#so for nasa (and not a project) to be orbiting me

[chaosmagetwin]

Status confirmed: I am the Literal Actual Sun

[typewritingyip]

Arcturus Three

Part One - Introductions

———

In 1975, nine years before the Quintesson invasion, it was the waning years of the space race between the United States and the USSR. Not long after the end of the Vietnam war came the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, where both major space programs attempted to dock together for the first time. After it’s success came further joint missions and projects to be had in what was dubbed space stations. 

It wouldn’t be until after the end of the Cold War and war against the Quintisons had started that the then American Vice-President and Russian Prime Ministers would make plans for a new space station after the previous failed attempts, this would come to be known as the International Space Station. 

The ISS sits in a low Earth orbit, intending to be a laboratory, observatory and factory along with roles that were added in 2010. 

It’s initial intentions would be adjusted to fill the need of the different mech based organizations on Earth attempting to retrieve data from the alien invaders, to decipher where they were coming from or at the very least what they are. These attempts have so far been limited in success. 

Six mecha pilots have attempted to follow the stream of data received by the ISS from the unknown invaders to potentially end this decades long conflict. All six pilots have lost contact with Earth. Another ten pilots are scheduled to follow the same data in the next five years. 

Pilot(s): 3141, 6986, 17741 for Arcturus Three, plus medical officer RH.

Pilot(s): 12437 for Arcturus Four, solo mission.

Pilot(s): 555, 1060, 4341, 17740, and 3113 in suit eleven for Arturus Five, the last projected mission.

—

Two Years Post Arcturus One - One Year Post Arcturus Two

The pilots were sitting backstage, leaning around a small table talking quietly, “I mean, there has to be something they aren’t telling us.” Sitting back, the pilot lightly scratches at his implants, it was a habit most pilots who’d nearly faced rejection picked up after a while, “I mean no offense, but I thought we were all told that our seniority would be the judge of these missions.” Nodding some, another one of the pilots sighs, “We were initially told that, yes, but certain things must be accounted for.” The other pilot threw his hands up lightly.

They all were staring at each other, they couldn’t help it, “Alright, I’m not the only one who thinks it’s weird that this mission has me, one of the designers of our suits, the best female pilot on the planet, and supposedly a medical officer.” He kicked his feet up on the table, sending the tablets and papers on it flying.

He winced, “Uh, sorry, but seriously. This can’t be a normal mission, not like Arcturus one or two. I still don’t think we know all the details for those either.” Finally, one of the other pilots leaned forward, “No one is making you do this Roddy.” The other pilot grins before shrugging slightly, “Think of this as an adventure.” Then another pilot then spoke up as well, “A mission where it is likely you’ll be able to catch fire as often as you desire.” He chuckled at his own joke.

“Now that sounds like fun.” ‘Roddy’ had a killer smile and was unafraid to display it. 

—

The media room was packed with reporters, as it always was for any mecha announcement but another packed room because it was combined with a NASA announcement. As per-usual, Swindle was wearing his overly charming smile while some government schmuck was talking the ears off the reporters. 

It was almost easy to zone out, to remember the past and how the fight felt in those earlier years that these government geeks loved to reminisce on. Like the one next to him was currently doing, hemming and hawing over details that 99.9% of people didn’t care about. 

Sighing deeply, Swindle shifts forward in his seat, “I am sorry to interrupt you Rick, but uh, we do in fact have a time frame to fit into, so if we could wrap up the science and make way for the pilots that would be great.” The NASA expert, Richard something, quickly shut up.

Scratching lightly at his jaw, Swindle smiles his award winning smile and stands, adjusting the microphone, “Well, it’s good to see all your familiar faces again. Welcome back to the Kennedy Space Center, we’ve got some exciting news for today.” Several hands were already in the air, but he elected to ignore them, “We have the absolute pleasure of introducing the crew of Arcturus Three and their spacecraft the Iliad, which yes, I know that was supposed to come before the Odyssey but we didn’t think we’d go with the mythology aspect till after the first shuttle was painted.” A few reporters chuckle and others keep their hands up.

It took a moment for him to take a breath and gesture to one of the reporters with their hand up, “You,” she smiles and stands, “Lillian Carmichael, The Wall Street Journal, are you going to talk about the loss of pilot 2672?” Nodding slowly, Swindle takes a breath, “His call sign was Cliffjumper, that was his name, not his number Lillian. They are people who are giving their lives for our planet, there is no greater sacrifice. So, no, we aren’t going to talk about Cliff cause his family will be watching this broadcast and it’s hard enough to miss him then to hear us talk about his sacrifice as if it meant nothing.” Clearing his throat a bit, he nods.

“Now, we’re here today to introduce the crew of Arcturus Three and their spacecraft.” He smiles and steps to the side, a projection lighting up behind him, “Meet the Iliad, the newest version of NASA’s space shuttle.” It looked nothing like the space shuttle and looked much more like something that would attach to the international space station, “Richard, you know more details on this.” Sitting back down, Swindle adjusted his hat. 

This state of the art spacecraft was designed specifically for the transportation of mech suits and the study of the foreign enemy, from space of course. Swindle would not let another good pilot die cause they sent them up there with little to nothing. 

The Iliad would be sent up initially in pieces, which would come together to reform the outer structure of the ship. Those pieces would remain in orbit where the rocket would be able to connect it and the suits necessary for the mission, while propelling the entire structure out into space. The pilots wouldn’t go up with the pieces, just their suits and the initial shuttle, it would give them more maneuverability in the long run and something for Mecha to maintain contact with when all the pilots kicked the bucket, again. 

It was a horrible thought, Swindle knew this but what other choice did any of them have at this point? These things were getting bigger and badder, and in the two years since Arcturus One the number had gone up by another thousand pilots. Most of them died in compatibility testing in other countries, but that didn’t take away from the fact that there were another thousand dead pilots and nearly another million civilians. 

The man from NASA lightly cleared his throat,  “Sir?” “Hmm?” Glancing back up, Swindle smiles, “Oh, my turn again? Great.” He stands back up, smiling brightly and adjusting his suit jacket.

”Ladies and gentlemen, now I have the absolute pleasure of introducing you to our pilots for Arcturus Three!” The door to the side of the stage opens and he extends an arm, grinning as each pilot comes out to their name. “Pilot 3141, callsign Perceptor. Pilot 6986, callsign Hot Rod. Pilot 17741, callsign Arcee. Along with their medical officer, code name Ratchet.” The four people come up to the stage and take their seats, dressed in NASA gear. 

—

Swindle was talking on and on, about the differences for this mission and how nothing like Arcturus Two would happen to this group and blah blah blah. 

Currently, Jesse was twirling a pen through his fingers, running his tongue along his teeth and very clearly bored. A few reports snapped pictures, which he was almost smiling for without even trying. His look was very reminiscent of IceMan from Top Gun in that moment, bored and full of potential.

The female pilot to his right was quick to snatch the pen from his hands, whispering harshly, “Would you stop that? This is a press conference.” Cecilia put the pen back on the table, just out of his reach with a scowl, “We’re meant to look professional.” Jesse tried not to smirk, whispering back, “Yeah, I don’t think you reprimanding me is helping that case much Arcee.” She went to open her mouth again before just scowled and shifted her attention back to the speaker from NASA.

Now there was a pilot who knew what she was doing, Arcee had come to the program more recently than most. At least more than those still alive. She had made waves protecting Washington DC and the Chesapeake area in the last four years, for a lot of people it was like she had come out of nowhere. 

Those in the program had known her and her mentor for longer, though she was young, too young to get the implants up until a few years ago. Now, she was leading in this year's kill count, even as others were falling and the survival rate of pilots was dropping. Originally, she wasn’t scheduled for an Arcturus Mission till the fifth one, but certain securities must be taken.

Afterall, you needed someone who knew how to fly that was mentally stable enough to do it. 

Preceptor was the only other pilot on the stage and he was taking notes of everything that the engineer from NASA was saying, biting the end of the pen every time the speaker took a breath. He’d worked on this project from both sides and was keeping track of what was being said, compared to what was actually happening. The man from NASA wasn’t entirely accurate. 

It still dragged on before questions were finally allowed to be asked, at which point Swindle stood, “Let’s stick to the guidelines people, you know what you can ask the pilots and what you can’t. Keep it PG if you can.” Most of the reporters laughed, not realizing the last bit was for the pilots on the stage. 

Several hands went in the air and questions were being shouted in every direction, “Hot Rod, why did you sign up for Arcturus?” “Preceptor, Sir, why have you decided to become a full time pilot?” “Arcee, what do you think the commander will think of this change of schedule?” “Hot Rod, are you sad your other group mate Springer is not on the register for these missions?” “Arcee, are you prepared to fly such an experimental spacecraft?” “Preceptor, why do you think you’re going on this specific mission?” And they went on. 

—

The workshop was dark except for an area in the corner, where an older man was working by the light of a desk lamp, a large wrench was leaned against his chair and his hair was tinted with grey.

Swindle closes the door with a bang, hands in his pockets as he starts over, “You were missed at the press conference.” The older man grunted in response, rolling his chair back while lifting the obscenely large wrench, moving over to another workbench and turning on a small lamp there. 

It left a soft glow on his scowling face, sighing, he looked up, “What do you want, Swindle?” Smiling, Swindle heads over slowly. The whole space was generally kept tidy but lately it looked like a bull had been let loose in the china shop, “Just to talk about Arcturus Three.” Ratchet groaned.

”I don’t know why you keep pestering me about the project, and honestly I don’t appreciate you interrupting my work.” Swindle lightly kicked something out his way, humming, “Because you’re a part of the crew for this mission Ratchet. You know that.” Ratchet set the wrench on the table, likely so he didn’t swing it at Swindle’s head. 

Moving over, Swindle leans against the edge of the desk, “You know why you have to go Doc.” Ratchet scowls and glares at Swindle, “Shouldn’t it have been my choice?” Smiling sadly, Swindle shrugs a bit, “It would have been, had you not taken that thing into your little workshop here.” There was an angry rev from the dark corner of the shop, Swindle loosely waves his hand, “Oh shut up you overgrown pile of bolts. Look, the only safe place for that thing—““His name is Deadlock.” Standing, Ratchet jabbed a finger at his chest. 

With a nod, Swindle removes his hand and scratches at his old implants, they’d been capped years ago but still would itch with scaring, “The only safe place for him is as far from Shockwave as he can be, we both know this.” Slowly, he lowers himself onto a nearby stool.

Ratchet stared and shook his head, “He’s been plenty safe here.” Swindles laughs, “Has been and will be are two entirely different statements and you down well know it. If Shockwave gets so much as a whiff of him, he’ll do worse than dissect him, he’ll dissect you for protecting him. And we both know I can’t stop him.” He adjusts his blazer slightly, shaking his head.

Swindle had tried to fire the psychopath more than once, on a number of grounds, even his own torture but the congressman was far to popular and the government footed to much of the bill. His constituents footed most of the bill. Sure, not having to worry about putting his own money into the company made him a bit more at ease but that didn’t take away whatever the hell Shockwave was. 

“Shockwave wants to move into a bigger lab space and we’ve bought the plot next door, there is no way your friend there would be safe and I think it’s best if we stuck with human technology torturing us all. Not whatever the hell he is.” There was another angry rev, though it sounded much more like a growl. Swindle nodded slightly and put his hat back on, “Plus, Roddy is going on this mission. It’s starting to get around that you and him have grown close because of experimental tech.” Ratchet’s eyes widened and he glanced towards Deadlock, hidden in alt mode in the dark. 

Taking a breath, Ratchet looks back, “So, you’re launching me into space to face certain doom then?” Swindle shakes his head, “I’m sending you after who we’ve lost.” With a scoff, Ratchet stands and heads back to his other work space, “I can’t believe this.” Swindle followed, “Neither of you are safe if you stay.” The growling started back up, accompanied by a voice, “I can keep us safe.” Swindle glared at the car, “Like hell you can! Not against a man who has been working on the mecha program longer than most pilots have been alive!” He turns back to Ratchet. 

A loud bang drew Swindle’s eyes back to Ratchet, who had slammed his project against the table, “We can handle that threat.” Swindle laughed, pulling at his hair peeking out from under his hat, “You can’t. This is the man that convinced Blurr back into a suit, the reason why Vortex is the way he is, and a monster unafraid to do whatever it takes to reach his fucking monsterous goals!” He jabs a finger into Ratchet’s chest, “He wants all of us dead Ratchet! He doesn’t even see it that way, but he is willing to kill every living thing to end this war!” He grabs Ratchet’s shoulders and starts shaking him.

The sound of grinding metal and shifting gears was loud, but Swindle didn’t let go of Ratchet, “He will kill you and that thing that is your friend if you don’t go! And I won’t let him kill the one person who tried to save us!” Trying to catch his breath, Swindle stared at Ratchet’s wide eyes, “Rusty, I can’t let him kill you. I owe you my life and I will fulfill my debts.” Ratchet rolled his eyes slightly before resting a hand on Swindle’s shoulder, “Alright, alright.” He sighed slowly, letting go of Ratchet and taking a step back, adjusting his blazer.

Turning, he could have shit his pants as something almost as big as a modern mech glared down at him.

Ratchet’s hand came down and rested on Swindle’s shoulder, “Relax kid, he’s just trying to protect us in his typical asshole kinda way.” The thing growled again, “Like I said, in his asshole kinda way. Breathe and go back to recharge.” It grumbled before turning back into a, well, it looked like an EMT chase vehicle. 

Nodding slowly, Swindle sighed, “We both know Shockwave would want his hands on that kind of—“”You say technology and he will shoot you.” Nodding again, Swindle adjusted his hat before looking back to Ratchet, “You fly in a year’s time. I can get him up on part of the Iliad as soon as next month, but it does need to happen.” Ratchet sighed and nodded, “We’ll talk about it later.” Swindle nodded before starting back towards the door, touching his implants briefly, “I meant it Ratchet, I owe you a debt and this is how it’s going to be paid.” Then he left. 

—

It was late and the warehouse was empty except for a few pilots and their mechs being fitted with new gear, but that would start in the morning. At the moment, Hot Rod, Arcee, and Preceptor were sitting around a small table eating take out. 

Jesse was once again twirling around what he was holding, though this time it was a chopstick, “I want to know why they have sent five people on this mission and with one missing our mission isn’t potential recovery.” Cecilia sighs before shaking her head, “Cliff is gone Roddy and I don’t think anything is going to bring him back.” Percy hummed, setting down his food for a moment. 

It took a moment for him to figure out how to phrase what he was going to say kindly, “Cliffjumper was a strong pilot but not one built for solo missions, I think sending him on Arcturus Two was their easiest way of getting rid of the problem child.” Jesse snorted and Cecilia hit his shoulder, he deserved that.

”I’m being serious Percy, Cliff is either dead or wishing he was, and I don’t wish that on anyone.” They fell quiet for a moment, Percy picking his food back up and Roddy stabbing his chopsticks into the sushi on the table.

A door across the hanger from them banged open and a familiar face came strolling in, white coat a stark contrast to the dark space as always, Jesse looked up and grinned, “Ratchet, come on, we got your favorite.” He moved over slowly and grabbed one of the chairs, turning it before sitting in it with the back of it against his chest and grabbing his takeout container, “Thanks kid.” Percy smiled a bit, “It was Jesse’s idea for us to do this tonight.” Rusty hummed.

It had been two years to the day since the launch of Arcturus One, one year since Arcturus Two and a year from this day would be their own launch. 

Jesse popped a piece of sushi in his mouth and started talking, “So, why the four of us? I mean, I know Springer wasn’t found compatible for this specific mission but I know some of Breakdown’s brothers wanted to go. We all know Aid’ was supposed to be on this mission, but uh,” They all shifted a bit uncomfortably, “And Jazz’s brother wanted on but he got stuck with like, Arcturus Five, right?” Cecilia nodded, sighing. 

Clearing her throat, Cecilia sat forward, “We know why suit eleven isn’t going,” “It’s too heavy for the Iliad to carry it up.” Percy nodded slightly and Arcee rolled her eyes, “As for everyone else, I don’t think we’re going to know. I think we’re just going to be kept in the dark on that front.” Jesse rolled his eyes and Rusty nodded.

The older man sat forward, “I think dwelling on who could have been on this mission is the wrong move, we can see who is going to be on it and now we’ve got to figure out not only how to work together but how to understand each other.” Percy nodded and Cecilia shifted a bit in her seat.

Pilots were not team players typically, not since, well, regardless they weren’t team players anymore. 

“I still think it needs to be said and asked, why us?” Roddy gestured around with his chopstick, which he went back to twirling through his fingers. They all glanced at each other and honestly, none of them knew why this group was paired together.

Cecilia shifted again, “Well, I’m the only one who knows how to fly, so that’s a bit of a given. Ratchet is medical as well as he can work with Preceptor, the Iliad is an experimental spacecraft.” Percy nodded, “Very experimental.” She smiled a bit and looked back to Jesse, “So the only one in question is you Roddy.” He was quick to throw a potsticker at her, “Can it Arcee, who asked you?” Ratchet chuckled, “You did.” “Oh shut up.” He was pouting now. 

Rain started to hit the metal roof, leaving a soft ringing sound throughout the hanger space. Three suits against the wall with tool boxes around them and supplies across the way; new seals, paint, and upgraded tech were all called for. Soon, three of the four of them would have to go through the next steps for their suit upgrades with the upgrades to their integrated tech, even before the NASA training would even start. 

It was daunting and scary, but in the moment of the four of them sitting around a commandeered workbench covered in takeout, talking like tomorrow would be the same as any other day gave them all some bit of relief. 

They would take off three years to the day from Arcturus One.

One year, counting down to July 10th 2016. 

———

A/N

So here is the something different! Now, this series is going to be 5 parts, compared to Arcturus Two’s single part which was logs from MECHA databases.

To clarify, Jesse is Hot Rod, Cecilia is Arcee, Percy is well Percy, and Rusty is Ratchet. The old man of the group.

This also confirms the timeline! Which originally before I fucked up the way space time works, I wanted this series to take place in 2004. I messed up and the current point in Arcturus One is them in 2014. They took off in mid 2013.

We will go back to our regularly scheduled programming, in which I continue to just try and keep writing and not lose inspiration.

Tags!

@lunarlei68 @whirlywhirlygig @loop-hole-319 @pixillandjester @alek-the-witch @not-a-moose-in-disguise @goddessofwind8water @neurologicalglitch @dersereblogger @pixel-transformers @mrcrayonofdoom @wireplaces @twilightfreefaller @original-blog-name-2 @devilangel657 @robbin-u @childofprimus @miniartistme @starwold @tea-enthusiasm @valeexpris606 @celticdoggo @bird599 @agentsquirrelsgotrobots @aquaioart @dimencreasatlas @thatwandercat @artdagz @seisha974 @starscreamloverfr @halenhusky309 @leethepiper @cat-cassette @blue-wrens @sirassban @astridkolch @cosmique-oddity @garbageenthusiast @osqindaxend @xervias @azulabutterfly @fryseem @spring-mc @echo-circuit @aghostsnail @wooblewooble @ask-glory-haddock-and-others @nonsscarpheap @magichats @iminahole247 @omgflyingderpywhale @pour1tin @thetrexartist @naaaafam

As always, I want to thank @keferon for this amazing AU and just giving us generally free rein.

[sepdet]

Save me from the White American Man Who Knows Everything. I know it is an unfair stereotype, and there are a great many who have NOT been indoctrinated with this attitude

but I just got home from dealing with insane family, stepped out for takeout, identified the planet Venus for someone admiring her hanging out with the Moon tonight, only to be corrected by a man insisting, "That's a drone."

"No, look, it's Venus," I say, holding up the SkySafari app I use for comet hunting.

"That wasn't there until 5 years ago," he insists, when it wasn't there five days ago because that is fucking Venus, the brightest object in the sky besides the Moon. "It's a drone."

"Sir, I have two telescopes," I say. "My grandmother was a planetarium director and my father is a rocket scientist. [As a matter of fact, one of his last projects was the delayed ignition system for the braking rocket to put the Venus Express probe in orbit ] "That is a planet. It's Venus."

"I don't care," he says. "You're wrong. That's a drone."

What could I say?

I just... despair, you know? I go out to the desert to take photos of planets and moons. This is my lockscreen, my own photo.

We've sent balloons sailing in Venus' clouds, maybe even detecting rain. Japan's Akatsuki spacecraft spent 9 years studying the planet and making new discoveries, even after multiple Soviet and NASA missions.

We have all this information at our fingertips. A simple planetarium app does more than the wonderful state-of-the-art Zeiss projector my grandmother operated, which cost about $245K in the 1960s.

And yet.

So many people have lost the ability to see stars, or even the planets which children would have recognized when my grandparents were kids. (They still do in other countries, I remind myself. The appalling state of the U.S. education system is not universal.)

Do yourself a favor tomorrow. Go outside after sunset, say 6-6:30pm, and look southwest.

From the northern hemisphere, the crescent Moon should be just above and to the left of Venus. (Use this free website and enter date and time to forecast the sky at your location.)

Celebrate their beauty and the human knowhow that lets us see these things, know what they are, and where they'll be.

Share that knowledge, that joy with somebody.

Let there be light.

[lonestarflight]

I don’t know if this is right to ask, but do you have any thoughts on the current state of spaceflight?

While I keep up with the current state of things, it's hard not to get political about more recent turn of events. But fuck it, everything is political these days.

I've been following the development of the Artemis program since Orion and SLS were a part of the cancelled Constellation Program. (SLS was called Aries V back then.) The major problem with them is every time a new president comes in, they always want to shake things up or think they know better than what is currently being done. With the exception of the Aries I rocket, they are always wrong and only delay landing humans on the moon. Which is why it has taken them this long to get to the point of constructing Artemis II. If NASA could be left alone for a while, they will get us there sooner rather than later.

It's frustrating seeing Elon and Trump mess them again or even saying they could get us to Mars in 4 years (which could never happen, even with all of the money in the world). At best, NASA is 20 years from landing humans on Mars but there isn't even a Mars mission in serious development right now. And switching NASA's focus from the Moon is going to ruin the momentum they have built up since 2010. We are finally getting close to leaving LEO and it will piss me off to no end if Musk tries to take over and cancel SLS. His starship booster is nowhere near human rated and I doubt heavy falcon has the delta-V to get Orion to the moon. Which leads me to believe if he does mess with it, it's only to funnel more money into his pockets. Just like his tunnel boring company and his attempt to sink California's high-speed rail project.

Messing with Artemis will take years to get back on track after they are kicked out, at which point, China will get there before we do. So to say I'm very pissed about it, is putting it lightly.

But for other programs, I've been happy to see them come online. The JWST has been blowing me away with the photos it's returned.

One program I'm excited for is the Uranus Orbiter. (If you laugh, get your head out of the gutter.) It's early in planning but after the Galileo and Cassini probes explored Jupiter and Saturn, it's high time the ice giants get their turn. It's unfortunate the Neptune probe wasn't also selected as well but there wasn't enough funding for both planets. Maybe at a later time they will send one, I hope I get to live long enough to see it.

(I've started and restarted writing this over the last week as I'm watching the news about NASA getting gutted by Elon Musk and his illegal doge group. I've given up and am just going to post it as it is now before anything changes.)

[cellarspider]

Spider's Big Prometheus Thing: Index Post

Being a list of all the posts produced in the course of this inexplicable project of mine. This project is now complete, at an unexpectedly extensive thirty entries long.

I swear, I didn't intend for it to go like that, but it was fun to write.

All entries have at least a minimum level of citations for where to start looking for more facts on any subject external to the movie itself, which includes everything from how DNA is sequenced to how Nickolodeon slime is made, and from the comedy in mislabeled portraits of early church fathers to the correct attribution of a cat's contributions to historical linguistics.

Be aware that there's also hidden rambling and bonus facts in the image alt text. A lot of them.

0. Introduction

Setting the scene, including my background, my intent, and where this movie is going.

1. Opening

Expectations, landscapes, and aliens.

Rambles: DNA, whether aliens would have it, and why it doesn't look like a pale bacon ladder.

Alt-text rambles: nano-bubbles.

2. Discovery

The Isle of Skye is gorgeous, the movie attempts to establish its themes, and why it had already got my hackles up. Rambles: how cool ancient and pre-modern peoples were, the implications of humanoid figures in European cave paintings, and misplaced lions. Alt-text rambles: seriously, Skye is just so cool. Erich von Däniken and modern publishing royalties are not.

3. David

We meet the loneliest android, and his fandom of choice. Rambles: I go nuts for a paragraph over Proto-Indo-European. Alt-text rambles: Help me remember a dude's name, that time Ron Perlman saw Sigourney Weaver do something so cool he forgot to act, and a Coronation Street conspiracy theory.

4. Humans (Derogatory)

We meet the human crew, and analyze why they're a mismatch to the movie's established expectations, and what subgenre they fit in most. It isn't the one the movie seems to be aiming for. Rambles: 50s B-movies and their Men Of Science, modern movies and their quietly suffering scientists. Alt-text rambles: inconsistently moist characters, Idris Elba's christmas tree decorations.

5. Pseudoarchaeology (Extremely Derogatory)

We meet Old Man Capitalism, poor logistics, and how the movie began to really lose me through dropping in some racist pseudoscience tropes. Rambles: more logistics (of alien bioengineering), historical art styles, what the world was getting up to in the 600s CE Alt-text rambles: Linguistics, more ranting, the life and extraordinarily ornate death of Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal. Rants: the existence of writing, people who don't look like you can still think, stargazing and how conspiracy theorists don't understand it.

6. Roads

Poor firearm safety with Chekhov's Gun, when movies move too fast, atmospheric chemistry, and the moment I began to yearn for blood. Rambles: First contact protocols, why 3% CO₂ won't kill you but it will make you weird, my personal experience digging up a Roman road. Alt-text rambles: the logistics of securing items in moving craft, linguistics, atmospheric science, colorblind-friendly diagram design, swearing about orology, and cursing the crew for their fictional crimes against archaeology. Rants: Why they should've stayed in orbit, and my impassioned defense of historically significant transportation infrastructure.

7. Masking

The bit that made most people realize these characters were idiots. Featuring an attempt at themes. Rambles: NASA's policies on biological contaminants Alt-text rambles: Benedict Wong having nothing to do, helmet design, driving on dusty track, the tiny overlap between archaeological horrors and Minecraft, the CDC's excellent captions on men sneezing. Rants: Nominating a man for the Heinrich Schliemann Archaeology Award, all these people are catching space covid

8. Ghosts

Comparing the Engineers to their series antecedents, and I develop a slight soft spot for the geologist. Rambles: Set design in Alien, how carbon dating works. Alt-text rambles: Adventure games, GET DOWN MISTER PRESIDENT, I get very excited for Dune: Part Two, the archival devotion of people with rare blorbos.

9. Dignity

Personal, professional, social, and media context for the treatment of people's remains. Rambles: Personal experiences around the archaeological discovery of human skeletons, professional codes of ethics, movies that handle dead bodies better by being more crass about it. Alt-text rambles: None, the main text gets full focus this time.

10. Atmosphere

How intertextual imagery is overused, how the one major character arc is developing, and a whole grab bag of miscellaneous shambolic events. Rambles: How tourist-breath can destroy artifacts, and a deleted scene Alt-text rambles: Whether explaining mysteries is always the wrong decision in fantasy, the usefulness of helmets, Mass Effect's loading screens, please someone give me more recommendations for things where Giger creatures aren't all bad, and how cultural variation in gestures can make you look like an asshole. Rants: they aren't done desecrating the dead oh boy it's just gonna get worse

11. Decontamination

How to present an audience with events that make no sense, how to do it eerily, and how Prometheus does this by accident. Rambles: NASA's Apollo 11 quarantine policies Alt-text rambles: How 2001: A Space Odyssey put on a cosmic lightshow, how traditions are faked for political and social power in Midsommar, confusing lab equipment, robot arm safety, the use of camper vans in space exploration, umarell behavior, and robot horror movies. Bonus text rambles: pressurized gas cylinder safety, and how the cargo of one truck apparently tried to join Roscosmos. Rants: Laboratory safety

12. Shocking

Mary Shelly would not be proud of them. Rambles: Which home electrical appliances their tomfoolery is equivalent to. Alt-text rambles: Semiotics and Alien, reuse of props and art department equipment, the cast's inability to look at things, how the first chestburster scene intelligently incorporated spontaneity, and I completely lose my mind over a single computer readout, finding out in the process that the Engineers are close cousins to the common house mouse. Rants: I didn't think that "don't stick electrical plugs in people's ears" would be something that needed to be said, but here we are.

13. Family Tree

A soothing ramble about some of the cool bits of my job. Rambles: How evolution has made some vertebrate blood white or green, how genomes are sequenced, and how to determine the relatedness of species. And more. A lot more. I love my job. It's so cool. Alt-text rambles: How Nickelodeon slime was made, how hecking tiny molecules are, why blue-tongued skinks have blue tongues, my review of Dune: Part Two, how hard I worked to not turn Gene Wilder into a jumpscare, lots of enthusiastic explanations of DNA sequencing techniques, the aesthetics of the machines wot do that for you, how "snip" no longer sounds like a verb to me, and how I started out as a computational scientist.

14. Cheers

David poisons a man, and how his character arc ties into christian-influenced existential dread. Rambles: series continuity, gnostic theology, Ridley Scott's beliefs. Alt-text rambles: How to ruin petri dishes, Vickers' questionably carbon-based existence, the game of Operation, hand doubles in filming, how the funniest possible misidentification of an early church figure is wandering around the internet, the cool genders of suit actors, gnostic Archons, and the Engineers as Sophia. Rants: Holloway seems unaware that archaeologists study dead people, Ridley Scott is his own biggest problem.

15. Unworthy

The movie does something I'm not going to joke about. Don't read this if you're having a bad day. Big content warning for Holocaust imagery.

16. Intimacy

Your asexual commentator grapples with Hollywood's terrible track record on romantic and sexual chemistry. Rambles: Why we don't say an archaic-looking species is "older" than another, how religious scientists do what they do Alt-text rambles: the human family tree, Abbott and Costello, pitcher plant cultivars, the creative possibilities of a Buddhist version of this movie, and Stephen Still's lack of accordions. Rants: I've never been a boyfriend but I'm pretty sure that's not how you do it

17. Threat

Prometheus takes a hard turn into old slasher movie tropes. Rambles: A movie trailer that gave Wee Spider the screaming heebies Alt-text rambles: The age rating of Prometheus, a spontaneous X-Files crossover AU, Pitch Black, how likely it may or may not be that the images in the post will get flagged, critter behavior, insufficient EVA suit design, and the content balancing I take into account when selecting screenshots. Rants: This movie does not seem to know what it is. Alt-text rants: Ditto, focusing on characterization.

18. Flames

"Mac wants the flamethrower!" Rambles: I wandered off in the middle to watch a 40k comedy video, does that count? Alt-text rambles: More content-balancing, what kind of very English critter David appears to be, dune buggy design, Star Wars: The Old Republic is worth your time, Dune: Part Two is worth your time, an extremely long ramble about integration of CG background elements, and Oblivion memes. Alt-text rants: Movie color grading and lighting, undercutting scares.

19. Stars

The movie shows how good it can be when no dialog is involved. Rambles: The movie Contact and how Prometheus could've learned from it. Alt-text rambles: How I estimate large numbers from a still image, a brief Baldur's Gate 3 appearance, the set design and staging of a room made for giants with squishy computers, the use of color to make a cohesive scene, facts about Uranus, visual intimation of threat, VFX wizardry, practical FX wizardry, Michael Fassbender's wordless acting.

20. Expectant

The movie shows how good it can be when character choice is removed from the horror. Rambles: the inspiration and place of chestbursting in Alien movies, the continuing religious symbolism in the movie, the clunky dialog, how to build or undermine tension, and the good blending of practical and CG effects, and how tiny creatures of the ocean manage to be more uncanny than horror critters. Alt-text rambles: reading details the prop department never meant for you to see. Alt-text Rants: the return of the head-exploder and the first sight of actual PPE, slowly mangling a plot point's name until it has been thoroughly folded, spindled, and mutilated.

21. Underdelivered

The movie shows how terrible it can be when horror doesn't build tension. Rambles: Contortionists in horror, hillbilly horror/hixploitation movies. Alt-text rambles: Resident Evil 7, Dead Space and "strategic dismemberment"

22. Hubris

The movie tries to do some themes again Rambles: my ineffable desire to genetically sequence ditch weeds, Left Behind Alt-text rambles: Brad Dourif's commitment to the bit in The Two Towers, nigh-invisible wheelchair product placement, the Fallout series in general and the upcoming show in particular, praise for an epic-length critique of Left Behind, Robert Zemeckis' bizarre quest to mocap everything Rants: This movie does a terrible job representing both religiosity and atheism

23. Informed

Exposition is delivered, and plot points try to knit together. Rambles: The Silent Hill movie, Pacific Rim Alt-text rambles: Pyramid Head's secret unclothed backside, demanding environmental enrichment for scientists, greebling, Tumblr's favorite shitty copper merchant Rants: What could've been done instead of an exposition dump and daddy issues Alt-text rants: these people and their interior design are tempting fate and testing my patience

24. Inscribed

I go rogue and ramble about constructed languages and cuneiform for an entire post. Guest appearances from Klingon pop music and a delightfully eccentric Assyriologist. Rambles: All of it. Alt-text rambles: the self-awareness of conlangers, fingernail length, Schleischer's Fable as a warm-up for the next section, my primary conlang derangement, speculation about whether cuneiform was legible for the blind, my beef with the cowards at Lucasfilm for refusing to use Star Wars' coolest letters, my love for Warframe's Grineer, going into far too much detail about redesigning Prometheus' Engineer script, and finally, the many crocodiles of ancient egyptian hieroglyphs. Rants: None/all of it

25. Judgement

We discuss some of what the movie doesn't. Rambles: Fiction and morality, Blade Runner, biblical allusions the story could've made and doesn't Alt-text rambles: Lance Henriksen's insane career, the paintings of John Martin and a surprise George Washington, Rutger Hauer's effect on Blade Runner, my tentative plans for the next essay series. Rants: Germs, old man makeup. Alt-text Rants: The characters are reading ahead in the script again, the half-assed Engineer writing system continues to hurt me

26. Awoken

I go bananas over PIE. Rambles: fix-it fic for this damned movie, PIE, how to avoid PIE, how to analyze PIE, and my personal alternative to PIE. Alt-text rambles: calculating how long the Engineer's overslept, their potential spiritual kinship to Moominpapa, behind the scenes photos of the suit actors, Prometheus rants in the days of LiveJournal, the game Hades, how hard it personally is to get PIE right, the linguistics nerdery of the Hittite empire, and watermarks. Rants: how the movie fails its premise and hurts my soul with linguistics

27. Shortcomings

The characters, and movie, fail to get their message across to someone bent on their destruction. Rambles: David's confused religious symbolism, Star Trek Alt-text rambles: My desire for fanfic, behind the scenes photos, what other critters the Engineer's suit actor has played, the naming of Australopithecines, crash-proofing a movie set, alien gender, Gandahar and how French animated SF in the 80s was awesome, Scorn and its expert consultation from a cenobite, and Doctor Strangelove. Rants: the assumptions of the human characters, I go from trying to be measured to actively spiting the writer for his take on thoughtful SF Alt-text Rants: Del Toro is the only one who gets me, the movie has forgotten its main character just had a major surgery, one last rant about how terribly unsafe the Prometheus was as a ship, before it becomes definitively not a ship.

28. Momentum

It's the bit where she doesn't turn. Rambles: How to fix the dumbest thing we've seen in a hot minute, Edge of Tomorrow and feeling Tom Cruise's fear, how the dead thing is never really dead in horror. Alt-text rambles: How hard it is to find the most catchy song in We Love Katamari, more behind the scenes pictures of my blorbos, Friday the 13th Part IV, bad braille, and trilobites. Rants: I mean how can you not when the movie forgets how space works? Like, the idea of 3D space as a concept? Also, a particular rock earns my ire, and my ranting about interior designs on ships finally pays off.

29. Dissonance

The ending of the movie, and its tonal incoherency. Rambles: Protagonist-centric morality and lack thereof Alt-text rambles: Star Trek TNG, green blood, caecilian teeth. Rants: shallow christian themes, sequels that could have been, Shaw's confusingly deployed robo-racism Alt-text rants: sequel disappointments, inadvisable post-caesarian activities, how the hell do you fit that much 'burster into one chest, biological plausibility in alien extend-o-mouths

30. Justification

A breakdown of a post-release interview with Ridley Scott, explaining some missing details. Rambles: Gnosticism again, Mesoamerican and European human sacrifice and the exoticization of shared cultural practices, and a hearty book recommendation. Alt-text rambles: Icelandic volcanoes, The Collector (2009), Stephen Speilberg's War of the Worlds and how scaring the shit out of someone isn't necessarily the job of a horror film, the Tollund Man, unique cultural practices, Hello Future Me, and my opinions on what we've seen of Alien: Romulus. Rants: Ancient peoples weren't stupid, an unexamined christian-centric worldview, an unexamined christian-centric worldview, I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGh

[lexosaurus]

The Phantom Martian: Chapter 1

Huzzah! I am here to provide a fic for Invisobang 2023!

This is a crossover between The Martian and Danny Phantom. You do NOT need to have read or watched The Martian to understand this fic (though, I recommend it because it's amazing!)

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Summary: When Astronaut Mark Watney went to Mars, he knew there was a chance he'd never come home. Now, though, he's determined to last long enough for NASA to save him because this whole dying for science thing is not as fun as it sounds.

Meanwhile, Danny Fenton is just trying to keep his identity a secret amidst a potential crisis with his powers. Seriously, what's up with that weird current under his skin? Why is he having so much trouble controlling it? And why does it feel so familiar...?

In a fit of determination (and possible stupidity), Danny goes to Mars to save Watney, only to add to both their crises when he arrives and can't get home. Will NASA save them? Will Danny have a home to return to if they do?

Chapter WC: 6,186

Fic Tags: Danny Fenton & Mark Watney, Canon Divergence, Ecton AU

Art by @pompomqt (it's so freaking good AHHHH!) Art by @friendzoned61 (screaming sobbing this is amazing)

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I am going to be updating a chapter each day of this posting week, and then I'll settle into a normal weekly/biweekly posting schedule.

I go into more detailed thank yous on AO3, but quickly I'd like to extend a hugeeeee thank you to @armed-with-knitting-needles, @bibliophilea, @lexiepiper, and @underforeversgrace for aiding in this fic. Between sitting on discord with me for hours doing math, betaing my infamous spelling habits, and in general providing much needed support in the form of memes, graphs, and good humor, these people are all AMAZING and I am forever in all of your debts 🙏

Since I'm not posting the chapters themselves on Tumblr, I put a preview excerpt under the cut! Enjoy!

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It had been a day since the news about the disastrous Mars mission was released.

NASA's website where satellite images of the Ares 3 camp were published had gotten so much traffic that the server went down for twelve hours.

Everyone wanted to see it. The wind storm. The camp in ruins. 

The aftermath.

Of course, NASA wasn't pointing their satellites at Ares 3 anymore. There was no reason to now that the surviving five crew members were well on their way back to Earth in the Hermes . 

God, what Danny would give to see the inside of that ship. If it was on Earth, the temptation to fly down to Cape Canaveral and invisibly peek inside would have easily won him over. But unfortunately, the Hermes has never been to Earth. It wasn't powered by regular rocket fuel, it was powered by ion engines — whatever that meant. 

All Danny knew was that the Hermes needed to be assembled in space instead of on Earth. It was shipped up chunk by chunk to the International Space Station where it was put together in orbit.

Which was just rude. 

[piratesexmachine420]

Copy and pasting the following from a discussion of this video in a discord server I'm in, because I think it's a point worth making:

It's very annoying to see how telephone game'd the Mars Climate Orbiter failure has become.

It didn't crash into Mars, it was simply too low when it went for an aerobrake pass. It definitely didn't leave "a scar that you can see from the other orbiters". Mark is probably either thinking of Beagle 2 or Mars Polar Lander, or maybe one of the more recent unmanned lunar landers (Beresheet, maybe?).

It wasn't a mixup of inches and centimeters, it was a mixup of pound force-seconds and newton-seconds.

Lockheed weren't idiots, and it's frankly insulting to all teams involved to claim so. The actual MCO mishap investigation report -- which Mark clearly either hasn't read or hasn't read thoroughly -- clearly states throughout that while the direct cause of failure was the faulty data in the Angular Momentum Desaturation modeling file (not just incorrect units, but also formatting issues and just plain errors), the root causes were multivalent:

The ops. team were understaffed and running three missions simultaneously.

Team members were inadequately trained.

Inadequate onboard navigation ("total reliant on [the] Earth-based Deep Space Network")

Contingency maneuvers that could have saved the mission, weren't taken because the teams weren't prepared (or able to prepare) for them.

End-to-end testing of the software stack, which should have been performed beforehand, never occurred.

And more! You can read the MCO phase I mishap report here and phase II here, if you're interested in learning what actually happened, instead of just blaming Lockheed for being stupid degenerate Americans with no safety culture.

You might notice with a sense of dramatic irony that the MCO phase I report makes a lot of recommendations for the concurrent MPL program; that mission would similarly fail less than a month after the report's publication for related reasons (not the units mixup part, the other ones).

MCO was not an isolated incident and it's frankly malpractice to ignore that (by omission or otherwise). The 90s were bad for space programs, mostly down to budget pressures. The MCO phase II report goes deep into the problems with NASA "Faster, Better, Cheaper" philosophy at the time.

Let me summarize: MCO was not a failure of software design. It was not a failure of unit conversion, either. It was a failure of project management. While the course (in)corrections were what doomed MCO directly, it was always going to be something. The team running MCO simply could not have succeeded given the conditions they were in. If it was anyone's fault, it was Congress' fault for not funding the deep space program enough.

[directdogman]

how involved was callum with nasa? he was president during the space race and personally sent norm on his mission but something that stook out to me was norm mentioning intell nasa info about man on the moon - neil armstrong - which happened 3 years AFTER he left earth. was history shuffled for callums sake, if it was important at all?

Disclaimer before I answer this: This is a nerdy DT lore question that is absolutely not essential to understanding DT lore and it's teeechnically slightly removed from the scope of the current canon (since it mainly relates to the actions of a character who Gingi has never met in-game), but it's a smart question so I feel compelled to answer it.

Answer: Your guess that the moon landing happened earlier in DT's universe than in ours, during Crown's presidency, is correct. It's funny, but I've got this rough draft of a joke post written that I never posted (involves DT characters having to pick their favourite Muppets. Yeah.) where Gingi (out of spite) informs Norm about the NASA Challenger explosion (a very specific malfunction/televised rocket explosion that occurred in the 80's in both universes, though the Bird Big Puppeteer died in DT's version of the event, unlike in ours, where that only almost (but didn't) happen.) ...which implies that, yes, with him not knowing about this event, Norm's intel obviously DOES cut out post-warp, meaning the moon landing itself was pre-warp by virtue of Norm having secret intel about it.

There are other big clues to an early moon-landing in other dialogue, but I figured I'd at least confirm your method of reasoning was also correct.

On the question of whether Crown really altered history: Yeah, history was shuffled to a large degree, certainly during Crown's term. while most events match up in timelines, Crown invested WAY heavier in certain technologies (mainly nuclear weapons + space flight), causing the US to hit certain milestones early (and even a few that we never did, when you consider the full extent of what Crown got done as President and then Honorary Leader of the UN!)

While I guess Crown's rigorous strides towards vast technological advancement was never outright stated in-game, I definitely implied it through Crown selecting Norm for the mission himself (which means Crown evidently had direct oversight on NASA projects.) There's also the very obvious (but easy to forget) point that of course NASA would not have gotten Norm to a wormhole before they reached the rock in earth's orbit! We're obviously far closer to our moon than any wormholes, and that also goes for the small sci-fi wormhole Norm traveled through which is not far from DT's version of earth (yet doesn't exist in ours.) If it was closer to earth than the moon, it'd definitely swallow satellites sent up by companies into space, which is funny and the kind of thing that would happen in DT's shitty world, come to think of it. But, yeah.

But yes, your question is entirely right for the reasons mentioned above. this might seem unnecessarily convoluted but there IS a reason why I constructed things this way (I know how it all connects in my head), but yeah, it's a little bit complicated to wrap your head around if you don't have surrounding context, and this kind of nitty gritty detail only really matters if you actually want to map a concrete timeline, or God forbid, deconstruct certain actions Crown took in office (some of which have never been directly referenced in canon DT material, but likely one day will be!)

[mckiwi]

Christmas is Better Spent Together

Chapter Five: 1968

Read on AO3

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Rating: General Audiences

Categories: Gen, M/M

Fandom: Good Omens

Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley, Aziraphale/Crowley

Characters: Aziraphale, Crowley

Words: 789

7 times Aziraphale and Crowley spent Christmas together (and 1 time they didn't)

Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA - December 21st, 1968

“It’s a lot bigger in person,” Aziraphale said, staring out across the horizon to the space shuttle. 

“I know! It’s great, isn’t it?” Crowley exclaimed, smiling ear to ear. Aziraphale had rarely, if ever, seen the Demon this excited. It was as endearing as it was disturbing. “First humans to ever orbit the moon! Ha! Soon enough they’ll be walking on it! Wouldn’t that be something? Oh, I can’t wait!”

“Apollo is an interesting name choice, I think. Greek god of the sun.” Aziraphale commented, noticing the ship’s name. 

“They’re trying to get to the stars, angel.” My stars went unsaid. Crowley had never told Aziraphale of his time before the Fall. He had never once mentioned his role in creation or his fascination with the cosmos. Yet, sometimes, Aziraphale would look at him the same way that Angel did all those millennia ago, and Crowley thinks his angel might already know. Might remember. 

Aziraphale looked at the Fallen Angel beside him. He looked at the sharp features highlighted in the first rays of the rising sun, just the same as it did during the very star’s creation. “Indeed they are, dear boy, and look how far they’ve come.”

Crowley’s soft smile turned prideful, “You know, this is probably my favourite project I’ve done so far. Don’t get me wrong, the whole turning a motorway into Odegra thing is fantastic. Going great. We’re finishing up the plans for it now and they’re supposed to start building it in the early 70s. But this ‘Space Race’ is… it’s fun, Aziraphale.”

The Angel raised a brow in surprise. “I didn’t realize this was some of your work. How many commendations have you gotten for having the two most powerful countries in the world compete over their research?”

“None, and there won’t be any,” Crowley admitted. “I don’t plan on reporting to Hell over this. This is a personal investment. There’s nothing evil about seeking out knowledge.”

“You told Adam and Eve the same thing and look what happened,” Aziraphale pointed out, not unkindly. 

Crowley gestured to the thousands of people around them, anxiously awaiting the Apollo 8 launch. “This happened! I may have regrets, but giving Eve that apple is not one of them.”

Aziraphale pondered the other’s words, then chuckled to himself, “Imagine that. Knowledge spread worldwide because of an apple.”

The Demon’s eyes lit up almost immediately. His formerly prideful smirk turned downright devious. “Apple. Now there’s an idea.”

Before Aziraphale could contemplate the landslide of technology developments he’d indirectly just inspired, a countdown started. 

“10… 9…”

Thousands of people gathered. 

“8… 7…” 

Thousands of backgrounds unified. 

“6… 5…”

Thousands of voices heard. 

“4… 3…”

Crowley watched something breathtaking. Aziraphale watched Crowley.

“2… 1…”

Thousands of years shared. 

“Takeoff.”

They all came together and joined in the wake of something unprecedented. 

—————

Soho, London, England - December 24th, 1968

“There we are! All set up and ready to go.” Crowley stated, standing over the bulky television set he’d brought over from his flat. He turned the television on and tuned it to NASA’s broadcast before throwing himself onto the sofa beside Aziraphale’s. 

(The TV wasn’t tuned to pick up the broadcast’s signal, but Crowley didn’t know that, and so the TV didn’t either and opened to the correct channel anyway.)

Aziraphale stared at the screen in confusion. “So they’re meant to be making an announcement?”

“Yup. Any minute now.” Crowley confirmed. “I bet it’s gonna be something cool. ‘Humanity has brought light to the dark side of the moon’ or something poetic like that.”

Aziraphale sat back in his chair, at ease. “Humanity does love their literature.”

Crowley hummed in agreement, “Sounds like someone else I know.”

Static crackled and an image appeared on the screen. Something round and pale. Crowley sat on the edge of his seat while Aziraphale gaped, “Is that–”

“Yeh!”

“The moon?”

“Yea! They did it, angel! They really did it! Ha!” Crowley barked a laugh and his hands flew to the back of his head. “They made it!” 

“We are now approaching lunar sunrise,” a voice sounded through the static. “And uh, for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.” 

Crowley leaned in eagerly. 

“In the Beginning, God created the Hea–”

“What kind of bollocks is this?!” Crowley snapped in disbelief, much to Aziraphale’s amusement. Despite the harsh words, Crowley couldn’t find it in himself to quite hate the Book of Genesis, not with its third chapter.

“–And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you on the good Earth.”

[statecryptids]

My big New Year’s resolution was to get back to working on my WIPs, particularly my Field Guide to Saturn project. But designing a whole book is kind of mentally overwhelming, especially with my dumbass ADHD-brain. So I’m easing back into it with a few smaller creature designs. Part of my plan is that in sequel books the main characters, Hyacinth and Jess, will go on to explore life on other alien worlds.  This gives me an opportunity to play around with all the cool planetary stuff I’ve learned about while doing research for my planetarium shows. 

So here’s a short dispatch from Jess.

The Black Widow Binary she mentions is based off a real pulsar binary system called PSR J1311-3430.

 To my Little Orange Fly,

Sorry it’s been a couple weeks. Been so busy with research. Plus, the gamma and radio waves coming off the pulsar make it impossible to send transmission unless we fly the ship a couple light-years away.

 So, once again we’ve found life where we thought it couldn’t exist. You’d think we’d learn by now. Though, I mean, this star system is way more extreme than any place this expedition has visited before.

It’s called a Black Widow Binary.  One of the stars, Oiwa, is a pulsar shooting jets of radiation from its poles. The other, Iyemon, is a red dwarf being ripped apart by those jets. Iyemon is also tidally locked to Oiwa, so one face is always towards the pulsar and the other is always looking out at space. The stars are so close to each other that they complete a full orbit in just 106 minutes.   In addition, all the material that Oiwa is blasting off Iyemon has built up into a ring of energized dust surrounding both stars.

Well, needless to say , this system is saturated with deadly gamma rays and superheated star-debris. So of course we weren’t expecting to find any life here. And yet, life has found a way.

Dr Madura dubbed these organisms Phaethons after the son of the Greek god Helios. She wanted to make that their genus name too, but the name’s already taken by an Earth bird (she’s super salty about that, by the way), so instead she chose Lucidevorator. Which still sounds pretty cool to me.

Phaethons range in size from microscopic to about as long as an open hand.  They live in huge schools on the side of Iyemon facing away from its companion. The environment is cooler here (relatively speaking) and shielded from the worst of the pulsar’s blasts. They feed on the energized material in the ring using both photosynthesis and a kind of chemosynthesis where they directly consume the energized dust. We haven’t yet been able to do a detailed anatomical study on any Phaethons yet because they will literally disintegrate if taken out of their high-heat, high radiation environment. Though the habitat engineers are currently working on an enclosure to safely house them.  

Despite that durability, Phaethons can be killed by direct exposure to the pulsar’s radiation jets if they drift out of Iyemon’s protective shadow. This happens regularly judging by the huge clots of burnt Phaethon corpses our ship’s sampler has scooped out of the ring.  Most of the bodies show signs of decay and Dr Madura thinks that there might be resilient microbes living in the ring that are snacking on the constant supply of crispy-fried Phaethons.

That’s all I’ve got for now. How’s your star system looking? Find any new life yet? Send me some photos so I can draw them, okay? Miss you so much.

Your Brave Explorer,

Jess

(By the way “Little Orange Fly” and “Brave Explorer” are their cute, dumb couples’ nicknames for each other.)

References

deWilde, Cruz. (2014, February 20). PSR J1311-3430 “Black Widow” Pulsar Animations. NASA Visualization Studio. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11215

NASA Goddard. (2014, February 20). NASA | A Black Widow Pulsar Consumes Its Mate [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgI3w4SOAik

Sutter, Paul. (2023, April 10). New Kind of Pulsar May Explain How Mysterious ‘Black Widow” Systems Evolve. Space.com. https://www.space.com/new-pulsar-explain-black-widow-binary-star-system

[spacenutspod]

Astronauts on board the International Space Station are often visited by supply ships from Earth with food among other things. Take a trip to Mars or other and the distances are much greater making it impractical to send fresh supplies. The prepackaged food used by NASA loses nutritional value over time so NASA is looking at ways astronauts can produce nutrients. They are exploring genetic engineering techniques that can create microbes with minimal ingredients.  Many of us take food and eating for granted. The food we can enjoy is usually flavoursome and the textures varied. Astronauts travelling through space generally rely upon pre-packaged food and often this can lack the taste and textures we usually enjoy. Lots of research has gone into developing a more pleasurable dining experience for astronauts but this has usually concentrated on short duration trips.  The space station’s Veggie Facility, tended here by NASA astronaut Scott Tingle, during the VEG-03 plant growth investigation, which cultivated Extra Dwarf Pak Choi, Red Russian Kale, Wasabi mustard, and Red Lettuce and harvested on-orbit samples for testing back on Earth. Credits: NASA During longer term missions, astronauts will have to grow their own food. Not only due to the nutritional issues that form the purpose of this article but carrying prepackaged food for flights that last many years becomes a logistic challenge and a launch overhead. To address the loss of nutritional values, the Ames Research Centre’s Space Biosciences Division has launched its BioNutrients project.  The team has announced they has come up with a solution, thanks to the wonders of genetic engineering. The approach that the team has developed involves microbial based food (similar to yeast) that can produce nutrients and compounds with small amounts of resources.  The secret is to store dried microbes and take food grade bioreactors along on the trip. Until now I never knew what a bioreactor was nor that they even existed. I live in the world of physics and astrophysics so this concept intrigued me. Turns out that a bioreactor does just what it says. It is a container of some form, often made from steel) inside which, a biologically active environment can be maintained. Often chemical processes are carried out inside which involve organisms undergoing either aerobic or anaerobic processes. They are often used to grow cells or tissues and it is within these that NASA pins their hopes on cultivating food in space.  Even years after departure, the dried out microbes can be rehydrated many years later and cultured inside the bioreactor, creating the nutrients astronauts need. To date, the team has managed to produce carotenoids (a pigment found in nature) which are used for antioxidants, follistatin for muscle loss and yogurt and kefir to keep the gut in good health. The real challenge though is making food that the astronauts will want to eat.  Source : BioNutrients Flight Experiments The post Astronaut Food Will Lose Nutrients on Long-Duration Missions. NASA is Working on a Fix appeared first on Universe Today.

[esonetwork]

Asteroids, Armageddon and Star Trek with Kelly Fast

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/asteroids-armageddon-and-star-trek-with-kelly-fast/

Asteroids, Armageddon and Star Trek with Kelly Fast

interview conducted August 31, 2024

Courtney Goodrum

*edited for clarity

On Saturday of Dragon Con I got the privilege to sit down along with the Cigar Nerds podcast on the ESO Network with Kelly Fast. Kelly is the acting Planetary Defense Officer in the Planetary Defense Coordination Office at NASA Headquarters. The Planetary Defense Coordination Office manages planetary defense related activities. Along with international organizations, the office studies and plans a response to asteroid impact hazards. Kelly Fast also manages the Near-Earth Object Observations Project tasked with “finding them before they find us” and more. 

Can you explain what working in planetary defense is, and why it doesn’t involve aliens?

“Well, aliens are, that’s the squishy stuff. We deal with the hard stuff. But yeah, that’s a good point. We’re dealing with the natural objects and not the living objects. Planetary defense is looking for asteroids before they find us, essentially. Asteroids and comets that, whose orbits bring them into Earth’s neighborhood and trying to get them catalogued and figure out where they’re going to be in the future. Try to determine if there is a future impact threat that Earth might face. And then also handling other things that would be related to that, like working with other government agencies, with our international collaborators. Looking at possibilities for mitigation, like NASA’s double asteroid redirection test, DART mission doing a test of asteroid deflection. Looking at how to model impact effects in order to be able to pass that along to relevant agencies like FEMA or to international collaborators at the State Department. So, kind of that whole range there. But fortunately an asteroid impact is something that’s very unlikely in our lifetimes. And so that that’s what planetary defense is about. We assume there has already been one like, you know, billions of years ago. That’s what we think got rid of the dinosaurs. So it’s like, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.”

What was your inspiration growing up that got you into the STEM field?

“Okay, that’s interesting. So we were talking, it’s wonderful being here at Dragon Con, because some of that is represented here. Star Trek, of course, for me, and I wasn’t, I’m not quite old enough to have seen it when it was first aired, but very soon after. And that was a very big influence on me that and then also another show, Space 1999, that we were talking about and a lot more obscure. But even here at Dragon Con, I saw somebody in costume and I, on the escalator, and I haven’t, I haven’t been able to meet them yet. But the, the visuals and the music and the spaceships and everything in these series, were just, I guess, just so inspirational for me. Somehow I got it in my head that I want to be an astronomer. And I didn’t know what that meant. For those shows to have inspired me, maybe I should have been an aerospace engineer or something, but I wanted to be an astronomer. And, and that’s what I loved doing as a kid. I would take my telescope out. I grew up in Hollywood, California, so we had light pollution. But you could see the planets. And I ended up in my career path doing planetary astronomy. And then now working in planetary defense, which relies heavily on astronomy to be able to find out what we need need to know. So, it does go back to some of those shows that inspire so many of us, whether or not we go into the STEM fields, Star Trek, and then also for me, Space in 1999.”

In Hollywood big blockbuster productions of a disaster movie standpoint, do you have a favorite that maybe gets things right and one that is completely over the top where the science doesn’t add up?

“Oh, yeah. And I guess everybody points to Armageddon, where it’s like, yeah, we sent miners out there to go blow it up. And, and that’s often what happens. You gotta blow up the asteroid. But as we saw with the DART mission, what we really want to do, if we can, is just like deflect the asteroid. And I, and I guess we haven’t seen that so much in the movies. But like in terms of favorites, an old one, I liked Meteor from, from the 70s. And I, I did enjoy that. The, the one thing about the movies, though, it, it always seems like it’s, you know, just one person or a few people trying to convince everybody what’s happening. And really the data’s very public and there’s a lot of people working on it, so different in that sense. I guess one thing that does come to mind, although it wasn’t a very family friendly movie, but toward the, later on, don’t look up. Cuz in the beginning, one of our colleagues, Dr. Amy Meinzer, served as a consultant on the movie. And so she tried to get in there some accurate things about what, what might happen. That yes, you have to get multiple observations of an object to be able to turn it into an orbit. Then you look at an impact probability. The, when the comet was first discovered in the movie, the background, it was a Neowise image from the spacecraft Neowise. And so it was an actual image on the sky. And even little things. She jokes about how that astronomers, they needed their snacks at night. And like, yeah, I’ve done astronomy late at night and you need the snacks. And so, but trying to get some of that right about, about how that plays out. And even like, I remember the concept of peer review. They were dropping that in the movie. But yeah, has that been peer reviewed? You know, not just somebody coming up with an idea, but making sure that, you know, other experts are looking and getting feedback. And so I guess all of these movies, they all go off in their strange directions, but they probably all have little kernels of truth in them. Yeah. And sometimes you don’t have to sensationalize because the truth is pretty cool itself and fascinating.”

Besides working in science, what other genres or subjects are you interested in?

“I guess for me personally, I’m a mom and I’ve raised kids and so, I just, I’m so proud of my kids. And so, that was a big inspiration. Other areas for me, music. I love music and I’m a musician. And I think that happens a lot, I guess, in science and engineering and doing music, too. Crazy crossover. You’ve got people like Brian May and scientists and, like, rock stars. Yeah. I know something about whatever is going on in the brain. And I love computer programming, too, which I find there’s a creative aspect to that, also. And I don’t get to do it so much n my current job. Because when I was really working as a research astronomer, I’d be programming up the tools that I need. And now I’m more of a bureaucrat at NASA headquarters. But lately, I did start working on a tool I needed just to be able to handle some of the program management work that I do. And so, in a way, that was like a creative outlet. And then there are other things. I’m a ham radio operator, too. Although, life has gotten so busy that I haven’t been on the air lately. I would love to get back to that and really get to enjoy that again. “

What advice do you have for anyone wanting to get involved in a career path in the sciences?

“I guess if you have an interest in something like the STEM career, to pursue it in school, but also watch for other opportunities, like NASA has internships, for instance. There’s intern.nasa.gov, [that] shows internship possibilities. Those tend to be more at the college level, but I guess watching for such opportunities and also just pursuing in school, but being flexible. I know for my career path, I went down a road and it ended up meandering, which disturbed me when it was happening. But later on, looking back, I saw how that really kind of helped me in the long run. It gave me more of a breadth of knowledge and experience and essentially ~ I didn’t go right through all the way to the PhD. I ended up stopping for a while, and I was working at NASA, and I was having babies, and then eventually they kicked me back into grad school. But by then, I approached it with kind of more of a vision for what I wanted to do. And then, I never thought I would always be doing research. I then found myself at NASA headquarters running programs, which I would say, you know, no kid ever says, I’m gonna work at NASA headquarters when I grow up. But, again, it’s a situation where I wouldn’t have planned it like this, but I see things that have happened through my career that have contributed to the knowledge that I need now to do the job I’m doing now. And so I guess all that is to say, start down a road if you’re interested in an area, but don’t get too fixated, because opportunities might pop up and, \you know, listen to [them]. You know, here’s another thing: find a mentor and listen, and get lots of input from people. You might find that path that you think you would [like] or other opportunities open up, or it might meander in a way that you weren’t happy with at the time, but then, there’s always a brighter side to it. And so I guess just being open and flexible.”

What is the next big thing or something exciting you are working on?

“Well, I mean, as always, just the day to day of planetary defense, I think is very cool. It’s not smashing a spacecraft into an asteroid, but it’s sometimes even more important than finding them. But there is another mission in the queue, NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor and Neo-Surveyor, which is a space telescope that is being designed to find near-Earth asteroids. It will be in space and survey the sky in such a way to find the asteroids that are of greatest threat to Earth, the ones that are actually coming close to Earth’s orbit and could be at the same place at the same time as Earth sometime in the future.”

Where can people find you and follow along with your work?

“You can follow us on X at Asteroid Watch. That’s the NASA Asteroid Watch account. You can follow us there and then you can go to nasa.gov/planetarydefense to find out more about what happens in the Planetary Defense Coordination Office and the different activities and the Near-Earth Object Observations Program and other things that we do.”

[superbdragoncollection-stuff]

I see that the Rockets you've invested in aren't a unique design, they're an "its about time" design.

Two stage to orbit spacecraft were first conceived in the 1950s.

Philip Bono came up with a dozen concepts over the next ten years.

Pulp sci-fi was full of it. NASA experiments and others put the plans on the drawing boards.

In the 1990s, the DC-X project made a reusable spacecraft capable of going up and coming down on its own. Congress cut their budget despite the fact that it worked.

In the 2010s, all that collective information and the engineers were put together in the Falcon 9.

So despite him actually founding SpaceX, unlike Tesla, he's still standing on the shoulders of giants and taking the credit.

I love spaceflight. These rockets are the future. And it kills me he's involved.

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Part 1: New NASA Black Hole Visualization Takes Viewers Beyond the Brink

Ever wonder what happens when you fall into a black hole? Now, thanks to a new, immersive visualization produced on a NASA supercomputer, viewers can plunge into the event horizon, a black hole’s point of no return.

In this visualization of a flight toward a supermassive black hole, labels highlight many of the fascinating features produced by the effects of general relativity along the way. Produced on a NASA supercomputer, the simulation tracks a camera as it approaches, briefly orbits, and then crosses the event horizon — the point of no return — of a monster black hole much like the one at the center of our galaxy. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell

“People often ask about this, and simulating these difficult-to-imagine processes helps me connect the mathematics of relativity to actual consequences in the real universe,” said Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who created the visualizations. “So I simulated two different scenarios, one where a camera — a stand-in for a daring astronaut — just misses the event horizon and slingshots back out, and one where it crosses the boundary, sealing its fate.”

The visualizations are available in multiple forms. Explainer videos act as sightseeing guides, illuminating the bizarre effects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Versions rendered as 360-degree videos let viewers look all around during the trip, while others play as flat all-sky maps.

To create the visualizations, Schnittman teamed up with fellow Goddard scientist Brian Powell and used the Discover supercomputer at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation. The project generated about 10 terabytes of data — equivalent to roughly half of the estimated text content in the Library of Congress — and took about 5 days running on just 0.3% of Discover’s 129,000 processors. The same feat would take more than a decade on a typical laptop.

The destination is a supermassive black hole with 4.3 million times the mass of our Sun, equivalent to the monster located at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

“If you have the choice, you want to fall into a supermassive black hole,” Schnittman explained. “Stellar-mass black holes, which contain up to about 30 solar masses, possess much smaller event horizons and stronger tidal forces, which can rip apart approaching objects before they get to the horizon.”

This occurs because the gravitational pull on the end of an object nearer the black hole is much stronger than that on the other end. Infalling objects stretch out like noodles, a process astrophysicists call spaghettification.

The simulated black hole’s event horizon spans about 16 million miles (25 million kilometers), or about 17% of the distance from Earth to the Sun. A flat, swirling cloud of hot, glowing gas called an accretion disk surrounds it and serves as a visual reference during the fall. So do glowing structures called photon rings, which form closer to the black hole from light that has orbited it one or more times. A backdrop of the starry sky as seen from Earth completes the scene.