Many folks would like to see us back on the Moon and developing its resources.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Bend it Like Beckham! Small Asteroid to Whip Past Earth on June 27, 2011

My thanks to you folks for giving me a heads up when we have things coming our way.
- LRK -

------------------------------------------------------

Bend it Like Beckham! Small Asteroid to Whip Past Earth on June 27, 2011

Don Yeomans & Paul Chodas
NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office
June 23, 2011
Updated: June 26, 2011

Trajectory of 2011 MD projected onto the Earth's orbital plane. Note from this viewing angle, the asteroid passes underneath the Earth

Trajectory of 2011 MD from the general direction of the Sun. 

Near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD will pass only 12,300 kilometers (7,600 miles) above the Earth's surface on Monday June 27 at about 1:00 PM EDT. The asteroid was discovered by the LINEAR near-Earth object discovery team observing from Socorro, New Mexico. The diagram on the left shows the trajectory of 2011 MD projected onto the Earth's orbital plane over a four-day interval. The diagram on the left gives another view from the general direction of the Sun that indicates that 2011 MD will reach its closest Earth approach point in extreme southern latitudes (in fact over the southern Atlantic Ocean). This small asteroid, only 5-20 meters in diameter, is in a very Earth-like orbit about the Sun, but an orbital analysis indicates there is no chance it will actually strike Earth on Monday. The incoming trajectory leg passes several thousand kilometers outside the geosynchronous ring of satellites and the outgoing leg passes well inside the ring. One would expect an object of this size to come this close to Earth about every 6 years on average. For a brief time, it will be bright enough to be seen even with a modest-sized telescope

snip
------------------------------------------------------

"The incoming trajectory leg passes several thousand kilometers outside the geosynchronous ring of satellites and the outgoing leg passes well inside the ring."
Any one's geosync satellite watching the passing?
- LRK -

You may want to look at some other near misses and consider that sky may actually fall in every now and then.
- LRK -

------------------------------------------------------
Near Earth Object Program

Trajectory of Asteroid 2011 MDBend it Like Beckham! Small Asteroid to Whip Past Earth on June 27, 2011 
June 23, 2011Near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD will pass only 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) above the Earth's surface on Monday June 27 at about 1:00 PM EDT. The asteroid was discovered by the LINEAR near-Earth object discovery team observing from Socorro, New Mexico.
Full Story



Trajectory of Asteroid 2005 YU55 - November 8-9, 2011Asteroid 2005 YU55 to Approach Earth on November 8, 2011 
March 10, 2011Near-Earth asteroid 2005 YU55 will pass within 0.85 lunar distances from the Earth on November 8, 2011. The upcoming close approach by this relatively large 400 meter-sized, C-type asteroid presents an excellent opportunity for synergistic ground-based observations including optical, near infrared and radar data.
Full Story




Trajectory of Asteroid 2011 CQ1 - February 4, 2011Asteroid 2011 CQ1 Makes Close Earth Approach on February 4, 2011 
February 4, 2011Asteroid 2011 CQ1 was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey on February 4 and made a record close Earth approach 14 hours later on February 4 at 19:39 UT (14:39 EST). It passed to within 0.85 Earth radii (5480 km) of the Earth's surface over a region in the mid-Pacific. This object, only about one meter in diameter, is the closest non-impacting object in our asteroid catalog to date.
Full Story




Trajectory of Asteroid 2010 KQ - March-Oct
2010
Asteroid 2010 TD54 to Pass Within Earth-Moon System on October 12, 2010 
October 11, 2010A small asteroid will fly past Earth early Tuesday within the Earth-moon system. The asteroid, 2010 TD54, will have its closest approach to Earth's surface at an altitude of about 45,000 kilometers (27,960 miles) at 6:50 EDT a.m. (3:50 a.m. PDT). At that time, the asteroid will be over southeastern Asia in the vicinity of Singapore. During its flyby, Asteroid 2010 TD54 has zero probability of impacting Earth.
Full Story
snip
------------------------------------------------------

They don't always miss as you may remember the post from last year.
- LRK -

------------------------------------------------------

Doctor's Office Hit By Meteorite in Lorton, Virginia

snip
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/national/doctors-office-hit-by-meteorite-0121101264170289032
Doctor's Office Hit By Meteorite

Updated: Friday, 22 Jan 2010, 2:11 PM EST
Published : Thursday, 21 Jan 2010, 9:39 AM EST

By JOHN HENREHAN/myfoxdc

When Lawrence Reese was cleaning up his sub shop in Lorton, Virginia, late Monday afternoon, he heard a tremendous impact outside.

"Loud. Loud enough [that] you could hear it, maybe, a block or two away," recalls Reese. "I'm surprised it didn't break our glass. That's how loud it was."

Something had come hurtling out of the sky, and crashed through the roof of a nearby doctor's office, landing in an empty examination room.
snip
------------------------------------------------------

Any Fourth of July fireworks expected?
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.
==============================================================

Welcome to the American Meteor Society

Founded in 1911 by Dr. Charles P. Olivier


Welcome to the home of the American Meteor Society, Ltd., a non-profit scientific organization established to inform, encourage, and support the research activities of both amateur and professional astronomers who are interested in the fascinating field of Meteor Astronomy. Our affiliates observe, monitor, collect data on, study, and report on meteors, meteor showers, fireballs, and related meteoric phenomena. Please note that the AMS does not deal in meteorites, meteors that have reached the surface of the Earth. If you feel you have a meteorite or have questions dealing with meteorites please direct them to one of the many individuals or organizations that are easily found on the internet that deal specifically with meteorites.

snip
==============================================================
THE LATEST WORLDWIDE METEOR/METEORITE NEWS

snip
==============================================================
News and information about the Sun-Earth Environment

QUIET SUN: Solar activity is very low. Only one small sunspot group (AR1241) is crossing the visible face of the sun, and it poses no threat for strong flares.
ASTEROID FLYBY:
 Asteroid 2011 MD is flying past Earth today, Monday June 27th. At closest approach around 1:00 p.m. EDT the ~10-meter space rock was only 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) above the planet's surface. NASA analysts said there was no chance it would strike Earth, and indeed it didn't.
Astronomers around the world are monitoring the object as it flies by. Using a remotely-controled telescope in Cerro Tololo, Chile, Joe Pollock of Appalachian State University obtained this light curve:
"Asteroid 2001 MD appears to be rotating with a 23.3 or 11.6 minute period," notes Pollock.
After closest approach to Earth, the spinning asteroid will recede through the zone of geosynchronous satellites. The chances of a collision with a satellite or manmade space junk are extremely small, albeit not zero. Stay tuned for updates.
snip
==============================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE IT WILL ACHIEVE

==============================================================

Thursday, June 09, 2011

Apple plans new ‘spaceship’-like campus

This reminds me of some who dream of ring cities in space.
In this case, the ring has landed and 12,000 crew members will infiltrate the local economy.  :-)
- LRK -



Apple spaceship campus 2015 (credit: Apple Inc.)
--------------------------------------------
June 9, 2011Source Link: IT World

Apple plans to build a new campus with a circular building that looks like a spaceship, big enough to house 12,000 employees, scheduled to open in 2015. The campus, near Apple’s existing headquarters in Cupertino, California, will generate its own energy. It’s a former Hewlett-Packard campus.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/images/Apple_spaceship.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtuz5OmOh_M&feature=player_embedded
snip
--------------------------------------------

The YouTube video (above/below) is of Jobs presentation to the Cupertino city council explaining what Apple would like to build.
When I got out of the Navy at Moffett Field in 1983, we lived in Sunnyvale, just north of the Hewlett-Packard campus.
I thought it would be nice to work there but never happened as we ended up supporting NASA at Moffett Field for 20 years.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------

Apple plans new 'spaceship'-like campus

Apple wants to put up a single, circular building to house 12,000 employees on a new campus in Cupertino

By Agam Shah, IDG News Service |  IT Management/StrategyApple 

June 08, 2011, 6:43 AM — Apple plans to build a new campus with a circular building that looks like a spaceship, big enough to house 12,000 employees. The campus, near Apple's existing headquarters in Cupertino, California, will generate its own energy.
The single office building on the new campus will look "a little like a spaceship landed," Apple CEO, Steve Jobs told the Cupertino City Council in a presentation on Tuesday.


The company has 12,000 employees in the Cupertino area, in its headquarters at Infinite Loop and in other buildings, Jobs said. It plans to retain its existing headquarters building, but needs new office space to accommodate employees, he said.
The new office building will be of "human scale" size, about four stories high, Jobs said. About 12,000 employees in one building "sounds rather odd," Jobs said, but said that the campus is necessary to keep up the company's pace of growth.
"Apple's grown like a weed and as you know, Apple's always been in Cupertino," Jobs said. "The campus we'd like to build there is one building that holds 12,000 people."
snip
--------------------------------------------

The first time I drove through Cupertino was back in the 60's and it was all orchards.
Now a mostly buildings and parking lots.  The new Apple campus will put back a lot of trees.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------
Cupertino (play /ˌkpərˈtn/) is a suburban city in Santa Clara CountyCaliforniaU.S., directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 58,302 at the time of the 2010 census.[1] Forbes ranked it as one of the most educated small towns. It is best known as home to — and worldwide headquarters of — Apple Inc.

snip

Toponym
Cupertino was named after Arroyo San José de Cupertino (now Stevens Creek). The creek had been named by Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza's cartographer, who named it after Saint Joseph of Cupertino. Saint Joseph (born Giuseppe Maria Desa, and later known as Giuseppe da Copertino) was named after the town of Copertino in the Apulia region of Italy. The name Cupertino first became widely used when John T. Doyle, a San Francisco lawyer and historian, named his winery on McClellan Road "Cupertino". After the turn of the 20th century, Cupertino displaced the former name for the region, which was "West Side".

snip
--------------------------------------------

It will be interesting to see the transformation take place.
Individuals with a dream and a concern can make a difference.
When I look up at the Moon I wonder who will be the one to make a difference.
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.


==============================================================
This page summarizes pretty much everything relating to Apple in the past 3 decades (including historical events of IBM, Microsoft, and NeXT) in choronological order with fairly accurate dates. For more information do yourself a favor and read Owen Linzmayer's excellent Mac Bathroom Reader, with detailed accounts of all the events mentioned below from the people who actually experienced it.

snip
==============================================================
Apple Turns 30

Celebrating three decades of Apple

By Ina Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
March 28, 2006 4:00 AM PT
In the 1970s, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were going door-to-door at the UC Berkeley dorms selling "blue boxes"--electronic devices that tricked the telephone network into allowing free long-distance phone calls.


Read more: http://news.cnet.com/2009-1041-6053869.html?tag=txt#ixzz1OnWQdIAw

snip
[And now 5 more years have passed.  My how time passes quickly. - LRK -]
==============================================================
April 1, 2011 by 

On April 1, 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne established a small company to sell personal computer kits hand-built by Wozniak. That company, as you probably know, was Apple Computer

Thirty-five years later, Apple is now the most valuable technology company in the world. Its market capitalization exceeds $317 billion, trumping longtime rival Microsoft by more than $100 billion. And Apple’s iconic products sit on the desks and in the pockets of millions of people across the world

Most people know bits and pieces of the Apple story, but the company has a complicated history. Some of us may not know, for example, that Apple had a third co-founder, Ronald Wayne, who got cold feet and sold his 10% stake in Apple less than two weeks later. Everybody knows Steve Jobs, but they may not know Mike Markkula, one of Apple’s first angel investors and the company’s second CEO.

snip
==============================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE IT WILL ACHIEVE

==============================================================

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Photo Gallery: Endeavour docked at space station

Shuttle Endeavour has returned to Earth.  While at the ISS it was photgraphed from the departing Soyuz TMA-20 capsule.

I guess if you want pictures of the ISS from space it will have to be this way for awhile, just take a snap from a departing Soyuz capsule.
- LRK -

-----------------------------------------------

Photo Gallery: Endeavour docked at space station


It was "the ultimate photo op" as Expedition 27 crew member Paolo Nespoli, inside the departing Soyuz TMA-20 capsule, snapped pictures of the International Space Station with shuttle Endeavour docked at the orbiting complex. Photos: NASA

- LRK -
snip
-----------------------------------------------

The media post at NASA.
- LRK -

-----------------------------------------------
MEDIA ADVISORY: M11-114

UNIQUE 'PORTRAIT' OF SHUTTLE AND INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION RELEASED

WASHINGTON -- Newly-released portraits show the International Space
Station together with the space shuttle, the vehicle that helped
build the complex during the last decade. The pictures are the first
taken of a shuttle docked to the station from the perspective of a
Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

On May 23, the Soyuz was carrying Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev,
NASA astronaut Cady Coleman and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo
Nespoli back to Earth. Once their vehicle was about 600 feet from the
station, Mission Control Moscow, outside the Russian capital,
commanded the orbiting laboratory to rotate 130 degrees. This move
allowed Nespoli to capture digital photographs and high definition
video of shuttle Endeavour docked to the station.

The Soyuz landed in Kazakhstan and was taken to Moscow for routine
post-landing analysis. NASA and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos,
then processed the imagery as part of the standard disposition of
spacecraft cargo.

Additional images and high definition video are being processed and
will be posted on NASA's website. To view the still images, visit:
http://go.nasa.gov/stationportrait

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For information about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station

-end-
snip
-----------------------------------------------

Just one more shuttle launch to go, then stick out your thumb for a lift to the ISS.
Is the meter running?  How much is the fare?  That much?  I thought it was only...
- LRK -
Thanks for looking up with me.
==============================================================
Real-Time Space Shuttle in Google Earth (Beta Version)
You can now track the space shuttle during launch and landing in Google Earth using real-time data from Mission Control.

[I guess we won't need this feature much longer. - LRK -]
snip
==============================================================

Preparations Move Forward for STS-135

Space shuttle Atlantis is set to liftoff on the final flight of the shuttle program, STS-135, a 12-day mission to the International Space Station. Launch is targeted for July 8.
› Space Shuttle Section
------------------------------------------

Preparations Move Forward for STS-135

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 05:46:12 AM PDT

Today at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, launch pad technicians are loading oxidizer into space shuttle Atlantis' forward and aft reaction control systems. Both solid rocket booster hydraulic power units have been filled with hydrazine and the tanks have been pressurized.

The four STS-135 crew members are set to fly back to their home base at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston where they will resume training for the upcoming mission. The astronauts are expected to depart from Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility in T-38 jets this morning
snip
==============================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

==============================================================

Moon and Mars - Videos

Loading...
Loading...