Life in the valleys continues, Jaak makes a visit and a long distance call. He finds out something new about his Dad.
Episode 10 – Hanne
space
Episode 6 – Donkey
Episode 5 – Bingity-Bangity
Episode 4 – Tet-Net
Episode 3 – Layan’s Cabin
Episode 2 – No Service
Episode 1 – Fire Circle
Kiwis closely watching historic comet landing
New Zealand tech company Rakon’s special frequency-control technology is crucial to the space probe’s historic mission.
New Zealand engineers will be watching closely as a space probe attempts to hitch a ride on a comet streaking by at 66,000km/h early tomorrow morning.
Scientists have waited more than a decade for one of the most audacious space adventures ever – the European Space Agency’s attempt to land a scientific probe on the giant ball of ice and dust known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
They’ll find out about 5am tomorrow (NZT) whether their plan will work when the agency’s mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, gives its unmanned Rosetta space probe the final go-ahead to drop a lander on the comet.
– AP, with additional reporting by NZ Herald
[Read Even More] – Space probe ‘bounced’ in historic comet landing
Bowie hit at zero gravity
Colonel Chris Hadfield has signed off after five months as commander of the International Space Station by performing David Bowie’s Space Oddity in zero gravity.
The Canadian handed over command of the ISS to Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov this morning.
But before returning to Earth, Hadfield performed an evocative version of Bowie’s 1969 hit while floating with a guitar through the ISS.
The stunning video, which has been posted and shared online, is made all the more amazing because of the views of Earth and space through the windows of the ISS.
The lyrics are also perfectly fitting.
‘‘Here I am, sitting in a tin can, far above the world,’’ Hadfield sings.
‘‘Planet Earth is blue … and there’s nothing left to do.’’
Hadfield, the first Canadian to walk in space, left Earth on December 19, 2012, and has spent five month aboard the ISS.
But his tour has not been without incident, including an emergency spacewalk on the weekend to fix an ammonia leak.
Hadfield is due to return to Earth later this week aboard a Russian Soyuz space capsule that will land in Kazakhstan.
The 53-year-old former fighter pilot has become something of an internet sensation during his time in space, posting a series of pictures and videos from the ISS. Among them was a lesson in space station cooking.
He’s also got 775,000 followers on Twitter, thanks to his string of social media updates from the ISS.
– AAP
http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/8666665/Bowie-hit-at-zero-gravity
Astronaut tweets pic of Auckland shining bright
Picture – CHRIS HADFIELD
BEACON: Auckland from the space station.
A Canadian astronaut on the International Space Station has photographed a bright Auckland at night – and tweeted it.
“Holding a third of New Zealand’s population, it radiates like a beacon between the harbours,” International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield said this morning.
Yesterday he tweeted a picture of Christchurch just after Earth Hour ended on Saturday.
The international effort involves cutting lights and electricity use between 8.30pm and 9.30pm in an effort to cut carbon emissions.
Aboard the space station, Hadfield, who has made a speciality out of photographing the Earth, said on Twitter he was going to photograph the Earth Hour efforts.
A little while later he said it turned out that orbital mechanics did not support seeing the lights out effort.
But in one of his pictures he caught Christchurch just after Earth Hour ended.
“The perfect grid system of the downtown core is clearly visible,” he says.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8468327/Astronaut-tweets-pic-of-Auckland-shining-bright
Screw Pile Developments 