Rainer Gerhards, Author at Rainer Gerhards

2007-12-05

STS-123 mission facts: launch window, time, ….

While I am at it, I noticed that I did not yet post any facts on the STS-123 misson. So here we are:

STS-123 is set to launch on February, 14th 2008. It is the 122nd space shuttle flight and the 25th heading to the international space station. It will be flown on Orbiter Endeavour and launched from pad 39A. The launch time is not yet set (rumors call for noon). The daily launch window is 10 minutes (as usual for ISS flights). It is not yet known how many days the launch window extends.

A veteran space flier, Navy Capt. Dominic L. Gorie, will command the STS-123 shuttle mission to deliver the Japanese Kibo Logistics Module and the Canadian Dextre robotics system to the International Space Station. Air Force Col. Gregory H. Johnson will serve as pilot. Mission specialists include Richard M. Linnehan, Air Force Maj. Robert L. Behnken, Navy Capt. Michael J. Foreman and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takao Doi. Johnson, Behnken and Foreman will be making their first spaceflight.

The mission will deliver NASA Astronaut Garrett Reisman to the complex and return European Space Agency astronaut Léopold Eyharts to Earth.

2007-12-05

going to view another shuttle launch…

… but this time not to Florida but to the Columbus Control Center located in Munic, Germany. The details are in my space blog for those that are curios ;) The bottom line is that I am away from my development machine from tomorrow afternoon until Friday at around noon.

Please keep your fingers crossed so that I can experience an on-time launch. This time, I can not stay any longer…

2007-12-05

update on rsyslog changes

I have been a bit lazy in posting my recent rsyslog changes. This is because there was a lot of fine-tuning as well as design work. I also fear that I probably have forgotten to log a few less important changes. Nevertheless, the log should still provide you with a good idea of what’s going on. If I do not get any more last minute nits, the 1.20.0 release can hopefully be released either tomorrow or on Friday.

Here are the changes now:

2007-11-27
– got new dev environment on Fedora 8 x64 up and running
– reviewed calls to MsgDestruct() – re-confirmed that there are no
double frees.
– moved syslog PRI code tables to msg.c as this is the only place where
they are still needed

2007-12-03
– adding sur5r’s postgres module – many thanks for providing it!
– added Bartosz Kuzma patches for better compatibility with NetBSD – many
thanks for them!
– disabled GSS-API in configure.ac, as support for it is not yet complete
(Peter Vrabec told me to hold it until a further patch)
2007-12-04
– released 1.20.0 preview (via mailing list only, waiting on feedback)
2007-12-05
– applied patch from Bartosz Kuzma and Michael Biebl to fix compilation
problem on NetBSD (it is missing the -ldl lib, even though it provides
dlopen()).

2007-12-05

Columbus – Europe’s lab at the International Space Station ISS

Columbus is Europe’s space lab at the international space station. It is ESA‘s most important European mission to the ISS to date and the cornerstone of Europe’s contribution to this international endeavour. Once Columbus is launched, assembled to the Space Station and verified, ESA will become an active partner in the operations and utilization of mankind’s only permanent outpost in space.

It will be launched on December, 6th onboard space shuttle Atlantis (STS-122 mission). Columbus will be transported into Earth orbit in the Shuttle’s cargo bay, pre equipped with five internal rack. Two of its external experiment facilities will be stowed separately in the Shuttle’s cargo bay and attached to the outside of the laboratory module structure in orbit. German ESA astronaut Hans Schlegel will play a key role in two of the three spacewalks or EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity) scheduled for the mission. During the mission’s first EVA, Schlegel will help to install and power up the laboratory.

As the first European laboratory devoted to long-term research in space, Columbus will further expand the science capabilities of the ISS. In its interior, the Columbus laboratory will provide accommodation for experiments in the field of multidisciplinary research into biology, physiology, material science, fluid physics, technology, life science and education. In addition, its external payload facility hosts experiments and applications in the field of space science, Earth observation and technology.

Columbus before launch in the ISS processing facility

Columbus waiting for its flight in the
ISS processing facility at Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Columbus is manged from its control center in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany (near Munic). The center is operated by DLR under a contract with ESA. The Columbus Control Center will work together with mission control in the US and Russia and provide operational oversight, data transfer facility and all other essential services to the Columbus module.

Columbus was built by Bremen, Germany based EADS Astrium, which coordinated 41 suppliers from 14 countries. Its development cost roughly 880 Million Euros. The Columbus module is scheduled to last at least 10 years in space. It was originally scheduled to be delivered to the ISS in 2004, but delayed after the space shuttle Columbia accident.

2007-12-04

I am going to view a launch again…

Well, almost… ;) I don’t make it to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. Of course, I’d love to see Atlantis rocket off the ground and head into space. See that, hear that, small that. But … I got another great opportunity. I’ll view the launch from ESA’s control center for the Columbus module. In some ways, it’s even cooler than standing on the Causeway…

I have written a few articles for a German online portal called raumfahrer.net. It’s a cool site and it is, believe it or not, about astronomy and space flight. I joined it when I wrote about the Cassini mission. I had not much time to do a lot of work, but I kept subscribed to their mailing list.

Last week, a mail arrived looking for folks interested in attending ESA‘s (the European space organisation) launch event in the Columbus Control Center in Munich, Germany. Of course, that drew my attention. But having not done much work… I stood by and waited. Nobody asked for the job, so I finally stepped out and offered to go over (a day before the press accreditation deadline). And, believe it or not, the nice guys from raumfahrer.net agreed.

Reporting on the launch event has now even become a team effort, with me being at one frontline in the control center and someone else being in a local ESA center. We also have some backoffice writers, who will consolidate all our information plus NASA and ESA streams into nice launch update articles. This in itself is a great experience and I am proud to be part of it.

Imagine it: me attending the official launch event as a member of the press and being right at that very place where the Columbus module will be controlled. I think I am a really lucky guy ;)

Even though the center is located in Germany, it is an European effort. The project leader is ESA. Columbus mission control will work closely with US and Russian mission controllers. In fact, the Columbus Control Center will go live as soon as the Columbus module is attached to the international space station. This is scheduled to happen on December, 10th, the day after EVA-1.

Now I am back again at finger crossing. The Columbus Control Center is close to Munic, which is around 300km (roughly 140 miles) away from my place. I can afford to spent one day going to there, but I can not stay for any other launch attempts. So I sincerely hope all will go well on December, 6th. Thankfully, things look quite good. But: keep you fingers crossed. If all goes well, I’ll provide some nice stories and pictures from the other end of the world ;)

2007-12-04

STS-122: weather near-perfect for launch

The weather forecast for Atlantis STS-122 December, 6th launch is close to perfect. Other than with STS-120, which had only a 40% chance of launch on time, the forecast for Thursday is no 90% favorable for launch!

The emergency landing sites are also all go. Even better, the weather forecast has improved – it was 80% yesterday. The trend looks good. Let’s cross fingers it remains the same…

2007-12-04

Countdown started for Atlantis

The countdown clock for space shuttle Atlantis STS-122 mission has been started Monday evening at 7pm EST. If all goes well, the countdown will culminate at an 4:31pm EST launch on Thursday, Dec., 6th. So far, no problems are expected. Everything runs exceptionally smooth. Even the weather forecast is predicting a 80% chance for launch!

So if you want to go to Kennedy Space Center to view the launch, its time to get ready. And if you do, please drop me a line with your experience. I’d greatly appreciate that.

Prior to countdown start, the payload bay doors have been closed. This can be seen on the picture. Shuttle Atlantis will ferry the European Columbus lab module to the international space station ISS. It is Europe’s major contribution to the orbiting outpost. Columbus will be managed from an ESA-Center in Germany.

The astronauts have also arrived at Kennedy Space Center. They are now doing final preparations and getting ready for their exciting ride to the skies.

Finally, let me quote NASA’s home page with some more details:

The launch team at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida began the countdown Monday night for the launch of mission STS-122. Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to lift off at 4:31 p.m. EST on Thursday to begin an 11-day mission to the International Space Station.

“All of our systems are in good shape,” said assistant launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson.

The weather forecast calls for an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather at launch time, weather officer Kathy Winters said.

“We’re very optimistic about it,” Winters said.

The seven astronauts who will perform the mission arrived at Kennedy at about 12:30 p.m. EST on Monday to begin their final preparations for the mission. Atlantis has a 10-minute window to launch so it can catch up with the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Steve Frick will command the seven-man crew during the 11-day mission to attach the European-built Columbus laboratory to the International Space Station. Frick, Alan Poindexter, Rex Walheim, Leland Melvin, Hans Schlegel and Leopold Eyharts will fly aboard Atlantis during mission STS-122.

“It’s been a long time building to this moment, so we’re just absolutely ready to go,” Frick said.

Atlantis’ primary mission is to install the European laboratory called Columbus on the International Space Station. It will take a series of spacewalks, not to mention intricate maneuvers with robotic arms on the shuttle and station to complete the task.

“We flew by shuttle Atlantis on the launch pad and it’s a beautiful sight,” Poindexter said.

2007-12-04

Ares, Constellation, Orion, …

Sounds like pretty new terms? They are all about NASA’s next space program. The Constellation program is simply what is also called the “Vision for Space Exploration“.

In short, it means that new launchers and crew vehicles will be developed to ferry people to the international space station ISS, later on to the moon and even later to Mars. Ares is what the launchers are being called. Ares I will be the rocket that launches humans into space while Ares V is a heavy-lift rocket used to launch the heavy equipment. Finally, Orion is the name of the new crew capsules, also known as “Crew Exploration Vehicle”.

It looks quite doable to return to the moon, but sending humans to Mars is much more challenging. A lot of work needs to be done to solve the issues. I am sure they can be solved if we try hard enough, but the question is if there will be budget allocated to do so.

The Constellation program borrows heavily both from the Apollo as well as the Space Shuttle programs. For example, the overall launcher and capsule design is based on Apollo. The shuttle program contributes its boosters. Some folks tend to say that Constellation becomes more and more an Apollo V2, especially as the budget is quite constrained. It is not yet clear how far resuable the Orion capsules will be.

In my blog, I write about Constellation, Ares and Orion. While it is quite early to know any specifics, it is an interesting time to watch development. If you are interested in a specific topic, just follow the relevant labels.

2007-12-03

Launch Photography through a Telescope?

Do you remember Colin Ake? He is a fellow astronomer and STS-120 launch viewer. And he did a superb job at taking launch pictures:

Even though I did not notice that when I was at the causeway, Colin must have been quite close to my own location. So how come he could take such an up-close picture? Did he use professional camera equipment? Not at all. Being an astronomer, Colin had a Celestron C8 telescope right at hand:

Taking photographs through a scope is challenging. Taking photographs through a hand-held scope is outstanding! I am deeply impressed by the quality of Colin’s pictures.

I got some comments from Colin when I mentioned him in my “up-close picture taking” post. We exchanged a few comments and I was pleased that Colin offered me to show his pictures. I have taken a few from his site and moved them to my own server because I always like to make sure the images I reference will exist as long as my post (being an old web hack, I’ve had to many problems with changing URLs). Unfortunately, it took me some time to do it – much more than I anticipated. I hope Colin doesn’t mind…

If you would like to have a look at the full set, please visit Colin’s picture gallery. I highly recommend that!

Below, I have reproduced some of the shots that I like most:

2007-12-03

rsyslog now does postgres SQL!

I have just finished the integration of a new postgres sql output module for rsyslog. The code was provided by sur5r. I am more than glad that rsyslog now supports the popular postgres sql engine. I am sure this is a very nice addition for the community.

Sur5r’s able-coded code also provided some feedback about the output module interface in general. The good news is that the amount of code needed in the actual output module was as low as initially thought.

But it also proved that module design still is less than perfect: there was a new date format needed to support postgres sql. This could not be done in the output module. Instead, sur5r had to modify the core files. He did this in an excellent way, but the point is that it is not a good thing this was needed at all. It is a result of the old, non-modular syslogd design which we inherited from sysklogd and have not yet changed. In fact, we are at the very beginning of modularization. The next thing on the list is a loadable function interface. With that, such modifications will no longer be necessary, a custom (loadable) function can than be provided.

This enhancement requires a number of changes in the core, most importantly in the template subsystem. This is most probably the next area of work I am heading to.

But for the time being, let’s celebrate that rsyslog now has postgres sql support! It will be released in 1.20.0, hopefully around the end of the week. A preview will be announced on the mailing list somewhat earlier. And if you can’t wait, simply pull it out of anonymous CVS – it’s in there as of this writing.