Hayabusa

Time for a little update in space news:

Ever heard of Hayabusa? Well, this little Japanese spacecraft has been through a LOT in the past couple of years. It traveled 1.25 billion miles, visited an asteroid, had major tech failures, lost all contact with Earth for seven weeks, stayed in space 3 years longer than planned, and STILL managed to make it home, thanks to some ingenuity on the part of the mission control.

Even with the major success of landing the probe in the Australian outback recently, scientists are still unsure of whether or not the probe actually succeeded in collecting dust from the asteroid, which was the main part of its mission. The probe was supposed to fire pellets at the asteroid, chipping off some rocks to collect, but this part of the mission was unsuccessful. We can only hope that the spacecraft managed to take in some dust instead. Scientists will know within the next couple of weeks whether dust was collected.

Even so, the sheer accomplishment of landing a probe on an asteroid and returning it to Earth will earn Hayabusa a permanent slot in space lore. As the Washington Post puts it, this mission falls somewhere between the return of the crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft to Earth and the fact that the Mars Rovers, built to last 90 days, are still returning information to us about Mars six years later. This is a major accomplishment. Congratulations, Japan! Sorry about your World Cup loss though...

Finals and Saying Goodbye

Well, it's the end of the school year, and that means...what else?...finals. At my school they go in the order that you have your classes -- 1st, 2nd, 3rd period, etc. Except 6th is out of order, so it's 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7.

Luckily enough, I got my math final over with early. I have it 1st Period. But let me tell you I am sick and tired of bubbling and ScanTron sheets and all that stuff. Ah well, I have only one more hard test left. Science. The others are just presenting projects and the easier stuff like that.

I know I should be happy, since summer is coming up, but I'm going to a different school than most of my friends next year and saying goodbye is going to be hard. I hope I can see them over the summer, but it won't be the same.

Sorry, this hasn't exactly been the most cheery post. I promise the next one will be.

Star Trek!!!!!!

Well, it was bound to happen someday -- a sci-fi lover like me, who had never seen Star Trek -- well, I've started watching it a LOT and now I've become -- a Trekkie.

I've seen some of The Next Generation and Enterprise on TV, and I've been working my way through The Original Series online -- fancast.com rules. And I've seen an episode of Deep Space Nine.

I'm going so absolutely insane that I bought Vulcan ears online.

Now I understand all those Star Trek pop culture references and everything, though -- and I get why it's such a phenomenon. What other show has spawned four spin-off series, almost a dozen movies, and numerous books and fan paraphernalia? So I ask my followers, go watch an episode today!