Out with the old…

Just a quick update to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Have fun celebrating

S198 – OU Mars Course

I've just completed my end of study exam for the S198 - Exploring Mars Open University course. Again, I enjoyed it very much. It started with a background guide to the solar system, eventually homing in on Mars. I then learnt about the Martian landscape, the planet's geology and the evidence for and against the presence of life. The geology didn't appeal to me at first; it's never been a subject that has grabbed me, unlike the particle physics of the previous course. However, it's like Mr Feynman says, and after a while I did indeed become fascinated by it all.

I learnt about what happens to the surface of planets when they're hit by comets; how volcanoes can grow 24km tall yet have a very shallow incline all the way to the summit; who Phobos and Deimos were; how you go about the search for life on a different planet and what constitutes life, anyway? And much more. The course came with a very well written and illustrated course book, as well as Beagle: From Ship to Spacecraft (I just searched for this on Amazon and got the following: "We found no matches for "beagle ship spacecraft" . Below are results for 'shop'. If you prefer, you may try another search.") This was written by Beagle 2 lead scientist Colin Pillinger, and was an interesting comparison between the first Beagle and its modern contemporary, leading up to an explanation of the various instruments on board the small spacecraft. The only problem was that it felt a little rushed due to various grammatical errors, but the content was so good I can't hold that against it.

The course was another £95 well spent. It'd be rounded off perfectly if Beagle 2 would just let us know it's alive (January 6th is looking like crunch day, btw). Please please please.

Hopefully I've passed the final exam, at which point I'll have 30 points, out of the 300 (well, maybe 360) needed for a full degree. This may take a while I'm fairly sure I'll be doing another astronomy course next, but haven't looked into it yet.

Theory of Everything

There was an excellent Channel 4 program recently called 'The Elegant Universe', which did a very good job of explaining relativity, string theory and other cool stuff. The graphics were superb in their ability to portray what was being explained, while the narration was clear and insightful. Astonishingly I've just found that you can watch the whole 3-part series online! Just click here.

Ballistic Duck Bill

I opened Eudora this morning to find a bill from O2. It was a bit over my "regular" £25 monthly payments, which amused me, since I haven't made any calls on it. After a minute or so of telling people this new titbit of information, I realised that I had Kate's York IMAP account open by mistake, so it wasn't my bill at all. Phew I then spotted that a bill had in fact arrived in my 'Mobile' folder, so had a look.

£101.06.

That's pretty impressive for a phone I've never used, don't you think? So have they given me a duplicate number, or did my phone disappear en route back to them? Whichever, I've cancelled the direct debit from my account. They've already had £200 of my money, that's enough for one decade

Whoever's using the phone is a damn heavy user, considering you get 500texts and 100mins free. I have all the numbers they've called, too.

UPDATE: First recorded voice call on the bill was on the 1st December...I didn't send it back until the 5th. So it didn't get lost en route; a cloned number, maybe? Or duplicate?

Beagle 2 Update (another one)

And in today's Beagle 2 news, the official site has a large update on the current strategies being employed by the 'Think Tank'. To summarise:

"The Dish" at Stanford University will be used tonight to try to pick up any radio emissions (and maybe, just maybe, radiation from the microprocessor).

In case the clock is out of sync with broadcasts, the team are negotiating with dishes on the other hemisphere, which can monitor at times UK based equipment cannot.

On December 30th ten scheduled communications will have failed, so B2 will switch to 'Search Mode 1', which as far as I can tell increases the power. If ten further attempts are unsuccesful, it'll switch into "Search Mode 2', which broadcasts throughout the martian day rather than at pre-programmed times (although this is still based on the internal clock, I think). That'll be on January 5th, by which time Mummy will have arrived.

If all else fails, they may send a 'blind' command. If B2 is stuck under a rock or something, then a blind command could tell it to use its hinge in an attempt to escape. However this is very risky, and might break things, so isn't going to be tried for a while yet.

Patience and Persistence

Most people seem to think that it's a given Beagle 2 is dead. Not so. This article explains the various reasons, possibilities and hopes: January 4th is the crucial day. By then Beagle 2 should be in automatic communication mode, and its mother, Mars Express, will arrive to receive the signals. Mars Odyssey got hit by a solar flare recently, destroying one of its instruments, so isn't the most reliable of machines. There was also never any certainty the Jodrell Observatory would be able to pick up anything. They've relayed a clock reset signal via MO, in case it is the timer that's having problems, so we'll see if that brings any luck. If not, it's most likely a wait until the 4th.

Forgive me for harping on about this, but it's just so incredibly cool! I'll give up hope when Colin Pillinger says it's over, and not before. Today I watched West Wing season 2 Episode 9 - 'Galileo', which is eerily similar to current events on Mars. There's a particularly rousing statement by Sam regarding the need for exploration. I won't reproduce it in full, but here's the crunch:

Why bother going to Mars?
"Because it's next."

Christmas Eve T-364

Did everyone have a fun Christmas Day? Mine was pretty good. As ever we had all the relatives over. I don't get on with my uncle so kept my head down until he left, after that I managed to relax properly. Present-wise I got a mixture which was great. I simply gave people the address of my amazon wishlist, so I had no idea what to expect. My sister even managed to find me a Fisher Space Pen, which I'd spent hours trying to find in York & Solihull earlier in the year.

I also got Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which I've been playing today. I hate to be a downer, but why did they bother releasing this for the PC? It's nigh on unplayable on a keyboard. Like Broken Sword 3, the character moves relative to the screen. In BS3, the demo anyway, you're moving around in a methodical way, so although the movement system took some getting used to it wasn't a problem. In PoP, however, you're having to do things quickly, and it's just not do-able with the keyboard due to the camera's continual adaptation.

Case in point: you're trying to cross a floor being crisscrossed by spike-laden poles. They're moving fairly fast and you have to run around them. However, as you cross the floor the camera spins. With only left, right, up and down you simply cannot move in the direction you want to go, and even when you do go the right way the camera spins and the character turns, so it's merely an exercise in frustration. Sure, you can 'control' the camera with the mouse, but it's very limited, not particularly responsive and doesn't work in a fair few areas where there's a static dramatic perspective. A Max Payne like system, where you move relative to the character, would be perfect for this game (which seems great in every other area) but at the moment I can't see myself playing it. It's such a shame!

Beagle 2 has so far failed to make contact. It's disappointing, but there is still hope. If nothing has been received by the end of today it's unlikely anything will be before January 4th, when Mars Express passes into an area where it could communicate. Communication between Beagle 2 and Mars Odyssey has never been tested, and if it's operating in a very low power mode the Jodrell Bank Observatory may not be able to detect it either (it's only the stregth of a mobile phone signal at the best of times). It has been tested with Mars Express, so until Jan 4th there is still the possibility that it's landed ok. I'm crossing my fingers...

Anyway, I hope everyone had / is having a fun boxing day!

Beagle 2 Update 1

The first opportunity to receive a signal has passed without contact. The website says this could simply be due to "the Beagle 2 antenna...not pointing in the direction of Mars Odyssey". Next communication possibility is between 2200 and 0000 this evening, when the Jodrell Bank Observatory will listen out for the slow morse-code-like signal the craft should emit...It's going to be a long day!

It’s Christmas Eve!!!

Today's my favourite day of the year...The country settles to a gentle murmur as the preparations are finished and the houses made ready. The world feels, for once, like a nice place. There's often a good film on, too.

Only one complaint from today: who designed my £3 'luxury' wrapping paper? Being able to see through it isn't overly conducive to its intended use...Other than that it's been a great day.

I'm not sure if I'll post tomorrow. If not, I hope everyone has a great day and that Santa brings you many exciting gifts!

EDIT: Can you imagine being Colin Pillinger tonight? Can't imagine he'll get any sleep. By this time tomorrow we'll hopefully know whether Beagle 2 has landed safely... Having read the book, I have faith in the engineers and the hundreds of people who have laboured for so long. It's been a six year wait...and it all comes down to the next twelve hours. There's a lot that could go wrong, but I think the little ship will pull through. It deserves to.

My Christmas 'present' to you all is a vaguely Christmassy story I wrote back in November. Much like the last one I uploaded, it won't get used for anything else, and I hate to waste these things

With the Wind

I hope you like it. Merry Christmas!

Christmassy Times

On Sunday I listed the various films I was going to watch...as it turned out I saw Great Expectations, Muppet Christmas Carol, U-571, The Jackal and Forces of Nature - all in the same day! Yesterday Kate & I watched Scrooged (I insisted on setting an A-B repeat when she hits him with the toaster) and Analyze That. Heh, I love Christmas

Ok, so maybe my musical predictions weren't entirely accurate...Gary Jules winning was a nice surprise! While I can see that The Darkness' song was more christmassy, their general attitude and the fact that they're already a successful group made me favour the underdog

We went to Notcutts yesterday to stock up on last minute baubles etc, and returned with Yon Jolly Man shown in the picture. He's cool, on many levels.

I've got some shopping to do today, and will most likely meet Kate in Solihull for lunch. Then there's a blood giving session.

Ooh ooh, O2 just got back to me with a different fax number, which appears to have worked!