This week we are at the Stennis Space Center documenting the 3rd test of the J-2X engine. It is NASA's new upper stage engine, designed to lift a space craft to orbit and also to be able to restart after shutdown while in orbit. It is based on the Apollo era J-2 engine that powered the Saturn V second and third stages. Some of the changes include the removal of beryllium, a redesign of all the electronics, and the use of 21st-century joining techniques.
Here is a short video that explains a little more about what the J-2X is and what lead up to us being here this week...
Today was the big day. We came here with a regular high definition camera, a Panasonic DVC-ProHD camera with a wide angle lens and also with a new Red Mysterium-X. It's the first time we at Marshall Television have used it and I was a little nervous. It's more like a film camera than a video camera and it requires a bit more work to achieve a nicely exposed image. It's definitely not for a beginner!
After a couple hours of waiting and sweating we were awarded with the awesome engine test!
This was a 7 second test of this brand new engine. After a few more longer tests, there will be a full duration, 500 second test! That should be awesome!
I have wanted to write things here lately, but not much has been happening...
At work things have been slow and steady. I have been doing lots of little things that keep me busy but are quite boring. Travel has sort of been put on a back burner for the Christmas holidays...although I have been told that the first 3 months of 2009 will be quite busy. I know of trips to Detroit MI, Cleveland OH, Ogden UT, New Orleans LA and Los Angeles CA.
On a side note, I have been told that the NASA Ares Quarterly Progress Reports that we shoot and edit have been very popular on iTunes. They are up to #5 on the most popular podcast list!
How about my Florida Gators? When the Gators played in their first National Championship in 1995 I was overjoyed (although they DID get stomped by Nebraska...) Then they beat Florida State to win the 1996 National Championship and beat Ohio State in 2006 for their 2nd Championship.
Now they will be playing in their fourth Championship game against Oklahoma in Miami on January 8th, 2009. I missed the first 3 Championship games, so I looked into getting a single ticket for this one. Uh...no way! The nose-bleediest of nose-bleed seats cost over $600! I will be watching the game in HD in the comfort of my living room...
I was driving home yesterday and someone rolled down their window and threw a fast food cup right out of the window. As the cup and ice hit the pavement I thought to myself, how does someone do that? I can not even imagine doing that! It boggles my mind...
I have been planning my 2009 vacation...I can't reveal the destination, but you can bet there will be sand, blue water and palm trees!
Is it historical...a record of my job and thoughts for my boys to read in the future?
Is it personal? A way for my family to keep up with me without daily contact?
Is it egotistical? "Hey everyone, look how cool my job is!"
I think it's mainly the first two, with a teeny-tiny touch of the third...
I have a tracking thingamajiggy that shows me the city, state and sometimes country of a person who surfs by and it is interesting to see where people come from.
Just the other day I had my first visit from someone at a University in Iran...which I thought was pretty cool and it's always exciting to have the Googlebot stop by...But still no one from Africa!
What I have discovered is that people all over the world seem to be drawn to a common topic...
Mythbusters!
I get so many folks who stumble across my blog by finding my Mythbusters blog posts back in January and February. Same thing on my Flickr...my top 10 viewed pics are all Mythbusters pics. What's the deal? People can't get enough Mythbusters!
Anyway...I thought I would try something new. Here are a few pics from a neat shoot back in 2000. We went down to the Talladega Superspeedway to shoot video for an episode of a show called NASA Connect. It was a kids show that always had a celebrity open the show and for this show we had Jeff Gordon.
In this photo, Jeff Gordon and our producer, Mick Speer, are discussing the lines Jeff will be reading to the camera, which I was operating.
We shot Jeff's lines for about 15 minutes and when we were done, I turned around and there was about 100 people surrounding us waiting for us to finish so they could get his autograph. He was nice enough to sign our press passes first and then we cleared out so the crush of people could move in.
After about an hour, Jeff was suited up and checking out his car...we needed some video of him racing, so I was permitted to go out and get some closeups before he went out on the track.
As you can see, the stands are empty because this was on the Thursday before the actual race...
As always, click on the little pics to see the big pics!
Today we flew into San Francisco to shoot video at a company that is working on oscillation mitigation for the Ares I...that will be tomorrow.
Today we were tourists and after landing, we drove out to the Golden Gate Bridge. My co-worker, Anthony, suggested that we walk across the bridge...
I thought that sounded like a cool idea...it was really neat to walk all the way across the bridge and then walk all the way back!
Downtown San Francisco...
Alcatraz!
A port-a-potty for the bridge workers was painted the same color as the Golden Gate Bridge!
I am smiling, even though I realize we still have to walk all the way across the bridge to get to our rental car...
After the long walk, we drove up the mountain to get some high definition video of the bridge...
After all of this walking (almost 4 miles...) and driving up mountains, we decided that it was time for some dinner. Where better to get fresh seafood than the world famous Fisherman's Wharf!
All in all, it was a great day. Anytime you fly across the country with no delays and all of your luggage and equipment arrives, I consider it a success. Throw in the Golden Gate Bridge and fresh fish and chips and it takes it to a "whole nother level!"
Because I shoot video for NASA, I am always thinking about rockets, engines, avionics, ullage motors, friction stir welding, aluminum lithium panels, load cells, etc. I don't understand 99% of what I shoot, but I do try to have a basic understanding...I think it helps me do a better job capturing whatever test I happen to be documenting.
That being said, I am amazed and saddened by the number of people who have no idea what will be replacing the Shuttle. Why replace the Shuttle? Well, the design is over 35 years old and was never intended to leave low Earth orbit. It was designed to perform multiple roles, launching both cargo and people while at the same time conducting microgravity experiments and repair and maintenance missions. However, because of this "all in one" approach, the cost of launching 1 pound into orbit is still about $10,000, well below other countries who just launch satellites for less than half of that.
The Shuttle will be retired in 2010 and in the meantime, a new family of rockets is being developed.
The rocket on the left is the Ares I and it will be used to launch the crew to orbit.
The rocket on the right is the Ares V and it will launch everything that is not an astronaut to orbit.
You may not hear much about these rockets right now, but NASA has been working on the Ares I for the last 3 years.
During that time, we at Marshall TV have been documenting the development and construction of the Ares I rocket. We have traveled from coast to coast, north to south, shooting high definition video and producing Ares Quarterly Progress Reports (quarterly as in every 3 months...)
Here is a little about the Ares I rocket...it will launch from the Kennedy Space Center, just like the Shuttles...
The Ares I will carry 6 astronauts to the International Space Station or 4 astronauts to the moon. They will be in a capsule called Orion and it will sit on top of the rocket...no more worry about foam damage.
The Ares I is divided into 2 basic parts...the First Stage and the Upper Stage.
The First Stage is a 5 segment solid rocket (the shuttle uses two 4 segment solids...) with a liquid fueled Upper Stage. The Upper Stage engine is a J-2X, which is derived from the Apollo era J-2 engine, which powered the second and third stages of the Saturn V.
After launch, the First Stage will separate from the Upper Stage...and the single J-2X engine will power the Upper Stage to orbit.
Pretty simple, huh?
Here is a comparison of the Saturn V, the Space Shuttle and the new Ares I
Last but not least, here is some NASA animation of what the Ares I launch will look like...
The Ares V is not currently under construction...all of NASA efforts are being used to get the Ares I flying as quickly as possible to reduce the gap between the Shuttle being retired and Ares I starting. That way, we will be depending on the Russian Soyuz for a shorter time to get to the International Space Station.
Well, we wrapped up our shooting in Minnesota and today was a full day of driving.
As you can see, we drove from Duluth, MN to Fargo, ND to Brookings, SD...a total of 433 miles.
While driving across Minnesota, we crossed the Mississippi at a point not too far from where it begins...
At this point the Mississippi is not much wider than a little river...see the little fishing boat in this picture?
After a short 4 1/2 hour drive we arrived in Fargo, North Dakota...
This city was very impressive...it was clean, everyone seemed nice and the downtown was very cool!
While in Fargo, we ate at a place called Hodo, which is the restaurant of the Hotel Donaldson.
I just HAD to have the bison burger since we were in North Dakota...it tasted very good. It was similar to beef, except that it was a bit..."earthier"? Is that a word? It was different but delicious.
After lunch, it was time to make the final push to South Dakota...
The following 2 photos were taken at the South Dakota welcome center...one represents the spartan living conditions of the native Indians in South Dakota and the other one was just a cool picture of the American flag flying in the breeze
Tomorrow, we will shoot more video of the 2008 NASA Space Exploration Experience in Watertown, SD...
This last weekend was a monumental weekend for a company called SpaceX. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, who made his fortune from Paypal.
SpaceX is committed to developing and launching partially reusable rockets to put cargo and eventually people into Earth orbit.
This is a big deal because this is a private company, I repeat, a PRIVATE COMPANY! Putting people in orbit! ORBIT...around EARTH!
NASA likes them so much that in 2006 they were selected at one of two companies to provide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the International Space Station (ISS)...and with the Space Shuttle coming to an end and the Ares rockets looking like they won't be ready until 2015 or so, NASA just may need SpaceX to bring crew and cargo to the ISS. Sure beats paying the Russians $20 million for a Soyuz launch...
This past Saturday, after 3 unsuccessful launches, SpaceX was able to put a dummy satellite into Earth orbit, becoming the first, privately funded liquid fueled rocket to do so.
Please keep in mind that this private company has achieved that up until now, only countries have been able to do!
Thanks Abby for being my first "follower"! You rock! (and your kid's cute too!)
When I tell people I work for NASA, they instantly think I am an engineer. I thought I was going to be an engineer but little things like Calculus 1, Chemistry 1 and Physics 1 sort of got in the way...I am an engineer at heart, but I just don't have the brains!
I get the feeling that most people think that shooting video for NASA is all Shuttle launches, big gatherings of astronauts and huge paychecks! Well, after 10 years, I have YET to see a shuttle launch, I get to occasionally meet an astronaut and I do make a decent living.
Over the last few weeks I have been busy, just not really interesting enough to write about.
Here are a few crappy cell phone pics of some recent activity.
Here we see some roll control hardware for the Ares I-X. I am not that tall...I was standing on a raised platform
This is an interiew shot in front of our green screen in our studio.
Pretty exciting, huh? Coming up next month I will have new adventures from at least 3 states I have never been to before! Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Even though I am currently in Ames, Iowa, I wanted to start this blog with a few pictures that I took from the 25th floor of my hotel last week in New Orleans...
This is a shot of downtown right before sunrise...
And this one is a shot of the French Quarter later in the day...
We are here in Ames, Iowa to shoot video of the 2008 NASA Space Exploration Exhibit. This is the same exhibit we shot video of 3 months ago in Connecticut...
Please click on the pictures to see the bigger versions.
Also, click on the links, they are added by me in case you want more info...
I shoot video for NASA...I love my job because everyday is different and I never know where I may end up.
I also love NASA history and being surrounded by all things NASA...old and new.
Here are a few pictures I have taken the last few days of either things I was shooting or interesting historical items just "sitting" around.
In this picture, we see a nitrogen truck filling up some tank with, yep you guessed it, nitrogen. I was there to shoot a test related to the Ares program. The "smoke" was really just a harmless byproduct of the liquid nitrogen and the humid air. At least I assumed it was harmless because the guys there didn't yell RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!
Here we see a demonstration of a process called Friction Stir Welding. It will be used to join metal pieces on the new Ares I and Ares V rockets. This set-up at Marshall is just for testing purposes. The real tanks will be welded using this process at the Michoud Assembly Facility (where they currently make the Shuttle External Tank).
These next 5 pictures are various historical engines I have run across lately...
This is what is left of an Aerospike engine that was going to used on the cancelled X-33 program. It was supposed to be a single-stage to orbit craft but the program was cancelled in 2001.
Below, we see 8 or 9 different versions of what I believe is the Fastrac engine that was going to be used to power the X-34. This program was also canceled in 2001.
Here we see an Apollo-era J-2 engine...there were actually 4 of them here. I was told they were brought out of storage to be put on display at various different places.
This is a Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME)...not sure why it was outside, although it was behind a fence topped with barbed wire...
And last, but certainly not least, an Apollo-era F-1 engine...also pulled out of storage to be put on display somewhere...This is the most powerful single-nozzle liquid fueled rocket engine ever used by NASA (so far...) It produced over 1.5 millions pounds of thrust and 5 of them powered the mighty first stage of the Saturn V! This one appears to have been in storage in two pieces...
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