This week, we read the last two chapters of part two, Going Around and Blasting Off. Next week, we’ll read the first two chapters of part 3, The Mountaintop and The Euro.
These chapters were about the satellites that supply the weather data, some enormously expensive and standard, others one-off experimental gambles.
Some stuff to think about:
The GEOS are enormous, expensive geostationary weather satellites. They cost more to fly than the entire weather forecasting system they support, but the data they provide is seriously valuable. After one tipped over they had to spend $135 million repairing it. After reading the chapter, how worth it is the money?
Blum writes that each new GOES has a fan club. Are there any arbitrary, weird machines in your world that have a fan club?
Chapter six is about the “alphabet soup” of earth observing satellites that get authorized to do research or upgrade the weather model. It specifically tells the story of SMAP, which is both a boy band and also a weather satellite. How did SMAP’s story — a mixed success — make you feel?
Be sure to comment, and don’t hesitate to say how you’re liking the book and other cool things you liked. Next week is two great chapters.
Also, I’m beginning to research other books to put up for our next vote, email me bookclub@numlock.news if you have ideas!
I really liked these chapters, but particularly “Blasting Off.” The writing connected with me in a way the other chapters hadn’t yet. And the importance of soil moisture as a variable in the models and how they didn’t have much data for it was so interesting to me. I also got a bit of a nostalgia hit from reading about the base and the lab because my mom used to work on testing for NASA decades ago.
The coronavirus isolation has me already well into the next section, and the bureaucracy involved in getting a satellite up and functioning is crazy and has me irritated. But I am mainly struggling with the semantics of geosynchronous orbit vs geostationary, a word that doesn't really give as much information as synchronicity - the satellite follows you. You are doing something and there is the satellite; you are doing something else ten hours later and, up, there's the satellite. All the satellite had to do was be "up" there about 22,200 miles and there it was for you to play with at will. That is why, I think, they get names and fan clubs.
Recently the chapter on GEOS has reminded me of the Starlink satellites that SpaceX has been sending up in ever-increasing volumes. I wonder if those satellites will be incorporated into the weather models in any significant way, or how they impact the GOES role? Relatedly, I've heard that at the Tesla factories, the robots are named after X-men characters (Xavier, Beast, etc). Not sure if they have fan clubs, but I can imagine that happening (I swear I'm not an Elon fan-boy, both just seemed top of mind recently).
I have been a space junkie most of my life. I would lug our black and white 14 inch portable television to school so we could watch the astronauts blast off, so the launch description took me back. More than that, it is astounding what we have machines that can do this and the teamwork across all boundaries to make sense of it in real time. It also doesn't surprise me that the military is interested. It's fine, because they have all the money and I'd rather it go to a weather satellite than another weapon.
Loved reading about EUMETSTAT! Being a Rocket Scientist has to be one of the Top 10 coolest jobs on the planet. Also would love to visit the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ("Welcome to Our Universe") in the City of Roses. In addition I found NASA's Charles Bolden quite interesting ("I came to NASA in 1980, and honestly when I came here I thought we would be much farther along. I am one who believes that when we lost The Challenger we lost decades"). Finally SMAP got me thinking of my Top 5 Boy Bands Ever. 1. The Jackson 5 2. New Edition 3. Boyz II Men 4. Hanson 5. Menudo
I really liked these chapters, but particularly “Blasting Off.” The writing connected with me in a way the other chapters hadn’t yet. And the importance of soil moisture as a variable in the models and how they didn’t have much data for it was so interesting to me. I also got a bit of a nostalgia hit from reading about the base and the lab because my mom used to work on testing for NASA decades ago.
The coronavirus isolation has me already well into the next section, and the bureaucracy involved in getting a satellite up and functioning is crazy and has me irritated. But I am mainly struggling with the semantics of geosynchronous orbit vs geostationary, a word that doesn't really give as much information as synchronicity - the satellite follows you. You are doing something and there is the satellite; you are doing something else ten hours later and, up, there's the satellite. All the satellite had to do was be "up" there about 22,200 miles and there it was for you to play with at will. That is why, I think, they get names and fan clubs.
Recently the chapter on GEOS has reminded me of the Starlink satellites that SpaceX has been sending up in ever-increasing volumes. I wonder if those satellites will be incorporated into the weather models in any significant way, or how they impact the GOES role? Relatedly, I've heard that at the Tesla factories, the robots are named after X-men characters (Xavier, Beast, etc). Not sure if they have fan clubs, but I can imagine that happening (I swear I'm not an Elon fan-boy, both just seemed top of mind recently).
I have been a space junkie most of my life. I would lug our black and white 14 inch portable television to school so we could watch the astronauts blast off, so the launch description took me back. More than that, it is astounding what we have machines that can do this and the teamwork across all boundaries to make sense of it in real time. It also doesn't surprise me that the military is interested. It's fine, because they have all the money and I'd rather it go to a weather satellite than another weapon.
Loved reading about EUMETSTAT! Being a Rocket Scientist has to be one of the Top 10 coolest jobs on the planet. Also would love to visit the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ("Welcome to Our Universe") in the City of Roses. In addition I found NASA's Charles Bolden quite interesting ("I came to NASA in 1980, and honestly when I came here I thought we would be much farther along. I am one who believes that when we lost The Challenger we lost decades"). Finally SMAP got me thinking of my Top 5 Boy Bands Ever. 1. The Jackson 5 2. New Edition 3. Boyz II Men 4. Hanson 5. Menudo