The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is scheduled to enter orbit around
the Red Planet on Friday, March 10.

THOSE WACKY RUSSIANS! So anyways, I was reading up on news about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (or MRO for short) and its expected arrival at the Red Planet less than two weeks from now, and I found an interesting article online regarding all the spacecraft that have been sent to Mars since 1960. Needless to say, the Earth is batting a little above .500 when it comes to successful missions flown to the Red Planet. And who's the player who should be cut from the team? The Soviet Union-slash-Russia, of course. Back in its Commie days, Russia was pretty much launching probes left and right to Mars...with one intention being to one-up the USA by being the first to land a probe onto the surface of the planet (and Russia was successful by being the first to do so. Too bad that probe didn't last long on the surface). Of course, much like being the first to land a dude on the moon with Apollo, the Yankees prevailed by landing the first truly successful robotic lander with Viking 1 in 1976.

All I can say is, when we finally begin sending humans to the Red Planet, let's hope that they fly on a NASA (or the European Space Agency, I guess) launch vehicle. Wouldn't want our would-be, Mars-bound astronauts to find a one-way ticket to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean by having them launch on a Russian rocket. Just kidding! Seriously though, Russia sucks at launching missions to Mars. But let's thank that country for helping us send our astronauts to the International Space Station while our beloved space shuttles remain grounded. 'Nuff said.

Farewell to the Bluth family... Tonight, FOX aired the final four episodes of Arrested Development, and now this hilarious TV sitcom is no more (unless you buy the DVDs for this season as well as Seasons' 1 and 2). The show ended on a good note, though if I was Michael Bluth (played by Jason Bateman), I'd get it on with Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) after finding out she's not really my twin sister. Err, did I say that one out loud?

On another note, when the hit series Prison Break returns to FOX next month, what are the chances that it airs at 8PM on Mondays before 24? 'Cause if it airs on any other day of the week (especially Tuesday), then I'm screwed. Monday is the only day I officially have a day off from work. Darn it.

SUPER BOWL XL... It was a good game, as exemplified (I know, I know... A big word to use for a sports-themed journal entry, haha) during the 4th quarter...when MVP Hines Ward scored a touchdown off that gadget play by Antwaan Randle El and Willie Parker. Of course, had I known the Steelers won 4 previous titles, I would’ve rooted for the Seahawks (Can you tell I'm a die-hard football fan?). Then again, maybe not. I never root for the underdogs... Always the sure-bets... Whether it be the Bulls in the 90s, the Yankees in October (that is, when the Angels aren’t in the playoffs...and I'm well aware that New York hasn't won since 2000), or the New England Patrio— Nevermind, that one was a bad example. Not that I have ever bet money on those teams, haha.

Super Bowl commercial highlights: a few of the Budweiser spots, the Ameriquest commercial where that lady gets caught on that guy's lap on an airliner, that Burger King Whopper "musical", the Godaddy.com spot with that hot babe about to lose one of her bra straps and that Careerbuilder.com ad where the dude is working in that office full of monkeys. Hi-larious.

But what was up with the movie spots?? The only noteworthy teasers were the ones for V for Vendetta and Pirates of the Carribbean 2. Shaggy Dog?? What the heck was Tim Allen thinking?? If that’s the kinda garbage he’s gonna make (when he’s not doing crappy Christmas-themed films), then stick with stand-up comedy. And what the heck was Harrison Ford thinking doing that Dr. Seuss commercial?? Especially considering he was the only non-NFL dude in that ad... Waiting for the Indy IV script to be completed?? Ugh...



Fortunately, what saved the evening was tonight's "Code Black" episode of Grey’s Anatomy. This is the first time I ever watched the show, but needless to say, this show is good! No wonder why Sandra Oh won that Golden Globe... What actually got me to stick around to watch this episode (I attended a co-worker’s Super Bowl Party in Hollywood) was Oh’s reaction when the door to that ambulance opened in the commercial. Awesome. Keep in mind I watch the FOX show House regularly...but what would've Dr. House done if he came upon some guy with a live artillery shell stuck inside his chest? Brilliant. Now that’s good television.

78th ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS... I was gonna write a long-ass Blog about the Oscars mostly to talk about Revenge of the Sith and its many technical nominations (heheh)...but since it got robbed of even the Best Visual FX Award (making this the only Star Wars film to not be nominated for visual effects), there's no need. Sith got nominated for Best Make-up, but the chances of it winning that are nil (considering The Chronicles of Narnia and Cinderella Man have also been thrown into the mix). We all know the cowboy "romance" film Brokeback Mountain is gonna win Best Picture, so let's cut the BS speculation crap on that one. But will Commodus- err, Joaquin Phoenix take home an Oscar for Walk the Line? We'll see. At least ILM got a nomination for War of the Worlds and John Williams got nominated for his score on Munich, but... Bah! No kudos to Rob Coleman and Company for kung-fu fighting Yoda this time around. But Sith did win the People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture and Favorite Movie Drama, as well as the Teen Choice Award for, um, Choice Movie: Action/Adventure. But those awards are meaningless compared to the gold statuette designed by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons (I'm too lazy to elaborate). 'Kay, I'm out. I have better things to do with my time. Like pay off a bill that's due tomorrow.


BEST VISUAL FX... General Grievous and Company are out...


...the Tripod is in.

EDIT: Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker) gets a Raspberry nomination for Worst Supporting Actor of 2005 (for the record, isn't he the LEAD actor in Sith? He obviously has more screentime than Ewan McGregor)... Razzies.com should be nominated for Worst Webpage of 2005. GOD, that site is slow. And don't tell me it's because a lot of people are actually visiting it.

20 YEARS AGO TODAY... Last week, NASA enjoyed two successes with its unmanned space program when the Stardust capsule returned to Earth bearing dust samples from a comet, and a few days later, the New Horizons spacecraft was launched towards the outer edge of our solar system. Today and yesterday, however, marked the anniversaries of two of the lowest points in our nation's manned space program. Rest in peace to the Challenger crew...as well as the Columbia and Apollo 1 astronauts. This Wednesday marks the 3-year anniversary since the second space shuttle disaster took place. When the shuttle Discovery launches again, hopefully this May, let's hope that that mission officially resumes manned spaceflight for the U.S. We gotta head back to the Moon and then Mars sooner or later...

81 POINTS... Just when you thought he was only gonna be known for three championship rings, being Shaq's arch-nemesis, and having the reputation of being Eagle, Colorado's most well-known white-trash arse-banger, Kobe Bryant had to beat the Toronto Raptors tonight and set the second all-time NBA scoring record...right behind the 100 points scored by Wilt Chamberlain against the New York Knicks in March of 1962. You go, Kobe! Now if only the Lakers reached the playoffs, and you were at least nominated as this season's MVP, then you'd be set. This came on the same night the NBA had its highest scoring game in 11 years...when the Seattle Supersonics beat the Phoenix Suns, 152-149, in two overtimes. The last 300-point game in the NBA came when Dallas beat Houston 156-147 in two overtimes on April 11, 1995. But 'nuff 'bout that. It's all about Eagle, Colorado's most well-known white trash arse-banger dropping 81 on the Canadians. Haha.


ABOVE: Seen here in a game in 1998,
Michael Jordan says he might have fouled
out before letting Kobe Bryant get to 81
points.

Photo by Ben Cooper of LaunchPhotography.com

PLUTO-BOUND!! Following a 52-minute delay because of low cloud cover, the Atlas V rocket finally lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 11:00 AM (Pacific Standard Time)...sending the New Horizons spacecraft on its way to Pluto. New Horizons will pass by the moon within 9 hours (8 hours, 35 minutes to be exact), pass Mars' orbit in less than 3 months from now (on Thursday, April 6), and fly by Jupiter on February 28, 2007. Today's successful launch oughta make NASA feel vindicated (yet again)...considering the past few weeks' controversy over the anti-nuke demonstrators protesting against the launch of New Horizons. I guess you'll have to wait till 2009 to create more noise, eh Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power (2009 is when the plutonium-powered Mars Science Laboratory rover is set to launch)? Hopefully, much like the launches of New Horizons, Cassini and Galileo, your protests will once again be a waste of time when MSL takes off. And don't forget the Boeing labor union, whose majority of workers are still currently on strike (I think), that wanted the launch to be delayed because it deemed the six non-striking workers who attached the third stage rocket motor to New Horizons (last month) to be "unqualified." Anyways, onward to Pluto! And the Kuiper Belt. New Horizons will pass by the ninth planet in the solar system on July 14, 2015.



UPDATE (January 20: 11:30 AM, PST): 24 hours after launch, New Horizons is already about 1 million miles away from Earth. Below is a checklist of all the activities that will be done over the next 3 weeks to get the spacecraft up and running for the remainder of its decade-long flight:

Day 1: First contact, command to flight mode, configure thermal control, turn Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) on, "burp" and prime the propulsion lines.
Day 2: Thermal management and guidance system checkouts.
Days 3-8: Navigation system and sensor checks, guidance system checks, tracking to refine the spacecraft's trajectory.
Day 9: First trajectory correction.
Day 11: Second trajectory correction (if needed).
Days 12-19: Additional guidance and navigation system checks, spacecraft trajectory refinement.
Day 20: LORRI (LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager) and PEPSSI (Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation) instruments, communications and power checks.
Day 21: Third trajectory correction (if needed).


ABOVE: The 3 billion mile-long flight path that New Horizons will take through the cosmos on
its way to Pluto...and after that, the icy debris region known as the Kuiper Belt. Once the
mission ends, New Horizons will eventually depart the solar system and enter interstellar
space, where it will wander the galaxy for millions of years.

EDIT (January 17): The countdown below is revised to reflect the 10:16 AM (Pacific Standard Time) liftoff time for tomorrow, January 18. However, because of morning showers and more gusty winds that are expected to be in the forecast for Wednesday, there is a huge chance that New Horizons will end up being launched on Thursday, January 19 (when the weather should improve considerably...with acceptable launch conditions improving from 70% expected for tomorrow to 90% for Thursday).

EDIT #2 (January 18): As expected, New Horizons will not be launched today. The liftoff was scrubbed once more when bad weather caused a power outage in the Baltimore-Washington area, where the Mission Control Center for New Horizons is located (at the John Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory). Mission Control was running on backup power, but that is not enough to support critical launch and early flight operations. A decision will be made later today to see if a launch can be attempted tomorrow. If it is, there is an 80% chance of acceptable launch conditions for January 19. The launch window for this day opens at 10:08 AM, PST.

EDIT #3 (January 18): After the main power had been restored at the John Hopkins University in Maryland, NASA officials gave the go-ahead to proceed with another launch attempt for tomorrow, January 19. Tomorrow SHOULD be the day...considering the forecast calls for sunny weather and wind speeds that should be well within the acceptable limits for launching New Horizons. We shall see...


EDIT #4 (January 19): LIFTOFF!


Photo by NASA Kennedy Space Center

17 HOURS, 24 MINUTES AND 59, 58, 57, 56, 55 SECONDS REMAINING... By tomorrow afternoon (if you're living on the East Coast of the United States) or late morning (if you're on the West Coast), the fastest spacecraft ever flown should be off its launch pad in Florida and begin its 9-year journey towards the last(?) planet(?) in our solar system. Yes, those question marks were intentional. Last week, New Horizons underwent the final NASA Flight Planning Board, and passed its Flight Readiness Review...followed by Sunday's Launch Readiness Review...which basically means the Pluto-bound explorer is now officially ready to roar off the ground on 2.5 million pounds of rocket thrust, and start an approximately 50-minute long journey out of Earth orbit. Below is a timeline showing how long each of the Atlas V's engines will burn before running out of fuel and sending New Horizons on its way into deep space. The Atlas V carrying New Horizons actually has three stages (as opposed to two used by past Atlas rockets): The RD-180 first stage rocket motor, the Centaur second stage rocket motor and the Boeing third stage kick motor. The Boeing motor was specifically installed for this flight:

5-24 seconds after liftoff: The RD-180 engine will be ramped down from 100% throttle to 67% to keep maximum dynamic pressure ("Max-Q") to 900 psf (pounds per square foot).

45 seconds after liftoff: The RD-180 will be throttled up to 86% to increase control and performance until ramped down again to 75% throttle to better limit vehicle loads for solid rocket booster (SRB) burnout.

1 minute, 33-45 seconds after liftoff: SRB burnout and separation at an altitude of 23 miles and 0.8 miles-per-second velocity. The RD-180 is then throttled back up to 100%, but adjusted down at specific times to maintain the proper G-force loads.

3 minutes, 23 seconds after liftoff: Fairing jettison at an altitude of 72 miles.

4 minutes, 27 seconds after liftoff: RD-180 shutdown and separation of the Atlas V first stage, followed immediately by Centaur second stage ignition.


ABOVE: At Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the New Horizons spacecraft is put on
display for a media junket back in November of last year. (Photo by Ben
Cooper of LaunchPhotography.com)

10 minutes, 8 seconds after liftoff: Centaur cutoff after placement of the vehicle in a 90 X 115 nautical-mile parking orbit for a coast over the Atlantic Ocean.

32 minutes after liftoff: Centaur re-ignition over southern Africa to begin the Earth escape maneuver.

41 minutes, 45 seconds after liftoff: Centaur cutoff and separation at a velocity of 7.7 miles-per-second and an altitude of 435 miles and climbing.

42 minutes, 37 seconds after liftoff: The New Horizons spacecraft and Boeing upper-stage motor will be spun up to about 80 RPM for stabilization. This will be followed by ignition of the 15,000-lb.-thrust Boeing motor for 88 seconds. Depending upon the launch day, the burn will take place near or over Australia. The spacecraft rotation will be slowed by "yo-yo-weights" after the burn.

47 minutes, 32 seconds after liftoff: The spacecraft, flying at 10.07 miles-per-second, will be separated from the Boeing stage. New Horizon's rotation rate will be slowed to 5 RPM for cruise.

Timeline courtesy of AviationNow.com


Photo by NASA Kennedy Space Center

ABOVE AND BELOW: The Atlas V rocket carrying New Horizons now sits atop its
launch pad, following a rollout from the rocket's vehicle assembly building that took
place at 7:30 AM (Pacific Standard Time) yesterday, January 16. Click here to view the live
webcam feed from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida ( RealOne Player is
required for viewing).


Photo by Ben Cooper of LaunchPhotography.com


Photo by NASA Kennedy Space Center

ABOVE: A scientist approaches the Stardust return capsule after it parachuted to the ground around 2:10 AM (Pacific Standard Time) this morning. The touchdown occurred at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.

STARDUST Returns... Congratulations to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena for successfully bringing a space capsule carrying the remains of a malevolent alien species back to Earth. Haha, just kidding! No seriously though— Kudos to the JPL folks for bringing back the first ever material taken from a comet. Launched in 1999, the Stardust spacecraft collected samples from Comet Wild 2 (pronounced "vilt-two"... Those wacky Swiss) in 2004 and spent the rest of that time heading back to Earth. While the Stardust 'mothership' is in a safe permanent orbit around the Sun, the return capsule will be brought back to the Johnson Space Center in Texas this Tuesday so scientists can pry it open and check out the dead alien— err, dust samples collected from the comet. Nice.


ABOVE: A NASA aircraft took this image of the Stardust capsule
re-entering Earth's atmosphere above Utah...at a 'sluggish' speed of
29,000 MPH. Courtesy of NASA'S Jet Propulsion Laboratory

EDIT: Don't forget that the Season 5 premiere of FOX's 24 airs tonight at 8 PM.

EDIT #2: Whoa, those two episodes were intense! C'mon Jack Bauer, avenge President Palmer's death!! And you gotta regulate on those terrorists at Ontario Airport!! Can't wait for the season premiere's conclusion tomorrow... Of course, my Monday nights will officially be off-limits till May now that everyone's favorite Counter-Terrorist Unit agent is back.

Tristan & Isolde... What kind of friggin' title is that?? Oh wait, this story is based on an actual Arthurian legend. Whatever, the title still blows. 'Kay, move along... Move along...