markmccaughrean, 1 month ago to SciComm

#OTD six years ago, our very first #SpaceRocks event at the O2 in London 🚀

Quite the cast for the inaugural event, with Tim Peake, Brian May, Beth Healey, John Mitchell, Maggie Lieu, Alastair Reynolds, Helen Keen, Dallas Campbell, & many more, with Lonely Robot, Arcane Roots, & Charlotte Hatherley providing the music 🎸

There have been other Space Rocks gigs & many Uplink livestreams since then, but it still feels as if we've only just got started 🙂👍

Watch this space 🖖🤘

#SpaceScience #SciComm

A London Underground notice board handwritten in black marker pen on a whiteboard, advertising the first Space Rocks event, with a long text about the event and thoughts about space, plus various social media links. From the Allontheboard folks.
Some of the cast and crew of the first Space Rocks event backstage at the O2 in London. From left to right: Tim Peake, Alastair Reynolds, Gavin Rothery, Carl Walker, John Mitchell, Maggie Lieu, Brian May, Beth Healey, Dallas Campbell, Matt Taylor, Helen Keen, Mark McCaughrean, & Geoff Notkin.
A photo of the stage at the Indigo at the O2 during Charlotte Hatherley's set at the first Space Rocks event on 22 April 2018. The overall lighting colour is blue-purple with red spotlight beams, and a 1:4 scale model of the Rosetta spacecraft hanging above the stage. Charlotte is to the right and she has two band mates. The audience is seen in silhouette in the foreground.

markmccaughrean, 1 month ago to TheExpanse

More than a little envious that my #SpaceRocks compadres are down in Bordeaux this week, along with Steven Strait (aka Holden from #TheExpanse), who’s taking a trip on the Novespace Air Zero-G plane today, & a crew of fellow astronauts from ESA.

And as on the Rocinante, a good cup of coffee is needed to start the day 🙂👍

#ScreamingFirehawks

markmccaughrean, 1 month ago to random

Just watched the end of The Martian after recording it on TV last night 🔴🚀🌎

Easy to pick holes in the film & especially in the martian orbit rendezvous sequence 🙄

But the final part, with all the teams cheering in the control rooms when Watney is successfully rescued & then again when Ares V is launched? 👍

Man, I’m going to miss that part of my ESA life so much 😭

Need to find another way to replace that amazing emotional rush 🖖🙂🤘

#SpaceRocks #SpaceExploration #SpaceScience

markmccaughrean, 2 months ago to bsg

As the office clearance continues, more treasured space memorabilia to be shared with you 😉

#SoSayWeAll 🤖
#BattlestarGalactica
#FEDCON2018
#SpaceRocks

markmccaughrean, 3 months ago to Astro

Ever wondered what it sounds like when you close the door of a 11 metre wide, 9 metre deep, & 16.4 metre high concrete chamber?

Wonder no more – my Test Centre colleague, Jan Demming, demonstrates the ~20 second reverb time of the Large European Acoustic Facility at ESA's ESTEC today 🙉

Normally used to test satellites under the enormously loud conditions of launch, we were in the LEAF today for quite a different purpose 😉

1/

#SpaceFlight #SpaceExploration #SpaceScience #Astrodon #SoundOn

A video showing a man dressed in a blue cleanroom outfit with a hairnet standing by the door of a very large green-painted concrete room. He slams the door and the noise reverberates for many seconds after.

markmccaughrean, 4 months ago to Astro

Since everyone else has been having a go, here's my New Year's Eve attempt at a colour image of Jupiter's volcanic moon, Io.

From the data taken by NASA's Juno mission during its 30 December 2023 flyby.

Am quite pleased with how it came out, though I'm a long way from competing with the true planetary imaging masters 🙂👍

Will upload to Flickr later on.

Happy New Year 🍾🥂

Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Mark McCaughrean

#Astrodon #Astronomy #SpaceScience #JunoMission #SpaceRocks

markmccaughrean, 4 months ago to Astro

#OTD in 2021 🚀

What a beautiful view we had from the Toucan site at Kourou that Christmas morning 🥰

What a perfect (& loud 😱) ride we got from #Ariane5 #VA256 towards the Sun-Earth L2 point 🌞🌎🌗🛰

And what a stunning observatory #JWST has proved to be in the two years since 🔭✨

Such a privilege to be involved for more than a quarter of a century & there's so much more to come 🖖🤘

#Astrodon #Astronomy #SpaceScience #ExploreTogether #NASA #ESA #CSA #SoundOn #SpaceRocks
#MerryChristmas

The launch of Ariane 5 VA256 carrying the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope towards the Sun-Earth L2 point on Christmas Day 2021, as seen from the Toucan viewing point, 5 kilometres from launch pad ELA-3, at the Centres Spatiale Guyanais in Kourou, French Guiana. Many of the team working on the launch preparations for JWST were at this site, along with other scientists, engineers, and media. The person in shot with the red shirt halfway through is René Doyon, PI of the NIRISS instrument on JWST & a fellow member of the JWST Science Working Group. The original video was shot at 4K 60fps, but has been downsized to 720p to fit within the limits here.

markmccaughrean, 5 months ago to Netherlands

Good to see my #SpaceRocks compadres, @alexandermilas & John O’Sullivan back in Noordwijk for meetings 🙇‍♂️

And to have the unexpected chance for a further chat with Alex while driving him to the Hook of Holland to catch the ferry home after fog in the Channel cut the continent off (to airplanes at least 🤷‍♂️)

Which gave me the opportunity for some quick light trail noodling over the Maeslantkering storm barrier & Europoort 🤪

#Netherlands 🇳🇱
#Photography 📷
#LightPainting 🎨

dgar, 6 months ago to random

Nobody wants to show me a cool rock they found anymore.

Adulthood is so dumb.

markmccaughrean, 7 months ago to Astro

Just a reminder that we were mad enough to have both of these things at the ESA Open Day last Sunday 😱

Wisely, our Planetary Protection Officer insisted on separating them, Jupiter with #SpaceRocks in the tennis hall, the monolith in the squash court.

Wait, what? The squash court?! Good job we’re not the University of Chicago 😬☢️

#AllThesePlanetsAreYoursExceptESTEC
#FermiWouldBeProud
#ScienceMeetsSciFi
#Astrodon #Space #Photography

A large jet-black monolith in the form as seen in the Space Odyssey films, 2001 & 2010. It is standing on blue carpet tiles in a squash court, silhouetted against a projected back drop showing a space scene on an alien moon with stars in the sky. Ligeti’s music was playing.

markmccaughrean, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to Netherlands

Took a day off after the ESA ESTEC Open Day to cycle to Zandvoort for some kibbeling with Admiral @alexandermilas, grand commander of the #SpaceRocks fleet.

We may only have a little boat now, but just watch us go 🚢🚀

A 91km ride, taking me over 5000km for 2023 – not the best year by a long stretch, but that’s a decent marker all the same.

#CyclingLife 🚴‍♂️
#Netherlands 🇳🇱

markmccaughrean, 7 months ago to Astro

Thanks to everyone who came to the ESA Open Day at #ESTEC yesterday, everyone who volunteered to make it a great day out, & to everyone who presented & spoke, not least on our #SpaceRocks stage 🚀🛰️📡🧑‍🚀🖖🤘

It was a great pleasure to present our new #JWST Orion images there & to sign (so many 😬👍) posters afterwards ✍️

And to my friends & Space Rocks showrunners, @alexandermilas & John O’Sullivan, thanks for this daft mug, an instant family heirloom 🤪

#Astrodon #Astronomy #SpaceScience

markmccaughrean, 7 months ago to Astro

As promised, some more #JWST loveliness today.

Our paper on the HH211 protostellar outflow, with Tom Ray of Dublin as first author, is in this week’s print edition of Nature 👍

And … we have the front cover, the first time a JWST science image has featured there, we think 🎉🙇‍♂️

I made this new version of the image in my Reykjavík hotel room last week & while travelling home 😬

Quite proud of it – enjoy 🖖🙂🤘

#Astrodon #SpaceScience #SpaceRocks

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06551-1

markmccaughrean, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

I hope to see some of you at ESA’s Open Day at ESTEC this weekend: as usual, it looks like a packed event & we’ll have a greatly upgraded #SpaceRocks stage this year, where I’ll showing my new #JWST Orion images (& there will be free posters) 🖖🙂🤘

It has been a long journey getting SR going again, including a detour to the ISS thanks to Samantha Cristoforetti, who took up a picture of our last London gig 👩‍🚀👍

But we’re raring to go – hope you’ll join us at the Open Day & into 2024 ✨

markmccaughrean, 11 months ago to Astro

I am beyond disappointed that I’m too busy with work to head south to Maastricht this afternoon for the first Frost* gig in The Netherlands in, err, ages 😡

I mean, it’s almost as if the website image is trolling me & my hopeless time management 😭

But here’s hoping that my friends Messrs Godfrey, Mitchell, Blundell, & King play a blinder for all who’re lucky enough to be there.

And come back soon, please 🖖🤘

#Astrodon #SpaceRocks

markmccaughrean, 1 year ago to random

A slightly mad moment: seeing prog metal band Voyager, who played at our last big #SpaceRocks event at the O2 in London in 2019, on stage in Liverpool tonight, representing Australia at the Eurovision Song Contest 😱

How’s that for cultural cross-over, eh? 🖖🤪🤘

markmccaughrean, 1 year ago to random

Soundcheck in the Tilburg Concertzaal for the last of our #MetropoleOrkest x #SolarOrbiter shows in the current run tonight 🌞🛰️🎶

Has been an enormous pleasure & privilege working with the orchestra & all the crew, along with conductor Jochen Neuffer, co-presenter Twan Huys, director Dirk de Bekker, & producer Friederike Darius 👏

I really hope we get to do more – it has been very special 🙇‍♂️

#Astrodon #SciComm #ArtScience #SpaceRocks