Archive for the “NASA” Category

Slightly adventurous Intel-based Mac owners seem to often be afraid or confused about installing Ubuntu along side OSX, but it is actually quite simple. There are some oddities that make it different from installing on a PC (but if it was the same, it wouldn’t be a Mac now would it?). Because of this, I am going to outline my easy install method that will leave you with a dual-boot system with OSX and Ubuntu (Those out there that want a Triple-Boot setup will require a bit more complication and I suggest just checking at ubuntuforums.org).

Intro / Setup

For the purposes of this article, I will be assuming that you have OSX Leopard (10.5) installed on your Mac (with some additional details for those with OSX < 10.5), and you would like to install Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex along side it. This should cover most users at the time of this writing.

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I am co-author on a paper being presented at the International Astronautical Congress 2008 in Glasglow, Scotland.

IAC-08-D2.6.7 - ARES I-X FLIGHT TEST VEHICLE SIMILITUDE TO THE ARES I CREW LAUNCH VEHICLE

It is under the Topic “D2.6 Future Space Transportation Systems Verification and In-Flight Experimentation” on October 2nd. Yay me!

It was recently announced that ath9k, the newest of the open Atheros Linux drivers, is now available. This is great news for Mac folks, as a majority of the MacBook and MacBook Pros out there have one of the newer 802.11n cards that is not really supported with madwifi, but this new driver supports.

Of course, it is Ubuntuforums user, volanin, to the rescue again who took it upon himself to backport the wireless-testing portion of the kernel to the 2.6.24-19 (and -20) kernel currently used in Ubuntu Hardy Heron and packaged this ath9k driver into a nice little deb file so that Ubuntu-On-Mac users will have easy access to use it on their machines without having to go through the trouble of compiling a custom kernel. Of course, this is not limited only to Mac users, but rather, any user with an up-to-date install of Hardy Heron will have the benefit of using this driver. A link to the download and full instructions can be found at the following thread. Enjoy!

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5545069&postcount=5

Now, if only Broadcom could realize that they need to release an open driver driver just to keep up…

A partnership between NASA and our friends at Archive.org has resulted in a stunningly beautiful result of a website where the vast droves of imagery, video, and audio can be accessed. I was quite suprised by the design of the site in it’s use of dynamic navigation that is actually functional, (unlike some other recently changed website…) and a quite simple interface… search. There is still more to come apparently.

Unfortunately, it makes some of my older sources of imagery a bit archaic looking.

We get the question or comment quite a bit that people are planning to purchase a Mac and want to run Ubuntu (or some other variant of Linux) on it exclusively. Now, this can be done, and you might end up with exactly what you want in the end, but I have to say, “Why in the world would you do that?”

Don’t get me wrong, I like my iMac, and I am even getting a Macbook Pro soon for work. I also like running Ubuntu on my iMac, but buying a Mac just to use Linux just doesn’t make any sense to me. There are so many other options out there for a linux-specifc application. With Dell now offering machines made specifically with Linux compatibility in mind in addition to the several linux-compatilible hardware vendors out there, it is way too easy to obtain hardware that can coexist with linux peacefully.

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Someone sent me this presentation today at work. Apparently some Gen Y NASA employees made it for the NASA Next Generation Exploration Conference at Ames Research Center. It impressed enough people to make it to the NASA administrator’s desk… Enjoy.

Generation Y Perspectives

Mike Wing, former CEO of Huntsville, Alabama’s U.S. Space & Rocket Center was sentenced in a Texas courtroom to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $9.1 million in restitution to dozens of victims after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

Unfortunately, this is unrelated to the big mess he made at the Space Center in 1998/98 when he was CEO. I don’t know how this guy got into the position, but it sure was a huge mistake. He still hasn’t paid on the settlement that he made with the State of Alabama years ago, when he allowed tons of 5th graders to go to Space Camp for free. At least Don Siegelman replaced the entire membership of the Alabama Space Science Exhibit which runs the center.

Hopefully, this will put an end to Mike Wing’s activities that have lead to so many problems.

Well, interestingly, I found an article this morning about finding the Apollo 12 Mobile Quarantine Facility at some fish farm. The funniest part is that nobody knew there was one out there missing. They thought they were all accounted for. Anyway, this one is apparently headed to the new Saturn V building at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center which should be a nice addition.

It seems that after several years, the Saturn V (1 of 3 full vehicles still in existence) that has sat behind the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, here in Huntsville, has finally been restored, and now moved from it’s old location exposed to the weather (in the picture) and into a brand new building. It is now, for the most part, out of the weather, and it’s new home is being completed around the rocket itself. You can check the progress on the vehicle’s webcam.

Having worked at Space Camp Florida for several years and visited the similar setup at Kennedy Space Center, I have to say that it is quite awe-inspiring, and only fitting to have the massive machine preserved. Although the Saturn V at the Space & Rocket Center is made up completely of test stages from Marshall Space Flight Center, I find it fantastic that the center has decided to place the vehicle right in the public’s view, in what will be the new lobby of the center.

Now, if only they could get their act together about the Spacelab training modules…