Captured from Orbit!

I was hoping it could be done, and it has. This is a picture of the Phoenix Mars Lander under chute as it enters Mars atmosphere. Very cool.

According to the NASA site, "NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander can be seen parachuting down to Mars, in this image captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This is the first time that a spacecraft has imaged the final descent of another spacecraft onto a planetary body.

From a distance of about 310 kilometers (193 miles) above the surface of the Red Planet, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter pointed its HiRISE obliquely toward Phoenix shortly after it opened its parachute while descending through the Martian atmosphere. The image reveals an apparent 10-meter-wide (30-foot-wide) parachute fully inflated. The bright pixels below the parachute show a dangling Phoenix. The image faintly detects the chords attaching the backshell and parachute. The surroundings look dark, but correspond to the fully illuminated Martian surface, which is much darker than the parachute and backshell.

Phoenix released its parachute at an altitude of about 12.6 kilometers (7.8 miles) and a velocity of 1.7 times the speed of sound.

The HiRISE acquired this image on May 25, 2008, at 4:36 p.m. Pacific Time (7:36 p.m. Eastern Time). It is a highly oblique view of the Martian surface, 26 degrees above the horizon, or 64 degrees from the normal straight-down imaging of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The image has a scale of 0.76 meters per pixel."

Original image and information are quoted from,

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/press/PHX_Lander.html

Search for extra terrestial life and Earth 2

This week we're talking about NASA's Kepler mission that heads out in 2009 and celebrates the Year of Astronomy. Specifically, the Kepler mission is searching for other Earth sized and smaller planets that reside in the habitable zone of other star systems. In essence, we are looking for Earth 2.

NASA lists the following scientific objectives:

1. Determine the percentage of terrestrial and larger planets there are in or near the habitable zone of a wide variety of stars;
2. Determine the distribution of sizes and shapes of the orbits of these planets;
3. Estimate how many planets there are in multiple-star systems;
4. Determine the variety of orbit sizes and planet reflectivities, sizes, masses and densities of short-period giant planets;
5. Identify additional members of each discovered planetary system using other techniques; and
6. Determine the properties of those stars that harbor planetary systems.

The interesting thing is that we are truly looking for habitable planets and, in turn, alien life.

A cool part of the mission is that you can put your name on a DVD that will be launched with the satellite. Sign up and you can get a nice certificate that show your participation.

Check it out at http://kepler.nasa.gov/

Do you have a cool website or piece of software we should talk about? Drop me an email at ron.techteacher@gmail.com and let me know.

Google Teacher Academy

If you interested in participating in the next Google Teacher Academy, the deadline to apply is May 28. If you'd like more information, check out Google Teacher Academy at http://www.google.com/educators/gta.html

Gandhi's Ideas and Education

I came across an interesting blog post the other day. It's called Gandhi's Top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World. Essentially, I was reading the post through the eyes of an educator and the list seemed to truly apply to education. Here's the list:

1. Change yourself.
2. You are in control.
3. Forgive and let it go.
4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere.
5. Take care of this moment.
6. Everyone is human.
7. Persist.
8. See the good in people and help them.
9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.
10. Continue to grow and evolve.

Check out the original blog post at:

http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2008/05/09/gandhis-top-10-fundamentals-for-changing-the-world/

It's a nice list that all educators can use in one way or another.

Sail Away Boat Building Images

Well, my last podcast was about my Sail Away boat building project that I use in my Technology Education classes. I've added a few pictures of some boats, the tank, and the weight that they boats have to carry. Let me know if you have any questions about the project.

Twitter Experiment Update

Well, it's been a week or so since I began using Twitter and my results have been mixed. First, as I have been talking with Tom from http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/, Twitter is filled with a lot of "noise". It can be quite easy to become flooded with more info then you can sift through. The second thing is that it takes time to build a following. It appears that Twitter is divided into a couple of groups. The "Followed" and the "Followers". The part of my experiment that has worked great is that it is very easy to Twitter from my Blackberry. That's pretty cool. Not quite sure what all of this means, but, I will keep looking at it and update down the road.

Digital Television vs Spending on Literacy

This is an interesting blog post regarding the amount of money the goverenment is spending on the transition to digital television versus the amount of money they spend on adult literacy.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4262231.html

Interesting reading.

I'm on Twitter!

Ok, I've bitten the bullet and joined Twitter. I'm not really sure why, but, I have hopes of using it in my classes, so I need to learn how to use it well. Any way, you can follow me at twitter.com/techteacherlive. I plan on posting podcast information, as well as interesting technology things I find in my daily life. You will probably see posts and images from my Blackberry, if I can figure out how to do it with out SMS messaging. See Twittermail.com for info on that. So, if you want to follow me great Twitter experiment, go to twitter.com/techteacherlive