Author Archives: Gray Rinehart

Vote for Gray! (The Anti-Candidate Lives)

By | |
Comments Off on Vote for Gray! (The Anti-Candidate Lives)

After much soul-searching and “counting the cost,” I have decided NOT to file as a candidate for the 2010 election primary. (Today is the deadline.) Instead, I will continue making snide observations about the candidates and the process, and as the Anti-Candidate I remain available for any write-in votes you want to cast.

(East view of the U.S. Capitol. U.S. Government photo. Click to enlarge.)

I received a lot of encouragement from folks, and I appreciate everyone’s confidence and general enthusiasm. I especially appreciate the offers of office space and other support. Maybe next time….

I made the decision based on four practical considerations. First, I don’t have any spare time to devote to the actual work of campaigning, not while I’m working two jobs and spending most of my off hours on church matters. Second, I haven’t built an organization capable of running a campaign, spreading the word, and getting out the vote. Third, owing to the lack of an organization, I don’t have any campaign funds to pay for things like the campaign filing fee. And finally, there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of candidates already in position, each of whom has more time, more of an organization, and more money than I do. So, from a practical standpoint, it made sense to sit this one out.

Some folks really seem to want me to run for office, and maybe one day I will. In the meantime, if you want to get an idea of where I stand on the issues, I’ll let you know as soon as I figure that out. (Actually, I’ve posted some issue-related ramblings on the Anti-Campaign pages.)

And if you don’t like the choices set before you on election day (or primary day), and can’t decide which one(s) you should vote against, feel free to vote against all of them by writing in my name!

(I’m Gray Rinehart, and I approved this message.)

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

It's a planet! Or, it was.

By | |
Comments Off on It's a planet! Or, it was.

Eighty years ago today — February 18, 1930 — astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, discovered Pluto.


(Hubble Space Telescope image of Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix and Hydra. NASA image.)

Pluto is about 39 times as far from the sun as Earth is. Its average distance from the sun is about 3,647,240,000 miles (5,869,660,000 kilometers). Pluto travels around the sun in an elliptical (oval-shaped) orbit. At some point in its orbit, it comes closer to the sun than Neptune, the outermost planet. It stays inside Neptune’s orbit for about 20 Earth years. This event occurs every 248 Earth years, which is about the same number of Earth years it takes Pluto to travel once around the sun.

Many of us grew up knowing Pluto as a planet: a cold, distant planet but a planet nonetheless. Now, thanks to the inexorable forward march of scientific progress, Pluto is no longer a planet in its own right. It’s too small, the critics said, to fit the definition. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union named Pluto a “dwarf planet.”

But, Pluto does have the distinction of being the largest (so far) of the Kuiper Belt Objects, those far-flung chunks of whatever that orbit the far reaches of our solar system. And, as such, it is the namesake of a class of celestial objects known as “plutoids.” So, little Pluto got some redemption after being stripped of its title.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Apollo Boilerplate Mission: Micrometeoroid Detection

By | |
Comments Off on Apollo Boilerplate Mission: Micrometeoroid Detection

Forty-five years ago today — February 16, 1965 — the Apollo boilerplate mission SA-9 launched from Cape Canaveral. The Saturn-I booster carried a “boilerplate” Apollo capsule and tried out elements of the Apollo launch sequence, but also carried its first live payload: the Pegasus-1 micrometeoroid detection satellite.


(Wernher von Braun in front of a Saturn-IB rocket, 1968. NASA image.)

The Pegasus-1 spacecraft was equipped with large wings — 29.3 x 4.3 meters, nearly 100 feet by 14 — that detected impacts by micrometeoroids in the flight regime through which Apollo astronauts would fly on their way to the Moon. This Wikipedia page has more information on the Pegasus itself.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Valentine's Day Space History: Solar Max, and a Near-Earth Asteroid

By | |
Comments Off on Valentine's Day Space History: Solar Max, and a Near-Earth Asteroid

Thirty years ago today — February 14, 1980 — a Delta rocket out of Cape Canaveral launched the Solar Maximum Mission to study the Sun during the peak of the 11-year solar cycle.


(The SMM spacecraft in orbit. NASA image.)

The SMM satellite malfunctioned in January 1981, but in April 1984 it was recovered by the space shuttle Challenger and serviced in orbit. After it was released, it continued functioning until it reentered the Earth’s atmosphere in December 1989.


(The SMM satellite being repaired in the shuttle cargo bay. NASA image.)

And 10 years ago, on Valentine’s Day 2000, the NEAR spacecraft — Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous, also known as “NEAR Shoemaker” in honor of astronomer Eugene Shoemaker — entered orbit around the asteroid Eros. NEAR studied Eros for a year before landing on the asteroid in February 2001.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Japan Joins the Space Club, Endeavour Scans the Earth

By | |
Comments Off on Japan Joins the Space Club, Endeavour Scans the Earth

Forty years ago today — February 11, 1970 — Japan launched its first satellite, Ohsumi, from the Uchinoura Space Center. Ohsumi was a small technology demonstrator, with only a few instruments on board, but its success made Japan only the fourth nation (after the U.S.S.R, the U.S.A., and France) to successfully place a payload in orbit.

Thirty years later, in 2000, Japanese astronaut Mamoru Mohri launched into orbit aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-99, his second spaceflight. Mohri joined U.S. astronauts Kevin R. Kregel, Dominic L. Pudwill Gorie, Janet L. Kavandi, and Janice E. Voss, as well as Gerhard P. J. Thiele of Germany, on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM).


(SRTM in the shuttle cargo bay. NASA image.)

Over its 11-day mission, the SRTM mapped over 99% of the earth’s land area between 60 degrees N latitude and 56 degrees S latitude. The SRTM instrument consisted of a large radar array in the shuttle cargo bay and a smaller antenna mounted on an extendable mast: the mast, the longest rigid structure yet flown in space, placed the secondary antenna 200 feet (60 meters) outside the shuttle. The configuration caused an increase in fuel consumption as the shuttle had to “offset the gravity gradient torque of the mast,” but they were able to compensate and complete the mapping mission.

Endeavour is in orbit today on mission STS-130, its next-to-last mission to the International Space Station. Fare thee well.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Passing By Venus — We Were in the Neighborhood …

By | |
Comments Off on Passing By Venus — We Were in the Neighborhood …

Twenty years ago today — February 9, 1990* — the Galileo spacecraft flew by Venus in a course-adjustment maneuver on its way to Jupiter. The probe passed about 10,000 miles (16,000 km) above our sister planet.


(Venus images from the Galileo spacecraft, taken through violet and infrared filters. NASA image.)

The Venus flyby gave the mission team the chance to test out Galileo‘s cameras and instruments in preparation for its encounter with Jupiter. The “gravity-assist” of the spacecraft swinging around the planet boosted Galileo’s speed and set it on an intercept course with … Earth. Two similar maneuvers around our home planet would eventually place the spacecraft on course for its final destination.

Here’s the press release on the flyby, which is kind of interesting, and here’s a gallery of images from the encounter.

___
*February 9th on the West Coast, where the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was controlling the mission; it was already February 10th on the East Coast. (If that matters to you.)

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Shuttles and Deltas and Thors, Oh, My!

By | |
Comments Off on Shuttles and Deltas and Thors, Oh, My!

Fifteen years ago today — February 3, 1995 — Space Shuttle Discovery launched from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-63. Astronauts James D. Wetherbee, Eileen M. Collins, C. Michael Foale, Janice E. Voss, and Bernard A. Harris, Jr., along with cosmonaut Vladimir Titov, completed a close-up flyby of Russia’s MIR space station.


(MIR space station as seen from mission STS-63. NASA image.)

STS-63 was the first time a shuttle approached and flew around space station MIR, as part of the preliminary phase of the International Space Station program. Also on this mission, Eileen Collins became the first female shuttle pilot.

Thirty years earlier, on February 3, 1965, Orbiting Solar Observatory 2 (OSO-2) was launched on a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral. Finally, to complete today’s space history trifecta, in between the two — 40 years ago, in 1970 — a Thor-Agena rocket launched the second Space Electric Rocket Test (SERT-2) from Vandenberg AFB.*

___
*Some sources say SERT-2 launched on February 4th, but I believe those are noting UTC rather than local time.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

If I Were My Own Representative, Part V: A Positive Message

By | |
Comments Off on If I Were My Own Representative, Part V: A Positive Message

This series has been fun for me, like the other fiction I try to write. But I feel that this fiction needs to have a message. So If I Were My Own Representative, I would carry a simple message wherever I went. Whether I got to speak to a Rotary Club or a school or a TV talk show, I would try to take the opportunity to remind people that the U.S.A. is still the greatest nation ever conceived by human beings.

(Image from Flickr, by Elaron, licensed under Creative Commons. Click to enlarge.)

We’re not perfect. We’re not likely to be. We have problems, and faults, and failures, and we’re unlikely to ever agree completely on how to correct them.

But in our ideals — “we hold these truths to be self-evident,” “bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” — in the freedoms we afford our people and are willing to help others achieve, and in our drive to improve, grow, and rise above the status quo, I believe we are the greatest hope for peace and prosperity in the world.

I understand that some people will disagree, and that’s okay. If you become your own Representative, you can bear any message you like.

Call me a patriot, call me a fool, I will remain positive and hopeful about these United States.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

If I Were My Own Representative, Part IV: My Touchstone for Voting

By | | ,
Comments Off on If I Were My Own Representative, Part IV: My Touchstone for Voting

A lot of legislation is pitched on the basis of what it is intended to do, and often on the basis of whom it is intended to help. If I Were My Own Representative, my touchstone for voting would be quite the opposite: whom it was likely to hurt.

(U.S. Capitol dome, from the Architect of the Capitol. Click to enlarge.)

My initial position would be to vote “no” on any bill that had a provision that would hurt some of our citizens, even if it helped some others. I would have to be convinced that the help was worth the hurt; i.e., that the hurt was along the lines as the necessary pain of surgery to correct a life-threatening condition.

If it wasn’t clear what effects some given legislation would have, whether it would hurt some people while helping some others, I would at least ASK. If no one could tell me, again my initial thought would be to vote against it.

Note that I’ve qualified the “help/hurt” question in terms of our citizens, because they should be first priority. We may enact legislation that helps others — especially where our relative wealth can help those in dire need — but not necessarily at the expense of hurting our own people.

When it comes to legislation with the potential to hurt others, the question has an added dimension: whether those others are allies or enemies. It’s unrealistic to believe that we have no enemies, and I think the Romans 12:18 standard applies to international relations: if possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with all people. But we need to be pragmatic when it comes to potential conflict, and it would be irresponsible to fail to provide for organizing, training, and equipping the military forces that defend us.

Why is this a big deal? Maybe it’s not. But I don’t want my Representatives to pass legislation that hurts me or my friends, so I wouldn’t want to vote for legislation that would hurt people.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

If I Were My Own Representative, Part III: Hearings and Caucuses

By | |
Comments Off on If I Were My Own Representative, Part III: Hearings and Caucuses

I’ve been to a Congressional hearing, watched a few more on TV, and prepared testimony for several. Hearings, in general, are effective for Congress to gather information so it can evaluate alternatives and exercise its oversight. But some of the hearings seem trivial, either in their subject matter or their treatment, and become little more than media events for grandstanding by elected officials and witnesses.

If I Were My Own Representative, I could go to hearings on trivial subjects and ask, “Why are we having this hearing? Don’t we have better things to do?” Better things like debating big, substantive issues; reconciling or voting on bills; or even crafting our own legislation so lobbyists wouldn’t have to?

Not all hearings are on trivial subjects, of course, but they aren’t all on matters of great importance to the state, either. And even the ones I think are trivial are obviously important to somebody.* Why, I don’t know … hence, the question I’d like to ask.

Would it be rude to ask the question? Oh, yeah. And not exactly politically astute: I presume nobody questions whether a given hearing is trivial in order not to offend their fellows. If I did that, they might not want to attend my trivial hearings. As quid-pro-quo goes, that’s probably pretty harmless. But it’s not as fun.

As for caucuses — of which, like committees and hearings, there are probably more than necessary — I’d definitely join the Air Force Caucus. I don’t know if any other caucuses would have me!

___
*For example: A subject I consider trivial, like steroids in sports, you might consider of paramount importance to the survival of our democratic republic. To each, his own.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather