Chronicle 2014
Page 12
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The general feeling after the vote is that this is a good thing. Some people are saying it’s a vindication of government policy, but I don’t think I’d go that far. I don’t know if it’s that the Scottish people are happy with the way the country is right now, but I have a feeling that it’s more that they’re just worried that an independent Scottish government would make an even bigger hash of it than Westminster has.
I’m back in the office this week. The boss wasn’t horrible to me even once. I feel a whole lot better, and I’ve been sleeping well, albeit with chemical assistance still. I like not having dreams, and I do wake up feeling refreshed and ready to face the day. There was a package on my desk, all nicely gift wrapped, when I got in on Monday. It was a big bottle of vodka. No note, just a bottle. No idea which one of them put it there, or if all of them did, but it was a nice thought.
Not that I drink much, but it’s the thought that counts.
I spent the week writing up a couple more filler stories for the paper. One was about the growing number of birds in the town, and the messes they leave all over the pavement wherever you look. The other was a feelgood story about a girl who rescued a kitten from a drain where it was obviously stuck. The kitten was cute, I went with Floyd to get some pictures. After we’d done the interview with the girl, I took Floyd out for a drink and bought him lunch, as a thank you for sticking up for me with the boss. He just shrugged it off, but I wanted him to know I really had appreciated it.
I went back to see Dr. Smith on Friday. I know I said I wouldn’t, and I don’t think it’s going to do me much good, but I was running low on the sleeping pills, and needed a new prescription. She gave me one, and then made me sit and talk to her for a whole two hour session. Two hours, I don’t know how she didn’t fall asleep. I talked about my job, I talked about what kind of films I like, I talked about the problems at my parents with my dad being unemployed - yeah she finally got me discussing my parents, I knew it would happen in the end. She still hasn’t wanted to discuss the accident, and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s some psychologists tactic, don’t talk about things to make you think about things, who knows. I know more about crochet than I do about psychology, and all I know about crochet is how to spell it.
Using a spell checker.
Sunday, October 19th to Saturday, October 25th 2014
I expect I was one of many millions of people who was watching Mars on Sunday with great excitement, as comet Siding Spring made a really close pass on the planet. The Curiosity rover pointed its camera upwards, and we got to watch as the comet’s 42km wide core came into contact with the outer atmosphere and began to glow. It looked big, even from the view of the rover, and for about 20 seconds, it just lit up the sky, a bright trail of light and debris, before bouncing off of the atmosphere and continuing its journey out of the solar system.
That wasn’t the end of it though, not by far. For hours throughout Sunday afternoon we got to watch an absolutely amazing meteor shower, hundreds of shooting stars through the Martian atmosphere every minute, it was like a massive fireworks display, I’ve never seen anything like it.
People in Japan and the surrounding countries, who were the ones lucky enough to be facing Mars at the time of the main flyby, were uploading some pretty cool images. The National Observatory of Japan had a really clear image of the streak of the comet passing across the face of Mars.
Pretty much all of that paled in comparison to the images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. NASA had burned off some of the satellite’s fuel, and moved it into position to get an amazing shot of the flyby. Video it took showed the comet streaking by below the satellite in absolutely minute detail. It was probably one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.
Back on the work front, I’ve got tired waiting for a response to my letter from the US Department of Defence, so I’ve drafted an article for this week, based on the guess of Alan Bond that the government may be trying to get the US Air Force to invest in the Sabre engine. It’s so full of guesswork and hearsay that I hesitate to call it journalism, but that doesn’t really stop newspapers, now does it. I could probably sell this article to the Daily Mail for its lead story.
Local company on the US radar
Local business Reaction Engines received some welcome news recently, when it appeared that the government has been doing some behind the scenes negotiating on their behalf.
The Sabre engine, a low cost high performance engine that could revolutionise space travel, looks to have been pitched to the US Air Force as an alternative to their proposed scramjet engine, which has suffered from massive development overruns and technical difficulties.
The US Air Force has declined to comment on the rumours, although it is confirmed that US General Hall, commander of the scramjet project, is in direct contact with members of our government, and believed to be negotiating a deal to provide funding for the Sabre project.
Mr. Alan Bond, founder of Reaction Engines, the developers of the Sabre engine, has denied receiving any firm information from the treasury department about new funding from the Americans, but he seemed to be confident that the project’s pace may soon be stepped up, with a ground test full size prototype completed within the coming months.
If the rumours turn out to be true, it could mean a big boost for the local economy, with new jobs and new technology being developed at their Culham headquarters. Although it is unusual for the government to directly intervene in the dealings of a privately held company, the short cut to new funding that this opportunity may provide could be a significant boost for the UK space industry.