Category Archives: Science, Space, Technology

Ares I-X test flight rolls out to the launch pad

October 20, 2009 kleucht 1 Comment

History was made tonight and I was there. It was pretty cool to witness the rollout of the Ares I-X test flight rocket first hand. Ares I is designed to replace the Shuttle for getting astronauts into orbit. Enough talk … here are the photos that I took and also a short edited video (click for larger versions of the photos):

This is the employee signature banner for Ares I-X. Each flight gets a banner that is displayed along with the vehicle and these banners are signed by KSC employees who have worked on that mission. I worked on the ground control system for the Ares I-X mission, so I made sure I signed this banner. I wonder if you can find my signature…

Can you find my signature now?

How about now?

The Ares I-X rocket doesn’t look terribly huge inside the massive Vehicle Assembly Building, but it’s nearly as tall as the Saturn V rockets that we used to go to the moon during the Apollo program.

Excitement is in the air as the new big rocket emerges from the VAB.

Isn’t she big and beautiful!

Not symmetrical by design. We’re re-using a Shuttle mobile launcher platform for this flight, which has two holes for solid rocket booster exhaust. So we mounted the Ares I-X rocket over one of the two SRB holes in the platform.

Glowing in the spotlights.

The spotlights were very bat-symbol-like. I didn’t get a good photo of it, but there was enough moisture in the air to clearly see the rocket’s silhouette projected big and bold up into the sky. It was quite impressive.

Obligatory photo of me standing in front of the rocket for the scrapbook.

Here is the video I took:

Computers, User Interfaces, Science, Space, Technology

Warranty, schmoranty (or how to fix a broken DSL modem)

September 10, 2009 kleucht Leave a comment

At home I have DSL Internet service with a very large phone company. Recently my DSL modem has been giving me a little trouble, but I haven’t done anything about it because the problems always corrected themselves simply by power cycling the modem.

But last week the modem started rebooting all by itself and according to the front panel lights it had lots of trouble reconnecting to the Internet. I noticed it would run fine for a while and then start acting up. Once it started acting up, no amount of power cycling would seem to fix the darn thing.

So I finally called the very large phone company to complain and the very polite offshore phone support lady quickly realized that I was an extremely intelligent and technically savvy customer and she immediately said she would overnight me a new modem. Nice. Only one catch, though. It was the beginning of a long holiday weekend and the modem shipped overnight would probably take three days to arrive at my doorstep. Hmmm. Three days without Internet service? This was gonna hurt.

So I did what any self respecting engineer would do … I got a screwdriver and took the thing apart.

No obvious burnt or charred areas were found. But static shock or lightning could have internally messed up some of these components without showing any external damage. Hmmmm. One or two of the capacitors appears to be a little bulged at the top. That might be a problem.

I felt the circuit board components just out of curiosity and holy cow, the DSL system on a chip (TI AR7 7100) was so hot I couldn’t keep my finger on it for more than about one second. That can’t be right. That chip is totally overheating.

I tested my theory by getting a small glass bowl from the kitchen and putting some ice cubes in it and placing it on top of the overheating chip. And it seemed to fix the problem!

All weekend long, my wife and I would put the chip on ice every time we wanted to use the Internet and this solution always kept the DSL modem in operating condition for an hour or two until the ice completely melted and the water started to lose its cool.

Turns out that the replacement modem that was “overnight” shipped actually took four days to arrive at my doorstep! Figures.

At least now we can keep our ice away from our computers and keep it in our sweet tea where it belongs! 🙂

Kurt

Science, Space, Technology

The end of an era: Last Delta II (GPS) Launch

August 17, 2009 kleucht Leave a comment

Update: Oops. The media tricked me again. This was the last GPS launch of Delta II, not the last launch of Delta II. There are still apparently a handful of more Delta II launches planned. Sorry for propagating my own confusion.

This morning a little after 6:30am, the very last Delta II rocket blasted off from Florida’s Space Coast carrying a GPS satellite into a successful orbit. According to local news reports, the newest GPS satellites are wider and heavier and will be launched from larger Atlas V or Delta IV rockets. Delta II rockets have been launching on the Space Coast for just over 20 years, so this morning’s event was truly the end of an era. Here’s a photo of this morning’s launch from the Florida Today website (click it for full size image):

I was outside exercising this morning during the launch and caught some low quality photos using my phone (click them for full size images):

Computers, User Interfaces, Science, Space, Technology

I’m so confused: More Crazy NASA signage

June 22, 2009 kleucht Leave a comment

I’m so confused, I don’t know what to put in this bin:

I guess I’d better err on the conservative side and not put anything at all into this bin! Wouldn’t want to get in trouble for not following directions!

This confusing recycling bin was found at the greatest manned launch complex in America, the Kennedy Space Center. Without giving away the exact location of the offense, it was found inside a building that is known for it’s Super Salty Pomegranate Fence, if you know what I mean.

Computers, User Interfaces, Science, Space, Technology

Can’t NASA make a simple stairwell sign?

June 22, 2009 kleucht 2 Comments

At NASA we’re smart enough to send men out into space and even to the moon, and yet we somehow manage to create and install signs in and around the Space Center like this:

What is the deal with this sign? Not only is it confusing … but it has some random space characters thrown in there to break up some of the words … and it has a few font changes in there also just in case you weren’t confused enough already. Obviously, this is a sign whose purpose is to show me where the “stairwell one floor” is. Or maybe it’s “stairwell on E floor”? Whatever … I still haven’t figured out the purpose of the down-arrow. And who came up with the phrase “for exit discharge”, anyways? Do they even speak English at the sign shop?

This sign was found in the stairwell of a very popular building at KSC. It’s an Odd Shaped Building, if you know what I mean.