Beautiful weather occurred during the World Science Festival Ultimate Street Fair, which took place June1, 2014, on the campus of New York University and Washington Square Park. The street fair had science-related exhibits and hands-on experiments for kids and their families. Many vendors gave out prizes to kids for correctly answering trivial questions.
This article is about some of the exhibits and lectures that interested me..
There were inflated models of the Orion Space Capsule and the giant Space Launch System rocket. Frank O’Brien, the NASA person at the exhibit, explained the Orion would be launch on its first flight in December 2014 on top of a Delta 4 heavy rocket because the Space Launch System would not ready prior to 2017. The first flight would test Orion systems, including the heatshield. It would descend in the earth’s atmosphere at 25,000 mph. The Orion, which would carry crews starting in 2021, would be used primarily for missions beyond earth orbit - to an asteroid, the moon, and Mars. There was a large cloth in which people could write messages and sign their names. Since the large cloth was not securely attached to the fence, my script left much to be desired.
Weather lecture: A meteorologist from one of the Hudson Valley’s cable stations discussed the weather extremes in the NYC Metropolitan area in the past decade. He mentioned the increased number of tornadoes and amount of snow in the area. He answered my question on why the remains of a hurricane would move very quickly over land before dissipating. The person said the jet stream in the higher latitudes would move the hurricane’s remains.
I went the Garibaldi area and listed to lecture given by Astronaut Mike Hopkins, who landed in Kazakhtan in March 10, 2014, after spending six months aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Hopkins said the Soyuz rocket ride into orbit was smooth, except during staging and third-stage engine cutoff. He was thrown forward when the staging occurred.
During the time at the space station, he and his crewmates had to spend a minimum of two hours per day exercising because a person’s body would lose muscle mass and become weak. In addition to exercising, running the science experiments, and maintaining the ISS, Hopkins and crewmate Rick Mastracchio performed two unscheduled spacewalks to replace faulty ammonia pump last December.
The ammonia pump is very important because it keeps the ISS cool.
Mike kept in contact with his family and friends by email, telephone calls, and a weekly videoconference.
During reentry, he was subjected to three-to-four earth gs. Since the main parachute would deploy off-center, a combination of the Soyuz capsule (both the Russian rocket and capsule are "Soyuz)" rotating like a top and the crew being exposed to the pull of gravity the first time in six months, Hopkins described the decent as a roller coaster ride. About thirty seconds after the main chute was deployed and moved to a vertical position, the decent to the ground was smooth until the Soyuz capsule hit the ground. After landing, Mike said his head felt heavy and his balancing system was "messed up." He felt he would fall if he leaned forward.
Bobak "Mohawk Guy" Ferdowsi was on Curiosity entry, descent, and landing team. He became famous when the cameras focused on his "Mohawk" hairstyle during the August 6, 2012, successful landing of Curiosity on the Martian surface. Ferdowsi explained that the landing sequence had to be tested separately. He helped developed the 500,000-line software code that controlled the procedure. The sequence had to be done autonomously because it would take a signal 14 minutes to reach Earth from Mars. Ferdowsi also stated the skycrane method had to be used to land Curiosity because it was too heavy (one ton) to use the airbag-landing technique.
"Mad Scientist" Demonstration - funny guy, describing Newton’s laws and discussed the planets in the solar system. He asked some kids to participate in the experiments. He asked a 12 years old "Are you married?", which was funny.
Museum of Interesting Things Exhibit– Touring museum that had an early 20th century phonograph, a hand-held circular film viewer, an erector set, an old computer using 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch diskettes, and a tape reel used on main frame.
Speaking of old equipment, there was a person sitting in Washington Square Park using a 12-to-14 inch Royal manual typewriter, typing poetry on request. He told me he would order the typewriter ribbon from a company from Portland, OR. I thought the typewriter should be an addition to the Museum of Interesting Things or at the Smithsonian.
About a half dozen telescopes were set up to view the sun. Joe Martinez, the subway-platform astronomer, was in attendance. He said he would do a 24-hour subway astronomy marathon, starting from subway platforms in the Bronx then goes to Brooklyn.
FIRST Robotics - Several high schools that participated in the recent FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) competition displayed their robots. The students stated they received boxes containing parts with no instructions and a laptop. They had six weeks to create the software, build, and test the robots before the competition. The top teams in the FIRST regionals would participate in the championship.
Brain NY organization exhibited an actual human brain in a container that has a liquid solution. It’s amazing that a five-pound organ does so much!
The World Science Festival Ultimate Street Fair was fun and educational. The 2015 addition should be even better.
