone. I could dance around when I wanted to, have my music going, and laugh out loud randomly (as I often do) for no reason, without getting those pesky stares.

That day, I had selected a number of candidate fuel formulations to be tested. Well, not yet tested as in firing them. That came later, and that required a whole team of people, video cameras, safety briefings, and a number . . . More

Strawberries in Space

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Last by Evie on Sep 07, 2010, 4:38pm

This isn’t new news, but I find it super cool none the less. I’m a big fan of the strawberry, and also a big fan of space travel. Putting those two together sounds like a good time waiting to happen!

The problem of food in space has been on the minds of many for a long time. You can only carry a limited amount of supplies with you, and currently, there really is no way to replenish said supplies other than waiting on another shipment from Earth. If we want to go out there, explore, and potentially take over the universe (but in a nice way), we need to figure out how to sustain ourselves in space, without relying on incoming shipments from our cozy blue planet. A first step in that direction would be growing our own space crops. There are many problems to tackle when dealing with crop growing in space. You've got your zero g issues, need of nutritious soil, limited water supply, limited space for a garden patch, sunshine requirements for your plants to live on, lack of bugs for pollination, and the list goes on.

Researchers working on a NASA funded project carried out at Purdue University, have come up with a healthy yummy sweet and nutritious space crop candidate – The Seascape Strawberry. This particular variety is very low maintenance, and hence would requi . . . More

It’s only Rocket Science.. Hybrid Rocket Motors – What are they?

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Last by Evie on Sep 05, 2010, 1:07pm

When you hear the term ‘Hybrid Motor’ you probably think of a low(er) emissions automobile that runs at least partially on some alternative form of fuel, anything other than oil that is. Although that is pretty much what it means to the automotive industry, in the Aerospace field a ‘Hybrid Motor’ is something else entirely.

A Hybrid Rocket Motor is in fact a rocket that gets its propulsion power by producing a chemical reaction using two separate components, one is solid, and the other is Fluid. Typically, a solid inert propellant is used along with a liquid oxidizer. The reaction requires an ignition source to be lit in the presence of both in order to get the party started. What does that actually mean? It’s simple.

Let’s start with the solid component. The solid fuel is cast into what’s called a grain, in a cylindrical shaped casing, with a hole down the middle, called a port. Think of it like a big roll of paper towel. The paper part is the solid fuel, and the hollow interior is the port, which is where the oxidizer is going to flow through. There are several materials that are commonly used to make the solid portion of the fuel: Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadiene (HTPB), Polyethylene, Paraffin and various additives. Each fuel composition will giv . . . More

Seventh Graders Find a Cave on Mars

Views: 562 | Comments: 2
Last by Evie on Aug 09, 2010, 10:28am

Imagine if everyone on the planet cared about science, knew about science, helped figure out new things, and partook in advancing humanity. A dream? Maybe.

This week, a lucky group of 7th graders did just that! They found a formerly unknown cave on Mars! On MARS! That’s right, a group of 13 yr olds working on a science project at Evergreen Middle School, located in Cottonwood, CA, made this really cool discovery. They got this opportunity thanks to an amazing program called the Mars Student Imaging Program (MSIP). The program allows kids to come up with an interesting geological question about the red planet, and try and answer it. Their science teacher Dennis Mitchell said "The students developed a research project focused on finding the most common locations of lava tubes on Mars." With their question in mind, the kids looked through over 200 pictures taken by the Thermal Emission Imaging system (THEMIS) aboard NASA’s Mars Odyssey Orbiter. They then selected a target location, and got to command the imaging system themselves to take pictures of the Pavonis Mons volcano and surrounding area.

According to Glen Cushing, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist "This pit is certainly new to us, and it is only the second one known to be associated with Pavonis . . . More