The final frontier

[Tom]

We had an astronaut from NASA come to our school to give a talk today, annoyingly I can't recall his name but he went on 4 missions including the 1997 shuttle to mer. The main reson I thought this would intrest you lot is the pics he showed is. They are simply astounding. Sadly I couldn't find any of the ones he showed but here are some I found...







(http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/)







(google images)



(http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/index.html)

[manchild]

When I start thinking about the end of universe and meaning of life kind of issues I also start wondering why the hell am I getting so upset about F1 at all

That same explding star but only big pic
http://www.universetoday.com/am/uploads ... o-wall.jpg

[flynfrog]

http://www.phrenopolis.com/perspective/atom/index.html

check this out we truly are almost nothing

[miqi23]

Ummm, your from Scotland right? Why would NASA astronaut come to Scotland? We have the European Space Agency?

I may be wrong, you might be living in the States! These pics look unreal, I mean graphics kind of thing

[flynfrog]

We have the European Space Agency?

[manchild]

Let's make this off topic a bit "topic". Here's a wallpaper fitting both this topic and this site

I made it last year when Alonso won WDC (Tomba didn't like it )

[IMG:152:130]http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/8096 ... 4eo.th.jpg[/img]

And yes, there is ESA (European Space Agency) http://www.esa.int

[joseff]

I check APOD daily
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod

[miqi23]

We have the European Space Agency?

Whats funny?

[Ciro Pabón]

When I start thinking about the end of universe and meaning of life kind of issues I also start wondering why the hell am I getting so upset about F1 at all

Maybe because Schumi is going to be driving until then?

[kilcoo316]

Ummm, your from Scotland right? Why would NASA astronaut come to Scotland? We have the European Space Agency?

I may be wrong, you might be living in the States! These pics look unreal, I mean graphics kind of thing

Nah, you do get people over from America for various conferences, guest lectures and stuff...

We'd a few in the department earlier in the year.



Aye, and flynfrog - whats wrong with ESA?

[Tom]

Michael Baker (found out his name) came over here to Scotland because of a link with Careers Scotland and also it might have something to do with our Physics teacher, Mrs Hargreaves, winning a trip to the kennedy Space Cetntre.

Along with him was a NASA engineer who worked on the space shuttle and is involved in the new craft which replaces the shuttle (after 30 years) in 2010. Apparently they plan to go back to the moon and start colonies or something daft before going on to Mars!

Leonard Kristenson (easy to remember, Tom Kristenson, Leonard Nemoy) came over from Denmark where he works for the ESA and Hubble telescope.

I'd love to post more but I doubt the school system could support all the fantastic pics I've found.

[DaveKillens]

Here's a real time satellite tracker of all the major hardware in orbit. Very cool
http://science.nasa.gov/realtime/jtrack/Spacecraft.html

[Tom]

Heres one I saw at the talk yesterday, very cool indeed. Any guesses as to what they are? (I know)

[Ciro Pabón]

Aye, and flynfrog - whats wrong with ESA?

Nothing, but compared to NASA... It is like comparing Prodrive with Ferrari, if you get my drift.

Tom, thanks, really nice photos.

For example, for the nuts and bolts guys, this is the most powerful engine the world has seen, rated at 500.000 hp (my own calculations), weighing 135.000 kilos, tanks included, not counting fuel. It is awesome to stand right besides it. If you go sometime to Washington, make sure you visit it at the Air and Space Museum, the most wonderful "mechanical place" in the world.



For the aeroguys, I found this article on pressure sensitive paint: do they use it on F1 wind tunnels?

I once wrote an article on the engineering of an intestellar trip (sorry, in spanish, here). My two "big" conclusions: nothing short of an antimatter-matter engine would do. And we might well be the first intelligent species in the galaxy! The argument for this last affirmation (I am not being original here, it is a scientific speculation made by other people): cells may be easy to produce, but sex and love is difficult to achieve... If you are slightly interested, I could try to translate, but it is going to take time...

For those of you that marvel at the size of the universe, you might like this: is a Hubble "deep field" photo: each point of light is a galaxy like our own Milky Way, with thousand of millions of stars:



Finally, I think this is one beautiful (and recent) photo: these "pillars" in the gas cloud, are where stars are born.

[Tom]

So what are nebulas and supernovas?