This is just a place for me to put down some thoughts and opinions that are too long for Google+, Twitter, or Facebook to contain. Some will be shared, some will not.
Here I sit at General Mitchell International airport, waiting to board my plane to Orlando. I can't wait to get down there and meet all the fellow Tweetuppers.
Last I saw on Monday, the weather on Thursday was at 60% for a good launch. While I'd certainly wish to see that number higher, I'll take what I can get. The Tweetup event is going to be so amazing, if I don't get to see a launch, it will be okay, but I'm definitely keeping my fingers crossed.
Today, after I fly into Orlando, I'll drive to Kennedy Space Center to check in and get my badge, then go to the house I'm staying at (dubbed Discovery House), and meeting the people I'll be staying with for four days. Then, dinner with a huge number of space geeks for a traditional pre-Tweetup dinner.
I can't believe that this day is finally here. I've been planning, chatting, packing, and generally obsessing about this trip for about a month. It's just amazing that NASA allows people this opportunity, and I'm so glad I got this chance.
After much waiting, with some combination of patience and impatience, those of us selected to be a part of the GRAIL NASATweetup received the itinerary of events and speakers tonight. I just have one thing to say: WOW!
I'm not sure how our group of speakers stack up against previous Tweetups, but I'm pretty darn impressed with the collection NASA is going to roll out for us. The speakers are:
Jim Adams, deputy director of Planetary Division, Science Mission Directorate
Neil deGrasse Tyson and Frederick P. Rose will be giving a talk about the latest "other world" discoveries
Actress Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) will be signing autographs and taking pictures with fans to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the original Star Trek television show. The pictures/autographs may be taking place on a replica of the ST:TOS bridge.
There is so much awesome packed into this Tweetup, it's not even funny. I cannot believe how lucky I am to have been chosen to attend this event, let alone get presentations and talks from the group that will be there. While I hope to get the chance to attend another Tweetup at some point in the future, I think it's safe to say that each one is so unique that it's a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Here we sit, a little less than three weeks until the GRAIL NASATweetup event begins.Yesterday, I received an email from NASA so I could apply for press credentials and clearance.Sadly, they were quick to point out that the Tweetup credentials do not apply to any other missions, so I can’t just wander down to Kennedy, flash my Twitter badge and get into future events.
So far, many of the Tweetup details are up in the air.They told us that we’ll get a tour on Wednesday morning and in the afternoon a group of speakers (to be announced later) will come and talk to us.Thursday at 8:37am EDT is the projected launch time for the Delta II rocket, with a one hour launch window.Which mean I’ll have to get there super early that morning (I’m guessing I’ll need to be there by no later than 5:00am).If there is some sort of problem on Thursday, they can push it back 24-hours into Friday, but any delay beyond that and I’m out of luck to view the launch at Kennedy.
In addition to the mission itself, over the last couple weeks, I’ve also found out that this is slated to be the final NASA launch of a Delta II rocket as well as the final launch from Space Launch Complex 17 (SLC-17).SLC-17 was built by the Air Force in the late 1950s to handle Thor missile launches and was transferred to NASA ownership in 1965.It certainly doesn’t have the glamour and sentimentality of LC-39 (where the Apollo rockets and space shuttles launched from), but it’s still another chapter of NASA’s history is ending.
Delta II rocket
SLC-17
I’m hoping that they will still be working on decommissioning one of the shuttles while we are there.The people lucky enough to attend the Juno Tweetup got to go into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and get up close and personal with a shuttle.I believe that we’ll get to go into the VAB regardless, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we can see Atlantis in there.
Beyond that, right now I’m just trying to go over packing lists and keep up with all the information being posted on Twitter and Facebook from all the Tweetup attendees.With all the excitement ramping up for it (most of us are first-time Tweetup attendees), there’s a bit of information overload going on.There is two Tweetup get-togethers planned (Tuesday and Thursday), and I’m sure something will happen on Wednesday night, too.If I were staying until Saturday, I could also go with a group of fellow space tweeps to hit Harry Potter World at Universal Studios.
I have no doubt that this will be a remarkable experience and I count myself very lucky to have this opportunity.I also believe that when it’s done, I’m going to be very sorry that I don’t live closer to Florida and the Space Coast so I could be able to attend future Tweetups without nearly so much expense and travel time.
“There are people who make things happen, there are people who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what happened. To be successful, you need to be a person who makes things happen.” – Jim Lovell
I'm not one to believe in numerology - that our lives are dictated by certain numbers - but the number 3 does factor into my life significantly. I won't go into all the sordid details, but here are some easily coincidental facts about the number 3 and this year:
I will fly into Orlando three times this year (visited Universal in May, GRAIL tweetup in September, and then Disney World in December)
This will be the third year in a row that I've come to Orlando:
Disney World and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in October 2009
STS-132 launch in May 2010 and Disney World in October 2010
The above-mentioned trips
Because I'll be heading down for the launch in a mere four weeks (side note: WOO-HOO! 28 days until I leave for the GRAIL Tweetup! WOO-HOO!), I thought I would throw together a brief reminiscence of the other trips I made there.
The first visit
In October 2009, my wife, myself, and a good friend of ours went down to Disney World to check out their Halloween party. I, having never been and not (at the time) a huge Disney fan, was okay with the trip, but I told my wife that if we were going down there, I had to see Kennedy. I'm not sure when I get bit by the space bug, but I have been interested in NASA and the space program for quite some time.
We drove out to KSC and did the tour of the Visitor Center and also took the Cape Canaveral: Then and Now tour. I was so glad that we took the tour, because I loved being able to go see the blockhouse from where Alan Shepard's flight was controlled. To see the sites and locations of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs was just amazing. For me, the culmination of the tour was being able to see Pad 34, where the Apollo 1 tragedy occurred.
Me at Pad 34
As amazing as the space shuttle, the International Space Station, the Hubble, Juno, JWST, and all the other more recent achievements are, I am inherently drawn to the moon missions. Whether it's nostalgia for the space obsession that gripped this country in the 60s, the unthinkable technological breakthroughs that got us there, or the sheer testicular fortitude that it took to say "this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth." And for obvious reasons, I always equate the Apollo 1 fire with the struggles, sacrifices, and willpower that got us to the Sea of Tranquility.
Apollo 1 memorial plaque at Pad 34
The second visit
As the space shuttle program wound down, demand for tickets to view the launches (as well as these new-fangled thingamajigs called "tweetups") were hard to come by. Early in 2010 my father and I decided that we would try to get tickets for the last launch of the shuttle Atlantis [at the time, STS-135 was a mere rumor and dream]. The process for getting the tickets were to go online into a "waiting room" and then people would be randomly selected to buy tickets. We were hoping for causeway tickets, but were willing to settle for Visitor Center. When the day to buy tickets arrived, we were very lucky. And by lucky, I mean that so many people tried to get into to buy tickets, it crashed the servers. When they announced the new date tickets went on sale, we tried again, and managed to get tickets for the Visitor Center.
We decided to drive instead of fly, so we packed up and drove all the way from about Chicago to Orlando over the course of one day. It is a haul, no doubt about that, but we made it safe and sound. We went and toured KSC the day before the launch, and it was great to be able to share that with my dad, who is also a space geek (he even attended a space camp for teachers back in the 90s).
Me with Atlantis in the far background
It was a bright and super hot day in Florida, and I really should have put some sunscreen on my legs (I can still barely make out the burn line on my legs over a year later). We got there as early as we could to make sure we could stake out our spots. I wish I could have been a part of the tweetup or gotten causeway tickets, but I am so very thankful that not only did I get to experience a shuttle launch in person, but I got to share it with my father.
This week I had the good fortune of being selected to attend the 24th NASA Tweetup event for the GRAIL mission which is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center aboard a Delta II rocket on September 8, 2011. This is scheduled to be the final Delta II rocket launched by NASA.
For those unfamiliar with what a NASA Tweetup is or what the GRAIL mission entails, here is some background.
NASA Tweetup
In January 2009, NASA hosted the first tweetup event at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. It is an opportunity for followers of NASA Twitter accounts to gather together and get a behind-the-scenes look at missions, talk with scientists, engineers, administrators, and astronauts, and get an up close and personal look at NASA. It’s also a great place for space geeks to gather and get to know each other. There are two types of tweetups: one centered on the launch of a vehicle (rocket or space shuttle) and one without a scheduled launch. A launch tweetup is a two-day event, while the other tweetups are typically only one day.
While it may vary by tweetup, there is typically a maximum of 150 attendees randomly selected from the group of registered Twitter users. Obviously, depending on the nature of the tweetup, there are many more people who tried to get a spot. For the final space shuttle mission, I read that there was over 6500 people who registered, while for this GRAIL launch, it was only around 825. Registration is free to any Twitter user, but you’re on your own for travel, lodging, and food costs (although you do get a pass to get into the location it’s being held, in the case of the GRAIL tweetup, it’s Kennedy Space Center).
With each NASA Tweetup being different, especially with a launch event, it really is a unique and once in a lifetime event. Of course, assuming NASA continues to host tweetup events, I hope to have a few more “once in a lifetimes” in my lifetime. If only all the NASA locations weren’t so far from Milwaukee.
GRAIL Mission
Unless you are a super hard-core space geek or are related to someone working on it, it’s very doubt that you’ve heard of the GRAIL mission. GRAIL stands for Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory, and it is two spacecrafts that will orbit the moon to precisely measure and map the moon’s gravitational field.
Using this information, scientists will be able to determine the interior structure and composition of the moon, which will lead to being able to better understand the moon’s origin and development. It will also be able to help with navigation of any future moon landings.
This mission has two very important firsts associated with it: this will be the first time anyone has tried the difficult task of putting two different spacecrafts in the same precise orbit around another planetary object (necessary for the devices measuring the gravitational field). Second, this mission will carry cameras (MoonKAM) whose targets will be chosen by middle school students.
While it may not sound as sexy as the Juno mission to Jupiter or the Mars Science Laboratory, GRAIL will go a long way to help scientists understand how planetary objects were formed and what was happening at the creation of our solar system.
This past weekend I went back to Bristol to be a part of the Cutlass Cooking kids show. They were down a Bob, and I offered my services. It was certainly a change from what I have been used to (Queen's court and military), but I great time.
The weather was okay, but not great - high 80s with humidity - but at least it was dry. The crowd on Saturday was fairly large (due to weather, attendance has been very poor the first third of the season) and Sunday was okay. And from what I could tell, they were willing to play along, too.
The first show we did was the Pantry Panic cooking show. On both days, it was a three-person show. Sarah (sister Bob) helped on Saturday and Andy (the original Bob) was there on Sunday. This is the original Cutlass Cooking show, and it's a big hit with the kids. Honestly, I felt Saturday was a little better because Sarah and I have better chemistry/familiarty and were able to play off each other more.It ended up being two mischevious siblings trying to get big brother John to eat some crazy stew.
The second show of the day is Tenderized Tales aka crazy story time. Saturday went well with good kids and crowds, but Sunday was a bit chaotic. The kids weren't bad, they just wanted to be extremely helpful or really wanted to be a part of the show. Each story being requires two helpers, but on Sunday, we had three for both of them. It was interesting to say the least, and unrestrained chaos to say the most.
The last show of the day is the Party Panic show, which is always a bit difficult because: a) hard to get an audience and b) the sun is melting the stage at that point in the day. Saturday we actually had a good crowd who really enjoyed the show. Sunday, we had two boys probably 12-13 who we think were just too polite to walk out in the middle of it.
I also got to do some shanty singing with Bob, Ansel, Tabitha and a couple others. I'm not a great singer, but I thought we did pretty good out there...but don't be looking for our CD any time soon.
All in all it was an outstanding weekend. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to help out a good friend, entertain some children, and enjoy myself. I was a little suprised how much performing took out of me during the day, but it was worth every drop of sweat and ache and pain I have today.
"And I realized, when you go through any endeavor, any journey - whether across town or to the moon and back - all that matters is that you share the experience with people that you love. That's what makes life special. Because ultimately, that's all there is. That's really all there is."
- Astronaut Alan Bean (played by Dave Foley) in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.
I have no way of knowing whether Alan Bean ever said that, or some clever Hollywood writer came up with it as a good monologue to end that episode. Regardless, the simplicity of that quote has always struck me as being so profound. That simple yet elegant message, whether authentic or contrived, is a reminder of what we should all keep in mind as we go through life.
Because ultimately, that's all there is. That's really all there is.
