Ken Murphy / 12:19 am November 18th, 2010

Howdy everyone!

Back when I was working in NYC, one of the fun features of the holiday season was being able to pop out at lunch and check out the decorated windows at the major department stores. While at NatWest in the Empire State Building, Macy’s was just a block over in Herald Square, and while at BNP over on Park Ave, Lord & Taylor and Sak’s were right over on 5th Ave., and FAO Schwartz was on the corner of Central Park.

Dallas certainly isn’t NYC, but we do have our own home-grown major department store, Neiman Marcus, and they do do holiday windows.

If you’ve read today’s Wall Street Journal, then you probably saw the article on “Designing Holiday Windows 2.0“, which notes that this year the store’s windows will have an outer space theme.

Being the opportunistic young man I am, I quickly called up Neiman Marcus (NM) to see if I could talk to whomever is in charge of the windows and see if NSS of North Texas could help out in any way, or possibly participate in some fashion.

This turns out to be a gentleman by the name of Ignaz Gorischek, who was quite courteous in taking a few minutes out of his busy day to speak with me. NM works with local charity groups each year to come up with a theme for their holiday windows, and this year they worked with Big Brothers/Big Sisters (BB/BS). During brainstorming, it was noted that the beneficiaries of the BB/BS program tended to regard their big brothers and sisters as “stars” (which they are). This was seized upon as important, and served as the kernel for the idea of an outer space theme.

Mr Gorischek described all kinds of neat little space goodies they’ve included in the display, which I have no intention of revealing (except for the 200 ft crawl tube you can see in the illustration, for kids ages 4-10 only) - you’ll just have to come see it for yourself. To rub salt in the wound, he has offered me a chance at a sneak peak behind the scenes before the formal unveiling on Saturday evening at 7pm (if I can find a couple of free hours over the next two days; long lunch or duck out early?). That’s the sort of thing that happens when you serve as chapter president for four out of the last five years (the exception being 06/07, the year I was working on our ISDC), and get the chapter to undertake projects like space toy drives and Science Fair scholarships.

You can get a preview of the display at the Neiman Marcus splash page.

Who knew that the D/FW metroplex was such a happening space place? This definitely sounds like something to check out!

Update: Here are a few photos from the event -

The windows will be up until January 1st, 2011, so be sure to stop by early and often!

Ken Murphy / 8:06 pm November 13th, 2010

The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and so your Lunar Librarian finds himself pondering what he’s going to get the nephews, and the godkids, and my Buckner Bear this year. Also to be considered is space toys for the NSS of North Texas Santa Space Toy Drive.

Since 2005, the chapter has made it an annual project to collect space-themed toys to donate to the Santa’s Helpers program here in Dallas. The first year (above), while modest, was nevertheless an impressive start, and gave us the impetus to do it again in 2006.

We gather these together at our annual holiday party, where these photos were taken, and then I usually drive down to Victory Plaza on one of their public collection nights. At random times the camera crews will visit the drop off line and someone will be lucky enough to be on TV.

My hope is that when I drive up and drop the top on the Beetle that will catch the attention of the camera crew and reporter, who will come over and all of a sudden NSS of NT will be famous for their space toys, boxes of them.

I’ve already found a couple of interesting deals. One of the lineny/bathroomy big boxes had some ‘Moon in my Room’ nightlights (w/ Mining the Moon DVD) for $10 (normally ~$30). The big Toys box had the set of SLOOH cards on sale for $7 (reg. $10). I found some astronaut Snoopys at a local Hallmark.

There are rocket/astronaut/planet/asteroid type toys out there (see the Fun & Games section of the Lunar Library, for example), you just have to look for them.

So please, this holiday season, consider donating a space toy to a local toy drive this year. Doing so helps to imbue a space and frontier-oriented culture in our society which, frankly, will help the industry in the long run. What’s important to kids in their world view will be important to their parents.

And a recommendation to all of the space societies out there - make it easy for your current members to give prepaid blank membership cards as a gift. Throw some tchotchke in there for good measure. The easiest way for anyone to show their support for space is to join a space society. Doesn’t matter which one, they’re all doing different things, join the one that is of most interest to you. Or give a membership to someone you know.

Ken Murphy / 5:14 am November 12th, 2010

Howdy, everyone!

Just got word that applications are now being accepted for the 2011 NASA Academy, and they certainly have more programs available than when I worked program support at the 2002 Goddard Academy. Back then it was basically us and the Ames Astrobiology Academy.

For those unfamiliar with the NASA Academy program, it was formed back in 1994, when Dr. Gerald Soffen, one of the PIs on the Mars Viking Lander program, realized that NASA was going to experience a shortfall in trained scientists and engineers in the future (like, right about now) and wanted to establish a pipeline of promising young talent for the NASA folks to look over. He drew on the ISU summer session model to structure a ten-week program of education and research alongside NASA PIs.

In 2011 there are four regular Academies, one each at Goddard, Ames, Glenn and Marshall. Glenn and Langley are also each offering an Aeronautics Academy. Given recent advances in holography, maybe they’ll get to work on designing a 3-D holographic flight control system to replace our current 2-D one. Goddard is hosting a Lunar & Planetary Science Academy while Marshall has Propulsion and Robotics Academies.

This is a terrific summer program that imparts a wealth of experience. Alumni range from advanced exploration folks at Orbital Sciences, to mission control folks at JSC, to X Prize Foundation VIPs. Those who survive the program become part of the NASA Academy Alumni Association network.

You have until January 18th, 2011 to get your applications in, so it’s not too early to get started on the paperwork and rounding up letters of recommendation. Good luck!

Ken Murphy / 1:27 am November 9th, 2010

Eklund, Phil
“High Frontier”
Sierra Madre Games
2010
Publisher’s Web Site
Board Game Geek Website
Board Game Geek Review
Board Game Geek Review II

Librarian’s Note: Wow! Some 30 years in the making, this thing is thorough. For 2-5 players, the rules run to 24 pages of dense text and images. The propulsion options will satisfy even the most esoteric rocket motor geeks - how ’bout a pebble-bed fission reactor for your asteroid-bound spacecraft? He’s got our second Moon, Cruithne, mapped in there, you’ll learn the names of all kinds of asteroids and what they’re good for, and players will have a much better understanding of the importance of Lagrange Points and the Interplanetary Superhighways. The Expansion Set doubles the board size to include Jupiter and Saturn and offers some interesting twists. This game is really an amazing achievement.

Ken Murphy / 11:53 pm November 7th, 2010

“Planet Killers”
How It Works Magazine
Issue 13
10/2010
Publisher’s Web Site

Ken Murphy / 11:42 pm November 7th, 2010

Kou Yaginuma
“Twin Spica, Vol. 4″ (Futatsu no Supika)
Vertical, Inc.
2002 (2010)
ISBN13: 978-1-934-28790-3
Publisher’s Web Site

Ken Murphy / 11:38 pm November 7th, 2010

KidKraft
“Rocket Ship Adventure”
Constructive Playthings
2009
KDK-13
Publisher’s Web Site

Librarian’s Note: Just picked this one up. Definitely a most excellent play set.

READ MORE…

Ken Murphy / 2:18 am November 3rd, 2010

Special Section - Make: Space
“Make: technology on your time”
Vol. 24
O’Reilly Media
10/2010
ISSN: 1556-2336
On-Line Text

Ken Murphy / 10:10 pm November 1st, 2010

Brunner, Bernd
“Moon: A Brief History”
Yale University Press
2010
ISBN: 978-0-300-15212-8
Publisher’s Web Site
NY Times Review

Librarian’s Note: One of the more than three score titles I picked up while at the Space Manufacturing 14 conference at NASA Ames this last weekend. One of the reviewers quoted on the back, Dr. Paul Spudis, happened to be one of the speakers at the event. This one is a cultural review of the Moon in human history.