Liveblogging the Space Show

Prep for the show is down here. As I mentioned earlier, I won't try to transcribe everything. I will just listen in and comment upon anything that pops up in my mind. Which may or may not happen.  As of this writing, the show will start in less than 30 minutes.

 The show is beginning.

Can't miss the newsletter?  Really?

One Giant Leap Foundation is the non profit, a tax deduction for donations.  Mentions blog, I saw that.  Secure world Foundation.  Introduces guest.   Balloon to space guy.  Like JP Aerospace, in a sense.

Talks about the balloon launch.   He teaches 8th grade history.  Hasn't been doing this long, ballooning to space.  Need helium, weather balloon, a few hundred dollars for the balloon and helium, plus the radio and camera and science payloads.  Government guidelines had to follow.  FAA.  Dangerous part in launch and filling of the balloon.  Mentions the pics, have to visit the school site to see it, I think.  92k feet.  No damage, very successful flight.

Lot of people showed up for launch, he says.   He was mentored by somebody else who was launching.

How balloon recovered after it bursts.  It will burst when it gets high enough.  Use parachute.  Takes an hour to hour 10 minutes to get to 92k feet.  45 minutes to an hour down.  Two hour flight.  Drops fast at first because no air, has to get down far before parachute deploys.

Discusses camera used.  Sets every 10 secs.  776 pics and 1000 pics of tree branch.  Camera cost 280 bucks.  Weighs in ounces.  Small.  Special cameras.  Made for extreme conditions like this.  32 gigabyte memory.

Get children interested in space and engineering.  Amateur radio discussion in connection with this.  Need radio to track.  Use GPS and transmit to amateur radio to track.  Need license to do this.  Look for hams for help.  Point in right direction.  Very helpful, he says.

Future projects.  Make it statewide.

break

The reason I'm interested in this is because of JP Aerospace's work.  This looks like something that a lot of people can get into.  I guess that's the reason to be interested.  People can get involved in something like this.  It increases interest.

back to the program:

Old Town Middle School, Ridgland Mississippi, in northern part of Miss.  Outside of Jacskon.  Oxford, Miss?

Raises interest as mentioned.  This reminds me of something.  I had a discussion yesterday that reminded me of how we are all too dependent upon the government to do anything.  Here is something that you can do without having the government to be involved or funding it.   The government has assumed too much responsibility for everything, including space flight.

Teaches history.  Asked about Manifest Destiny.  Only 2 or 3 paragraphs dedicated to it.

Wants to do one during a hurricane or just before one actually.  May give some interesting pics.

Put on website?  Will put up on school and some elsewhere.

A thought occurred to me about this getting real rant he had yesterday.  It seems that maybe he was right about this being the type of thing he was upset about.  Because stuff like this is what an individual can get involved in.  An individual like me.  The big organizations like the government is too restricted to a small group of highly paid professionals.  This is more accessible to all people.  This enpowers people, as opposed to making people dependent.

Popular culture is warping kids minds, it seems.

He got a lot of help with the project because of the interest he was able to generate.  Amazing.

Comment:  This is an amazing show.  It really is.  I wonder how I went all these 10 years not knowing about the Space Show.

Popular culture is crap, crap, crap.  This is great stuff.  The only reason people are not interested in this stuff is because it isn't being produced on major media.  People will get interested if exposed to it.

break

during the break, I started a new sidebar entry for labels called Space Show Liveblogging

back to show

Pay for license and equipment, bandwidth is free.  Getting license take test.  Study book, law, and a few other tech items.  Not that hard, but is technical. 

Group in Longview Texas.  Interesting.  I've been to Longview lots of times.

ISS has ham radio.  Interesting. 

A lot of teachers want to do this and take it to next level, he says.

Turn lives around.  Heady stuff.

I think I will stop here.  It is so, so sad how people are missing the boat when they miss out on stuff like this.  I wish I had some exposure to it when I was going to school.  This is great stuff.  I'm sure that the reason is that somehow, our culture has failed us.  This is very badly needed.