Monday, July 28, 2008

Extraterrestrial visitor

Wow! Walking back from ARO this afternoon I saw a beautiful meteor (or piece of space junk) streak its way across the sky. It was a brilliant green color, and didn't just wink out really quickly. I actually got to watch its progress across the field of stars. It was very lucky that the wind had died down from last night/this morning and that the clouds had dissipated so that I could see this event take place.

There's no word from Belgium yet about the ISS Ops Engineer job, but it's still early in the week. It's also still Monday night in that part of the world, so that has undoubtedly got something to do with it.

I definitely am thinking a lot about this crossroads at which I find myself. I have been pretty down that it seems like there is little chance for me to be able to continue chasing my dream of becoming an astronaut as well as continue to come down to this remarkable continent at world's end. I find myself doing what Frodo did in the Shire before setting out on his quest do dispose of the One Ring. Is this the last time I shall see the aurora? Is this the last time I will stand and listen to the sound of nothing on the Antarctic Plateau? Is this the last conversation I will have with this person? Both paths have their ups and downs, but it's a shame it feels like they have to mutually exclusive.

3 comments:

Lilly said...

Hi Ethan,

Just ran into this GREAT physics rap - something for the next Polestock, perhaps?
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/2008/07/rappin-physics.html?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=blogsss

Lilly

Lilly said...

http://www.newscientist.com/blog/
shortsharpscience/2008/07/
rappin-physics.html?DCMP=NLC-
nletter&nsref=blogsss

/sorry, link was too long for this app, trying again.

EthanG said...

That had to be a lot of fun to put together. I don't know if it would be doable for us here for a Polestock-type performance, though. I'll forward it to some of the other science staff; I'm sure they'll get a kick out of it.

Thanks!