Something Completely Different
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The 1978 Shatner 'Rocket Man' is possibly the peak of western civilisation.
If not the peak of PAS cultural pastiche? Shatner's such a douche but this works.
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As I said above rockets go wrong easily, and usually spectacularly in front of your friends leaving you looking sheepish and feeling foolish while everyone else is whooping it up .... a lot of people get discouraged and don't come back - you have to develop a sort of zen acceptance of failure to keep at this game.
Now seriously wondering whether I should try to get an old rocket of mine going again - just a (relatively) tiny hobby rocket but it never actually made it off the launch pad. Would like to have another go at some point just to know that the bastard thing actually flew in the end.
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This is why I miss PAS Auckland time. So much of this requires watching, out loud, but at 7 in the morning over here I have to wait. I mean, Stuey (my hero) and Rocket man...taps fingers... .... ..... .... Do I wake others? .... .....
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Be a devil..
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Be a devil..
But have you met the sister?
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Spooky, it's like she heard man, and I was only tapping on the keyboard :)
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I love rockets.
I go to the National High-Power Launch days to watch the big boys fly their missiles. I witnessed a rocket called "Sugar Rush" fly on a shot of homemade fuel mainly composed of (funnily enough) sugar. It blew over the steel girder launch tower as it headed for the clouds with a mighty roar. All the spectators (keep well back, you rabble) were on their feet in case a speedy dodge of a mis-guided missile was required, but with the speed it took off you wouldn't have even had time to blink before being spifflicated if it came your way.
It. Was. So. Cool.
The owner didn't find it for 3 weeks...My favourite ever Top Gear episode was the one where they tried to launch a Reliant Robin as a cheap-as British space shuttle. It almost worked (Boooommm!!) but should really be filed away under that peculiar-to-Japanese-philosophy category of "Magnificent Failure"
One of these days I will get to Florida and watch a real launch (Space Shuttle is being scrapped soon. Better hurry!)
Best of luck to RocketLabs. "Per ardua ad astra" and all that...
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Speaking of big rockets - they're about to run one into the moon.
And they're streaming it live.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
Computer screens filled with text. Check!
Mandatory US flag attached to wall for no apparent reason. Check!And the LCROSS unit is even on twitter.
http://twitter.com/LCROSS_NASA
Where am I now? Travelin' 1.51km/s(3370mph). 7,784km from the Moon. T-1hr23 minutes ago from web
exactly.
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Nice Douglas Adams reference in that twitterstream.
“That's it! Ground! Ha! I wonder if it'll be friends with me?”
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Speaking of big rockets - they're about to run one into the moon.
And lo, everything ever predicted in the brilliant late-90s low-budget HBO sketch comedy series Mr Show shall come to pass:
(Watch out for Sarah Silverman three minutes in.)
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Since this is the PA Friday and this is relevant to the previous post I offer this
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All this talk of rockets reminds of Sam Mahon's attempt to send a golfball into orbit that played God Defend New Zealand. It must be an old TV program, as there is little trace of it on teh interweb :(
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I have a hoard of rockets - the wee ones, skyrockets, upward meteors...for power, baboomba (as my late uncle Bill called it) I go for
cocktails in definitely outatheway places... -
cocktails in definitely outatheway places...
And outonalimb cheezus! all safe, mmmmm :) (as an aside)
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you have to develop a sort of zen acceptance of failure to keep at this game.
Sounds like my PhD, after spending the first year using a technique that wasn't working to look for something that wasn't there I moved on to something that took 8ish months to make work, mostly. I developed one of those Zen attitudes. Mine was 'that no experiment will ever work'. Thus when the expected result eventuated no disappointment ensued. The payoff was that when the damn thing finally started working (via some chemical relaxation (on the mice, not me)) the euphoria was truly wonderful.
Then I began to generate some data.
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