Twas the night before launch…

 

Originally shared by NASA

Twas the night before launch…

At a Launch Readiness Review Saturday, managers for Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Virginia, and NASA gave a “go” to proceed toward the Sunday, July 13, launch of the Orb-2 cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. Orbital is targeting a 12:52 p.m. EDT launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. NASA Television coverage of the launch will begin at noon EDT online at http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv.

There is a 90-percent chance of favorable weather at the time of launch.

Seen here is the full Moon setting in the fog behind the Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, Saturday, July 12, 2014, launch Pad-0A, NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Antares will launch Sunday, July 13 at 12:52 p.m. EDT with the Cygnus spacecraft filled with over 3,000 pounds of supplies for the International Space Station, including science experiments, experiment hardware, spare parts, and crew provisions. The Orbital-2 mission is Orbital Sciences’ second contracted cargo delivery flight to the space station for NASA. 

Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

 

Farewell Lutetia | European Space Agency

 

Originally shared by Friends of NASA

Farewell Lutetia | European Space Agency

This ethereal image shows a stunning sliver of large main-belt asteroid Lutetia from the viewpoint of ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft, taken as Rosetta passed by on its 10-year voyage towards comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

This week marks four years since Rosetta flew by this ancient rocky body, on July 10, 2010. As the spacecraft swung past Lutetia it snapped hundreds of high-resolution photographs with its Optical, Spectroscopic and Infrared Remote Imaging System (OSIRIS) as well as obtaining valuable spectra, and maps of the surface temperature using other instruments.

This image was taken as Rosetta had passed its closest approach, at just under 3170 km from Lutetia’s surface, and was beginning its journey away from the asteroid.

As a result of this flyby, astronomers have been able to characterise Lutetia, viewing the wide range of craters and geological features scarring the asteroid’s surface and gauging its mass and volume–and thus density and composition. These measurements showed that Lutetia is primordial, likely having formed just under 4 billion years ago during the very early phases of the Solar System.

This asteroid is one of just two that Rosetta has closely flown past, the other being asteroid Steins in 2008.

Rosetta was launched in 2004 and, after 10 years in space, will finally rendezvous with its target comet in August. It will study the comet’s surface, dust and gases in unprecedented detail, deploy a lander onto its surface, and follow the comet for over a year as it orbits around the Sun.

Credit: ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Release Date: 07/07/2014 

European Space Agency, ESA 

 #Space   #Asteroid    #Spacecraft 

 

1:12 – Pyschedelics in the Age of Intelligent Machines

Originally shared by Grizwald Grim

1:12 – Pyschedelics in the Age of Intelligent Machines

1:46 – The Death of Creativity

3:30 – Consciousness Expansion as a Bridge

4:24 – Symbolic Logic Bridge

7:15 – One is too large to Swallow

7:46 – Mind Prosthetics

9:45 – Inherited Complexity and Integrative Breakthrough

11:26 – Power of Print/Words are Magic

13:48 – Archaic Return

15:10 – Cascades of Chaos

16:26 – The Shamanic Role

17:39 – Meme Foraging and The Myth of Method

19:12The Birth of Modern Science

21:04 – The Shamanic Hero’s Journey

22:03 – The dissolution of culture

23:32 – symbiotic empowerment of machines

26:36 – Technology as a relationship to earth

29:59 – Ecosystemic Homogenization

31:13 – Humanity as Gaia’s Catalyst

33:06 – Spontaneous mutation of complex systems

34:03 – The stranger guest at the door

35:19Accelerating Complexification

38:00 – Evolutionary Cascade

39:55 – Pseudoimmortality Payoff

41:55 – The realization of the plenum

43:23 – Prosthetic symbiosis

44:33 – Towards biomimicry

45:56 – Models of shamanistic roles

49:08 – Assimilating shamanic potential

50:08 – The primacy of the word

52:01 – Felt presence of immediate experience

54:42 – The externalization of our souls

Q&A

57:13 – Mercy, Love & Machines

1:00:45 – Time Travel

1:05:42Culture is Not Your Friend

1:09:52 – Fighting Back

1:12:25 — Cultural Negotiations

1:14:30Evolution of the Human Neocortex

Thanks to Terry Brown for bringing this to my attention.

Bold entries are my favorite bits for those operating under time constraints.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtC5eb_8Eks&feature=share