Sub-Orbital Space Flights & Satellite Exploration
WEPCTV guest contributor Miles O’Brien brings us this special report on the same day NASA astronauts complete their final space walk — and zero-g repair job — on the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission #4. Miles says: ———— Astronauts spend a lot more time training for missions than flying in space. But I wouldn’t feel sorry for them as the training is an amazing adventure unto itself. They practice in airplanes that fly a roller-coaster pattern to give them brief stints of weightlessness (the so called Vomit Comet); they get to zoom around in supersonic T-38 training jets; they fly approaches to shuttle runways in a Gulfstream jet rigged up to fly (or more accurately, plummet) like a real orbiter; they get time in high-fidelity full motion simulators; they use virtual reality goggles to practice tasks they will perform in space – and if they are a spacewalker, they get to spend a lot of time in a huge swimming pool in a former hangar at Ellington Field – near the Johnson Space Center in Houston – learning the nuances of working in the void. Astronaut John Grunsfeld, who is an astronomer and a huge fan of the Hubble Space Telescope, invited me to join him during one of his 6 hour “runs” in the big pool – officially known as the Sonny Carter Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. I watched him as he practiced the most challenging spacewalk of his long career – the resuscitation of the Advanced Camera for Surveys. Worried as he was about accomplishing this intricate …
Tags: maker, Mike, zero, scuba
This episode of Boing Boing Video is brought to you by www.wepc.com Boing Boing Video guest contributor Miles O’Brien brings us this special report on the same day NASA astronauts complete their final space walk — and zero-g repair job — on the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission #4. Miles says: ———— Astronauts spend a lot more time training for missions than flying in space. But I wouldn’t feel sorry for them as the training is an amazing adventure unto itself. They practice in airplanes that fly a roller-coaster pattern to give them brief stints of weightlessness (the so called Vomit Comet); they get to zoom around in supersonic T-38 training jets; they fly approaches to shuttle runways in a Gulfstream jet rigged up to fly (or more accurately, plummet) like a real orbiter; they get time in high-fidelity full motion simulators; they use virtual reality goggles to practice tasks they will perform in space – and if they are a spacewalker, they get to spend a lot of time in a huge swimming pool in a former hangar at Ellington Field – near the Johnson Space Center in Houston – learning the nuances of working in the void. Astronaut John Grunsfeld, who is an astronomer and a huge fan of the Hubble Space Telescope, invited me to join him during one of his 6 hour “runs” in the big pool – officially known as the Sonny Carter Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. I watched him as he practiced the most challenging spacewalk of his long career – the resuscitation of the …
Tags: science, make, atlantis, Grunsfeld
The Ymir bears striking physical similarity to another Harryhausen creation, the Kraken, from 1981′s Clash of the Titans. The names of both of these creatures were taken from Norse mythology, employed in wholly unrelated contexts. In Norse mythology, Ymir was a giant of unimaginable size who lay frozen in ice at the beginning of time. The universe was created from Ymir’s body by Odin, king of the Norse pantheon, and his two brothers.
Tags: effects, classic, special, monster
humans. They appear to be evolving in remarkable ways, but is it coincidence? Or could they be The Eternals, come back to save the world from a second Dark Ages Theres another problem: five apparent strangers wake up in the woods, strange items in the their pockets. Unsure of who, where, or when, they are, they begin to deal with their immediate concern: survival. As their memories slowly begin to return, they begin to suspect that everything is not quite what it seems, and that they might …
Tags: science, enneadseries, sci-fi, terry
to be evolving in remarkable ways, but is it coincidence? Or could they be The Eternals, come back to save the world from a second Dark Ages Theres another problem: five apparent strangers wake up in the woods, strange items in the their pockets. Unsure of who, where, or when, they are, they begin to deal with their immediate concern: survival. As their memories slowly begin to return, they begin to suspect that everything is not quite what it seems, and that they might not be strangers …
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The working title of the film was The Giant Ymir,In the released version of the film, the creature is never referred to by name, as Harryhausen was concerned that audiences might confuse “Ymir” with the Arabic title “Emir”.
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Ray Harryhausen’s original design for the monster was a giant cyclops, similar to the one he later used in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958). He discarded the idea after making a clay model of it, and eventually settled on the reptilian Ymir. One of My favorite scenes involves the Creature walking forward in the barn as they try to lock it in,it just looks soo good,almost as if He were creeping along and I was reminded of that scene years later,the first time I ever watched Pumpkinhead wherein …
Tags: science, ray, fiction, Harryhausen
humans. They appear to be evolving in remarkable ways, but is it coincidence? Or could they be The Eternals, come back to save the world from a second Dark Ages Theres another problem: five apparent strangers wake up in the woods, strange items in the their pockets. Unsure of who, where, or when, they are, they begin to deal with their immediate concern: survival. As their memories slowly begin to return, they begin to suspect that everything is not quite what it seems, and that they might …
Tags: series, enneadseries.com, ennead, the
to be evolving in remarkable ways, but is it coincidence? Or could they be The Eternals, come back to save the world from a second Dark Ages Theres another problem: five apparent strangers wake up in the woods, strange items in the their pockets. Unsure of who, where, or when, they are, they begin to deal with their immediate concern: survival. As their memories slowly begin to return, they begin to suspect that everything is not quite what it seems, and that they might not be strangers …
Tags: enneadseries.com, terry, fiction, enneadseries
to be evolving in remarkable ways, but is it coincidence? Or could they be The Eternals, come back to save the world from a second Dark Ages Theres another problem: five apparent strangers wake up in the woods, strange items in the their pockets. Unsure of who, where, or when, they are, they begin to deal with their immediate concern: survival. As their memories slowly begin to return, they begin to suspect that everything is not quite what it seems, and that they might not be strangers …
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