Really Rocket Science

The African Space Research Program deserves your support! What they write about themselves:

Welcome to the African Space Research Program This is an association located in Uganda with a core representation in Dallas/Ft which handles all international matters outside Africa. Our association has over seventy thousand members; it is a non profit association dedicated towards conducting space science basing on African soils. In this association we can manufacture high flying aircrafts, satellites, and space craft to enable the African Space Research Program (ASRP) one day we will conduct research at the furthest points of our solar system & galaxy to say!

As of now we’re manufacturing two projects, one an aircraft that we will use to scan meteoroids and asteroids closest to earth’s orbit, so will the same aircraft help us collect data to prepare our next project known as the Dynacraft. the second is a Space Craft heading to the skies with a life, a mice on board to test the competence of ASRP deploying a human in orbit

At the same time, in our association we’re training pilots & astronauts, our association is not certified to license pilots, so after our training they will have to go to a certified pilot school, test & acquire a flying license. For our astronauts, we will certify them our selves, since we’re the first association to manufacture space crafts in Africa, within our students we can tell who is ready to thrust beyond the skies!

Objective:
Our main objective is finding life in our solar system, & neighboring solar systems.
This isn’t about money, it is about human-kind life & dignity, this is about Africa joining the struggle of finding Earth-like planets, this is about setting a core base foundation for our future generations to come.
We will deploy projects in our solar neighborhood, projects we don’t expect to return back to Earth in our generation, however our descendants will benefit from such projects because they will return back in their time, and this is the best gift folks we can give our future generations.

May God Bless Africa; May God Bless Uganda

Came across this story in VOA, which I found very interesting…

Lawrence Okello could tell that something unusual was going on. But when he first ventured over to his neighbor’s backyard in Kampala, Uganda, he could hardly believe his eyes.

“I was so shocked. I couldn’t believe that in Uganda, we can have a kind of achievement so impressive,” he said.

Okello’s neighbor, Chris Nsamba, is head of the African Space Research Program, an organization he founded in 2009 after studying astronomy in the United States. But armed with nothing more than a team of student volunteers, and working from his mother’s backyard, the 28-year-old Nsamba has set out to build and launch Uganda’s first space observer.

Chris Nsamba and his team work on their projects in his mother’s backyard. (Photo: African Space Research Program)
Chris Nsamba and his team work on their projects in his mother’s backyard. (Photo: African Space Research Program)
Neighbors like Okello have been eagerly watching the probe take shape.

“There is a small project I saw him making. He called it a space observer,” he said. “I heard him saying it’s going to capture a picture of Uganda from space. He showed me that it’s going to work. I saw it responding to the GPS. They are just preparing to launch it, but I know it will fly. It will fly.”

About the size and shape of a beach ball, the probe is equipped with solar panels and a camera. On its maiden voyage, Nsamba plans to send it up with a passenger as well – a live rat.

“The reason why we called it observer is because it has a camera on it, so it can take pictures and videos, and it can send live data back to our control center. So it can observe space,” he said. “Two, we are using it to check out our skills of keeping something alive in space.”

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The commemoration of the Battle of Hastings is something I am not entirely familiar with, although I’m certain of one detail: an Imperial Stormtrooper seems out of place here — the same goes for the Iron Patriot.

According to METRO, all are welcome…

Attendees at an English Heritage re-enactment event celebrating several famous battles from the past were left scratching their heads after a Stormtropper turned up looking to take part.

More than 2,000 people showed up to the History Live event in Northamptonshire.

They were dressed in costumes worn throughout English military history, including the Battle of Hastings, Wars of the Roses and the D-Day landings.

But for some reason at least one of the participants thought it would be a good idea to wear a Star Wars costume, apparently deciding the event needed a little science fiction to spice things up.

The Stormtropper could be seen mixing with the crowd and acting like nothing was out of place.

We can only imagine the Star Wars fan had made a mistake and thought films were included in the event, otherwise we dread to think what type of history he was taught at school.

I think this is a great way to get more girls interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics!

Help us Kick it.

Awesome job by Little Blue Lemon Photography of Toronto.

There was a shot floating around the internet last week of a bridal party being chased by a dinosaur. It’s funny, admittedly. So here’ s our take on the idea…mostly because Leslie (and us) are huge Star Wars nerds! We couldn’t resist their bridal party getting chased by a squad of Imperial AT-AT Walkers! lol. So for all you Star Wars fans, this ones for you.

For you Photoshop-loving rocket scientists who are getting married soon, start thinking! Via Mashable.

SILK PAVILION from Mediated Matter Group on Vimeo.

This is very cool.

MIT Media Lab’s Silk Pavillion is worth reading about.

The Silk Pavilion explores the relationship between digital and biological fabrication on product and architectural scales.The primary structure was created of 26 polygonal panels made of silk threads laid down by a CNC (Computer-Numerically Controlled) machine. Inspired by the silkworm’s ability to generate a 3D cocoon out of a single multi-property silk thread (1km in length), the overall geometry of the pavilion was created using an algorithm that assigns a single continuous thread across patches providing various degrees of density. Overall density variation was informed by the silkworm itself deployed as a biological printer in the creation of a secondary structure. A swarm of 6,500 silkworms was positioned at the bottom rim of the scaffold spinning flat non-woven silk patches as they locally reinforced the gaps across CNC-deposited silk fibers. Following their pupation stage the silkworms were removed. Resulting moths can produce 1.5 million eggs with the potential of constructing up to 250 additional pavilions. Affected by spatial and environmental conditions including geometrical density as well as variation in natural light and heat, the silkworms were found to migrate to darker and denser areas. Desired light effects informed variations in material organization across the surface area of the structure. A season-specific sun path diagram mapping solar trajectories in space dictated the location, size and density of apertures within the structure in order to lock-in rays of natural light entering the pavilion from South and East elevations. The central oculus is located against the East elevation and may be used as a sun-clock. Parallel basic research explored the use of silkworms as entities that can “compute” material organization based on external performance criteria. Specifically, we explored the formation of non-woven fiber structures generated by the silkworms as a computational schema for determining shape and material optimization of fiber-based surface structures.

Perspective view of the completed Silk Pavilion and the Basic Research exhibit focusing on fiber density distribution studies (far right). Image: Steven Keating.

What a great story. The White House’s “open government” approach gives visitors to their Web site a chance to ask for an answer to a question once 25,000 visitors sign a petition.

A petition to “Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016” got 34,000+ signatures and got a response: This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For, written by Paul Shawcross (Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget).

It’s brilliant…

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

• The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
• The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

However, look carefully (here’s how) and you’ll notice something already floating in the sky — that’s no Moon, it’s a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that’s helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts — American, Russian, and Canadian — living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We’ve also got two robot science labs — one wielding a laser — roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo — and soon, crew — to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.

Even though the United States doesn’t have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we’ve got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we’re building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.

We don’t have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke’s arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.

We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White Housescience fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country’s future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.

If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star’s power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

Amazing: 8 million live viewers on YouTube.

Felix Baumgartner might not have broken Joe Kittinger’s world record for the longest time spent in freefall, but he did smash a fourth milestone during his dive. In addition to records for the highest ever jump, longest distance fall and fastest downward speed, the stunt was watched by eight million YouTubers at the same time. While the site hasn’t divulged exact stats, that figure is apparently higher than those who watched President Obama’s inauguration. That said, if you weren’t one of the eight million, you can head on past the break to watch the highlights reel — unless you’re already bored of watching a man fall, unaided, you know, from space.

Highlights…

Whoa! Spacesuit-cam video of him going 725 MPH!

Via The Onion News Network (from November, 2011).

Great idea: convert an old warehouse into a members-only facility for inventors, tinkerers, craftspeople and DIYers. Offer classes and workshops, too. It’s called MakerPlace and it’s pretty cool.

Looking at their equipment list — and the number of rocket scientists living in and around “America’s Finest City” — it should prove to be a successful endeavor. You can get it done here:

4 axis CNC mill
manual mill
metal lathe
pipe notcher
brake (16 gauge)
planishing hammer
English wheel
TIG welder
gas welder
MIG welder
shear (16 gauge)
metal belt sander
horizontal band saw
metal and wood bandsaw
permitted paint booth
wood belt sander
3D printer (abs plastic)
Corner Notcher
Shrinker/ Stretcher
35 Ton Press Brake
Grinder/ Polisher
metal and wood drill presses
shaper
Saw Stop table saw
15″ planer
miter saw
panel saw
cnc router with vacuum table
assorted hand tools
integral sawdust management
VIC Engrave
Corel Software Suite
EagleCAD, Rhino
Fritzing, Alibre
Mach3, V CArve Pro
Cut 3D, SketchUp
Buzz 2 Stitches
Arduino, PCB 123
large format laser cutters
laser engravers
oscilloscopes
function generator
variable power supplies
multi-meters
soldering irons
large format vinyl cutter
industrial sewing machine
6 needle embroidery machine
large format inkjet printer
CNC router
sand blasting cabinet
free wireless internet service
conference room w/projector
4 color silk screen and dryer

Check out their photos.

Stay classy, San Diego!

Nice promotion by Smithsonian’s NASM: Spot the Shuttle.

Of course, there’s the official photo & video gallery.

And here’s the landing…