Author Archives: Gray Rinehart

Sometimes a Successful Launch Isn't Enough

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Forty-five years ago today — December 14, 1966 — a Delta rocket launched from Cape Canaveral carrying a set of biological specimens to study how microgravity affected them.


(Biosatellite-1 launch. NASA image from Wikimedia Commons.)

Biosatellite-1 made it to orbit successfully. The overall mission failed, however, because the capsule could not be de-orbited. Its retro rocket malfunctioned, leaving the spacecraft in orbit; its orbit eventually decayed in February 1967, but that was long after the experiment’s usefulness would have passed.

Nevertheless, this NASA page about the program notes that Biosatellite-1 “provided technical confidence in the program because of excellent performance in most other areas.” The next biosatellite launch was a complete success.

One might wonder why experiments like these would be carried out, since human beings had been launched into space for years. Didn’t we already know how the space environment affected biological organisms? To an extent, yes, but as I understand it sending up small-scale, short-lived species and studying the effects on them would allow scientists to extrapolate to longer-term effects on larger organisms — like people on long-duration spaceflights.

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Space Power … Electrical Power, That Is

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Five years ago today — December 10, 2006 — the Space Shuttle Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center on a mission to improve the electrical power subsystem on the International Space Station.


(The International Space Station as seen from STS-116. NASA image.)

Mission STS-116‘s crew consisted of U.S. astronauts William A. Oefelein, Joan E. Higginbotham, Mark L. Polansky, Robert L. Curbeam, Nicholas J.M. Patrick, and Sunita L. Williams, plus European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang of Sweden. With the exception of Williams, the crew spent 12 days in space; she, however, stayed aboard the ISS as the Expedition 14 flight engineer. ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter of Germany, previous ISS flight engineer, returned to Earth with STS-116.

From 1998 to 2006, the ISS had essentially been operating on a temporary power system. The STS-116 crew rectified that situation and prepared the station for its additional modules by rewiring the ISS … certainly not a complete “makeover” of the station, but in many ways an “extreme” one.

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Spotlight on Books: the 'Mother of Milstar,' Eating Clouds, and Subversion

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A few new books that have come to my attention, that I’d like to bring to yours …

Over at New Scientist, there’s a review of a new book about actress Hedy Lamarr, who invented the frequency-hopping and spread-spectrum techniques that made Milstar satellite communications secure … and that make WiFi and other modern communications possible.


(Artist’s conception of Milstar satellite. USAF image.)

My commander at the 4th Space Operations Squadron, where I “flew” Milstar satellites, called Ms. Lamarr the “mother of Milstar” because of her invention. This new book sounds as if it captures not only the essence of her invention but also the trouble she ran into as a movie star who also happened to be a first-rate thinker.

Meanwhile, my writing friend Edmund Schubert has a new short story collection out entitled The Trouble with Eating Clouds.

Ed’s stories are very entertaining, often thought-provoking, and sometimes a little quirky. You might already have guessed that from the title, if not from the striking cover art, but I figure there’s no harm in stating the point.

And speaking of short stories, the folks behind Crossed Genres magazine (which published my story “The Tower” in one of their quarterlies) have brought out an anthology entitled Subversion, which they describe as “science fiction & fantasy tales of challenging the norm.”

Of course, ’tis the Season: if you know someone who might enjoy one of these books, now you can satisfy their Christmas wishes.

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Dual Launch on a Delta-II, and an Old Test Satellite

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Ten years ago today — December 7, 2001 — a Delta-II launch vehicle carried two satellites into orbit from Vandenberg AFB.


(Artist’s conception of the Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics [TIMED] satellite. NASA image.)

Jason-1 was a joint mission between the U.S. and France: an oceanographic satellite intended to monitor the level and wave heights of the ocean surface. The Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics, or TIMED, satellite was designed to study “the physical and chemical processes acting within and upon the coupled mesosphere,” i.e., that portion of the atmosphere between 60-180 km altitude. This region of the atmosphere “is difficult to study because it is too high for even the largest research balloons and still dense enough to quickly cause a satellite to decay from orbit.”

In earlier space history, on this date 45 years ago, Applications Technology Satellite 1 (ATS-1) launched from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas Agena rocket. ATS-1 was a test platform for new spacecraft design concepts, particularly propulsion and attitude control, as well as a remote sensing satellite that collected meterological data and cloud cover images. ATS-1 also tested improved satellite communications.

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Read Any Good Books (or Shorter Works) Lately?

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Hey, blogosphere and Facebook folks: YOU can help me fulfill my solemn duty to the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America!

It’s “award season,” and this will be the first time I’m able to nominate and vote for the Nebula Awards.

I’m pretty excited about being able to take part in the Nebula voting: It feels good to be able to participate in this professional ritual. Plus, my writing friends Eric James Stone and Rachel Swirsky won Nebulas last year, and I’ve enjoyed several of the award-winning novels of recent years.

Problem is, I don’t get to do a lot of reading for pleasure. I’ve collected together all of my 2011 issues of Analog, Asimov’s, Bull Spec, Realms of Fantasy, etc., to go through them, but I’m also looking for suggestions. What else should I read, in hopes that I’ll enjoy it enough to nominate it?

Some of my writing friends have sent me their eligible work,* but if you read — or wrote — a novel or story that was published this year that you think I should consider, let me know about it!

I have until mid-February to submit my nominations, but the sooner I get suggestions the more time I’ll have to read the stories.

And if you haven’t read any good books or good stories lately, WHY NOT?

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*And a few of them are also kindly reading my eligible novelette: “Therapeutic Mathematics and the Physics of Curve Balls,” from the September Analog.

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International Space Ferry

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Ten years ago today — December 5, 2001 — the Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center on a mission to the International Space Station.


(Shuttle Endeavour being readied for the STS-108 mission. NASA image.)

STS-108 delivered the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module to the ISS. Astronauts Dominic L. Gorie, Mark E. Kelly, Linda M. Godwin, and Daniel M. Tani attached the Italian cargo module to the ISS’s Unity module, and ferried the ISS Expedition 4 crew — cosmonaut Yuri Onufrienko and astronauts Carl E. Walz and Daniel W. Bursch — to their new orbital home.

When Endeavour landed, it brought the ISS Expedition 3 crew — astronaut Frank Culbertson and cosmonauts Mikhail Tyurin and Vladimir N. Dezhurov — back to Earth.

I’ve noted elsewhere on this blog that I met Captain (USN) Culbertson several years after his return from the ISS. I sat next to him during a day-long NASA Industry-Education Forum. Good guy.

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Mars Pathfinder

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Fifteen years ago today — December 4, 1996 — a Delta-II rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Station carrying the Mars Pathfinder lander and rover.


(Martian sunset (false color view). NASA image.)

Mars Pathfinder landed on Mars on July 4, 1997, and deployed the Sojourner rover (named for Sojourner Truth). After it landed, the Pathfinder’s name was changed to the Carl Sagan Memorial Station.

The mission was a great success, with the rover lasting twelve times longer than its design life and the lander lasting three times as long. The last Mars Pathfinder data transmission was sent on September 27, 1997.

Lessons learned from the Mars Pathfinder mission went into building the follow-on Spirit and Odyssey rovers, as well as the much larger and more ambitious Curiosity rover which launched November 26, 2011, on the Mars Science Laboratory mission.

May Curiosity meet with even greater success than its predecessors.

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First Successful Landing on Mars

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Forty years ago today — December 2, 1971 — the Soviet Mars-3 lander made the first successful soft landing on the Red Planet.


(Mars-3 lander model at the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics in Russia. Image from the National Space Science Data Center.)

Mars-3 had been launched on May 28th (see this space history blog entry), hot on the heels of Mars-2. When Mars-3 landed, Mars-2 had already become the first manmade object to reach the Martian surface.

Mars-3’s landing, in contrast to Mars-2’s, went smoothly. Once the petals opened and it began transmitting, however,

After 20 seconds, at 13:52:25, transmission stopped for unknown reasons and no further signals were received at Earth from the martian surface. It is not known whether the fault originated with the lander or the communications relay on the orbiter. A partial panoramic image returned showed no detail and a very low illumination of 50 lux. The cause of the failure may have been related to the extremely powerful martian dust storm taking place at the time which may have induced a coronal discharge, damaging the communications system. The dust storm would also explain the poor image lighting.

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Part of the Profession

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Meet the newest Active member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America: me.

It’s nice to check that off the “writing career” list —

  • First story sale … CHECK (2007)
  • First professional story sale … CHECK (2010)
  • SFWA qualification (3 pro stories or a novel) … CHECK

— especially as my entry into SFWA was a little unconventional. I originally joined as an Affiliate member, based on my work with Baen Books, since I hadn’t yet made any qualifying sales of my fiction. Even my first professional-level story, “Memorial at Copernicus,” didn’t qualify me for Associate membership because Redstone Science Fiction was too new and had not yet been recognized as a professional market.

Of all the professional organizations I’ve joined at various times in my life (e.g., Air Force Association, American Society for Quality Control [now just ‘ASQ’]) SFWA’s entrance qualifications were the hardest to meet. Now that they’ve let me in, I’m reminded of the Groucho Marx bit — wondering if I should be leery of joining a group that would have me as a member — especially as I feel more like a lucky hack than a professional. Maybe it’s something I have to live up to.

Of course, this doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. To paraphrase one of my parents’ favorite sayings, to account for inflation and personal preference: that and a buck will buy me a diet soda.*

So, on to the next thing: finishing the next story.

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*Even though “That and 50 cents will buy you a cup of coffee” sounds better, since I don’t drink coffee I’m not sure how many places still sell it for 50 cents.

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Two Chimps: One an Astronaut, One a Writer

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Fifty years ago today — November 29, 1961 — NASA launched the last “orbital qualification flight” for the Mercury program.


(Enos, the Mercury-Atlas 5 passenger. NASA image.)

Mission Mercury-Atlas 5 carried a chimpanzee, Enos, that “performed various psychomotor activities during the flight and was found to be in excellent physical condition following splashdown.” Enos was supposed to make three orbits around the Earth, but mission controllers brought him back after only two orbits because of a propulsion system problem.

(Aside: Lucky chimp, got to be an astronaut.)

As for the writer chimp, that would be me.

Usually, when it comes to literary primates, I think about hypothetical monkeys at typewriters, trying to produce Shakespeare; you too may be familiar with the infinite monkey theorem.* But monkeys have tails, and we already have Shakespeare, so I’ll live with the chimp metaphor.

Anyway, yesterday marked another metaphorical milestone for me in terms of my writing career, such as it is: I sent in my contracts — and, perhaps more important, my money — to upgrade to “Active” membership in the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.

Soon, then, even though my fiction doesn’t come close to paying the bills, I may be considered a “professional” writer.

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*An even more entertaining Wikipedia entry: the infinite monkey theorem in popular culture.

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