Spaaaaaace

[nanila]

A selfie I took on the bus from Leiden Centraal to Noordwijk. The bus takes about 45 minutes, so most people opt for a taxi when they’re visiting ESTEC. I like the bus, though. It’s a really pretty route through the city and out into the countryside. Plus, it only costs 4 euros.

While I’m on the subject of space agencies, here are a few links.

• Want to holiday like an Elder God? Try these lethal exoplanet destinations! Galaxy of Horrors (h/t to redsixwing)
  
  
• For a more soothing experience, you can watch a mildly animated page of the Deep Space Network stations uplinking and downlinking data from different spacecraft. I sometimes do this. I mean, I have a PDF with all the scheduled DSN passes for Cassini, but let’s face it, this is much prettier. Eyes on the DSN.
  
  
• And finally, in Geeky Space Swag news, the Rosetta mission shop has been updated with new shirts and hoodies that include the cartoon spacecraft from the “Once Upon a Time” video series about the mission. Best of all, you can get your mitts on a cuddly/plushy toy of Rosetta and Philae, or donate one to be sent to a primary school.

Comments

[cosmolinguist]

OH NO I NEED A T-SHIRT AND A HOODIE AND A PLUSHY RIGHT NOW!

[nanila]

Yes, yes you do. I may have acquired some already and stashed them away. For the children, of course. (Except maybe the hoodie *shifty eyes*)

[redsixwing]

Ooh, I like the DSN monitor!

... holy cats. Voyager 1 is still sending data. *chills*

[nanila]

Round-trip light time: 1.59 days. O.O

[wohali]

All fun and games until that thing comes back to kill us all. ;)

[nanila]

Or the people of Krikkit find it.

[davidgillon]

Boggle. We did that.

[quoththeravyn]

I look at the DSN page often enough that if I type "e" in the search box on my browser, that's the first thing on the list. It's a handy tool for knowing if they think we should actually be getting data.

And I absolutely love the Galaxy of Horrors thing. Tourism posters FTW (or is that WTF?).

[nanila]

I look at the DSN page often enough that if I type "e" in the search box on my browser, that's the first thing on the list.

<333333. That is all. :)

As fascinating as those planets sound, I think I'll stick to holiday destinations where one can lounge on a beach towel without being torn apart by wind, shredded by flying glass or cooked to a crisp in nanoseconds.

[lurkingcat]

Plushy! Well, that's a birthday present for a friend all sorted out then :)

[nanila]

Excellent. I'm glad to have helped! :D

[ceb]

OMG those are officially the cutest thing ever!

[wohali]

Oh man, these are some great links! Thank you, I wasn't aware of any of them.

On a very tight budget right now but next time I have some spare money I'll volunteer to donate a plushie to a school. What a great idea!

[nanila]

You're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed them.

I'm planning to donate a plushie at my next paycheck.