This is a 360º panorama of one of the Mission Control rooms at NASA JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab). I visited JPL in August and was thrilled to be in the rooms where history has been made. Click through and use your mouse to rotate the room to see everything. Notice the Deep Space Network relays (look for the little satellite dishes)? That’s us talking to Mars (and other planets) and getting messages in reply. Pretty cool, huh?
More pics and behind-the-scenes tidbits soon!
Doug Ellison, of NASA JPL, gives a demo of the amazing Spacecraft 3D app. This free app allows you to explore 3D augmented reality imagery of the Mars Curiosity rover. The GRAIL spacecraft is also part of the current version of the app. Other spacecraft will be added over the coming months. NOTE: I clipped the video a few seconds BEFORE Doug starts talking about Spacecraft 3D… so first image is of another project. For full video of the MSL landing event see here.
Video streaming by Ustream
Download the app yourself, print out the target page and start exploring!
Maggie explores the Curiosity rover with 3D augmented reality!
For more about Mars Curiosity
On Twitter: Follow @MarsCuriosity and @NASAJPL
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarsCuriosity
Explore Mars Curiosity online
As many of you know, I was at the launch of Mars Curiosity in November 2011 at the #MSL #NASATweetup. So, it was particularly thrilling to have a last minute opportunity to go to NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC for the landing!
I tagged along with the amazing DC Drinkup SpaceTweeps. In addition to games of War with Space Cards and a round of #MSL Bingo that had a Meteorite as a prize, we ate Mars cupcakes and supplied the traditional peanuts for the landing.
That’s me coming through the door! The pic was taken & tweeted by Alan Ladwig, Deputy Associate Administrator for Communications – Public Outreach (NASA HQ).
The blog Tea With Lemon liveblogged the night from our NASA HQ location and did a fantastic job catching the flavor of the evening. We were so excited to be with NASA folks for the landing! Check out the post yourself!
Here’s a pic of the audience (I’ve enlarged the part with me in it, third row, but highly engrossed in the landing coverage).
We all received some great Mars Curiosity mission information & goodies–stickers, pins, comic book, and more!
I have a little project for the ScienceOnline community (consider yourself part of that community if you talk about Science somewhere online). Here’s a great map of where Twitter users who are talking about #scio13 live. Thanks Comprendia for generating this for us!
Each of those markers represents a pretty amazing person and place. SO… what I want you to do is start to flood our new ScienceOnline Post Office box with postcards from where you live and travel. Talk science to me! We’ll be using the postcards at ScienceOnline2013. Help me get the word out! Who will send the first postcard? How many different countries will we get postcards from? What’s the craziest picture on a postcard that we will receive (I’ll bet it’s either from the #DeepSN folks or Ed Yong). There may be prizes 🙂
Send those postcards to:
ScienceOnline
PO Box 52447
Durham, NC 27717
USA
This isn’t really science related, but it does help you to understand a little more about me! My friend and the ScienceOnline co-founder, Anton Zuiker, organized a narrative storytelling event that he called Talk Story. He asked me to tell the story of the postcards that I wrote to my mom during the last months of her life. Here is that story.
Are you curious about what the things I have done and am doing? Then check out this interview that the DoubleXScience (that’s XX, as in female chromosome) put up about me! It’s part of their Double Xpression series interviewing women in science.
For more math goodies, follow Vi Hart’s videos here. She’s a professional mathemusician at the Khan Academy. She’s also on Twitter: @vihartvihart
Consider this your warm-up for all the news you will be hearing this week coming out of CERN.
The Higgs Boson Explained from PHD Comics on Vimeo.
I received an email from the Chief at Operation Experimonth (see here for previous Experimonth project). Experimonth is a project of the Life and Science Museum which usually tackles month-long experiments. Here’s all the info I have on the current challenge:
MISSION:
“Your mission, if you chose to accept it, is to electronically pass a secret word across the country with the help of your friends. Once your word reaches the destination, a clue will be revealed. This clue will point to a prize, which will be hidden in plain sight somewhere in Durham, NC on July 1st. The prize will self-destruct on August 1st, 2012.”
TEAM COMPOSITION:
“In order to participate you will need a team of exactly eleven other people to help you. We were thinking you might find those conspirators within the ScienceOnline community, but anyone with a reasonable level of cleverness and responsibility will do.”
SUPPLEMENTAL INFO:
“If you sign up to participate, you will receive further instructions along with your secret word on July 1st.”
THAT’S ALL I KNOW!!
So… I’ve accepted the challenge, but I need to find my 11 co-conspirators. I’m looking for:
Will you accept the challenge with me? To jump in for one of the 11 slots on my team, please email me, or get my attention on Twitter!
Yours in top secret confidence,
Karyn
PS – I suggest you follow @experimonth on Twitter
This video is amazing. For those who have been following the adventures and challenges of getting the Mars Science Lab (Curiosity) to Mars, this is the next big step. I was thrilled to watch the launch of Curiosity in November during a NASATweetup (see NASAsocial for info on how you can get inside NASA).
But there is more than a mission to Mars here. This video is a window to the science, creativity, problem-solving, and incredible human team (men AND women) who work at NASA — especially NASA JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA).
Mark your calendars for Aug 5/6 (depending on which time zone you live in). The landing is anticipated at approximately 10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5 (1:31 a.m. EDT Aug. 6)
Curious to learn more? The Curiosity Mission page and Mars Science Lab website will get you started!