Hello everybody, This is Lonecat with the last report from orbit for the time being. I am now in descent mode and rapidly spiraling "down" to Earth to celebrate the festive Season. However, early in the new year I shall again be launched into Earth orbit and then continue with my weekly reports. On my way back to Earth I have a lot to do to prepare for my link-up the the International Space Station. As I head towards that, I took this picture of the ISS "in transit" of the Sun. The 25th of December of course was the great roman festival of the Invincible or undefeated Sun "SOL INVICTVS" and that is what I observe while others are celebrating the festival of Christmas which was imposed on that date to keep the Romans happy. I would like to express my very best wishes to you all for whatever you might be celebrating.
Posted by Annumela on Tuesday, December 23, 2008 @ 14:05:56 CST
Hello! Are you receiving me? Do you read me? This is Lonecat calling Earth from orbit; orbit number twenty. That radio call "Do you read me?" was very prominent in the movie "2001:a space oddessy", but is also important to me: "Do you read me?" I would like to get some feedback, answers with opinions from you the reader some day/night (it's all the same to me here in orbit). I was beginning wonder if my communications systems were functioning normally and even considered modifying my orbit somewhat but unfortunately that is not possible as every drop of servo-fuel has to be carefully administered. Do communicate your ideas and suggestions.
Over now to...
Posted by Annumela on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 @ 03:19:27 CST
Here in orbit I spend a lot of time in the BoT- o.s.v.'s (Book of Thoth orbital space vehicle) forward module, where I am in free fall for quite long periods. However I am beginning to spend ever longer periods in the AGM, or Artificial Gravity Module, in preparation for returning to Earth for the festive season. I don't want to be walking around on wobbly legs during the winter holidays. In fact I have been thinking again lately on my idea for including this sort of rotating chamber (provided of course by the Book of Thoth) in the first manned mission to Mars. That mission is going to be long and arduous if no artificial gravity is provided on that ship.
Posted by Annumela on Monday, December 08, 2008 @ 23:54:29 CST
This is Lonecat still orbiting within the Earth-Moon system but wondering when my next fuel supply is going to arrive. Out here, although I am still relatively close to Earth, and can hardly call this "outer" space, I can't help feeling a little cramped and wanting to get out and about. There is so much universe out there to take into consideration and probably much, much more that lies beyond our wildest imaginings. The question of "life on Mars" (or anywhere else, come to that, outside of our cosy little planet Earth) is one that simply will not go away.
Posted by Annumela on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 @ 01:12:42 CST
Lonecat reporting here from space, halfway to the Moon. While I am out here, although I have much to do and there also being much ado I still have a bit of time for reflection on quite a number of matters. Just lately I have even had time to read, for the second time (so far) an enthralling book called "Alien Agenda". Although this book does not strictly deal exclusively with the possibilities of life beyond our planet and the the peoples who might have visited us in the past, it does have a very interesting section which is concerned with the mysteries of the Moon, our Moon. the only "natural" sattelite of the the Earth. The thing is that it has started me off on a train of thought about the very nature of the Moon. The Moon still holds many mysteries for us humans, not the least of them being the sounds that come back to us after both natural meteor imapcts and impacts caused deliberately by falling probes and parts of rockets especially intended to set up a series of vibrations through the lunar crust.
Posted by Annumela on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 @ 10:54:30 CST
Lonecat here, reporting back to Earth and hoping your are all handling the economic crises on Sol-Three reasonably well. Viewing Earth from this distance and seeing it as a gently rotating, calm and beautiful blue and white planet, apparently undisturbed by anything for the the last couple of hundred million years, I get to thinking about what things in this universe should be considered as important and what others not so important. The wars and hatred that I could not handle when I was on Earth seem now distant and unreal, yet I know that this is not really so. Are there other planets beyond our reach which are suffering similar problems? Are there "fundamentalist" philosophies which seek to impose their ideas on the inhabitants of other planets? Are there religions which claim to have the only and absolute TRUTH way beyond the confines of what we call our Solar System?
Posted by Annumela on Monday, November 17, 2008 @ 23:07:59 CST
THIS IS Lonecat again reporting from Earth orbit and having a busy time keeping up with events in Space, particularly in the Earth-Moon system and in the Saturnian system. The big event this last week was the change of orbit of the indian moon craft Chandrayaan 1, when it switched from its expanding orbit of Earth to one around the Moon. Now, this lunar orbit will gradually be reduced in height until it becomes circular and very close to the lunar surface. Meanwhile, Cassini is busy at Saturn taking some spectacular photographs of the moon, Enceladus's south polar region. You can read more about these events by scrolling down this page.
Meanwhile, I am beginning to get "cabin fever" out here all alone in orbit and I am missing the mountains, hills and seas of Earth. I really hope that the Book of Thoth will manage to provide the "BoT OSV" the space vehicle in which I am currently swinging around the Earth, with this new magnetic shield which will give me better protection against solar radiation. To find out more about that, read this next article:
Posted by Annumela on Monday, November 10, 2008 @ 21:27:37 CST
Hello, everybody. This is Lonecat still in orbit, orbit number 14 in fact, taking measurements and keeping and eye on what is taking place in our Solar System but also keeping a star-gazers' eye out for things further afield. Here is my report back to Earth for this week.
I have often wondered if the so-called "paranormal", or what I call "fringe-reality events" is peculiar to Earth. Could the Earth's magnetic field, which swings out like a comet's tail away from the Sun, make the night-side of the planet significantly more prone to the manifestation of ghosts and Poltergeists than the "Day-side" or side turned towards the Sun and have something to do with phenomena from other dimensions? We may never know, but the following article is interesting and may help to clarify the matter:
Posted by Annumela on Tuesday, November 04, 2008 @ 16:55:25 CST
Hello again from Lonecat out here in orbit. This week, because of some technical problems I have experienced over the last eight days I'm afraid that the material, or some of it at least, is a bit on the out-of-date side but I hope that, by next week, things will be back, more or less, to normal.
They say that the truth is out here, but you know, the more I think about it, the more I become convinced that the Truth is everywhere. It depends on one’s interpretation. With the “attitude” of this space vehicle stabilized, everything outside the observation port seems to be either motionless or to be moving in very gradual stateliness and yet everything is “really” moving at a rate of thousands of mile/kms. an hour. When we see astronauts going about their work outside the space shuttle or on the Hubble space telescope there is no sense of the enormity of the velocity that those objects, including the astronauts themselves, are travelling at in their orbits around the Earth.
Posted by Annumela on Monday, October 27, 2008 @ 16:07:14 CDT
HELLO once more from Lonecat still in orbit around the Earth and wishing I could get to the Hubble telescope to take a close-up look at it. I like telescopes and will never forget the time I first saw the Moon and Jupiter through a refractor I had made, myself, when I was about 13 or 14. I remember that to get a good view of an open patch of sky I had to take the telescope and tripod ( which I had also made) out into the local cemetery or rather church yard. Both The Moon and Jupiter were to be seen in the sky and I was able to view the craters on the gibbous Moon which shone down upon the gravestones. I was absolutely astonished and literally open-mouthed at the sight of the lunar mountains along the terminator (the line along the Moon's surface which separates the lunar day from the lunar night). This is the best time to see the Moon through a telescope, when the angle of the Sun throws the shadows of the features on the Moon's surface into stark relief. I was also treated, on that same night in the graveyard, to a sighting of the so-called Gallilean Moons of Jupiter. the very Moons which Gallileo dei Gallilei himself discovered with his first rudimentary telescope.
Posted by Annumela on Monday, October 13, 2008 @ 22:33:54 CDT
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I would like to express my very best wishes to you all for whatever you might be celebrating.
