Waving at the International Space Station

As regular readers will know, we are really keen to get our students at Luna into the reading habit, and creating independent thinkers & travellers of the mind. I think it is really important to enjoy what you are reading, and that it means something to you.                                                                                                                I was thrilled we managed a stellar "Eureka" moment last night with a group of extremely chuffed Eigonauts! Having finished their first choice readers (action packed stories) the last one in the bag was "In the Sky". Potentially a bit dull & flat - except we have an incredible resource just outside the front door!                                                                                                                                        During our previous lesson we'd talked about planets & stars, constellations too; we'd spotted Orion easily and noticed the half moon from the car park. Tonight's mission was time critical (and weather). My satellite tracking app told me it'd appear on the southern horizon at 18:32, giving us 8 minutes before the end of class to spot the International Space Station. My girls were watching the countdown while we did a few other tasks, and coordinated with our classmate in Nagano - via Zoom - what we were going to do & how (needed to use my iPad to "take the class for a walk!").                                                                                                                                                                                                            First of all we found Orion again, and tried to spot Gemini. We had watched a short NASA video

constellation identification

explaining the constellations in view in March, but we could not see Castor or Pollux. The moon was hiding brightly, behind BigBoy (restaurant next door) which was also very lit up, making our view west & south somewhat obscured. Next, we realised the buildings in front of us hid the horizon, and from the app we could see the ISS was going to keep fairly low as it tracked westwards over Utsugushigahara.                                                                                            We dashed upstairs and turned all the lights off, stepped onto the roof (safely!) and were immediately able to see the bright white dot moving across the dark sky exactly where the teacher said it would be! The girls realised that if they might be able to see it again in an hour & a half, it must be going very fast indeed! I asked them if they thought the seven astronauts would be waving back ("probably not, it's dinner time" they decided!)...but they kept waving frantically anyway :)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        And that was about all we had time for, though homework is to draw a picture of the night sky (I found them in the waiting room with the lights off, being very diligent, later!). "Happy?" I asked them. Far from it - they were deliriously chuffed to bits...and so, therefore, is the teacher.

Tracking satellites 

The "AHA!" moment :)

Apollo 13 & Ken Mattingly

Ken Mattingly did not fly with Apollo 13
Write about his NASA career after this mission

In 1972, Ken got the chance to fly with Apollo 16 as a command module pilot. It was two years after Apollo 13 came back to Earth. Apollo 16 was the tenth manned space flight mission and he flew with John Young and Charles Duke. During the mission, Ken performed the extravehicular activity to collect the film and date packages from the module. He was the outside of module for about one hour for this activity. In total, he spent 126 hours on the lunar orbit. After his mission, he received the NASA distinguished service medal.

After he returned to Earth with Apollo 16, Ken involved in the space shuttle development project. In 1982, he got on the space shuttle named Columbia with Henry. It was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. He and Henry did a lot of experiments during the flight. He got on another flight in 1985.

Hit total time in space is 21 days 4 hours and 34 minutes and retired from NASA in 1985. He worked at several private sectors and is now working at System Planning and Analysis in Virginia.

Apollo 13 - the Ken Mattingly story

Ken Mattingly did not fly with Apollo 13.  Write about his NASA career after this mission.

After the mission, Ken Mattingly flew on the Apollo 16 as Command Module Pilot from April 16 to 27, 1972.  Apollo 16 was assigned to collect samples from the lunar highlands near the crater Descartes.  Ken carried out an extravehicular activity to retrieve film and data packages from the science bay on the side of the service module.  Apollo 16 accomplished all major objectives although the mission was terminated one day early due to concern over several spacecraft malfunctions.

After the turn to Earth, Ken worked as head of astronaut office support to the STS (Shuttle Transportations System) program and technical assistant for flight test to the Manager of the Orbital Flight Test Program.  He flew on the STS-4 (the fourth and final orbital test flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia) as the pilot from June 27 to July 4, 1982 and completed 112 orbits of the Earth.  He saluted President Ronald Reagan after the landing.  Then he also flew on the STS-51-C (the first Space Shuttle Department of Defense) to deploy a modified Inertial Upper Stage vehicle from the Space Shuttle Discovery from January 24 to 27, 1985.

After those missions, he retired from NASA in 1985.  He logged 7,200 hours of flight time.  In his career at NASA, he received twelve awards like the NASA Distinguished Service Medal which was the highest award.

Apollo 13 - After reading

Taken by Apollo 8 crewmember
Bill Anders on December 24, 1968

Should we try to return the moon?

When a trip to the Moon will become more stable someday (after 100 years, 200 years), we should return to the Moon and I want to go there to see other planets and space.

Now, I think we should take more time or money to search the Mars in detail with following reasons.

Now, the Earth is having following problems and there is effective solution to solve those problems because each country has various situation in economical, culture etc and all of countries in the world can't take actions to solve those problems.

a) Air pollution
b) Water pollution
c) Ozone layer destruction
d) Global heating
e) Ecological change
f) Natural hazard

And I am very afraid that all things on the Earth like people, animal, forest, water can't stay on the Earth someday (after 200 years?).

I heard before that the Mars was silimar to the Earth and had water. In case of the Earth's crisis, we may need to move to Mars.

I think that it is be unlikely but not nothing, so I think that we should focus on the Mars investigation or try to find effective solution to save the Earth during the investigation of Mars.

Armageddon - film review

Armageddon (1998 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My dad suggested that I watch Armageddon when I was about ten. Before that I wasn't a great fan of science fiction and special effects in adventure films. I was impressed by the stars' brave hearts.

An enormous asteroid, about as big as Texas , is coming towards Earth at 35000km/h. If it impacts, no living species, even bacteria, will survive. 14 guys were chosen to save the Earth by using a nuclear bomb.

The music is fantastic, the stars are cool and there's a beautiful actress in it (Liv Tyler). The special effects are spectacular . Also Bruce Willis's acting is superb.

This film teaches us bravey and love. It's one of Michael Bay's most popular films. You should see this!

Posted by Takuro

The Red Planet - audioboo

Artist's rendering of a Mars Exploration Rover. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have been very excited with the story coming from NASA & their success landing my fellow tweeter on Mars @MarsCuriosity and I can't wait to see some of the results this massive scientific project will produce.

Meantime, Yuta has been reading The Red Planet, and as his reading is very good, we wanted to share! Your comments are very welcome :)

listen to ‘The Red Planet - Yuta’ on Audioboo

Twinkle Twinkle little Space Shuttle

The second last flight of the Space Shuttle is now in orbit. Where is it? Can I see it? Yes, and almost your last to chance to ever see one in orbit. Wake your kids up and show them!


You bet you can see it, best chance on May 25th at about 3.45am. Check out this link for better info
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/JavaSSOP/JavaSSOP.html

You can also see the International Space Station regularly - I use this app from NASA to find it & tell me where to look. Night time is obviously best!Wednesday (May 18th) in my part of Japan, look 10 degrees above south at 03:46. You will see ISS cross the sky to 17 degrees above east (it will take three minutes, and get to 22 degrees above the horizon).
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/JavaSSOP/JavaSSOP.html

To infinity - and beyond

I saw a Space Shuttle mission take off from Cape Kennedy on August 27th, 1985.

It remains one of the most memorable events in my life, and I will be forever indebted to Charlie Crockford & Linton Higginbotham for dragging me first all the way to Florida and to a cheap motel in Cocoa Beach...and then for them managing to drag me to a perimeter fence of the Kennedy Space Center at first light the next morning, after we'd driven all night from (sweet home) North Carolina. And what did I see?

I guess most people these days think Bud Lightyear/Tom Hanks have both been to the moon. Must admit, Apollo 13 is a favourite movie of mine. So is The Right Stuff. I am old enough to remember blurry black & white pictures of men on the moon. Of my childhood I remember Nixon a snake, Ian Paisley worse, huey choppers in Vietnam.

My favourite TV show was Star Trek - to boldly go...Even now I do enjoy a stolen episode of Stargate , a re-run of any Star Trek, or one of the new Space 1999 episodes.

I loved this book. I knew bits and pieces, as a child of the Apollo generation I have the memory built into me. What happened to man's burning desire to explore? When did we chicken out? The remarkable people of this story never did - reading of the later Apollo missions makes it obvious how close we - MANKIND - were to taking the next big step as well. Of course it costs money to put missions & men into space. Of course it is dangerous (life is dangerous. Never had an accident?)

Putting our species into space is a fantastic investment. Selfishly, the technological return is guaranteed. My mum loved her first Teflon frying pan - it was from NASA. I remember her saying that. I remember washing that pan and also thanking NASA. Often.

Why on Earth aren't we exploring space better? Witnessing a space shuttle take off was an amazing thing to behold. Just like this book, which takes you right there with the astronauts, it was a kick in the guts when the sonic boom hit us, miles away. My reaction then was to leap up and down trying to escape Earth's gravity myself...a day later I was jammed in Miami between hookers fighting over a stolen TV and a hurricane, trying to get to Hemingway's Chair in the Keys!

Loved this book. Knew the story but couldn't stop turning the pages...