BenRoudenis.com » Space

American Astronauts Cast Ballots In Orbit

Benjamin Roudenis — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 02:48:30 +0000

Three American astronauts flying on the International Space Station may be far from home, but they’re not left out of today’s Election Day fervor. They still get to vote from space.

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To help space station crewmembers stay involved with their local politics, NASA has made arrangements with county officials that allow astronauts to vote from space. The ballots are prepared by county officials and beamed up from Mission Control.

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Once the astronauts vote, the ballots are then beamed back to Mission Control and delivered to their respective county clerk’s office.

Voting From Space: American Astronauts Cast Ballots In Orbit [Space.com]

Father, Son Launch Spacecraft From Newburgh, NY

Benjamin Roudenis — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 04:15:38 +0000

A father-son team from Park Slope decided NASA wasn’t doing enough to document the stratosphere, and decided to take matters into their own hands. After testing their “19-inch helium filled weather balloon” in Brooklyn, Luke Geissbuhler and his son Max headed upstate and launched the device, complete with a camera, into space. Here’s what the planet looks like from up there:

Video: Spacecraft Launched From Newburgh [Gothamist]

Impending doom reminds me of an Aerosmith song

Benjamin Roudenis — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:55:40 +0000

We almost got hit by an asteroid last Friday!

A newly discovered asteroid designated 2009 VA, which is only about 7 meters in size, passed about 2 Earth radii (14,000 km) from the Earth’s surface Nov. 6 at around 16:30 EST. This is the third-closest known (non-impacting) Earth approach on record for a cataloged asteroid. The two closer approaches include the 1-meter sized asteroid 2008 TS26, which passed within 6,150 km of the Earth’s surface on October 9, 2008, and the 7-meter sized asteroid 2004 FU162 that passed within 6,535 km on March 31, 2004. On average, objects the size of 2009 VA pass this close about twice per year and impact Earth about once every 5 years.

Asteroid 2009 VA was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey about 15 hours before the close approach, and was quickly identified by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge MA as an object that would soon pass very close to the Earth. JPL’s Near-Earth Object Program Office also computed an orbit solution for this object, and determined that it was not headed for an impact. Only thirteen months ago, the somewhat smaller object 2008 TC3 was discovered under similar circumstances, but that one was found to be on a trajectory headed for the Earth, with impact only about 11 hours away.

I always knew Ben Affleck would let me down.

Small Asteroid 2009 VA Whizzes By The Earth [Near Earth Object Program - NASA]