Into the unknown...

As a bonus, here's a little something I worked up in Adobe After Effects. Not bad for starting with a sill image, eh?

Hollywood Hussle

Astronaut Curiosity

My younger son was all about space and planets yesterday, and of course the Curiosity rover on Mars.  I told him that we could fly there and visit the rover.  Here's a postcard from our trip.

Chain and shadow

Light at the end

This is actually the light at the end of the tunnel.  This underground tunnel connected to sections of the Lalibela church complex.  After walking in complete darkness with about a hundred other people for 10 minutes, this light was quite welcome.  Not that I mind getting to know people, but the crying baby in front of me and the uneven floor conspiring to trip me at every step made this a walk that couldn't have ended soon enough.

iPhone Friday

My whip.

Well hello

Hello, and good morning.

Parting the sea (of people)

Having some fun with an image from Lalibela.

The perfect moment

Sometimes you just want to remember a single moment forever.

Curiosity

Today I'm hijacking my own blog to bring you science news.  Last night/this morning the Mars rover Curiosity landed on Mars.  This is certainly not the first time that we've successfully landed a rover on Mars, but this is by far the largest and most complex one that we've ever sent.  The size of it also dictated a risky and never-before-tried landing sequence.  You can see an animation of the landing sequence below.



Incredible, right?  I watched the live NASA feed of the Entry, Descent and Landing last night via their iPad app.  Live of course meant watching the control room at JPL as the scientist and engineers received telemetry from the rover.  When the mission controller calmly announced touchdown on Mars, the room erupted.  My heart almost burst with excitement and pride.  Pride not just as an American whose NASA organization sent this rover, but pride as a human being that there are those among us who can dream this big and then have the knowledge and skill to make it happen.  I wasn't alive when men landed on the moon, so I don't know what that felt like, but having experienced this unmanned mission live I can only imagine that excitement.  And then, only 15 minutes after landing, Curiosity sent a picture of it's shadow on the surface of Mars.  Incredible.



When thinking about the meaningfulness of this kind of endeavor, I was reminded of a talk given by Carl Sagan about the importance of the lunar landings.  Here's a recording of that.



Thanks for humoring me with my deviation for normal programming, but I felt this was important enough to shine a light on.  Have a great week!

The narrow way