A Glorious Mash-up

I know that this video is making the rounds on the web, and so readers may have seen it before, but I still think it’s worthwhile to post here. My research has led to several potential authors for the video and song, but I think the real artist behind it is someone named Colorpulse who used something called autotune to turn Carl Sagan’s spoken word into an only slightly robotic sounding singing voice. The result, once you get past the awkward start, is a hauntingly beautiful song that contains a reminder from beyond the grave to look up and wonder.

Sagan lived through some amazing times, and saw our understanding of the universe expand a thousand-fold. We need his voice now more than ever because we are indeed standing on that shore of space, but in our time are poised to turn our backs on it.

Lyrics:

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch

You must first invent the universe

Space is filled with a network of wormholes

You might emerge somewhere else in space

Some when-else in time

The sky calls to us

If we do not destroy ourselves

We will one day venture to the stars

A still more glorious dawn awaits

Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise

A morning filled with 400 billion suns

The rising of the milky way

The Cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths

Of exquisite interrelationships

Of the awesome machinery of nature

I believe our future depends powerfully

On how well we understand this cosmos

In which we float like a mote of dust

In the morning sky

But the brain does much more than just recollect

It inter-compares, it synthesizes, it analyzes

it generates abstractions

The simplest thought like the concept of the number one

Has an elaborate logical underpinning

The brain has it’s own language

For testing the structure and consistency of the world

[Hawking]

For thousands of years

People have wondered about the universe

Did it stretch out forever

Or was there a limit

From the big bang to black holes

From dark matter to a possible big crunch

Our image of the universe today

Is full of strange sounding ideas

How lucky we are to live in this time

The first moment in human history

When we are in fact visiting other worlds

The surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean

Recently we’ve waded a little way out

And the water seems inviting

Big Day For Space

There's a lot going on right now, Discovery waved off two landings today, the Augustine Report Summary came our yesterday, and there was a (potentially) important rocket test, and a (definitely) important rocket launch in Japan today.

First, to Japan where the first launch of an H-IIB rocket took place. The launch was a great success, and sort of cavalier because the payload is the H-II Transfer vehicle (HTV). This will be third form of delivering cargo to the ISS once the Shuttle stops flying next year (?) after the Russian Progress Vehicle and the European ATV. I'm looking forward to seeing how the rendezvous and docking goes, which should be in the next few days.

The launch test was in Utah at the ATK test facility and consisted of a horizontal firing of the new 5-segment STS Solid Rocket Booster (SRB). It's always interesting to see a test of magnitude, but I have to admit that I don't really know what to make of this one. It proves that at least part of Ares 1 will work (the part that we all knew would work anyway - it remains to be seen if vibrations or drift will still be a problem). But on the other hand, Ares 1 might get cancelled in a few months, and really, the US human spaceflight program stands on the head of a pin right now, so it's hard to get excited about anything short of a successful Shuttle launch and landing.

An Open Letter to My State Representatives and The President

Greetings Senator/Congressman/Mr. President,

 

I was very moved by the President's speech yesterday to the children of this nation; I found his message of hard work, self-reliance, and education as part of national pride to be welcome and inspiring. 

 

I also believe in the value of education and feel that there was an opportunity missed in yesterday's speech that could still be capitalized on.  The President and Congress have the unique position of giving the youth of America a goal to their educations, the goal of reaching to the stars. 

 

It was once that we the USA led the world in science and technology, that the best engineers in the world came from this country, now it seems that the best engineers in the world come to this country to learn at places like MIT and then go back to their country of origin.  I believe that part of the reason for this is that we are no longer making bold steps in human spaceflight.  The President surely has an inspiring story, and I do believe that much of our youth look up to him, but we have the responsibility to give these kids a goal befitting the drive that this inspiration gives them.  It doesn't help children if they do all this work to get an education and a college degree if they can't then use that degree. 

 

The space program is one goal that these kids can strive for, and for an investment that is small when compared to other large programs that the nations money is spent on.  I've always believed that funding for NASA should be seen as funding education, because we need smart people to work

there.

 

The Augustine Commission released a summary of their findings today, I have read it and agree that this country needs a direction in space, and that with that direction comes the inspiration and the will to make great things happen.  I ask that you also review this document and then push the President to forge a bold direction in space exploration; and to also push your colleagues to increase the funding to NASA.  The Commission outlines several paths forward, and I encourage you to discount any that recommend staying the course.  We need a big goal: the Moon, Mars, Near Earth Asteroids.  Let businesses handle getting astronauts to the International Space Station, it makes sense on many levels, and keeps us from having to pay the Russians for that service, a humbling prospect at best. 

 

I thank you for your service and your time in reading this. 

 

Let's go, boldly.

 

Sincerely, [Deep Beam}

Massachusetts

 

Space Bat

I just can't seem to get enough of the space-related posts. I swear I'll get back to architecture at some point. And maybe beer too, I have a nice ale in the carboy now.

Another Exciting Thing

This actually happened before the Draco thruster firing that I posted about earlier, but is in some ways cooler.  It's full mission duration firing of the cluster of 9 Merlin engines that are soon going to lift the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster from the shores of Florida to low earth orbit.  It's exciting for a lot of the same reasons as the Draco firing; it's a fully private endeavor that will be able to put a whole lot of equipment, cargo, or even crew into space, and is likely to be able to do it before NASA will.  

What's also cool about this particular test is that it was done in the dead of night in rural Texas, and boy did it wake the neighbors!  SpaceX followed the law and notified who they were supposed to, but people in nearby towns didn't get the message and were woken up by the thunderous tumult.  I'm sure it was disturbing, but I still would've loved it.

Permanence & Wayfinding

This is something that we don't do that much anymore in our built environment, that is to make a permanent mark for something that may only have temporary value.  Here we have a north arrow set into the concrete sidewalk in downtown Boston.  Why would someone do this?  It is not a part of a larger mural or other work of art, it is simply an arrow and the letter "N".  But somehow the person funding the building project decided to spend some extra money to have this laid into the sidewalk and probably had no return on the investment.  That must've been a hell of a sell by the architect if it was in fact the architects idea.  I have clients that would never spend money on anything so seemingly frivolous.  But then, we all value things differently don't we?  I would spend the extra money to lay this in the sidewalk, yet the Freedom Trail Foundation has laid out their red line here in paint rather than the brick that they have done in other parts of it.  

Something to be excited about

SpaceX is one of the few things that I’m really excited about at the moment in relation to crewed spaceflight. I love the ISS and Shuttle, but due to the upcoming retirement of the STS that love is bittersweet. Ares/Orion/Altair is in development, but its unclear how soon that will become a reality since they are at the mercy of a political and budgetary system that are in transition at the moment.

SpaceX is a private company that is working to develop a family of low to medium lift rockets for commercial use. The Falcon 1 development had a few snags in the form of 3 consecutive launch failures, but is still riding the high of the fourth and successful launch. They’re pushing ahead on the larger Falcon 9 booster which can carry larger payloads and the Dragon capsule. Dragon has several uses, among them is rendezvousing with the ISS for resupply, cargo return, and potentially crew transfer/lifeboat capability.

The test shown above is for the orbital thruster design. It’s conducted in a vacuum chamber that SpaceX custom-built which is why you can’t actually see any exhaust from the combustion. The only way you can tell that anything is actually happening in there is because of the way the engine bell glows red hot. Awesome.