This is the best video I’ve seen so far explaining how Curiosity was designed to land. I’m just amazed that it worked. Twelve year old Space Cadet Jimmiejoe was bouncing up and down, telling me it was going to work no sweat, but I really didn’t believe him. I worried that the parachute would fail, or the heat shield would get hung up, or the retro-rockets wouldn’t fire correctly… and I really sweated the whole sky-crane thing. That was just crazy writ large! Hover 60 feet in the air, and drop this huge thing down on a tether? Are they nuts?? Then the tethers had to be cut, allowing the rocket frame to fly away. If that hadn’t worked, it would have dropped on top of the lander once it’s fuel ran out.
BUT IT WORKED!
Congratulations to NASA and JPL!
You know what would be cool? I know it can’t happen, but wouldn’t it be something if Curiosity could, at the end of it’s science programs, drive to one of the other lander’s locations, just to visit? Too far, over terrain that would probably be impossible, and the mechanisms of the machine would likely never survive, but that would be something to see.
JimmieJoe / KC6YRU 
The Definition of Insanity
August 13, 2012
Jim Reeves commentary, News California Congressional District 22, Clovis, Devin Nunes, Otto for Congress, Otto Lee, Tulare County, visalia 1 Comment
… is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.
For almost ten years, voters in the Visalia area have elected, and re-elected, Devin Nunes to be our congressman in the House of Representatives. In at least one election, Nunes ran unopposed. In those ten years, we’ve seen a dramatic jump in the number of dairies in Tulare County and the surrounding area. Tulare County is now #1 in dairy production in the United States. Tulare County is also consistently #2 or #3 in overall agricultural production in the United States, usually hot on the heels of Fresno County. Despite this leadership in the dairy industry (Representative Nunes’ family business) and agriculture, Tulare County is also one of the poorest counties in California. Nearly a quarter of the population live in poverty, and one in three residents receives state aid.
One has to ask, in the midst of such wealth, why is the poverty level so high, and what has Devin Nunes done in his tenure in Congress to alleviate that poverty? The answer, based on continuing high poverty levels, would seem to be “not much”. Republicans love to talk business, and clamor for government to be run “more like a business”. Well, we’ve had ten years of Mr. Nunes’ being in our employ, and we don’t have much to show for it (unless you’re a dairyman or farmer). It’s time we seriously considered firing Mr. Nunes for his lack of success in solving the problems that have been plaguing Tulare County for years. After all, that’s what any business would do, right?
On Sunday, August 12, 2012, I attended the grand opening of the Otto For Congress office in Visalia. Otto Lee is a Commander in the Navy, Bronze Star recipient, private business owner, and former Mayor and Council member in Sunnyvale.
Sunday’s office opening was a chance for people to meet the candidate, and talk to him about his goals and plans for the future.
There are many different groups that fall under the banner of what might be called Democratic “special interests”, and my interests are, of course, in the area of LGBT issues. I had an opportunity to sit down with Otto for a few minutes, and discuss those subjects.
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