Japan goes to Luna too

Japan has an interesting habit of forgetting to stay a minor power, then going out & doing something major in their own interesting way.

The last one I remember of these was measuring an asteroid — Itokawa — with a satellite named Hayabusa in a mission known as MUSES-C & finding it only a quarter as dense as beach sand. Any samples will be returned to Woomera, it being a safer & more obvious target than even Hokkaido.

This time, they’re sending a satellite constellation known as SELENE to orbit the Moon.

It’s a constellation rather than a single satellite so that the two smaller orbiters (“VRAD” & “Relay”) can relay radio from each other to do things like accurately measure Lunar gravitation on the far side. They’ve done a number of such interesting things with the mission planning.

Part of the Nipponese special features include being able to include your wishes in the mission as a kind of payload. You get the rest of this month to submit your wish, which then goes Lunatic in July 2007.

I wonder how many wishes for Duke Nukem Forever will be included? Hopefully, you’ll be allowed more than 16 colours per wish. (-:

Comments

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.

boundaries

pushing the actual boundaries of the physical (not extremes, the boundaries themselves) can often remove barriers not otherwise perceived. one can then often resolve an issue itself, rather than merely stonewalling at the physical consequences of the issue.

Plantagenet Penguinista

Search This Blog