Tag: science

Mars Science Laboratory & Curiosity Rover Mars Landing

“After flying more than eight months and 350 million miles since launch, the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is now right on target to fly through the eye of the needle that is our target at the top of the Mars atmosphere,” said Mission Manager Arthur Amador of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Mars Science Laboratory and the Curiosity Rover is scheduled to land on Mars in less than 13 hours, close to Gale Crater at about 05:31 UTC on August 6, 2012 (for those needing a detailed timeline with time in both EST and UTC, here you go). If you haven’t seen the Curiosity’s Seven Minutes of Terror video, you should:

MSL Entry, Decent and Landing schematic

If you want to watch the landing (and by watch the landing, I mean watch a bunch of people look at computers), check out NASA JP’s Ustream feed, NASA TV’s special Mars Landing Page, or @MarsCuriosity on twitter. If you want super space-nerd commentary, go to the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Special Event Section on NASA Spaceflight.com.

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) (201208050004HQ)

Update:
Check out the control room when touchdown was confirmed:

U.S. population in cities growing faster than in suburbs – Let’s Rebalance Our Funding

Manhattan Skyline

Those who are following the resurgence of urban centers, this won’t be a surprise – the population in cities growing faster than in suburbs:

For all 51 metro areas with a million or more people, cities as a whole grew by 1.1% from 2010 to 2011, while suburbs increased 0.9%. That’s a big change from the last decade, in which suburbs expanded at triple the rate of cities.

“This can really be seen as a milestone,” said William Frey, a Brookings Institution demographer who analyzed the census data to be released Thursday. “What’s significant about it is that it’s pervasive across the country.”

via U.S. population in cities growing faster than in suburbs – latimes.com.

The Sacramento Area Council of Governments has an interesting white paper entitled Changing National Demographics and Demand for Housing Types which reinforces this larger trend:

Myers and SungHo Ryu argue [in Aging Baby Boomers and the Generational Housing Bubble: Foresight and Mitigation of an Epic Transition – ed.] that the future population and age structure will lead to differences between age and home buying and selling. The aging, retirement and lifestyle patterns of the 76 million baby boomers will likely shape U.S. housing markets and trends for decades ahead. They conclude that there will be an oversupply of homes offered for sale by aging baby boomers – many of which may not be of the housing type that young buyers want. The researchers raise the idea that where decline once occurred as housing moved from the central city to the suburbs, it may now be reversed as the suburbs will see surpluses of large-lot single-family housing.

The suburbs have long enjoyed subsidies many magnitudes greater than central cities, which is a travesty when you rank the productivity and economic output of denser central cities to suburbs. It isn’t even close according to the New York Fed in Management of Large City Regions: Designing Efficient Metropolitan Fiscal Policies:

Among the 363 MSAs [ed. what’s an MSA?] defined by OMB, just fifty had populations over one million. Yet the output of these fifty cities accounted for nearly two-thirds (65%) of national GDP of $11.5 trillion (in $2001).

I can’t talk about others whom champion cities, but I think there is a place for hyper dense cities such as Manhattan, merely dense cities such as Brooklyn or even Boston and the suburbs. But the fact that the suburbs are given subsidies over and above cities is just wrong from a moral point of view (unless you are buying land in West Virginia as future oceanfront property) but also from an economic point of view. Investing in multimodal transportation – high speed rail and local mass transit – not only makes sense from an economic viewpoint, but increases individual liberty by allowing people to chose to walk, take the train or buy and drive their personal car.

Graduation Dispora

There is a really interesting article in the New York Times about college graduates clumping in certain metros, and I was wondering if my friends, and friends of friends, also fit this pattern.

So can you please take a minute and fill out the following form. The data will be anonymous – give me as much as you feel comfortable – and I will never, ever sell or give away this dataset to a third party.

E. chromi – color-coded bacteria

E. chromi is a collaboration between designers and scientists in the new field of synthetic biology. In 2009, seven Cambridge University undergraduates spent the summer genetically engineering bacteria to secrete a variety of coloured pigments, visible to the naked eye. They designed standardised sequences of DNA, known as BioBricks, and inserted them into E. coli bacteria.

Each BioBrick part contains genes selected from existing organisms spanning the living kingdoms, enabling the bacteria to produce a colour: red, yellow, green, blue, brown or violet. By combining these with other BioBricks, bacteria could be programmed to do useful things, such as indicate whether drinking water is safe by turning red if they sense a toxin. E. chromi won the Grand Prize at the 2009 International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM).

E. chromi

Full-scale Space Shuttle Orbiter Mockup

Full-scale mockup of Space Shuttle Orbiter Constitution (OV-101) 1975 - Donwney, CA

Full-scale mockup of Space Shuttle Orbiter Constitution (OV-101) 1975 - Donwney, CA

Flickr user aharvey2k unearthed photos of a Space Shuttle Orbiter full-scale mockup which Lockheed built in order to secure the prime contract on the Space Shuttle. It was displayed on February 27, 1975 in Donwney, CA and apparently it is still stored there in pieces.

There is a fascinating paper by John Griswold entitled, Preserving the Orbiter: Stabilization, Disassembly, Relocation and Storage of an Historic Space Shuttle Mock-Up which documents the history, dismantling and storage of the mockup in 2003:

In late spring, 2003, an important artifact from the beginning of NASA’s Space Shuttle (Orbiter) Program had reached a critical moment. In its original location since 1972, the only existing full-size mock-up of the spacecraft would have to be moved to another location. Here it would wait to become the centerpiece of the future Downey Space Museum. Given its construction of plywood veneer over a wood frame, and its massive size, this was a formidable prospect.

The Space Shuttle mock-up was originally built to fulfill a requirement of the contract bidding process, but remained a useful tool for the program for the next several decades. In spite of the relatively ephemeral materials of its construction, it lasted for years as an accurately proportioned simulation of the exterior and interior spaces and features of the actual vehicle, modified over the years to reflect updates in design. The mock-up lacks a left wing in a measure to eliminate redundancy and to save space. The flight deck, crew quarters, cargo bay, and engine compartment are authentically fitted with every detail, often represented by simple painted wood shapes or silk-screened plastic or metal sheeting. This verisimilitude allowed engineers to accurately check prototypes of planned equipment in their intended location. Some prototype items, such as a machined metal restraint for astronaut’s boots at the airlock to the cargo bay remain in place. Mock-ups of payload equipment and containers were also tested for fit, and one array of simulated electronic equipment on a specialized pallet remains bolted in the cargo bay today. The Remote Manipulator System (RMS), a jointed, rotating arm made for deploying payloads, built by Canada, is faithfully represented by an accurate, nonworking replica in aluminum. It is bolted to the port side of the payload bay.

Located in the Design and Engineering Integration Room, or DEI Room, the orbiter mock-up was used for a number of other purposes. It was a centerpiece of public relations and a visual aid for communications with members of congress and other government officials, who frequented a two-tiered complex of office and conference spaces across from the mock-up.

Downey City bought the mockup and associated buildings of the now-closed Downey City Boeing Space Systems Division plant. Currently the city is renting the facility for feature film productions by major Hollywood, making use of the large indoor spaces, and open airfields surrounding them. This necessitated the removal of the Space Shuttle Mockup – quickly – due to a movie production necessitating the creating of a giant indoor lake. It is clear from Griswold’s report that the stabilization team did the best they could in a tricky situation: they were continually pushed to speed up the dismantling and storage ahead of the movie shoot. Furthermore, the current storage site’s roof is leaking and large amounts of dust have settled on the mockup’s surface.

Below is a photo I had from the NASA archive, showing the mockup from the aft view:

Update 8 June 2012

Reader JG who was involved with the original conservation updates us on the current status of the orbiter mockup conservation program:

As far as I know [the orbiter mockup] is still there, but I suspect that conditions have eroded over the years. We have not been brought in for any formal maintenance or monitoring follow-up, although I know the director of the new Columbia Memorial Space Center next door was concerned. The Tyvek enclosure was beginning to fail, and demolition was continuing around the space.

Update 21 June 2012

Via the always awesome NASA Spaceflight.com comes this link about the Vultee Field / Downey Field and the LA Times has a story about the Space Shuttle Orbiter Mockup coming out of storage: ‘The original space shuttle’ to come out of hiding in Downey (don’t miss the photos):


A photo from 1975 shows a space shuttle mock-up in a warehouse in Downey, CA. Credit: Boeing

This week, officials in the city of Downey turned their attention to another shuttle, long forgotten to most of the world. Sitting in a nondescript warehouse in Downey, under a coat of dust and waves of plastic sheeting, is a full-scale mock-up — largely made of wood and plastic — built in 1972 by shuttle manufacturer Rockwell.

For decades, the 122-foot-by-78-foot model has remained hidden away at the former manufacturing site that was the cradle of the nation’s space program. But that’s set to change. On Tuesday, the Downey City Council approved the temporary relocation of the mock-up to a large tent on a nearby movie studio parking lot where, starting late this summer, people may be able to catch a glimpse of it.
…
Officials hope that the public can see the model under the new tent within the next three months, and that eventually it will become part of a new planned exhibit at Downey’s nearby two-story Columbia Memorial Space Center. A hands-on learning center on space science that opened in 2009, it is an official national memorial to the crew of the space shuttle Columbia, which broke apart on reentry in 2003, killing all seven on board.
…

In the early 1970s, Rockwell decided to build a full-scale mock-up as part of the proposal effort. At the time, the world had never seen a winged space plane before. Before the shuttle, astronauts reached space by squeezing into a small capsule launched atop a massive rocket.

“It would be used for marketing our design approach to NASA and also be an engineering aid to our designers and manufacturing engineers,” said Gerald Blackburn, a former shuttle worker and now president of the Aerospace Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit organization of former aerospace employees who work to preserve Southern California’s aerospace history.

Also, from Jacques van Oene come these photos from the mockup, circa 1999:

Update 13 July 2012

CollectSpace.com is reporting that Original 1972 space shuttle mockup moved outdoors for Downey, CA display:

The original full-scale mockup of the space shuttle, which hasn’t seen the light of day since the early 1970s, emerged from a warehouse into the California sun on Thursday (July 12) to be put on outdoor display.

The full-size wood and plastic model was transported on a flatbed truck the short distance from the building where it for decades served as a design and demonstration tool to an open-ended tent that was erected in a parking lot near the Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey, Calif.
…
The shuttle will remain under the temporary tent until the city has the funds needed to construct the building, which will be located adjacent to the Columbia Memorial Space Center. City officials, together with the Aerospace Legacy Foundation, will seek sponsors to underwrite the display.

House Republicans to Big Data: “HULK SMASH”

Besides going back on their debt ceiling promise (and wanting to raise taxes on poor families) House Republicans voted to end the American Community Survey, which isn’t part of the decennial census, but is a yearly survey which records supremely useful survey charting what exactly it is that we Americans do, ranging from where you work and how you get there to your family and relationships. This is wonderful data and everyone from researchers to the business community uses this data to help craft products and services for Americans.

But to House Republicans, it is EVIL:

The House voted Wednesday to eliminate the detailed surveys of America that have been conducted by the Census Bureau since the nation’s earliest days.

House Republicans, increasingly suspicious of the census generally, advanced a measure to cut the American Community Survey. It passed 232 to 190.

The survey is not part of the constitutionally mandated population count, but some version of it has been done by law as part of the decennial survey since the time of Thomas Jefferson to assess the needs of the nation. It’s generally considered a vital tool for business.

Republicans, acknowledging its usefulness, attacked the survey as an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, arguing that the government has no business knowing how many flush toilets someone has, for instance.

“It would seem that these questions hardly fit the scope of what was intended or required by the Constitution,” said Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), author of the amendment.

“This survey is inappropriate for taxpayer dollars,” Webster added. “It’s the definition of a breach of personal privacy. It’s the picture of what’s wrong in Washington, D.C. It’s unconstitutional.”

via House Votes To Cut Census Survey Done Since Thomas Jefferson.

Too bad that the data is anonymized and individual records are not shared with anyone, including federal agencies and law enforcement entities. By law, the Census Bureau cannot share respondents’ answers with anyone, – not the IRS, not the FBI, not the CIA, and not with any other government agency. Rep. Webster should please review the meaning of “unconstitutional” before using those big words.

Luckily this bill has no chance of passing in the Senate.

Update 12 May 2012

Via Atlantic Cities blog post, What Killing the American Community Survey Would Actually Mean comes this article from Census Director Groves entitled, A Future Without Key Social and Economic Statistics for the Country:

The ACS is our country’s only source of small area estimates on social and demographic characteristics. Manufacturers and service sector firms use ACS to identify the income, education, and occupational skills of local labor markets they serve. Retail businesses use ACS to understand the characteristics of the neighborhoods in which they locate their stores. Homebuilders and realtors understand the housing characteristics and the markets in their communities. Local communities use ACS to choose locations for new schools, hospitals, and fire stations. There is no substitute from the private sector for ACS small area estimates. Even if the funding problems were solved in the proposed budget, the House bill also bans enforcement of the mandatory nature of participation in the ACS; this alone would require at least $64 million more in funding to achieve the same precision of ACS estimates.

Not to mention that many government programs are by statute dependent on data derived from the ACS. Conservative Republicans often complain that government isn’t as efficient as the private sector (a point I don’t agree with after working with many Fortune 100 companies), so how might we make government more efficient? Their solution is to cut any customer reporting and steer the ship blind. Thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Madness.

Update 21 May 2012

In even more ACS news, the New York Times thinks Rep. Webster is heralding the The Beginning of the End of the Census:

“This is a program that intrudes on people’s lives, just like the Environmental Protection Agency or the bank regulators,” said Daniel Webster, a first-term Republican congressman from Florida who sponsored the relevant legislation.

“We’re spending $70 per person to fill this out. That’s just not cost effective,” he continued, “especially since in the end this is not a scientific survey. It’s a random survey.”

In fact, the randomness of the survey is precisely what makes the survey scientific, statistical experts say.

Each year the Census Bureau polls a representative, randomized sample of about three million American households about demographics, habits, languages spoken, occupation, housing and various other categories. The resulting numbers are released without identifying individuals, and offer current demographic portraits of even the country’s tiniest communities.

It is the largest (and only) data set of its kind and is used across the federal government in formulas that determine how much funding states and communities get for things like education and public health.
…
Other private companies and industry groups — including the United States Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation and the National Association of Home Builders — are up in arms.

Target recently released a video explaining how it used these census data to determine where to locate new stores. Economic development organizations and other business groups say they use the numbers to figure out where potential workers are.

Being present on the network: buildings=yes presentation by Aaron Straup Cope

buildings=yes

The second paper I presented was about the building=yes project. It is very much a technical paper going over the nuts and bolts of extracting the data (from OpenStreetMap), indexing it and designing custom map tiles to help make sense of the sheer volume of data. Rather than try to cram all that information in to a 15 minute talk I instead talked about the overall value – the purpose – of creating these kinds of registries and tried to highlight the importance of being patient. It’s not always clear what will come out of these kinds of projects but what is clear is that stable, linkable things that can hold hands with one another are the foundation on which all the interesting stuff will be built.

via [this is aaronland] haystack triptychs.

Big Box Stores Linked To the Presence of Hate Groups – Neighborhoods – The Atlantic Cities

The recent surge in hate group activity is a concern to many citizens and policymakers. We examine the roles of socioeconomic factors measured at the county level that are hypothesized to account for the presence of such groups, including social capital and religious affiliations.

Both social capital stocks and religious affiliation exert an independent and statistically significant influence on the number of hate groups, as does the presence of Wal-Mart stores, holding other factors constant.

Big Box Stores Linked To the Presence of Hate Groups