Just a few tidbits today, more to laugh about and maybe learn in the process. Yup, a person can still have fun while learning. These next few articles are good reminders that the human element is ever-present with space operations, and even if that isn’t, then Murphy just decides to take the helm.
Over the weekend, Gizmodo published a post showing some of the few self-inflicted problems that the space industry has faced. And these are the ones that we know about. Just imagine the many, many reviews that went into making sure what happened with the NOAA-19 satellite would never happen again. Imagine just working in that environment, with the extra few “Are you sure’s??” or “How do I know that…?” Uh-huh, great stuff.
As if some of these aren’t already on the lighter side of space (unless you were one of the poor saps involved–still funny though:-)), here’s a Twitter feed you may wish to look at. Called #WhyIGotFiredFromNASA, it’s a fun and light read about theoretical and playful scenarios that would’ve gotten a particular person fired from NASA. There may actually be some true situations in there, but the overall tone is one of fun and the occasional one-upping of each other.
And the last thing, in case you missed it. Quirky stick-figure cartoon XKCD was frantically posting updates to the site during Rosetta’s Philae foray. Thankfully, instead of having to page through the postings page-flip by page-flip, someone put it all together in a nice animated GIF. You can see it all right here on ExplainXKCD. It’s very obvious the artist loved the idea of Philae landing on the comet, and hopefully it catches on a bit more.
The Mad Spaceball 