Category Archives: Space

OK GO: Upside down & Inside Out

I posted about this music video twice before, but the links have since broken. Here’s an update:

OK Go: Upside Down & Inside Out music video (YouTube, 3:21min)

Background material, all YouTube links:

Source: OK GO Videos and OK GO YouTube Channel.

“Marzine has gone to the Moon, Travel sickness hasn’t”

Pharmama: Pharmazie auf dem Mond. “Gelegentlich findet man in Kundenretouren von Alt-Medikamenten wirkliche Schätze. Dieses hier zum Beispiel: Marzine war ein Mittel gegen Übelkeit, das ich auch noch kannte. Es ging 2008 – damals habe ich angefangen zu bloggen – in der Schweiz ausser Handel. Es enthält Cyclizin, ist ein altes Antihistaminikum (erste Klasse) und wirkt antiallergisch, antiemetisch (gegen Übelkeit) und beruhigend. Cyclicin gehörte zu den ersten Antihistaminika und wurde von der NASA beim Mondflug als Mittel gegen Übelkeit verwendet. Dabei macht es anscheinend weniger müde als andere Antihistaminika, weshalb es von der WHO 2011 auf die Liste der unentbehrlichen Medikamente für Kinder aufgenommen wurde.”

Space is big.

“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.“ Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Harry Evett: Universe Size Comparison 3D (YouTube, 5:07min)

morn1415: Star Size Comparison 2. (YouTube, the interesting part is between 0:41 and 5:53min; the whole video is 6:50min.)

morn1415: Star Size Comparison 3 (Vortex V1). (YouTube, 8:16min)

morn1415: Real Images from the Solar System! (YouTube, 11:22min)

“Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me.”

NPR Science: 50 Years Ago, Americans Made The 2nd Moon Landing… Why Doesn’t Anyone Remember?

“Fifty years ago, astronaut Pete Conrad stepped out of the lunar module onto the surface of the moon.

His first words were: “Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me.”

Conrad, who stood at just 5 feet 6 inches tall, was only the third human to set foot on the lunar surface. He did it on November 19, 1969, just four months after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first lunar landing. However, unlike Armstrong and Aldrin, Conrad and fellow astronaut Alan Bean are not household names.”

Space Analogies

Alexander Gerst’s Horizon Blog: Cave Life for Space. “When you ignore some details, it is amazing how similar cave exploration is to going to space. After my experience with CAVES, I can say that, so far, this is the best analogue that I know for astronauts to mentally prepare for space.”

See also ESA: Caves 2019. (YouTube, 5:50min)

“In September 2019 in Slovenia, astronauts from five space agencies around the world took part in ESA’s CAVES training course – Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behaviour and performance Skills.

The six ‘cavenauts’ were ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, NASA astronauts Joe Acaba and Jeanette Epps, Roscosmos cosmonaut Nikolai Chub, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Japan’s space agency JAXA’s Takuya Onishi.

The three-week course prepares astronauts to work effectively in multicultural teams in an environment where safety is critical.

As they explored the caves, they encountered caverns, underground lakes and strange microscopic life. They tested new technology and conducted science – much like life on the International Space Station.

Inhospitable and hard to access, caves are untouched worlds and hold many scientific secrets. The astronauts performed a dozen experiments and were on the lookout for signs of life that has adapted to the extremes. They paid special attention to their environment, monitoring air and water quality, and looking for signs of pollution.”