CubeSat

Brief explanation to the CubeSat project.

http://www.diyspaceexploration.com/what-are-cubesats/

The NASA Pathfinder

The NASA Pathfinder is a solar powered aircraft. It is one of the first unmanned aircrafts, and is made to perform atmospheric research. It was developed by the ERAST program in the early 1980's, but has been modified to what is now known as the NASA Pathfinder Plus.

 Pics cr: NASA

For more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Pathfinder

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-034-DFRC.html#.U2b3e_ldV1Y

Galaxy s5 update

A lot of updates about the Galaxy S5!
First off, the concept video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXUJFYkRIuI

The battery life says to have 390 standby hours, which I hope is true because the Galaxy s3's battery life doesn't last long and overall the phone seems to have some problems.

A lot of the details were released in Barcelona on February 24th

It will be released on April 11th 2014.

An interesting pinpoint is that not only will navy, black, and white models come out, but a brown model will too.

Samsung NX300 camera

This camera is #1 on my wishlist for things I want to buy when I get a summer job (actually its the only thing haha). 

The Samsung NX300 camera has a high quality 18500 mm lens, has wifi, and has a great ISO performance (or so the reviews say). The screen also flips over so you can take pictures of you with your friends or whatever without asking people. 

The price on ebay is about $470, which I think is a pretty reasonable price- especially if your looking for a camera to use for a few years.

Airbus 350 XWB Interior

I have pretty weird hobbies, and one of them is looking at the interior of airplanes. I always look up the interior of the plane I will ride when I go on trips. Anyways, I was looking up plane interiors and I stumbled across the Airbus 350 XWB interior. If I ever get to choose on what type of place I would like to ride, I'm going to choose the Airbus 350 XWB.

Here are the list of orders:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Airbus_A350_XWB_orders

Most are due around 2017.

CubeSat

To those who need some info about the CubeSat:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat

Already many high schools are developing CubeSats to lanuch into space. NASA is currently helping a few of those high schools. It would be awesome if Aviation High School would be able to build one.
http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/november/nasa-helps-launch-student-built-satellites-as-part-of-cubesat-launch-initiative/#.UuXasBDTlD8

When We Left Earth- NASA Documentary

A few days ago I started watching a documentary called When We Left Earth. Its about the history of NASA accomplishing space missions. I'm on episode 5 (there are 6 episodes), and in my opinion it is one of the most interesting documentaries if you are interested in outer space and spacecrafts. Most documentaries are pretty interesting to me, but this one really makes the viewers get emotional. Not emotional as in it makes people teary, but when someone does something that messes up the whole mission you get worked up, and when a person makes a record or a mission is accomplished you feel really proud. It feels more like a very long movie chunked in parts. I don't know if it is still on Discovery Channel, but I watched it through Amazon.
A summary of the episodes so far:

• Project Mercury
• Alan Shephard
• Liberty Bell 7
• Project Gemini
• Missions tested towards goal of traveling to moon
• Apollo
• Challenger tragedy
• First man of moon

There is much more of a story than what I wrote. Just trying to spoil a lot.

Samsung Galaxy S5 & Iphone 6

When both is released, I will post info as soon as I can.

Virgin Galactic Spaceship 2

The Virgin Spaceship 2 (SS2) is a scaleplane (an airplane on Earth and spacecraft in space) that will be used for space travel and tourism. It holds a total of 8 people, and is about twice the size of the spaceship1. It had its first test flight in 2007, but had an explosion. On September 5th, 2013 it had another test flight quite successfully.

http://www.space.com/22660-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-rocket-test.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipTwo

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Best Picture of Sea Plane!

Cr: National Geographic

This is the best picture of a seaplane I have ever seen!

Interesting Aviation Facts

Now that it is winter break, I will be able to update much more! Winter break could be fun, but sometimes your stuck at your house and your very very very very bored.
If thats your case, the sites below have interesting facts about aviation:

This one is mostly about the Boeing 747:
http://www.balticaa.com/en/about-us/news-and-press-releases/top-10-interesting-facts-about-aviation/

Not focused on a part of aviation, but still interesting:
http://www.keystoneaviation.com/blog/7-airplane-fun-facts/

Fun facts about outer space:
http://listverse.com/2007/11/13/top-10-cool-facts-about-space/

http://listverse.com/2013/04/27/10-fascinating-facts-about-our-solar-system/?utm_source=more&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=direct

About space travel:
http://listverse.com/2012/12/31/10-issues-that-are-hindering-avoyage-to-mars/?utm_source=more&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=direct

Raisbeck Aviation Highschool

A few days ago, I visited the Raisbeck Aviation High School Open House. I met many teachers and students, which were all welcoming to me. I noticed that many students had the same interests as me, and that I would make a lot of friends if I went to school.
There are many extra curriculum classes and clubs, and each one interested me. Aside from the Science Olympiad and Robotics team, which I would love to join if I got accepted, the Culture Club really interested me, as I love learning about other people's cultures and languages. Learning Japanese and Spanish is also something I would look forward to.
The facility is amazing, especially the cafeteria where they do assemblies. Every classroom had interesting posters and made me want to learn about the subject.
Many students are interns at places such as Boeing, the Museum of Flight, and other places where you could learn about Earth and overall science.
Raisbeck Aviation High School is a great school for people who love science and aviation with a great facility, and I think everyone that is interested should apply. Some people (including myself) live far from this school, but there are public transportations to get you there on time. Carpooling is another option.

Supersonic N2 Baseline

I am using the Open VSP software to modify aircraft designs.
The Supersonic N2 baseline is not a "real" aircraft, so I do not have any information about it. I do know that it would be a plane that would fly past the stratosphere, not as usual airplanes do.
The only thing I modified about this design is that I enlarged the engine. I also made the fuselage longer so it wouldn't flip over because of the strong engine and short body.

Lunar Plant Growth

This is an amazing experiment! We will definitely need to grow our own food in space for long-term trips, this is the first step towards a biosphere on the moon and mars!
More on this subject:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/plantgrowth/home/#.Up12YMRDt8F

Planets of our Solar System

I have a notebook where I record notes about aviation, outer space, and technology, and I wanted to share some info.

1. Sun

• Is a star. Also is a ball of gas.
• The solar atmosphere part of the sun is where we see sunspots and solar flares.
• Makes up 99.8% of the solar system.

2. Mercury

• Smallest planet in our solar system- barely larger than our moon.
• Because it is closest to the sun, it has the fastest orbit rate- 88 days.
• Has no moons

3. Venus

• One day there (time for it to spin once) takes as long a 243 Earth days.
• Has no moons
• More than 40 spacecrafts have explored Venus.
• Is in retrograde rotation (spins backwards). Means that sun rises is west and sets in east.

4. Earth

• Unlike other terrestrial planets (planets that have solid surface), it is an ocean planet. 70% of its surface is covered in oceans
• The atmosphere protects us from meteorites
• Many planets have atmospheres, but ours is the only breathable one

5. Mars

• Makes complete orbit around sun (called a year) in 687 Earth days.
• Has two moons: Phobos and Deimos

6. Jupiter

• If a sun was a door, then the Earth's size would be a nickel, and Jupiter's size would be a basketball.
• One days is 10 hours in Earth time
• One year is 12 Earth days
• Not a terrestrial planet
• Has 67 moons
• Has a faint ring

7. Saturn

• One days is 10.7 Earth hours
• One year is 29 Earth days
• Not a terrestrial planet
• Has 62 moons- some COULD support life
• Has 7 rings with gaps and divisions between

8. Uranus

• One day is 17 Earth hours
• One year is 84 Earth days
• Not a terrestrial planet
• Has 27 moons and also has faint rings
• Also is retrograde rotation

9. Neptune

• One day is 16 Earth hours
• One year is 165 Earth YEARS
• Not a terrestrial planet
• Has 13 moons and 6 rings

Hope this helped!

Interstellar Mayflower

It would be amazing to build this! 

Cr: National Geographic

 Inside the interstellar Mayflower. Has its own gravitational pull. A similar ship is shown in the window.

Joint Base Lewis McChord

The Joint Base Lewis McChord is a military base in Tacoma, Washington.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Base_Lewis-McChord

Today, I went on a tour of the JBLM. It took about one hour, and we went to a few places, but mostly we toured around the air traffic control tour (which still had a lot of interesting things to look at). The main point I learned from this tour is that if you want to be an air traffic controller, you need to be sufficient at memorizing vocabulary, codes, symbols, and rules. You also need to know how to handle much pressure, as there are many times where you need to guide a helicopter/plane to its landing place without seeing it in the air- only with the map on the computer. A fact that really surprised me was that air traffic controllers have used touch screens since the 90's! In my memory, touch screen phones were a very big deal around 2008.
We saw many helicopters, some new, some in repair, but the one that really caught my attention was the Apache Helicopter. I am not sure which one it is that I saw- it could have been any of the AH-64A to AH-64E. The reason it caught my attention was because it could sense where the human eye was looking at, and could aim at that exact place for attack. This would really help the pilot fly the helicopter while attacking.

At the air traffic control tower, I learned that since there were many parts to guiding a plane to its landing place, teamwork was very crucial. There are three parts (therefore usually three people and three main computers). One that controls the ground, one that controls the flying space fairly close to the ground, and one that controls space (which is at the Sea-tac Airport).

There are three lights they use in case the radio is not working. Green, red, and white. This becomes really handy when it is foggy or rainy even when the radio is working.

This tour really inspired me to research more about helicopters. I do have a Drone, but after I nearly broke it I had lost my interest in helicopters. I think this really helped me to find my love for helicopters again. I definitely recommend it!

Singapore Airlines First Class

Did you know about Singapore Airlines' first class?

                        A380

Life on Mars

I do not remember the first time I had heard that Mars might support human life. It must have been a long time since this subject has been around if I cannot remember what age I was when I had heard about it. Either way, I have been thinking about whether Mars could really support life on Earth. I am still organizing the facts, but so far (you could call it my halfway conclusion) is that Mars is able to support human life. My reason is: if we build a biosphere that humans could live in, as long as we do not leave it we would be able to survive. The problem is, is that from what I know the biosphere project in Arizona did not turn out well. The people that lived in the biosphere came out half crazy and they still do not talk to each other. I believe that if we can upgrade biosphere, we have a great chance of living in Mars. As I said- still organizing info about this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Mars

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2