Recent Inactivity

Posts have been rather scant lately and will probably remain so until after December. I am currently studying a dizzying array of procedural manuals for a test at work and, although they are extremely dull and I would much rather be writing here or working on my books, their analysis is consuming most of my free time. I will finish editing my second book after the test is over (I was nearly finished when I had to drop it for studying) and begin seeking publishing options sometime in the spring.

For now I thought I would plug teefury.com. They produce one t-shirt per day and you can get it for $10: http://www.teefury.com/ 

Rocket Video

Hey everyone! Here's a great video of a recent rocket launch from Black Rock Desert in Nevada. It reached an altitude of 121,000 feet (22.9 miles)!
If you are prone to motion sickness I would advise against watching the descent.
Rocket Video
Below is the link to the Derek Deville's website, the rocket's designer, which has some great pictures and schematics.
http://ddeville.com/derek/Qu8k.html

Lasers and Orora...Aroruh...The Northern Lights

NASA is gearing up to test their new laser communications system. The test will last for several years and will, hopefully, lead to the implementation of a system that will enable the transmission of a much larger data stream between mission control and mission locations. It will be a complicated process with a lot of links in the technical chain that will have an opportunity to fail. The test platform will contain "telescopes, lasers, mirrors, detectors, a pointing and tracking system, control electronics, and two different types of modems." What does all this mean? It will give them much faster data downloads from probes and rovers: "It currently takes 90 minutes to transmit high-resolution images from Mars, but NASA would like to dramatically reduce that time to just minutes." It  Read the complete article at the NASA website: laser-comm


Also, here are a couple of nifty videos featuring the Aurora Borealis:
As seen from the ISS: Northern Lights from the ISS
Aurora explained: Earth's Aurora