Apollo - Artemis II and the Joy of Earth

Since Artemis II was launched, several more-senior people in the media have been interviewed, with their reflections on certain lunar events in 1969 with the Apollo programme.

 

I too remember being woken up, taking several giant steps down the stairs and huddling around the black & white TV set in the early hours. I'm so glad I did that.

 

Thanks mum and dad. X

 

Following the livestream from Artemis, it's brilliant to see Christina Koch and Victor Glover onboard too.

 

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art002e008487 (April 4, 2026) - NASA astronaut and Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch peers out of one of the Orion spacecraft's main cabin windows, looking back at Earth, as the crew travels towards the Moon. Image Credit: NASA

"I have not complained about the weather one single time. I'm glad there is weather. I've not complained about traffic. I'm glad there are people around. One of the things that I did when I got home - I went down to shopping centers, and I'd just go around there, get an ice cream cone or something, just watch the people go by, and think: "Boy, we're lucky to be here. Why do people complain about the Earth? We are living in the garden of Eden."                     Alan Bean. Apollo 12

Image: NASA

Text: https://www.livingspace.earth/home/2018/5/remembering-alan-bean
 

Previously: 'Apollo' : 'exploration' : 'moon' 

Did 'to a T' find its inspiration in Rio de Janeiro?

... or somewhere else?

to a T

A new game from Keita Takahashi

"'to a T' is an episodic 3D adventure game developed by Keita Takahashi and the uvula team, with a strong focus on character, interaction, story and exploration. Play as a teenager (Teen), with a unique posture just trying to live a normal life in a small coastal town. Explore the town along with the help of Teen’s loyal dog and loving mother. While going to school and contending with bullies, Teen discovers a new ability granted to them by their extraordinary posture, and they start to uncover more about their mysterious lineage."

'to a T' - image https://annapurnainteractive.com/en/games/to-a-t

Developer - https://uvula.jp/

I have never been as far south as Rio de Janeiro. It would be marvellous to visit Tijuca National Park - Alto da Boa Vista, Rio de Janeiro - RJ.

But then ... 🌍🌎🌏🌐

My source: Tom Faber, In praise of gaming's auteurs. Financial Times, 11 June, 2025, p.18.

A Voyage in Cosmic Health ... loneliness

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[2] 'Most pressingly, Voyager 1 has severe memory loss It stopped speaking clearly on November 14. All they received at JPL was a carrier signal. This was described to me in many ways: flatlining, an interstellar dial tone, useless ones and zeros, gibberish, no data. Imagine your friend is on a long journey and sends you a detailed letter every day, then, one day, empty envelopes start arriving. What happened to your friend? How do you help?' p.21.

[1] 'VOYAGER 1 SUFFERS MANY AILMENTS OF AGE. It has arthritis. During its planetary encounters, the team excitedly swung the camera and other instruments this way and that; this squeezed the lubricant out of the bearings of its articulated platform. Only painstakingly slow movements could loosen its joints. It also has heart disease, as Todd Barber, its propulsion engineer, explained. The arteries that deliver its propellant, which keeps it perfectly pointed at Earth, are partially clogged. Barber calls himself a space plumber and wore a shirt with flying saucers on it as we spoke in the Voyager office. He had considered all the usual cardiological remedies.  Diet: unfortunately, Voyager eats only the propellant hydrazine, total junk food.  Exercise: they haven't thought of a way to fire the thrusters to clear the blockage.  Medication: so they've relaxed its alignment a bit and fire its thrusters less often; in other words, Voyager is on beta blockers.' p.21.

My source - with thanks - brilliant writing! 

Roeder O. TERMINATION SHOCK. Last Days of a Lonely Interstellar Spacecraft. FT Magazine, August 3/4 2024. pp.18-27. https://www.ft.com/content/0f2dce04-ec78-4aeb-808c-cff5b5135699

https://www.ft.com/content/90b6aaaa-b192-48d9-bd43-e6f41978ad1c

The naïve approach

Categories, Bundles and
Spacetime Topology  

'First steps' are by their nature plagued by uncertainty of intent and direction, ungainliness, missteps, stumbles and ('finally') possibly falls.

Finding a starting point can be difficult.

Where to find a hand-hold, place one's foot, or other anchor?

At Lancaster University library I came across this book, first published in 1980. The cover displayed is from the 1988 edition.

In order of appeal I read:

applications, categories, spacetime and topology.

Section I starts with Preliminaries: Notation and Abbreviations; always useful (reminder).

The next, Section II Naïve Category Theory, had my immediate attention. We often speak of learners as being naïve. As lifelong learners we all meet this descriptor. I keep revisiting this word, concept - 'naïve'.

Naivety is a starting point for practitioners in health and social care too. Hence the need for supervision, mentors, the tokens of probationary (driver) and 'newly qualified'. 

Many posts on W2tQ stress the diagrammatic quality of Hodges' model. It is visibly a 2x2 matrix, (once again..) beloved of management consultants, psychologists and change agents. In Section II Dodson recognizes the London Underground map as a graph. A small example is developed, explained and illustrated on p.6. 

Graph example, drawing on the London Underground. p.6.

Section II may be a small part of the overall book but it is invaluable to me. As the photo above suggests, the book is old, especially as 1st edition. I will try to access the 2nd edition. If this work is a project with which you can (more ably!) assist, I would greatly appreciate your input. The aim is to signpost Hodges' model as a potential focus for all researchers. Especially researchers interested in trying to conjoin the sciences and humanities and develop visualization in the latter. 

C.T.J. Dodson. Categories, Bundles and Spacetime Topology. 1st Edition, Shiva, Kent. 1980.

Previously: 'math'

'Diagram' resources listed on former, now archived website.

Point Nemo: 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W

The oceanic pole of inaccessibility

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	Point Nemo: 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W
Social care

Al-Othman, H. Notes from the remotest place on Earth: father and son voyage to Point Nemo. The Sunday Times, 31 March 2024. p.11.

https://brown.co.uk/expeditions/point-nemo

Image: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nemo.html

Re. 'Lagoonscapes' - previous post ...

It was the title of the journal in the previous post that caught my attention:

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	'Lagoonscapes' made me think of the periplus, used by ancient explorers - sailors to 'map' coastlines and their features. I also realised that people living with: more advanced stage dementias reduced mobility / balance partial sightedness stroke - may negotiate their immediate surroundings (living room ...) using 'furniture walking'. The first explorers did likewise by analogy?
Is a lagoon - a resting place/space - an offering of respite (care)? In 2018 the Oceania exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/oceania - highlighted knowledge of the peoples who could read the currents, winds - perhaps in as differentiated manner similar to the Inuit and their environment and cultural beliefs?

Previously 'landscape'

Psyche: Amid the Mind and Stars

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"The Greek origin of the word psyche (breath) is well known but psyche also referred to life as action or as soul, some special force or spirit which entered living creatures. ... It was natural that when psychology and and medical psychology became established with institutions, they would wish for armorial bearings and it was logical that some representation of psyche should be incorporated. ... Some psychiatrists would consider mind to be an epiphenomenon of brain function, many of whose mysteries will eventually yield to scientific and clinical investigation and most would consider the emergent subjective experiences as important in determining behaviour. The current motto "Let Wisdom Guide" is certainly suitable whatever interpretation or meaning is given to Psyche and whatever direction psychiatry may take in the future." p.429,431. James, F.E. (July 1991). "Psyche". Psychiatric Bulletin. 15 (7): 429–31. doi:10.1192/pb.15.7.429

Artist's concept of the asteroid 16 Psyche which is thought to be a stripped planetary core. Image credit: Maxar/ASU/P. Rubin/NASA/JPL-Caltech

Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss  Antonio CANOVA (1757 – 1822) Marble - H. 1.55 m; L. 1.68 m; D. 1.01 mMR 1777 Paris, Musée du Louvre © 2010 Musée du Louvre / Raphaël Chipault

Political mythology: Government pronouncements on psyche?

2 + Everyone Else -1: Thank you Michael

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Michael	All of humanity in one picture except for Michael Collins. Apollo 11, July 1969
Collins	"We choose ..."

Photo:
https://www.reddit.com/r/spaceporn/comments/63ztoy/all_of_humanity_in_one_picture_except_for_michael/

The moon, Saturn V, policy and holistic care

The last time human kind ventured to the moon it took a three-stage rocket to get us there.

Unlike the space race and Kennedy's breathtaking commitment, there never has been a political objective akin to - "We choose to achieve holistic care in this decade, and do the other things like multidisciplinary, integrated, electronically supported collaborative care. ..."

Perhaps the UK's series of National Service Frameworks goes some way towards this, with the Next Stage Review over the next decade set to make the holistic difference?

So, it appears that the objective of holistic care isn't easy, like going to the moon it is hard and in this problem domain - care engineering - we have had more than a decade to get there.

There has been a space race in nursing. A race to fill curricula, wards and the heads of many with models and theories of nursing.

Like Apollo this race has petered out.
Like Apollo this programme is safety critical.
Like Apollo ambition can be re-kindled.

We need a new imperative. Something to charge policy landscape of our time. There is still a need to deliver on this and the other things....

Hodges' model is a marvellous delivery system.

Unlike the Saturn V it boasts four stages.
Like the Saturn V it incorporates the means to take us to some place and make the journey back: quantity - quality and the universe between.

The stages of h2cm are interchangeable their use dictated by the situation and context. There is even recourse to a virtual fifth stage as required, since as the astronauts found:

you can find bliss up there : looking down here

Image source: ABC News

Ack: John F. Kennedy Moon Speech - Rice Stadium

SpacePort and Moon

There are a series of images on TechRepublic including:

The view from above is reminiscent of crop circles. Officials hope Spaceport America will be operational in late 2009 or early 2010.

Apart from the little matter of punching of a big hole in the atmosphere, it is great to see another return to the moon - this time SELENE from Japan.

Working on the socio-technical structures paper, I need to summarise existing socio-technical approaches in the literature. The moon will figure in this paper too - an ideal light to help explain why s-t perspectives are essential.

I visited a nursing home this week (not much choice there as a Community Mental Health Nurse for Older Adults): the surprise though - no PCs.

More this weekend...