Month: November 2022

Space Sunday: Artemis and JWST updates, solar power from space

Posted on by Inara Pey
A view of Earth taken by a solar array mounted camera on the Orion spacecraft on November 24th, a day before the spacecraft entered a distant retrograde orbit around the moon. Credit: NASA

NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, launched on November 16th, 2022, has become the first vehicle capable of carrying humans that far, to return to the vicinity of the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

The Orion capsule reached the Moon on Monday, November 20th, the fifth flight day of the mission overall. At 12:44 UTC, the vehicle, swinging around the far side of the Moon and so out of communications with Earth, closed to within 130 km of the lunar surface and a velocity of 862 km/h. It then fired the single motor mounted on the vehicle’s service module for 2.5 minutes, the first engine burn designed to push the vehicle into a distant retrograde orbit (DRO).

The DRO is a path that loops the vehicle away from the Moon in the opposite direction to the Moon’s own orbit around the Earth. Confirmation of the manoeuvre’s success came as the vehicle cleared the Moon and resumed communications with Earth – returning a colour image of our home in the process.

The DRO provides a highly stable orbit where little fuel is required to stay for an extended trip in deep space to put Orion’s systems to the test in an extreme environment far from Earth.

– NASA blog post

A portion of the far side of the moon as seen from the Orion spacecraft on November 21st, 2022 during the Artemis 1 mission. Credit: NASA

An hour later, as the vehicle proceeded away from the Moon, it passed over a historic landmark – Tranquillity Base, the landing zone for Apollo 11 in 1969 at a distance of 2,227 km.  It continued outwards from the Moon with all systems functioning as expected. However, on Wednesday, November 23rd, all contact with the vehicle was suddenly lost and remained so for 47 minutes prior to contact being re-established.

The cause of loss-of-contact lay with the reconfiguring of the communications link between the spacecraft and NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) – the orbiting and ground-based communications network used to maintain contact with all of NASA’s operational missions. The reconfiguration should have been routine, having been carried out several times during the mission as DSN carried out its multiple duties, and at the time of writing it was not clear what caused the glitch.

looking back at Earth from beyond the Moon, November 2st, 2022. Credit: NASA

At 21:52 GMT on Friday, November 25th, Orion made its second DRO engine burn, one that lasted 82 seconds, sufficient to push the vehicle into its outward loop away from the Moon travelling at 396 km/h. This outbound leg of the flight saw Artemis 1 breaking the record for the for the farthest distance from Earth travelled by a human-rated spacecraft, surpassing the 432,000 km distance set by Apollo 13 in April 1971; Artemis will reach a maximum distance from Earth of 435,000 km on Monday, November 28th, the point marking the start of its return to close proximity to the Moon, which it will reach on December 1st.

The mission has not all been smooth sailing, however. As noted in my previous Space Sunday update, the launch facilities at Kennedy Space Centre suffered damage during the Artemis 1 launch, although at the time of that article, NASA had not confirmed how much damage had occurred on the mobile launch platform.

Immediately following the launch, NASA asked the media not to image or record the launch platform and tower, citing security issues and ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulation), sparking speculation (particularly among SpaceX fans) that the Space Launch System rocket have caused considerable damage to its launch facilities and was therefore somehow a “failure”.

The elevator stations at the base of the mobile launch tower used in the launch of Artemis 1, showing the extent of the damage with the protective blast doors entirely blown-in. Credit: NASA

Since then, however, NASA has completed an initial damage assessment exercise and has been more forthcoming. Whilst a more in-depth assessment is required on the internals of the launch tower structure, the initial assessment suggests the launch platform overall faired a lot better than expected, given the huge strain it was under (SLS generates more thrust and heat than either the space shuttle vehicles or the Apollo Saturn V at launch).

Continue reading “Space Sunday: Artemis and JWST updates, solar power from space” →

Starborn Gallery in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Starborn Gallery

Lizbeth Morningstar is relative newcomer to Second Life, but is making her mark as both a photographer-artist and – as from November 26th, 2022 – a gallery owner and curator, with her Starborn Gallery.

Located on the southern coast of Geata V and with a beachfront setting offering space to host exhibition opening events, the gallery utilises its own shared environment for ambient lighting, and it is recommended visitors set their viewers to Used Shared Environment (World → Environment) so that it is used when viewing the art on display. The building itself – designed and built by Lizbeth – presents two display wings, one of which features selections of Lizbeth’s own work, and the other to guest artists who will be displaying at the gallery on a rotational basis. For the Gallery’s opening, Pedro (PedroGlande) is the guest artist.

Starborn Gallery, November 2022 – Lizbeth Morningstar
SL is such amazing world for photography inspiration. I Love Photography; for me, it is the Fusion of mind and scenery. I take photos to express my feelings. My photos vibes varied by flowing mood. Self-Healing is the theme of this exhibition.
Taking photos in SL is my Self-Healing, Self-Meditation process. You may find a sense of purification or calm in these photos. I want to breathe fresh air and embrace sunshine in both RL and SL. Let’s take a soothing step to recall the light of our lives.

– Lizbeth Morningstar

Despite her relatively recent arrival in Second Life, Lizbeth has fairly immersed herself in the world of Second Life art and photography, developing an approach and style that is both eye-catching and somewhat unique. Many of her images are semi avatar-centric, in that her own avatar is featured within her pictures;  however, they are not avatar studies in the traditional sense of that term. Instead, they are what might be called “life studies” in which her avatar (or one of her pets!) is seemingly caught in a natural moment so that while our eyes are drawn to both avatar and / or pet, it is the setting as a whole that gives the image both context and sense of spontaneity that counters the fact it has been posed and post-processed.

Starborn Gallery, November 2022 – Lizbeth Morningstar

In many of her images, Lizbeth opts for a combination soft focus and depth of field to bring her avatar to the fore, with her colour palette tending towards softer tones. This gives many of her pieces a slightly dream-like effect, helping her work to be instantly recognisable.

In the second wing, Pedro presents Transmute, a collection of images which also feature his avatar.  However, rather than being individual narrative pieces, the images in Transmute are offered under an over-arching theme: our relationship with (and perhaps, the discovery of) our relationship with nature and natural things.

Starborn Gallery, November 2022 – Pedro PedroGlande

Within these images, we find Pedro within natural woodland settings, exploring, relaxing, and exulting in the natural cast of tress, woodlands and tall grass. These are pieces that use angle, focus and post-processing to enormous effect to present single-frame, tightly focused narratives, each beautifully tied to the core theme; a theme also framed by the lyrics from Pendular by the Brazilian indie rock group Scalene.

The one exception to all this can be found at the rear of the hall’s lower floor. It takes the form of a small photo studio complete with a chair for posing and three greyscale self-portraits of Pedro in various poses on the chair. The images are engaging, their greyscale tones providing a level of natural reality in a manner which colour renders would require much more intrusive post-processing to achieve. I’ll be honest, I had hoped the chair within the little studio would offer a series of poses so that visitors might try their own hand in capturing themselves whilst seated / standing on it and thus experiment with their own artistic expressionism, but alas, the chair had (at the time of my visit) just the one pose.

Starborn Gallery, November 2022 – Pedro PedroGlande

It is always pleasing to see new artists and new galleries appear in Second Life, and I certainly look forward to witnessing further exhibitions at Starborn and in witnessing Lizbeth’s evolving journey as a Second Life photographer-artist. And now that I’ve been properly introduce to Pedro’s work, I hope all be able to witness more exhibitions where he is a focused artist.

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The rural setting of Otter Lake in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Otter Lake, November 2022 – click any image for full size

In looking through my Exploring Second Life archives, I was surprised to note that it’s getting on for two years since my last visit to Sharon Hinterland’s Otter Lake, a  place which has relocated since my last visit in February 2020, so I took a quick TP to renew my acquaintance.

The last time I dropped in, the region offered a rural location, rich in a layer of realism (as with the first time I visited in 2019) which made it instantly attractive and memorable. The rural element has been retained with this iteration, but mixed with certain waterfront small town feel. For those already finding locations in SL a little cold from the northern winter setting many are already hosting, Otter Lake retains (for now at least!) a feeling of summer and warmer days.

Otter Lake, November 2022
A tranquil place to hang out with friends, listen to ambient music, or to walk about and explore. If you’re a photographer come by and take some amassing photos. This is not a rental sim, so come explore the , town, take a walk or ride around the sim.

– Otter Lake About Land

The “real” sensibilities folded in the region commence at the landing point. Located on the north side of the region, it takes the form of vehicular ferry drawn up to a wharf, giving the sense that visitors have just cross the waters separating the region from the surrounding hills. The ferry perhaps came via the river winding into the waters from the north and a ferry terminus that might lie somewhere along its length.

Otter Lake, November 2022

Those arriving are offered a note card to introduce the setting, noting that it is not residential, and entirely open to exploration and photography.

This card also points out the setting has, as far as possible, been built along a natural scale, meaning that avatars with an average height in excess of 2 metres might suffer from headaches when trying to pass through doorways, and camera positions (especially those offered as a default on the official viewer and those TPVs using the official viewer’s defaults) may require adjustment to avoid being stuck behind intervening walls and ceilings. To help with this, those using the official camera defaults might want to read the following: Tutorial: Viewer Camera Presets in this blog.

Otter Lake, November 2022

A paved road runs south from the ferry wharf. Follow it, and it will lead you all the way to the southern coast of the region before turning east and then back north to reach the the waterfront town.  Here the road passes between the water’s edge and squat apartment blocks with shops and places of business on their street-level floors. A second road runs behind these buildings, separating them from the woodland at the heart of the region and the places they in turn hide from view.

Two routes branch from the main road as it runs south from the the ferry wharf.  The first offers a shorter route to the town, looping past the local garage along the way. The second is where a junction in the paved road gives way to the rutted track running to the west through the woods and forking to offer access to the west side of the setting, and a very rural mix the is rich in its composition.

Otter Lake, November 2022

Here can be found wooden buildings both set back from the water and braced against it. From the fishing lodge through the stores and bait shop, one half of these waterfront areas seems to be from a bygone era, with vehicles dating from the 1930s through 1950s. Touring it, I gained a slight Bayou vibe to the place, added to by the the more tumbledown waterfront huts to the north.

However, given the surrounding mountains, the stone-built houses and the modern floatplane moored at the fishing lodge, this vibe quickly faded to give way to one more fitting: that of a remote place deep in the wilderness somewhere in the America or Canada, accessible as something of a place far removed from the rest of civilisation, surviving by its own merits as both a place to visit and a remote spot open to fishing vacations, with patrons flying in via the floatplane, if they so wish.

Otter Lake, November 2022

All of the cabins, houses, ground-level stores, the places of business, the shops and garages are furnished and open to visitors to explore and / or use for photography. Rezzing of props  is open to Otter Lake group members (with the group free to join) – but as always, please make sure you pick things up when done!

As always, an engaging, worthwhile visit – and keep an eye out for some “hidden” sitting spots within the woodlands.

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We Orange the World in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Artsville: We Orange the World, 2022

Opening on Friday, November 25th at Artsville is We Orange The World, a 16-day arts event intended to coincide with the The United Nations Women’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, and which runs from November 25th, 2022 through to December 16th inclusive.

The physical world campaign started in 1991 at the inauguration of the Women’s Global Leadership Institute, which continues to coordinate each year’s campaign. It is used as a nexus strategy by individuals and organisations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls. Initially a civil society initiative, the campaign has – since 2008 – been supported by the UNiTE campaign,  which runs parallel events with the aim of ending violence against women by 2030.

Within We Orange the World, artists have been invited to submit a piece of 2D or 3D art to be displayed within the exhibition, related to the general theme of the beauty and empowerment of women around the world. Entrants were asked to keep pieces positive, uplifting and empowering rather than negative in nature, otherwise subject matter and presentation were left up to the artists.

Artsville: We Orange the World, 2022
Why [are we] having this campaign in our virtual world?
Let’s face it! Gender-based abuse also exists virtually, it may be in an unintentional or intentional form. The extent of this violence may not be physical but will always result to short-term or long-term emotional trauma and anxiety to the member victims resulting to a violation of the Community of Standards (not TOS) of SL. Raising awareness in our SL community will give us reminders that one cannot just violate and do things according to their pleasure in-world with the expense of another person/ persons. It is time to at least put light into this issue by supporting us.

– We Orange the World organisers

The event is taking place on a purpose-built sky platform at Artsville, a space divided into a number of areas, all caught under an appropriately orange sky. The first part is an area of open water backed by high falls against which a seated Buddha floats serenely. An island and small promontory sit over the water, both home to elements of a Zen garden. The island is the main landing point for the event, and is noticeably crowned by a sculpture (Lady Carmagnolle by Bryn Oh). This helps indicate that the statuary in the event are interactive in nature: touch them to receive information in keeping with the theme of the campaign.

Artsville: We Orange the World, 2022

Over a bridge from the landing point, a path winds its way to the remaining elements of the setting: the main art exhibition and the event space – We Orange the World will include a number of related events through its run including music, DJ events and poetry reading (although at the time of writing, a schedule of events had yet to be published), all with the focus of raising awareness of the campaign and what it is trying to achieve / eliminate. After passing through the event spaces, the path winds onwards back through the screen of trees to the little headland on the lake. Along the way are a number of seating areas, with benches also presented within the art display areas for those wishing to appreciate the art.

The call for artists this year went out a little on the late side (earlier in November), but the artists who have responded to the call include: Wren Carling, Mara Telling, Carelyna, Selen Minotaur, GitterPrincess Destiny, Idoliza, Ilrya Chardin, Anja, Mareea Farrasco, AmandaT Tamatzui, Jaz, Elfi Siemens, Sina Souza, Ambre Singh, Justhyne Shewolf and deborakaz. All of whom nevertheless make for an engaging exhibition.

Artsville: We Orange the World, 2022

Photo Contest

The global theme for this year’s UN Women’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is UNITE! Activism to end violence against women and girls. In support of this theme, the organisers of We Orange the World partnering with GP Gallery to run a photo contest on the theme of Unite, with a total of L$10,000 available in three prizes.

The competition runs through until December 10th, 2022, the the rules being:

  • Photos can be taken anywhere in SL but must adhere to the theme of “Unite” and “Violence against Women”.
  • Post-photo editing is allowed for touch ups only – no significant work that changes the content / appearance of a piece.
  • Entrants can submit a maximum of two pieces to the competition.
  • Submission should be made to the contest Flickr group, and must include “#orangetheworld2022” in the description, together with the entrant’s name, and must be uploaded no later than 12:00 noon SLT on Saturday, December 10th, 2022.
  • Photos will be judged on composition, style, creativity and general appeal.
Artsville: We Orange the World, 2022

We Orange the World officially opens on Friday, November 25th, 2022 at 13:00 SLT with a special event featuring the live music of Kael and Maximillion Kleene.

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The Snows of Where Our Journey Begins in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Where Our Journey Begins, November 2022 – click any image for full size

Following a suggestion from Suzie Anderton, I jumped back to Vivian Ewing’s Where Our Journey Begins, which I last visited back towards the start of the year to catch its 2022 wintertime dressing once more.

Back in February, the setting was blooming into an early spring and offered an engaging mix of places to explore among the trees and flowers as they threw a rich palette of colour across the region. Now, with the closing of the year, the setting is very much folded in a blanket of winter snow and seasonal elements in readiness for the coming holidays and celebrations.

Where Our Journey Begins, November 2022

Visits commence at the main landing point in the south-east corner of the region, the land stretching away to the north-west, a large ribbon lake crossing it diagonally from south-west to north-east. The latter is shouldered at its northern extremes by a curtain of rock to one side, similar to the curtain cliffs backing the landing point and possibly part of the same upward thrust of rock, and on the other by a plateau crowned but winter cabins.

From the landing point beneath the great iron gazebo in which it sits, visitors have a choice of exploration routes by which to discover the rest of the setting. Turn right a short walk from the gazebo, and the path leads to snowy box hedgerows enclosing an small terrace. A path from here runs down to the water’s edge to one side of the region, whilst a second points north, passing a corral where horses are held and a rezzer is available should you wish to explore the region on horseback, before the path branches once more.

Where Our Journey Begins, November 2022

Take the left arm of the fork, and the way is clear to wander along the southerly shore of the lake and even reach its icy surface. Places to sit and rest can be found along this route, ranging from a little campsite through water’s edge gazebo warmed by a log fire to a cosy little hut standing within sight of a high bridge spanning the lake – of which more anon.

Meanwhile, the right arm of the fork quickly crosses a covered bridge spanning the banks of a little stream – also frozen – to reach a fenced trail which also skirts the lake as it runs up and around the north-east head of the waters.  From here, it runs onwards and westwards, passing over steps and between gates to reach the local (and festive!) village snuggled under the aforementioned plateau. Rides and seasonal kiosks have been set out on the village square, the lights of the houses glowing brightly beyond before the sheer face of the rocky highlands intervene between village and hilltop cabins.

Where Our Journey Begins, November 2022

The latter are reached via a further route of exploration leading away from the landing point. It sits beyond the snow-frosted gates at the end of the path leading outwards from the landing point gazebo, and a snow-dusted path meanders upwards through hoar-frosted trees to where an unexpected sight awaits: Santa’s cabin, complete with the jolly old man sitting outside, his elves keeping things moving. Flagstones arc their way around the cabin to lead to the bridge mentioned above and, across it, a single-track road providing access to the cabins.

Fully furnished and separated from the rest of the region as they are, these cabin offer their own setting and opportunities for photography both indoors and out.

Where Our Journey Begins, November 2022

This latter point is what makes this iteration of Where Our Journey Begins; while the region comes together as a single setting, it is laid out in such a way as to offer multiple little vignettes offering their own opportunities for enjoyment and photography, all rich in detail and with enough space between them so as visitors needn’t feel as if they are tripping over one another as the explore.

As with previous iterations of Where Our Journey Begins, Snowtide – as this version has been called – is a genuine delight to visit. My thanks to Suzie again for the pointer.

Where Our Journey Begins, November 2022

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2022 SUG meetings week #47 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Green Story, September 2022 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

At the time of writing, a server deployment thread had yet to be published.

  • On Tuesday, November 22nd, the Main SLS and Events channels were updated with the single fix designed to keep regions from running out of voice connections (BUG-229984 “Voice chat is not working” and BUG-7371 “Voice cannot connect”).
  • On Wednesday, November 23rd, simhosts the RC channels will be restarted without any deployment.

Upcoming Simulator Releases

The run of simulator updates through to the new year will likely comprise:

  • Link sounds will most likely the last roll of the year (this should behave exactly as though you had a script in the linked prim and called llPlaySound from that prim).
  • llGetSimStats updates are liable to be the first update of 2023.
  • llHTTPRequest updates (see below) will likely follow later in January 2023.
  • LSDFindKeys sorting updates will most likely be fixed in the first simulator maintenance release for next year.

Available Official Viewers

No changes to any of the current batch of official viewers, leaving them as follows:

  • Release viewer: version 6.6.7.576223 – MFA and TOS hotfix viewer – November 1 – No change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer version 6.6.8.576431 on Monday, November 14.
    • VS  2022 RC viewer, version 6.6.8.576310, issued November 4 – utilises Visual Studio 2022 in the Windows build tool chain.
  • Project viewers:
    • PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.576331, issued on November 3.
      • This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
    • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.3.575529,  issued on October 12.
    • Performance Floater / Auto-FPS project viewer, version 6.6.5.575378, October 4.
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.

In Brief

  • BUG-232171 “Issue with regions becoming full, but still showing available prims” – this is been causing noticeable issues recently, with a lot of speculation that it may be a griefing vector. However, the important point with the issue is that LL know what the cause actually is, and will be addressing it.
    • BUG-229382 “Vehicles stopping dead at region borders” may be related to this issue.
    • BUG-BUG-227303 “collisions makes a script stop running and revert its mono status” was also raised later in the meeting in relation to Mono concerns.
  • Concerns have been raised about bout removing the LSO bytecode compiler (non-Mono), leaving only the Mono compiler (the run-time environment for LSO scripts would remain – it just wouldn’t be possible to compile new scripts via the LSO compiler or re-compile updated scripts using it).
    • These issues (apparently related to rapid rezzing of objects  and / or some vehicles the Mono control scripts behaving badly at region crossings) have not been the subject of any bug report(s) and so lack documented details. A Jira has been request.
  • A core part of the meeting was given over to combat systems and providing improved means of projective operation (in part related to the Mono discussion above) – please refer to the video for details.
  • BUG-37727 “Regex for LSL” may have a better chance of being implemented now that Regex is exposed to LSL via Linkset Data.
  • With the implementation of LSD, an suggestion has been made to add publicly editable key-value pairs that could be set in the build window via object owners, and then accessed via scripts using an interface similar to Linkset Data. A  similar suggestion has also been made within the forums, however, that does not appear to be a feature request Jira for these ideas (at least at the time of writing this summary).
  • BUG-232551 “We need significantly more RAM for scripts in non-attachments” was raised in discussion;  it has been accepted by the Lab, but no indication of when it it  might be actioned, or how.
  • Rider Linden is playing some enhancements to LSL for 2023, including (but not limited to) allowing a response to an HTTP request with the contents of a notecard.