Iridium 9555 phone

For this trip we're taking the Iridium 9555 phone.

At the London Boat Show I asked around for packages and the cheapest option seemed to be to hire it. In the end I've got it for 2 months from these guys which was a bit longer than need be but it gave time to get used to it.

As explained in the previous post we're using it to download GRIBs onto an iPad. As the USB connection doesn't work with iThings we had to get an Iridium Axcess point wifi node together with Apps for the iPhone and iPad to drive it.

The Apps give email and web browsing tools that optimise use of the limited data rates available.

In addition you can send and receive texts which is useful so don't have to have the phone on all the time. There's even a web site to send texts which is very useful:
       http://messaging.iridium.com/

All these boxes require power, so it was important to get car charging adapters for all of them.

However now, fingers crossed, should be able to download GRIBs and find out what sort of weather we can expect to receive.

Full review on return.

Happy New Year 2012

A lovely abstract for which the reality is as interesting: this is an image from the probe Cassini currently orbiting Saturn, as explained here.

Watch out Martian rocks

I can hear it now: "We come in peace.... take that you dirty Martian rock! Pzam! Pzam!!"

Very cool - apart from the fact that you would have thought NASA would know you wouldn't hear those pst! pst! sounds in space.

And it should have been sponsored by Pixar and called Wall-E, though I guess Curiosity is a good name (unless you're a cat).

Gagarin Paper Weight

Following up on yesterday's 50th anniversary with moon photo post here is a paper weight of Gagarin I picked up when in Tbilisi.

Remembering Gagarin

In honour of the 50th anniversary of Gagarin's successful first orbital flight here's another picture of the moon (taken this time with small tripod).

A sense of scale

I've been feeling overwhelmed by the scale of the planet, and its not just the sight of O'Docker's yacht in the midst of the wide seas.

I've been walking the streets of London imagining raging waters the height of three story buildings blast everything in it's path, racing up the Thames swallowing bridges and house boats with ease.

Then there's the picture above. It's a famous one, called the pale blue dot. And that one pixel is us; it's Earth.

In fact we are not even a single pixel, maybe 0.12 of a pixel. At this scale even if the whole of Japan has been shifted 2.4 m (a mind blowing concept) it would be invisible.

But what is even more amazing is that we can engineer a craft to travel 6 billion km away, command it to turn round, take a picture, then radio it back to us - and then be alive and conscious, able to wonder at it.

We might be tiny compared to the world, but as they say: size isn't everything.

Inflatable everything?

One of the things I was meant to do last weekend was another hunt for a suitable inflatable kayak, after failing to find one at the Boat Show.

While wandering the halls of the ExCel centre I had this thought - what about an inflatable sailing dinghy? Just as I was shaking my head at my own stupidity what should I see but the above, the SmartKat inflatable catamaran.

It looks surprisingly good for something that packs up into two bags, and is relatively straight-forward to put together, as can be seen in this YouTube video.

And if catamarans then what else? Well apparently even the sky is not the limit as this proposed module to the space station is to go by:

Blow me up, Scotty!

The truth is out there

A couple of days ago I posted Buff Spaceman's report on the "Spontaneous Crystalline DHMO Alien Sculpture Phenomena" or SCDASP in which he went on to suggest a link between SCDASP with the North Star, saying it was "the focus on an ongoing investigation."

Imagine my surprise when I read on the interwebby thing that NASA, as part of the SETI project, transmitted a message towards Polaris!

Spooky or what.

More on the search for ET in a great BBC4 documentary about the Drake Equation to be found on iPlayer here.

I was going to post a link to the Natural Navigator's puzzle about the picture above (basically asking what's wrong with it) but was too busy so the answer has already been supplied, by, err, me.

Anyhow, head over there so you can say "I could have told you that!"

Then you will see how these two stories are connected.

NASA Reveals Alien Message

There was great excitement recently when NASA has announced they were to hold a press conference to discuss alien life. This blog can exclusively reveal its contents having interviewed team leader Buff Spaceman (no relation). Take it away Buff:

Beep! Hello Houston and blog readers. Buff Spaceman here, Buff by name and A-Ok by nature!

We've been researching communications from aliens when we observed a phenomena in which large numbers of the members of the public are driven to create sculptures from crystalline dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) for apparently no reason and - this is critical - having a similar structure!

Our research suggests that this can only be due to a psychic message from an alien life form that is being picked up by those with subconscious tuned to the right frequencies, a message that makes the recipient driven by forces beyond their knowledge to create solid objects.

This "Spontaneous Crystalline DHMO Alien Sculpture Phenomena" or SCDASP has been observed on a very large scale across high latitudes. This geometry suggests the aliens could live in the direction of the North Star, which is the focus on an ongoing investigation.

What is interesting is that they describe these SCDASP as a "Snow Man". The use of the word "snow" rather than the more correct Crystalline DHMO suggests a sophisticated branding effort by the aliens to make themselves more acceptable to the mass of human population, and the word "man" we are interpreting as an attempt to humanise the non-human.

Already xenobiologists are arguing about what the structure reveals about their life cycle, in particular how they move. One school of thought suggests they bounce on the lower sphere while another suggests they are actually aquatic, form similar to seals but with flippers evolved into arms and hands.

Further research is clearly needed and we would welcome any field observations you might have.

Remember - the truth is out there!

This is Buff Spaceman - A-Ok and out! Beep!

The First Draft

There is another explanation for the lack of sailing and kayaking this year: I have been distracted.

In an earlier post about the National November Writing Month or NaNoWrMo (yucky acronym that) I suggested that I could write about 5k words in 3 days, roughly 1.5k / day. This was not a guestimate, it was the number that came from first hand experience.

About a year ago I had an idea for a novel, and on January 1st resolved to have a go at writing it. And today have finally reached the last page and have a first draft, all 93k words of it.

Of course to be realistic the publishing market hasn't been this bad...oooh.... since for ever, so the odds of getting it published are slim. And rather depressingly the moment the ink is dry on the last page (not literally of course) you have to start re-writing, as you know your characters so much better than at the start.

But review and rewrite is something I can do in November. For the goal has always been the more achievable objective to finish the book, and it looks as if am well on the way to achieving this by the 31st of December.

And, no, I'm not going to say anything about what its about, except there are connections to the picture above.

Sail the seas of Titan

I love the idea that has been put forward recently to send a mission to Saturn's moon Titan to undertake the "first nautical exploration of an extraterrestrial sea".

Titan has lakes and sea, but unlike Earth they are not made of water but rather hydrocarbons. However they are by all accounts liquid, which means there can be ships and there are winds so there could be sails.

Though alas the current plan is to less to sail - as in controlled motion - but rather have a camera tower that allows the Titan Mare Explorer (TiME) to be drifted by the wind. From what I understand there is another plan called Titan Saturn System Mission (TSSM) that also includes a lake lander but it's batteries would only work for 3 hours. TiME however would have a thermonuclear power source to give it the range for some decent exploration.

Count me and my inner space cadet well and truly behind this voyage.

NASA in Geneva

The trip to Geneva ended in a high with the Nasa reception at the Intercontinental Hotel. We were addressed by the astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria (above) who told us about life on the International Space Station, and talked us through a short film.

It must be a very weird life. There's the years of training, not knowing what mission if any will come. Then there's the very real risks of death associated with launch and re-entry. While up there you are constrained in this tiny tin can where nothing stays still but the views are great.

I could probably cope with that. But the worst bit comes after the mission - years upon years of receptions like this one for the good of Nasa PR. By the end of the evening after meeting and greeting with a long line with sweaty palms, smiling for dozens of snaps, and signing piles of photos his eyes were distinctly glazed.

Makes Neil Armstrong's decision to live a hermit life very understandable!

But exploring space is something that thrills us all - like many when young I wanted to be an astronaut. Its also a force for aspiration and unity in a time of gloom and disunity. To look up at the stars not down into the gutter.

So I hope they get their way and we head back to the Moon. And thanks to those who make it possible - the American tax payer.