Day: November 22, 2020

Space Sunday: a Dragon, a telescope and a heavenly princess

Posted on by Inara Pey
Sunday, November 15th, 2020, 19:27 local the Crew-1 Falcon 9 booster lifts-off from Kennedy Space Centre’s Pad 39A.Credit: NASA

Sunday, November 15th saw the official start of a new era in low-Earth orbit space transportation with the launch of the NASA / SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space.

Originally scheduled for launch on Saturday, November 14th, the Crew-1 mission was delayed due to weather causing concerns about the recovery of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle’s first stage. However, at 19:27 local time on Sunday (00:27 GMT on Monday, November 16th), the Falcon 9 topped by the Crew Dragon and its crew of four – NASA astronauts, Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi – lifted off from the SpaceX leased Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Centre, the first stage of the rocket making a successful return to Earth and landing aboard the autonomous drone ship Just Read The Instructions.

Resilience approaches the ISS on November 16th/17th 2020. Credit: NASA / SpaceX

Nine minutes after launch, the Crew Dragon capsule – named Resilience by the crew – achieved an initial orbit, and the crew followed a long tradition of space flight dating back to the first manned space mission, and revealed their “zero gee indicator”, a Baby Yoda plushy toy from the TV series, The Maldorian.

The use of toys and dolls as such indicators goes back to the flight of Yuri Gagarin and his flight aboard Vostok-1 in April 1961.  Gagarin carried a small doll into orbit out of curiosity, as he wanted to see what floating in the micro-gravity of space looked like. However, his practice was copied by other Soviet cosmonauts, and in turn by NASA missions, with crews on the Crew Dragon continuing the tradition – Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken carried a plushy planet Earth on their trip to the ISS earlier in  2020 during the Crew Dragon certification flight.

While not confirmed, it is believed the selection of Baby Yoda was due to back-up crew member Kjell Lindgren. A long-time Star Wars fan, Lindgren had used a model of R2D2 as a zero-gee indicator during a 2015 Soyuz flight to the ISS and while aboard the station, persuaded the rest of the crew to dress up as Jedi Knights for a special NASA promotional poster.

It’s been a tough year. And the fact that … SpaceX and NASA were able to get our spacecraft ready to go, the rocket ready to go, throughout this year, throughout the pandemic, and all of that — we were inspired by everybody’s effort to do that. So that’s why we named Resilience, and we hope that it puts a smile on people’s faces, it brings hope to them. Baby Yoda does the same thing. I think everybody, when you see him, it’s hard not to smile, and so it just seemed appropriate.

– Mission commander Mike Hopkins explaining the choice of name for the Dragon
capsule and the selection of Baby Yoda as the zero-gee indicator.

A NASA graphic showing the craft docked at the ISS at the time the Resilience docked. Credit: NASA

It  took some 27 hours for Resilience to catch up with the ISS, finally rendezvousing and docking with the station at 11:01 EST on Monday, November 16th (04:01 GMT, November 17th). Following a further 2 hours of post-flight checks and preparations both in the capsule and on the station, the forward hatch on Resilience was opened and the four crew were invited aboard the ISS. In doing so, they set a new record for the space station: the first time it has been occupied by full-time crew  totalling seven  people. This is actually one more person than the ISS is designed to accommodate, so Crew-1 commander Mike Hopkins is sleeping aboard the Resilience.

The Expedition 64  crew will remain on the ISS for a 6-month rotation period, Hopkins and his crew joining NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, who arrived at the ISS on October 14th, aboard the Soyuz MS-17 – a mission which was itself a record-setter, rendezvousing with the station just three hours after launch, utilising Russia’s “ultrafast” ISS launch and rendezvous flight plan for the first time.

Kate Robins, who arrived aboard ISS as a part of the Soyuz TM-17 crews, greets Victor Glover as he boards the ISS from Resilience, marking the first time an African-American astronauts has boarded the station as part of the full duration crew. Credit: NASA
Once aboard the station, the crew wasted little time in getting down to work. On November 18th, Ryzhikov – currently in overall command of the ISS – and Kud-Sverchkov made a 6-hour 48-minute spacewalk that inaugurated the operational use of the Poisk “mini research” module as an airlock.

As I noted in my previous Space Sunday update, Poisk has been delivered as an airlock / docking module in 2009. It is one of two such units attached to the Russian Zvezda module, the other being the Pirs airlock / dock, deployed to the ISS in 2001. Up until the Ryzhikov / Kud-Sverchkov EVA, Poisk had only been used as a docking module, spacewalks generally being conducted via the Pirs module.

 Sergey Ryzhikov (centre top with the red stripe on his backpack) and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov work outside of the Poisk (the vertical unit) and Zvezda modules of the ISS. Credit: Roscomos

However, Pirs is due to be removed from the ISS in 2021, so it can be de-orbited to burn up in the upper atmosphere using one of the Russian Progress resupply vehicles. It is due to be replaced by the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) – although there are some doubts about this module, as its launch has been delayed so much, several of its systems are at the end of their warranty period.

In  particular, the Poisk spacewalk was to start the process of decommissioning Pirs, by moving vital communication equipment and cabling from that module and connecting them to Poisk, allowing it to become the primary Russian EVA airlock.  As  well as this work, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov retrieved hardware used to measure space debris impacts, and repositioned an instrument used to measure the residue from thruster firings. The EVA marked the 47th Russian space walk in support of ISS operations, and the 232nd ISS spacewalk overall.

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A girl, weird women, spirits, and princes

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library

It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home in Nowhereville, unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.

Sunday, November 22nd, 14:00: The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate

As Calpurnia Virginia Tate, aka Callie Vee, turns 13 in 1900, she revels in studying science with her cantankerous grandfather, with whom she co-discovered a new plant species in The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. But a life of science doesn’t seem to be in her future: although her family is rich and her six brothers can pursue their educations and follow their dreams, Callie can’t.

Destined from her unfortunate birth as a female for life as a Texas debutante and wealthy matron, she’s furious as she feels the doors of the gilded cage closing in on her in a world where the fact that she’s smarter and harder-working than her brothers doesn’t matter a bit.

As she tries to keep her tenderhearted brother Travis, who keeps bringing home strays. And Callie has her hands full keeping the wild animals – her brother included – away from her mother’s critical eye. Whether it’s wrangling a rogue armadillo or stray dog, a guileless younger brother or standoffish cousin, the trials and tribulations of Callie Vee will have readers laughing and crying and cheering for this most endearing heroine.

Join Caledonia Skytower at the Golden Horseshoe for another Magicland Story  Time.

Monday, November 23rd, 19:00: The Dark Bright Waters

Gyro Muggins reads Patricia Wrightson’s second novel charting the life of Wirrun of the Inlanders.

First encountered in The Ice Is Coming, when Wirrun set out on a quest to overcome the rise of the ancient enemy of Australia, the ice-bearded Ninya, the young janitor now has a reputation as a Hero among the Inlanders (Wrightson’s fantasy view of the Australian Aboriginals). It’s not a title he appreciates; he would much rather just get back to his janitorial work.

But the spirits of the land are restless: Yunggamurra, a river spirit is lost, so uses her siren-like powers of song to draw to herself those who might might take her home. Her singing come to Wirrun’s ears, and those of an elderly aboriginal emissary, and he realises he must journey to the very heartlands of Australia to better understand what he is feeling.

This he does, with the old emissary and his friend Ularra. Once there, he discovers that a storm is indeed rising within the domain of the spirits, and he is uniquely placed to both find Yunggamurra and prevent the coming storm. And so his new adventure begins.

Tuesday, November 24th

12:00 Noon: Russell Eponym, Live in the Glen

Music, poetry, and stories in a popular weekly session at Ceiluradh Glen.

19:00: Woman’s Weird: Strange Stories by Women, 1890-1940

With Willow Moonfire.

Wednesday, November 25th, 19:00: Nine Princes in Amber

Carl Corey wakes in a medical clinic, with little to no knowledge of who he is or how he got there. Fearing he is being over-medicated and kept against his wishes, he overpowers staff and discovers his stay is being paid for by his sister, one Evelyn Flaumel, whose address is on the hospital’s records.

Fleeing the clinic, he makes his way to his sister’s home. Here, with the aid of a pack of tarot cards and a confession from his sister, he learns that his name is actually Corwin (and she is Flora), and they are two of 14 siblings – nine male and five female.

One of those brothers, Random, arrives, pursued by strange, vicious creatures, that force Corwin to join him into fighting them to the death.  During the battle, Corwin makes another discovery – he has super-human strength.

After the fight, Random reveals more truths to Corwin – notably that he and his siblings are of royal descent from a planet called Amber, a parallel world to Earth from which he has been cast into exile.

Random reveals that their father, king Oberon, has vanished, and the throne is therefore open, and persuades Corwin in a quest to claim it. However, to do so, they must travel through the realms of Corwin’s brothers and sisters in order to reach Amber, and the journey reveals to Corwin his family’s ruthless and Machiavellian nature – a nature he shares -, and that the path to the throne is a route of force and betrayal.

Join Corwyn Allen as he reads the first volume in Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber series.

Thursday, November 26th: Library Closed

The library is closed for US Thanksgiving Day.