Searching for stuff

In Space, NASA is searching for ways to stop people from getting bad health because of space travel. Apparently being in space is very unhealthy. The lack of gravity causes bones and muscles to waste away and every part of the body is weakened by microgravity. Fluids are forced up to the head because we're designed to resist gravity. 

I think that is the main reason the International Space Station exists. The ISS is trying to find ways to keep astronauts healthy for long periods in space. I remember reading of some other experiments they were trying, they wanted to see how certain crystals grow in the absence of gravity. 

The pictures of crews always seem awkward like they're trying to keep themselves steady. It's not just NASA that is searching for something. Down here on earth, ordinary people like myself are always searching for deals. I search for short break deals, deals on used electric cars and deals on ordinary items. 

I look through all the places we can go and the hotel tariffs and see if they change for different dates and places. Then I remember places I have already been. 

I think if you had an electric car you would want to change your energy tariff so there is a time window when the electricity is cheaper so you can charge up your car without spending too much money. Perhaps there would be a 5 hour time window when your electricity is only 10 p per kilowatt-hour and it would be cheaper to heat your house with electric heaters during that time. 

I'm just amazed how quickly electric cars devalue over a short time, car gaint was selling fairly new cars for about one third of their original price. I was just looking at them the other day. 

I-hab Artemis

It's quite possible in the near future Artemis will become as familiar to households as the Apollo missions were in the '70s. I recently learned that part of the Artemis missions will involve building a moon space station that orbits the moon permanently. As far as I know the first habitation module will be sent by Artemis 4 and it will be called I-hab. Space X will be involved in the construction of the space station as well. 

The question I still have is how will they cope with deep space radiation? The moon is outside of the Earth's powerful magnetic field so it will have no protection from high speed particles shooting out of the sun and other stars. I was reading the NASA blogs and noticed they didn't mention much about it at all. A solar flare from the sun could cause the death of the whole crew in a matter of hours. The current space station is inside earth's powerful magnetic field so it is already shielded from deep space radiation. 

What will they do? I sense it won't end well. I hope I'm wrong. 

The Moon Again

I learnt just today that NASA and a private company had sent a probe to the south pole of the moon. The probe called Odysseus was carrying several instruments. 

I wonder if it can survive one moon night, 2 weeks of darkness and super frigid temperatures below -100 °c. I think the moon night often kills probes, some of them can't turn back on at sunrise. 

Every nation is obsessed with the moon now. It is like a stepping stone to deep space, or possible second home for people to live on. 

Launcher set

According to the NASA blogs, the new launch tower for the Artemis missions is in place. A few days ago the launch tower was all set up. It solves problems I never knew existed. They have to pump lots of liquid hydrogen into the space launch system but the hydrogen starts to boil when it is injected into the rocket. When the hydrogen boils, the gas hangs around for a while and could cause an explosion when the rocket starts up so the tower pumps the excess gas away. The tower also has clamps that hold the rocket up in the wind but they have to pull away as soon as the rocket turns on, I think the whole tower leans away from the rocket during launch. The tower injects large amounts of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the rocket; when the rocket is loaded onto the launch tower, it is empty. It is filled up while it is mounted on the tower. 

The Space Launch system for the Artemis missions works like the space shuttle system and resembles it in some way. Large tanks filled with liquid hydrogen and oxygen are burnt and two smaller booster rockets on either side help to lift the Orion space ship at the top out into deep space. 

Very soon, people will go to the moon to keep a constant human presence there, I'm guessing they will build a space village on the moon. 

JWST breakthrough

Mankind has dispersed many robots into the solar system to investigate the cosmos. The NASA website is open to all, ordinary people like myself can go onto the NASA website and read through all their reports for free and learn stuff about the universe. It is nice to read through the NASA website when I go to sleep. NASA.gov

My favourite subdomain of the NASA website at the moment is JWST for the James Webb Space Telescope. jwst.nasa.gov

I noticed that they have finished cooling down the system and aligning the mirrors, the telescope looks like it is ready for viewing. They will look directly at exoplanets and see what the atmosphere is made of and also look at very old objects in the universe that were covered by dust clouds. It will be very interesting to see what they discover. 

Last Bit of December

It is the last bit of December, the last bit of 2021; the second half of the Pandemic. The world bought itself a new space telescope called 'James Webb'. It is more powerful than the Hubble one but it is heading out for deep space in a place that is out of reach for repair crews, it has to work well from day one. They want to look further back in time and see stars that existed billions of years ago. I also think they want to see exo planets directly. I will keep an eye on the NASA blogs and see what they have discovered. Nasa.gov Is one of my favourite sites. 

I can never get my head around any creation story in this world, they all seem hard to believe, both the scientific ones and the religious ones. 

What water was earmarked to fall as snow is falling as rain. There has been hardly any frost in the mornings. It is dark and damp and we are all dancing with inflation, we keep our chin up and stay hopeful that things will improve, at least the air is fresh, that is something to smile about. 

I am hopeful that my son will be happy in the 20s. That is all that matters now. I just want Jacob to be happy and make good friends and have many happy memories. Soon I will be able to have extended conversations with him and learn more about what he thinks. I will listen as much as possible. 

I watch videos of people playing golf in virtual reality and imagine doing the same in the near future. That is what I am like, I'm just a big kid. I remember happy times when I used to play roller coaster Tycoon on my desktop computer. I love playing games where you build things or try solve a puzzle. 

Be Happy.