Ares 1-X

Today I witnessed the launch of the Ares 1-X rocket at the Kennedy Space Centre in Orlando, Florida.

Bright and early on Tuesday morning, I woke Phil up and we made our way over to the Cape, along the toll-roads for about an hour. I didn't quite know for sure where we'd head, since I'd never been in the area before... but when we got to Titusville it was pretty obvious that anywhere along the water would provide a good viewing location. I looked over while driving south and could see the VAB off in the distance, and almost drove off the road.

We decided to pull into a steak house restaurant parking lot. There were about 20 other cars there, and people gathered on the grass by the water. Not long after we stopped there (at 8am) we got a call from my mom who was watching NASA TV back in Canada and gave us an update on the launch situation. We met another couple and their 7 month old from Toronto. We watched other people come and go, and listened for more updates on the radio.

Sometime mid-morning they actually did get a "GO" and started into the final 4-minute countdown... only to be snarled first by a cover that refused to come off, then a cargo ship that wandered into the down-range zone of the rocket's flight path. This caused enough of a danger that they announced a 90 minute delay. We decided to go get breakfast.

As I was pulling into the restaurant parking lot my mom called me, frantic - "GET BACK THERE!!" They'd resumed their 4 minute countdown again! I peeled out of the restaurant lot and raced back to the other place we were at. As soon as I got there we found out that the weather had spiked to 21 knots, 1 knot above their allowed wind speed. The launch was scrubbed for the day.

My mom called me as the news broke between all the people standing and she was almost in tears. "I don't know if you're more dissapointed or I am" she said. I knew what she meant; she was so upset that we'd come so far and might not get to see the launch.

Dave stayed with us Tuesday night and the 3 of us had a good dinner and visited IOA. I sheepishly wondered how to ask these guys if they could give up another morning of their vacation to go over and see something I knew they had little interest in. But both of them gave me their full support and said we'd go and watch the rocket try and go again on Wednesday.

So, again, we got up at just before 6am and headed off to the coast. When we got there, we met up again with the same Toronto couple and got an update from them. More delays for weather... dragging on with 30 minute delays, 5 minute delays, up to about 11am. Finally, things were starting to look really promising. When the 4 minute countdown started I just about lost it. People started showing up, locals, moms, kids, seniors who had worked for NASA, everyone of about every different description. I stood at the waters edge and there was just silence. No one was talking, everyone was just watching.

I knew it had been a couple of minutes since the 4-minute annoucememt on the radio but since we'd moved away from the car I had no idea when it would actually go. Suddenly, without any warning, there was a brilliant, silent flash on the pad. A gentle plume of smoke, and the Ares 1-X glided skyward in front of us. Still silence. From both the crowd in the rocket. I started bawling. It was only until about 15 full seconds later that a wall of sound hit us so hard I thought I'd fall over. The sound, lagging so far behind because of the great distance across the water from our viewing point, was delayed that full 15 seconds and ramped up to a full roar more powerful than anything I've ever felt just as the rocket seemed to reach it's apex.

We saw the separation, and the sound started to die down, and it was over so quickly. A brief round of cheering and applause finally broke the silence of those who were watching, everyone so finally relieved it got off the ground. The other Canadian couple hugged, kids jumped with excitement, and we stood together just watching off in the distance as the smoke trails drifted somewhat randomly with the winds.

Constellation is going to be awesome.

A Bad Week

There's a fault with an electrical connector on the smart that sends the signal to the side-impact airbag. For some reason, it's got a slightly intermitent connection, and if it fritzes out too much the computer throws a fit and illuminates the SRS telltale on the instrument cluster. I removed the faulty connector and soldered the wires myself (this is what Mercedes/smart do if you pay the dealership to do it). While getting that code reset (to turn off the light), I had Oakville take a look under the car at this persistent "oil leak" that has been ongoing for months.

Turns out it's the high-pressure fuel pump. Recap: Diesel car, 2 fuel pumps. First one gets the fuel at low pressure from the tank up to the engine area. Second pump is driven off the engine's output shaft, and compresses the fuel to very high pressure, in the common rail (where it taps off to the injectors). That pump has a crack in it, or a leak, and is squirting out fuel. That's what's been leaking out of my car, and why it's hard to start in the winter. $1 600. I said I'd think about it.

The next day it was pouring rain and I turned on the wipers. Big bang, left arm stops moving. Broke off the linkage!! One of the rodeyes is so worn it just falls off. I temporarly "suspended" it with zipties by reaching through one of the access vents below the windshield. I hope I can order just the one tierod, and it'll just snap into place.

The other day the car goes into "limp" mode, where it won't rev above 3000 r/min, and between 2-3000 r/min there's no power at all. Then the check-engine light comes on... I got my friend Niels to take a look at what the code is with his reader and it's the P0405 code, which is "Exhaust Gas Recirculation Sensor A Circuit Low". In other words the EGR is clogged up AGAIN. He reset it for me and it bumped it out of Limp mode, hopefully for at least a little while. I built a circuit that emulates the potentiometer feedback based on the PWM input that drives the EGR solenoid, just for fun, but may stick that in the car permanantly to bypass the EGR circuit altogether.

The worst part of it is that the car just keeps stringing me along like a slutty girlfriend. It's these $1000-2000 fixes that are killing me because it's not expensive enough that I can't afford it, but it just adds up and sucks away all my fun money. A new car is going to be at least $5k for something semi-reliable and in good shape, and I've not had any repair bills that high yet. So it makes it hard to justify making the move just yet. I'm kind of a firm believer that it's always cheaper to keep a car going, than to go out and buy a new one.

Don't get me wrong. I love the car, I love the brand, I grin from ear to ear whenever I see another one on the road. And thanks to everyone for all your support. Sorry I've been going on and on about this and that lately with the car but it weighs so heavily on my mind. Gotta shake that. :)

So I guess it hasn't really been all that bad. But it's just going slowly downhill.

NASA: Constellation

NASA's Constellation Program - YouTube

Phil and I are lucky enough that we'll be in Florid during the Ares 1-X launch, which is the very first launch of any of the Constellation program's hardware. Constellation is the program that will succeed the Shuttle, as there are only 6 more flights remaining before Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour are retired permanently. The test flight itself is just a few minutes long, but as I've never seen a launch in person up close, I'm sure it will be memorable. If Constellation makes it through the budgetary cuts that Congress wishes, it'll be something I'll remember back to fondly, I'm sure, while watching humans return to the surface of the moon.

250 000 km

Rolled over 250 000 km in the smart last week... My goal was to hit 500 k but I think I'm going to be far too tired of the thing by then to make it. We'll see. We're looking on-and-off at larger vehicles all the time (that I don't really have the money for). It's not going to last forever and every time we go camping it's a lot of trouble to try and make everything fit. I suppose that's part of the fun, and the challenge, but it's also frustrating. :) Something "normal" would be nice, too, since getting strange comments from Americans got really old, fast, on our labour-day weekend trip (it completely ruined the last part of our trip, camping in a hick-campground in NY, so we ended up driving home and getting in at past 2am).

World of Goo

I've been playing World of Goo on Phil's Wii a lot lately. It's a physics-based game that reminds me a bit of "Lemmings", which my friend Cara had for her Amiga when we were kids. The premise is to move balls of goo around, which form bonds to build structures, reaching toward a pipe. The remaining balls of goo floating around on the structure can be sucked into the pipe. There's a goal of how many balls you need in each level, so you have to build your structure efficiently enough, and so on.

At some point while we were siting on the couch together, and I was playing, I said "If we were goo balls, and we needed one more to get to the pipe, I'd climb up there so you could go in it". Then Phil smiled and said "Nah... I'd say Let's get out of here together and we'd go off and find our own adventure."

So, I instantly started crying, of course. :) Phil's the most amazing guy in the world.

Coaster Trip!

I'm heading out tomorrow morning to Busch Gardens, to meet up with Roderick on Tuesday. Busch Gardens is removing Big Bad Wolf and I'd like to ride it one last time before it's gone forever. As of 6:44 pm tonight, I'm still not sure what I'll do or where I'll go after that. PKD's an obvious choice, since it's right along the way, but it eats up the whole day and there's nothing new there (until next year). Great Adventure for Nitro/El Toro? Kennywood? Haven't been there in a few years... could hit Ildewild as well (never been). Or do I head West and go up to Great Escape (again, a new-to-me park)?

Haven't done a solo trip in years (Paul's always been my riding buddy - but has since moved to Vancouver). I'm a bit nervous about that!

Phil's all moved in here and things are going great. More on that later. :)

HIDEOUS TRASH

First: I hate the Dodge Caravan.



I don't hate that it's cheap, so it's affordable, so everyone has one. Everyone. They are EVERYWHERE. But I just hate that 98% of the people I see driving them can't drive. And they're ugly. And they always pull into the wrong lane when turning into a 2-lane road. And they never use their parking brake, so they just throw it into P and the thing bounces against the parking pawl, destroying the transmission. And they're always loaded up with 17 invalid kids drooling and puking everywhere. My favourite is the Caravan "SPORT". Sport! So I like to play a game... so far, I haven't been able to win it yet...

The game is: Wherever you are (doesn't matter where), see if you can count to 60 (one minute) without spotting one.

You can't.

The highest I ever got was 58 seconds, but most of the time I can't even count to 10 without seeing one. UGH! Disgusting.