Dreams and Nerdy Jokes

Last night, I had a dream that it was Yuri's Night at the museum and I was trying to direct volunteers to their respective stations, but an overly helpful volunteer kept sending them off to random places before I could talk to them. I woke up feeling like I'd just had a nightmare. I couldn't go back to sleep for 10-15 minutes. I think my retirement from YN coordinatorship is a good decision.

Wayne Hale made a joke in the press conference tonight that made crickets chirp in the press room. I, however, being a dorky engineer thought it was pretty funny. You will need a few technical terms to even begin to understand this joke:

gap filler - a paper-like substance placed in the gap between Shuttle tiles

laminar boundary layer - describes air flowing smoothly around a surface

turbulent boundary layer - describes air flowing turbulently around a surface

tripping a boundary layer - causing a transition from laminar to turbulent airflow around a surface

Mach - a number describing the speed of an object that is related to the speed of sound and other fluid characteristics. The speed of sound is Mach 1. In orbit, the Space Shuttle is generally going around Mach 25.

He was talking to some engineers that were working on the possible aerodynamic effects of the protruding gap filler that was photographed on Discovery. They were explaining to him that they didn't have a whole lot of good data to make a judgment on how the gap filler would affect the airflow around the bottom of the Shuttle during entry. After explaining this, they told him that they thought the boundary layer would trip at around Mach 21.5. That estimate could be off by as much as +/- 3 Mach numbers though. The engineer finished the conversation by stating "So, we could be tripped already."

I think you have to be an aero person to appreciate it.

Posting nada

A big Thank You to Sarah, Becca, and Katie’s sister Kelly for actually updating today! Even Dooce didn’t come through for me today. Seriously, folks, I know that it sounds exciting to be working in Mission Control, but we’ve been docked to the ISS for three days and we’re not going anywhere for about a week. Not too much for a trajectory person to do. I’ve watched the mission highlights three times already on this shift. I supposed I’d better get used to it. It is the weekend, after all. And I guess other people have lives or something.

Working

Although working from 3pm – 12am is much better from a not-so-sleepy-Jen perspective, I am finding that this schedule lends itself to me not getting anything done besides sleep and work. Basically, I come home at around 12:30am, pet the dogs, unpack my lunch, and go to bed around 1-1:30am. I sleep until about 10am. This gives me about 4 1/2 hours before I have to leave for work again. I have time to do about one thing. I can either a) watch TV for a bit b) mess around on the computer for a bit c) take the dogs for a walk or d) go to brunch with my husband. In fact, that is the list of what I’ve done in the last 4 days. Somehow, there seems to be much more time to do things when I’m on a normal schedule. I’m probably much better rested than normal, and I am spending a bit more time at work, but it seems much busier. It’s also not helped by the fact that I’m going to work through two weekends. Oh well, at least I’m getting some vacation time out of it!

I bought a plane ticket to Wyoming for August 18th – 21st. My sister is having a “party” for Caroline’s first birthday, which is the 20th, so that will be really fun. She was thinking picnic at Natural Bridge last time I talked to her. That ought to be fun. I won’t get to meet Gavin and Sarah in Yosemite, but your niece’s first birthday only comes once after all.

What If

As much as I am trying not to worry about the future of the Shuttle program until we have some idea if there's anything to worry about, Becca's question about what I'd do if the Shuttle program ends is something I've thought of in the past. Really, I have no idea what I would end up doing. Of course, the first thing would probably be a baby or two. :) After that, here are some possibilities, though.

1) Somewhere else in the spaceflight operations world. If some of these companies really do start selling trips into space, there will be a new market for operators.

2) Aircraft control. I don't know if I'd actually like doing this for very long, but it is as close a match to what I do now as I can think of.

3) Go back to school and study geophysics. It seems Gavin and I are just destined to be interested in the same fields. Of course, if we both change our careers to earth science, we might take a small financial hit. :)

Whatever we do, we will no doubt make every effort to move back to the mountains.

Various Futures

Earlier today our friends Becca and Sarah mused on their blogs about what they would do next if, for whatever reason, they stopped working at NASA. It's a reasonable question, as I think for the first time the question of whether the Shuttle will fly again after Discovery lands is not an easy one. It comes down to a matter of timing and resources. The plan was to return to flight, finish building what is needed on the space station, and then retire the shuttle. All by 2010. But if several months or even a year is needed to try to fix the shedding foam problem... is it worth the time and money to do so? I hate to leave a job unfinished, but I wonder if it would be a good decision to try again.

Anyways, what would I do if the Shuttle stopped flying? If I stayed with NASA, much of my work might not change that much. I help JPL with some of their Mars work, which I really enjoy and it means a lot to me, to be contributing to a mission that will be seeing things no one has ever seen before. I'm sure I'd be involved at some level with the new human spaceship to be used after Shuttle.

But what if I left NASA altogether? Hard to say. I think it would be fun to work for a start-up company like Blue Origin, but I'm not too interested in just helping people get to space. If it was a company interested in transoceanic suborbital flights, I might like that for a few years. I think that's the next big contribution that space technology can make to the world at large: deliver a package or a person from Los Angeles to Sydney in less than an hour.

I would strongly consider graduate school, either for something in optimal control theory or a physical science. Oceanography has always fascinated me. Come to think of it, naval engineering might be pretty fun too.

And I'd like to live some place with mountains. I miss them.

Flight Day 2

Yesterday, I worked my first shift as an official flight controller during a mission. It felt suprisingly like training. We must be one of the most well-rehearsed flight control teams in a long time. We simulated the planning shift so often it was like I was just replaying it last night. Guess that's why we train!

It's nice to see human spaceflight as front-page news again. The Shuttle mission has dominated the Houston Chronicle's front web page since launch. Maybe that's to be expected in the city that's home to Mission Control, but the other news outlets seem to at least be carrying headlines on their front page. Even if they are a little sensational.

I think the dogs are confused by my new schedule. They seem happy to have me at home during the day, but they also seem to be aprehensive. Like they think I'm going to leave for longer because I'm leaving at a strange time.

Columbia and Discovery

"Once upon a time, there was a little boy who loved dinosaurs. They were awesome, gigantic creatures that no one living had ever seen. That didn't stop people from studying them or drawing them or important for a little kid) imagining them.

"Then one day, when he was over at a friend's house, he caught something on TV. It was an oddly white and black plane, landing somewhere in a desert. It wasn't necessarily very sleek or powerful-looking, but there was just something about it that caught his eye. It was Columbia, returning from her first flight in space and landing at Edwards Air Force Base. His friend's parents couldn't really tell him much about the Shuttle, except that it went to and came back from space.

"Dinosaurs were so yesterday after that. Now he read books about space, about astronomy and Apollo and the Voyager and Viking missions. He had the Columbia 33rpm record. Astronauts were his heroes because of what they did, although he didn't know much more about them as people. He could name Neil Armstrong and John Young, and that was it.

"A few years passed and he was in 5th grade. At the end of a cold winter school day the somber teachers came in and told the students that the Shuttle Challenger had been lost with all aboard. The students left for home in stunned silence, none of them sure what that meant. That night the little boy's parents had to tear him away from the TV news to make him eat dinner. For the first time in his life, the ten-year old boy watched the news religiously for weeks.

"A few months later, the little boy started wearing glasses. Astronauts didn't wear glasses, he figured, so he started telling people he wanted to be an aerospace engineer when he grew up. Those engineers did really cool stuff, after all! Plus, he could tell it impressed his parents' friends.

"A couple of years passed by and the boy was taller now. One sunny morning in September, he was at home, sick from school. He had longed stopped watching the news, he had other things to worry about such as girls and whether or not his friends liked him still. His mom was out picking up some groceries, so he turned on the TV to see if Voltron or Transformers were on.

"But instead of his favorite cartoons he found something much, much cooler. On every television channel. It was the Discovery, minutes away from launching into space. The first launch since Challenger. With a tense countdown concluded, Discovery leapt off the pad and raced for the blue sky above. The news commentators sounded immensely happy but they didn't have anything on the boy jumping around in his living room, cheering loudly."

The Space Shuttles Columbia and Discovery have long been my favorites, Columbia for sparking an interest in space when I was a kid and Discovery for rekindling it when I was beginning to be distracted by the usual teenager woes. I was called to work the day Columbia fell splintered to earth. It was hard enough that the astronauts were lost. It was made more personal to me with the realization I had, walking through the hallways near Mission Control, that this particular spaceship was probably the impetus that led me to where I was in life. I was very sad to see that ship lost.

Today, sitting next to Sarah as we watched today's countdown together in a room near our offices, I felt the familiar thrill in my chest from when I had last watched Discovery lead the return of America to space. This time I managed not to dance around the room... it would have blocked the view of the TV for the people in back.

Return to Flight

Liftoff!

How can I even explain my feelings right now? First of all, I was totally expecting to wake up this morning and finding out the weather was bad or something else went wrong. I woke up after about 5 hours of sleep - no alarm - 10 minutes before the scheduled launch time. I flipped on the TV just before the restarting of the clock after the scheduled L-9 min hold. Everything looked normal. A couple minutes later, the gantry to the hatch retracted. OMG, we're still GO! Aerosurface and gimbal checks went off. The nose cap retracted. CAPCOM said his final words of goodbye.

I always remember the last 15 seconds of a launch count seeming to take a long time. It always seemed ages between the T-30 sec call and the sound supression system activating, the sparklers lighting, the engines firing up, and the SRBs lighting and lifting the shuttle off the pad. This time, though it was all a blur. In my head was this rising litany "Oh, my God the sparklers are lit... Oh, my God, the engines are firing... Oh, my God, THE STACK IS MOVING... OH, MY GOD, WE'RE ACTUALLY GOING BACK TO SPACE!!!!"

Thouroughly unable to contemplate going back to bed, I've been sitting here watching NASA TV and trading instant messages with friends. Surfing space news sites, and contemplating doing the job for which I've been training for 3 years for the first time.

It's a good day.

Zip Line Tours

Zip line tours sure seem to be the hot new thing! We took a tour in Whistler BC last March, a friend is planning on taking a zip tour of the Costa Rican rainforest on her honeymoon this summer, and now you can do the same in Alaska. It is just scary enough to be adventurous and fun, without being so scary it keeps roller coaster haters like me from trying it.

Bang the Drum

I don't want to work
I want to bang on the drum all day

Sarah, Kay, and I went to the Houston drum corps show on Friday. Although it was very wet, we had a good time. The first thing we realized after we sat down is that going to drum corps is a good way to feel old. Other than us, most of the stands were occupied by high school band students, their teachers, and chaperones. What really got to me was that even the teachers looked young. And Sarah didn't help when she classified us as "random adults that like drum corps".

I still don't feel like an adult. I know I'm pushing 30 now, but I still kind of feel like I'm pretending at being grown up. What do you think makes you change that preception of yourself? Having children of your own? Having teenagers of your own? I don't know; I just know I'm not there yet.

Take two on the Discovery launch is tomorrow. I am working pre-launch planning from 6pm to 3:30am. Much better hours than the last time when I had to work 11pm to 8am.

As late as last night, I fully intended to sleep in this morning as long as possible and then go in to work for a few hours. You know, to get in a few hours so that I'm better postured just in case something goes wrong tonight and I only work pre-launch again. The only problem is that I DON'T WANNA. I'm having much more fun sitting on my sofa surfing blogs and watching my dogs still sleeping. Maybe just a couple hours after lunch.

Is it bugging anyone else that the guy that got shot in London, who was originally described as "Asian", turns out to be from Brazil? There has been a lot of debate in the USA since our awakening to the threat of terrorism at home in 2001 about "racial profiling" and its role in identifying terror suspects. Personally, I'm against singling any individual out for scrutiny based on their race (or religion for that matter). But, if the authorities can't even tell the difference between a Brazilian and a "person of Middle-Eastern descent", that removes even the thin veneer of legitimacy racial profiling has.

Weekend Cleaning / Hawaii Reminiscing

We got our new washing machine yesterday. We went with a LG front loader, partly on a recommendation from Katie. So far, I really like it. It did 6 loads on it's first day in our house. The capacity is smaller than our old one, so that will be a bit of an adjustment for me.

We also did a lot of cleaning yesterday, which was due since I haven't done a major cleaning since we got back from Hawaii. I even got out the steam vac and took all the rawhide deposits off the living room rug. I didn't get to the kitchen, though, so I'll need to do that today.

I decided to take a leaf out of Becca's book and read a Backpacker magazine in the bath this morning. The result of this is that I just spent an hour using Topo USA to look up hiking trails in places there's no chance I will get to go this summer. I'm thinking about writing a "appreciate what you've got you lucky people that live near mountains" article. I shouldn't complain. I did just come back from Hawaii three weeks ago.

In that vein, I have posted a new Hawaii photo album. This one has tweaked photos, descriptions of the photos, and some panoramas. I am going to start a trip report this week. No doubt everyone will be tired of hearing about it before I'm tired of reliving it.

Go Again

Launch is Tuesday. I had myself convinced the engineers were going to be banging their heads against this sensor problem until we had to slip everything into September. Weather is still a significant threat, of course, and there's always the possibility that the signature of the problem will do something to cause further concern. Still, at this point it looks like pre-launch shift #2 is going to be Monday night. The best part about this slip is that my hours have improved significantly. The initial pre-launch shift was 11pm-8am. This time it's going to be 6pm-3:30am. Much better. By the middle of the mission, I'll be working 4pm-12am, which is practically normal late-sim hours.

I've been really bad since we got back from Hawaii about exercising. I've only played softball once due to rain-outs, and I haven't been swimming since I discovered that it was making my hair fall out. I need to get a swim cap to keep it mostly non-chlorinated. I have enough trouble with my hair - I don't need it falling out all the time!

No Peeing in the Car

Last night we had one of the largest Mely's dinners we've ever had. We sat under the whisper dish they have on their ceiling and had loud and laughing conversations about everything. We said goodbye to Jo (again) for the next three weeks as she flies off to Minneappolis today for flight attendant training. We debated the identity of Unknown DM Guy at length. It was a great time.

I'm going to tell this next story before my husband has a chance to...

After dinner Gavin and I got back in the car. I was uncomfortably aware that my bladder was very full and that I probably should have used the restroom before we left. Every time this happens to me, I notice Gavin's driving style is more aggressive than mine. He tends to corner and brake harder than I do. When one's bladder or stomach or both is very full, this can lead to significant discomfort. Gavin knows that this is a problem for me; he, of course, finds this hilarious. So as he giggles away at me as I'm buckling my seat belt, I tell him "If you make me pee in my car, I'm going to be really mad." It may be an indication of lingering effects from his margarita that he found this comment hilarious.

We're making plans to see Wicked when it comes to Houston this fall, which is very exciting. I don't think I've been this excited to see a musical since I went to Phantom of the Opera for the first time right after I moved to Seattle. "I'm going to try defying gravity, and you can't hold me down."

Drums

The launch slip has been wreaking havoc with everybody's vacation plans. However, the silver lining for me is that now I can go to the drum corps show in Houston on Friday night. In preparation, I'm am listening to my meager collection of drum corps music today.

Apache is in our bathroom today so that Becca's cleaning lady can clean her bathroom. Apache looks quite pathetic after her knee surgery, with her back leg shaved to the middle of her back and a plastic cone collar around her neck. However, she was quite happily hopping around on three legs and bringing me balls. Dogs are amazingly resiliant creatures.

Up Late

I started reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yesterday at about 3pm. I was finished at about 2am. Loved it. Although there was something of a sensation of rushing headlong towards a brick wall towards the end. Maybe Ms. Rowling intended that.

Didn't get much else done this weekend. Decided to trash the washing machine since the part Gavin thinks it needs would cost us $150 and we're pretty sure that this wouldn't fix everything that was wrong with the machine. So, I need to research new machines this week. I've got to say that my confidence in Whirlpool workmanship is a bit deflated after this experience. Which kind of sucks since they're supposed to be the high end.

Officially, the Shuttle launch is No-Earlier-Than Friday. As far as I am aware, we still don't know what's causing the problem. :( This is not only frustrating from a professional perspective, but is wreaking havoc with my vacation planning. I really want to go to Wyoming for Caroline's 1st birthday, but I can't buy plane tickets until we are launched or definately delayed. *sigh*

Harry Potter Blog

I love the blog phenomenon. Really, I do. But, why would someone want to stop reading the new Harry Potter for long enough to blog about it?

Blogger Problem

Blogger seems to be having problems today. It won't publish my whole blog - it hangs up. So the dorked up picture is not my fault.

Fire and Water

Last night, I finished cropping and editing all the Hawaii photos. Now, I just have to go back and write descriptions, and then I'll republish the album.

Maybe the 2 hours of work I did on the photos precipitated the dream I had this morning. Our house was being run over by lava. We didn't understand at first what was going on and got stuck in the kitchen, where the floor was slowly melting to reveal the lava which was welling up from underneath. We had to climb out over the island to escape out the door.

It's finally raining in Houston. According to Weather.com, we got 0.24 in of rain this June. The average is 5.35 in. People's yards have been turning brown. Our crape myrtle looks very sad with partially orange leaves and only half blooming. Today, it is supposed to be rainy all day, though. The dogs are inside with new bones. Hopefully, we won't have any disasters. While we were in Hawaii, the four dogs apparently had a tug-of-war game with Becca's papasan chair.

Launch is no earlier than Monday. Still no word on a cure for the problem.

Scrub

I'm back at work normal hours today after the launch scrub. If you're looking for the inside scoop on when we're really going to launch, don't ask me. I just work here. Meanwhile, I only worked 3 hours on Tuesday, so I'm 5 behind for the week if we don't get going here before Saturday.

The bad thing about working night shifts for a Shuttle mission isn't the staying up all night for 13 days during the mission. It's staying up the one night and then getting the launch scrubbed, having to get back on normal time for a couple days, and then staying up all night again a few days later. It's like getting jet lagged all the time without going anywhere.

Mission Blog

Yes! A Houston Chronicle reporter is going to be blogging about the mission starting today. As you can hopefully understand, I won't be able to share much about work here over the next couple weeks. However, check out this blog for the latest!.

Weekend

Friday night I stayed home and watched TV a bit, started re-reading all the Harry Potter books in preparation for the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on the 16th, and played with the dogs. Becca and Cari came over to spend the night because their A/C was still off and their house was a furnace. Apache insisted on running up the stairs first thing even with her gimp leg.

Saturday I woke up really late and then took a 2 hour bath. It was heaven. Then I went to Becca's (where the A/C was supposedly fixed - she didn't seem too convinced) to do my laundry because our washing machine is broken, again. Then it was back home to change quickly for Pooja's wedding shower. This was one of the coolest shower's I've ever been to. It was in a bath store. We got to make our own shower favor by chosing scents and colors for lotion and bath crystals. We also did all the normal shower stuff - Sarah beat me out on the best TP bridal accessory game.

Sunday was another sleep-in day, but not nearly as late. Another long bath (I missed two weekends in Hawaii, OK) was followed by a pedicure with Becca and shopping for frames for the photographs we purchased in Hawaii. I really like the frames I got, now we just have to compromise on where to put the pictures. I'm lobbying for the master bedroom, but Gavin wants to put them upstairs.

Last night, I woke up at all hours of the night again. Got to work at 8am to go over software operations notes, and now I have to go to a software priorities meeting. I REALLY hope we launch Wednesday.

Funny

If you understand this, then you are in the sci-fi geek club. (It's really funny, though.)

Go Discovery

As I sit here at my desk, I'm suprised at noticing a change around here. There's an energy in the air that hasn't been around for a while now. Every ring of a telephone seems to have more import. Vaguely heard voices from the next office seem more serious and urgent. My desk is no longer covered with programming references, but my e-mail is full of messages about last-minute preparations.

Maybe this difference is just in my perspective. We have been preparing for this moment for so long, with so many delays, that this launch data didn't really seem real until just this week. Suddenly, I have a shift schedule in my calendar.

Keep away Dennis.

Aloha Hawaii

We had a marvelous time in Hawaii. I managed to get all the pictures descriptively labeled last night between washing machine breakdowns and 4th of July BBQs. Since certain relatives of Becca's are impatient for something to do while they should be working :), I've posted them all in the online photo album. Note, though, I haven't added any narrative or weeded out lemons or double copies. I'll re-post the album and trip report with more detail soon.

Work today has been really busy this first day back. It was a very precious wish I had, which I hardly dared to consider lest I jinx it, to come back to a Shuttle program a week from returning to flight. Well, it looks like that wish has been granted! I have pre-launch meetings and work scheduled all week. :) Very cool.