Image: NASA Ames
NASA’s John Grunsfeld (left) talks during a NASA Social at the Wallops Flight Facility. Also, a crowd
at NASA’s Ames Research Center (above) awaits the launch broadcast for Ames’ LADEE mission.
Image: NASA/Carla Cioffi
the Orbital Sciences Corporation.
The Minotaur V lifts off very quickly
– rocket reached mach 1 in 20
seconds! The first stage burned out
in 57 seconds and was travelling
at mach 4. There are some great
videos of the launch on YouTube.
NASA invited television and
newspaper reporters as you would
expect, but there are 50 people for
something called a “NASA Social”
as well. They come from as far as
Oregon, Oklahoma, and Texas!
They come from all walks of life
including teachers (one of whom
is streaming live to his classroom!)
welders, photographers, sales and
marketing, and a tattoo artist. I was
one of those invited. I post lots of
stuff about space on Twitter and
Facebook and I signed up when
NASA announced the opportunity
on Twitter (the twitter handle is @
NASASocial). I highly recommend
trying to go to one of these NASA
Social events – I have been to a few
and seen two rocket launches and
met 6 astronauts.
There was one other ‘uninvited’
guest at the launch. A frog was
evidently in the water used to cool
the area around the rocket launch
pad and was ‘rocketed’ up into the
sky when the Minotaur V lifted off.
A picture of him was taken by an
automated camera set up by NASA
photographer Chris Perry. The frog is
now tweeting about his experiences
on twitter @RocketFrog1.
Anyone
can
participate
in the science of LADEE. The
MeteorCounter app for smart
phones allows for anyone to count
the number of meteors entering
Earth’s atmosphere. That’s an
important number to know since
the moon and Earth fly through
the same area of space together.
If you’re counting the number
of
meteors
entering
earth’s
atmosphere, you’re basically also
counting the number of meteors
hitting the moon (remember the
dust?). Since these meteors can
be as small as a grain of sand, the
impact on the moon won’t be visible
from earth (it’s much too small), but
they can make a bright streak in the
Earth’s atmosphere. All you need to
help out there is a smart phone and
a blanket or lounge chair. Look up
at night and count the meteors.
A meteor impact on the moon
can be visible on earth with a
telescope as small as 8” in diameter
for meteors as small as a walnut! So
if you have a telescope or a smart
phone, you can also participate in
LADEE science!
For more information on LADEE,
visit NASA’s LADEE webpage at
http://www.nasa.gov/ladee
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