The Japanese moon probe Kaguya is busy working to send back some videos of the moon. The one linked here is a composite of two: the first is the Earth rising on the lunar horizon, and the second is the Earth setting. If you don’t have eight minutes to watch the whole thing, I recommend sliding up to the half-way point to see the Earth set: very cool!
Archive for the ‘Science’ Category
Kaguya Moon Probe Sends back HDTV Video
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007Space Shuttle Discovery Nighttime Launch
Thursday, May 17th, 2007
Here’s the scenario: after keeping a careful eye on the schedule for the second launch of Discovery in 2006, and after several weather delays, it looked like the evening of the 9th of December, 2006 was a go. We turned on CNN and watched the live coverage of the launch. When we watched the launch go off without a hitch, we ran out the front door, down the stairs and looked to the north. As soon as we got outside, there was a bright orange fireball (the light you see in the middle of the photo). That bright fireball stopped before I could set the zoom on my camera, as the external thrusters fell off. It’s not much to look at in the photo, but you should have seen the big ol’ grin on my face…
Space Shuttle Discovery on the Pad
Thursday, May 17th, 2007
In June, 2006 we were able to take a quick trip up to central Florida. We first headed to the Kennedy Space Center where there are several places to explore. The tours take you to more places, and we decided on the Maximum Access (or something like that) tour and got to head out to where the shuttles are launched. We were lucky because the shuttle Discovery was set to launch in a couple of weeks. Since we took the better tour, we were able to get within 1 km. of the pad (and much closer to the shuttle-less other pad.) This was much closer than I was able to go when I went in 1985, and we were able to get out of the bus this time and take in the awesome view.
There are huge tunnels under the pad into which several thousand liters of water are dumped just before ignition. This water helps to both dampen the sound and vibration, and keep things at a manageable temperature. This shuttle turned out to be a bit delayed and launched on the 4th of July, 2006.
I highly recommend a trip to the Space Center out at Merritt Island. You will not be disappointed! 
Tired in the afternoon? Take a nap!
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007The content of El Viajero has been split into two blogs. El Viajero will focus on topics related to every day life. The academic material is moving to http://scholar.jklmelton.net.
This post has been moved here:
tired-in-the-afternoon-take-a-nap
Behind the Seeds Tour
Friday, February 23rd, 2007Walt Disney World’s EPCOT is divided into four major sections, one of which is called The Land. This is a huge building that houses a restaurant, and at least three rides: Soarin’ (the real name should be Soarin’ Over California, which is where it goes and which is the name of the same ride at California Adventure), Circle of Life, and Living with the Land.
This last one consists of a boat ride through some different simulated climate zones with accompanying narration and lighting. Then we are taken into EPCOT’s greenhouses which hold quite a number of plants of different varieties. It is a fascinating ride through agronomy’s world. Towards the end of the ride, the Behind the Seeds Tour is mentioned as a closer look into what goes on in the greenhouses.
For an extra $11 or so, a small group of people (there were seven in our group) is shown around the greenhouse by a guide. Our guide was Matt, a friendly and knowledgeable student who was very enthusiastic about his job and eating the food that is grown there.
The tour starts off with the Center’s work on organic pest removal (infesting leaf-destroying insects with a wasp egg that eats the leaf-eating insects; and raising ladybugs). Then they move on to how they raise plants from seeds (no sunlight is needed because they add a form of sugar to the plants diet.
The first two greenhouses hold the plants grown by hydroponics.
All the plants here are grown without the use of soils—-just water and nutrients. There are flowers and lettuce and others that can benefit from such techniques. We all got a sample of a cucumber grown this way, and it was sweet and delicious!
The next greenhouse uses soil like one would expect, but there was a twist with some of the plants. Some of the plants are actually vines but grown as trees. Here you can see a tomato vine that has been propped up with trellises and works like a tomato tree.
Another version of this “tomato tree” holds the Guinness record for number (more than 32,000!) and weight of the crop (more than 522kg.!)
When we were back in the pest control room, three members of the tour were given vials of cold ladybugs. When we got to the section with the tomatoes and eggplants, those members were asked to deploy their ladybugs.
The critters had plenty of time to warm up, but they were not necessarily ready to get out. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get some out of there.
As we were taking the tour through the greenhouses, the ride was taking people past us. The ride provides some perspective on how big some of the crops are.
Were we told some of the crops are used for the effect they have on the attraction. This is true of the pumpkins shown here. This variety is often used for entering into contests.
The next section is where aquatic life is raised.
There are tilapia, sturgeon, shrimp, alligators, and a few others. Sorry about the lighting; there must be a UV light used to cut down on the bacteria. I didn’t notice until I uploaded the photos in my computer, so I couldn’t ask about it.
The last section of the tour went through the tropical section of the greenhouse.
There are a bunch of different fruits and spices grown in this section. How many can you identify?
You are probably wondering (as I was) what the purpose of such a place is at a Disney park. We learned there are three (in this order):
The tour was well over an hour and worth every cent. Highly recommended.
