Happy 50th Anniversary to Apollo 11! This past week marked multiple celebrations remembering how only a short 50 years ago, humankind first set foot on Earth’s moon, and listening to the tape from mission control, even now, we all hold our breath until we hear the words “Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Michael and Michael, space nerds that they are, decide to light this candle of an episode starting with the celebrations on the National Mall in Washington, DC, where the Washington Monument becomes the screen for an amazing presentation of the Apollo 11 story. Turning from the iconic launch to the steps on the Moon, the pair discuss the spacesuit that Neil Armstrong wore, and how it has been restrored and is on display once more at the Smithsonian Institute, as well as preserved in 3D digital form you can experience or even 3D print. Speaking of 3D printing, there is a ship named Archinaut One that is planned to be launched by the company Made In Space in 2022 to print 32 foot beams while in orbit, and further develop the techniques needed to construct spaceships in near Earth orbit. This reminded Michael R of the Planetary Society’s efforts with solar sailing and the LightSail 2 deployment in the past couple of days.
Coming back down to Earth, Michael and Michael discuss the interest in Virgin’s Hyperloop One efforts by the State of North Carolina, and getting smaller still, the concepts of machine learning done at the edge on embedded IoT devices.
Rounding out this intergalactic episode on games, UNC’s efforts to help improve patient outcomes and get patients home quicker provides ample ground for speculation on where the Adventure Squad game might go, and some fun discussions about a new Tolkien Middle-earth game by Amazon, focusing on the Second Age, which came well before The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Don’t hesitate to start your countdown to this space-filled episode!
Selected Links
NPR article: For Apollo 11’s 50th Anniversary, The Washington Monument Becomes A Rocket — https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2019/07/16/742394200/for-apollo-11s-anniversary-the-washington-monument-becomes-a-rocket
WUSA channel 9 coverage of the Apollo 11 50th anniversary on the National Mall
Pigs in Space — https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Pigs_in_Space
Smithsonian 3D Neil Armstrong Spacesuit — https://3d.si.edu/armstrong
NPR article: Of Little Details And Lunar Dust: Preserving Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 Spacesuit — https://www.npr.org/2019/07/11/734031425/of-little-details-and-lunar-dust-preserving-neil-armstrongs-apollo-11-spacesuit
Engadget article: NASA backs demo that will 3D-print spacecraft parts in orbit — https://www.engadget.com/2019/07/14/nasa-backs-3d-printed-spacecraft-part-demo/
Planetary Society LightSail — http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/lightsail-solar-sailing/
Planetary Society: LightSail 2 Sail Deployment — http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/ls2-sail-deployment-live.html
Gizmodo article: North Carolina Is Eyeing a Hyperloop One System for the Research Triangle — https://gizmodo.com/north-carolina-is-eyeing-a-hyperloop-one-system-for-the-1836318917
O’Reilly Media: The future of machine learning is tiny — https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/the-future-of-machine-learning-is-tiny
UNC Children’s Hospital Adventure Squad game
At @uncchildrens, a new video game is quickly gaining popularity. Two #UNC professors teamed up to design an interactive game called Adventure Squad that aims to keep patients active during treatments and shorten hospital stays: https://t.co/v2BD7punwX pic.twitter.com/5ryq2c3qQR
— UNC-Chapel Hill (@UNC) July 12, 2019
SlashFilm article: ‘Creepshow’ TV Series Trailer: It’s The Most Fun You’ll Ever Have Being Scared — https://www.slashfilm.com/creepshow-tv-series-trailer/
SlashFilm article: ‘Lord of the Rings’ MMO Video Game Coming From Amazon — https://www.slashfilm.com/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-video-game/
Christopher Tolkien’s Children of Hurin — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Children_of_Húrin
NASA’s Astrovan — https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/flyout/astrovan.html
NASA’s Apollo 11 Image Gallery — https://history.nasa.gov/ap11ann/kippsphotos/apollo.html
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