In related news, as of July 1st I am officially a PhD. student at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Canada CSA also recently announced their two new astronauts (one fighter pilot, one doctor + astrophysicist).

Within a few months Japan (JAXA) and the U.S. (NASA) will announce their new astronaut corps too.

Looks like I have some studying to do in order to prepare for the next round in about a decade.

P.S. Tim, keep up the good work so I can just buy me a ticket if it comes down to that. I’d really prefer orbital to suborbital.

My Hardware:

• Iridium 9505A
• Unmarked adapter for base that provides 9 pin female serial port
• Serial cable, 9 pin male to 9 pin female
• Belkin Keyspan Serial to USB converter USA-19HS
• Cable to convert from square-ish shaped output of 19HS to regular USB
• MacBook

My Software:

• Belkin driver for OS X 10.5.x (version 2.5 dated January 22, 2008)
• OS X 10.5.6
• Modem script from here

How To Set It Up (source 0, source 1):

• Install Keyspan driver
• Put modem script into ~/Library/Modem Scripts
• Connect phone to adapter to serial cable to adapter to USB cable to computer
• Turn on phone
• Go to System Preferences > Network
• Select + at bottom left to add net network device
• Select USA19H1d1P1.
• Name it something nice like “Iridium”
• Set telephone number to 008816000022
• Set account name to your phone number
• Set password to “password”
• Select connect button

Notes:

• Sources (linked above) suggest it works with other phone numbers (025, 023) and with different name/password pairs, but none of those worked for me.
• Phone should take about 30 seconds from when you select Connect to make a connection. Do not test by loading a normal web page. Test with low bandwidth test such as ping or lynx.
• Data connection requires a much better signal strength than voice. I could only get this to work with a clear sky view of many steradians. Voice worked in much more secluded locations.
• I haven’t done much with this yet other than post a small photo but intend to test some limits when in the field, use lynx, links, ssh, etc.
• Set up a new Location in System Preferences that does not have Airport or Ethernet and only has the Iridium network device to ease testing.
• Enable “Show modem status in menu bar” in Network System Preferences to make dialing easy. No need to re-enter System Preferences anymore.

Votes are beamed from the ISS on a secure electronic ballot and are forwarded to Texas elections officials for processing. (In at least one county, the votes are then transferred to a paper ballot on election night and commingled with ordinary voters’ ballots by elections officials, according to a National Public Radio report.)

Full story: link.

At the end of its six-month mission, Jules Verne ATV undocked from the International Space Station on 5 September 2008 at 21:29 UT.

It has now embarked on the last leg of its journey which will end with a controlled destructive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere on 29 September. If you happen to be flying to NZ or AU from the US you have a chance to see the fireball. Click the image for a video simulation of the re-entry.

I didn’t mention it here but I also applied to ESA. I got accepted (OMG!!), went to DLR in Hamburg, Germany for the first round of psychological testing, and even qualified for the second round in Cologne. But that is as far as I made it…

The NASA selection process is fairly secretive. I haven’t found much about it online. ESA is too, and I cannot discuss any details as I signed an NDA, but they still post a lot online. At the ESA Astronaut Selection Site you can view the full schedule, learn about what they are looking for, and even take a bunch of tests that are similar to what I took as part of the Psych I evaluation.

Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. I guess I won’t be an astronaut… for now. I haven’t given up hope entirely yet. I know what I need to do to strengthen my application for the next time I can apply. Hopefully it is within a decade or I might not pass the age limit requirements. And of course, I’m still counting on Tim…