In March of 2009 a young bat gave his or her life in the pursuit of adventure, and in doing so captured the heart of a nation. NASA chronicled the odyssey of “space bat” in Interim Problem Report 119V-0080. Ultimately his or her unsanctioned attempts to break the bonds of earthly existence were deemed acceptable in ICE-01. NASA believed that space bat most likely perished soon after launch, but at the very least he/she lives on in our hearts. I like to think he/she made it to orbit, I like to think his or her little mind was doing back flips the entire way. And while I know it is impossible, I hope that he or she found the peace he or she sought among the stars.

As we approach the end of November, and the final launch of the space shuttle Discovery, it is important we remember what a rich history it has. Space bat, is just one of several hundreds of heroes that have climbed aboard that vessel in the hope of challenging the stars. But, space bat enjoys the special privilege of having been the only member of his or her species to ever attempt space flight of their own volition. He or she is a true American hero and truly a symbol of Discovery.

I hope that everyone will take a moment to remember space bat in those few short seconds during countdown before Discovery makes it’s last voyage into Ginsberg’s dynamo.

Today in History, the United States became the only country in history to engage in Nuclear Warfare. 80,000 estimated Japanese died in the first attack, climbing to a possible 140,000 as a result of lasting effects of the bombing.

You probably have seen a billion and one great posts regarding the historic, gut wrenching, and generally awesome power of the nuclear weapons that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, up on through the terrifying surreal imagery of the Tsar Bomba test explosion. But, what you might not be aware of, or at least in my mind is not talked about very much is the Oak Ridge uranium enrichment plant. Above is a picture of the plant.

Prior to the outbreak of World War 2 Nuclear Boogaloo, there were only 3000 some odd residents of Oak Ridge Tennessee. It was just one of many normal quiet little towns spread across the United States vast landscape. But thanks in part to it’s proximity to railways and highways, as well as it’s low population Oak Ridge would become home to the dubiously named “Clinton Engineering Works”. By 1945, Oak Ridge would sport a population of 75,000 and be home to the largest building in the world. At one point in fact, Oak Ridge was consuming 1/6th of the entire electrical load of the entire United States. Of course, no one knew that this once aspiring hamlet had grown into a marvel of modern engineering. The entire town was surrounded by layers of fencing, and armed guard towers. Seven gates would have to be passed before anyone could enter the town. The work being done there was so secretive that most of the residents of the town had no idea what it was exactly they were doing until August 6th, 1945. Throughout the Manhattan Project Oak Ridge was simply referred to as “Site X”.

Oak Ridge, was where uranium enrichment was occurring. Without enriched uranium, critical mass could not be reliably achieved. Much of the uranium 235 used in Fatman came from reactors built in Oak Ridge. The Manhattan Project stands as one of the most expensive, and astounding human engineering projects in history. Much of the cost of the project was expended in developing Oak Ridge and the enrichment facilities there.

Apollo Program Total Cost: $170 billion
Manhattan Project Total Cost: $23.4 billion

… and after one small step, two men would stare out across what one of them called “magnificent desolation”. Orbiting overhead another man would keep vigil, as on earth half of a billion people were riveted to television screens receiving broadcasts of events as they unfolded on what had been until that moment a dreamscape. Kings, Tyrants, and Leaders relegated to awestruck spectators. We were there all of us explorers, and to us that grand frontier that has sat elusive in our night sky, forever a source of inspiration and hope, was finally so very close to us. We dared to dream, and we dared to make that dream real.

I hope that I will some day look on as mankind takes it’s first steps onto a planet that is not our own. That would be the greatest.

Some would say it was Engineers, and Scientists that got us to the moon. That’s no more true than saying it was America or John F Kennedy who got us there. So many people have given of themselves down through the centuries, some giving everything. Apollo was everyone’s. This anniversary belongs to all of us. So, enjoy the wonder, the excitement, and the pride all over again. Enjoy it while it lasts, because some day soon we’ll be sitting glued to televisions and lcds as men and women of earth step out onto the vastness of Mars.

PS:

Check it out: here. Not sure who put all the effort into making this, but lord knows it’s amazing. And Hacking the AGC would be a very appropriate way to spend this anniversary at a hackerspace.

Video of our presentation at Hackday:

In the video,

Ben Combee is speaking, Max Henstell is working the stabster’s pneumatics and Mark Tabry is standing by to protect bystanders, and I am off camera to the left looking pretty for the cameras.

Not in the video is Bill Ward, Charles Pax, as well as the original Max.

* Special thanks to my friend Adam from Twilio who provided us with some assistance in the effort.

For the blow by blow of the event check out our time lapse. Trust me it was 24 hours of tedium just as grueling as watching this 2.5 minute clip.As you can see this was an pretty large effort by NYCR and a hell of a lot more went into this project than is readily apparent. Just getting the equipment there was an event all its own. Max and Charles worked tirelessly to repair Stabby’s pneumatic stabber arm. Max also worked on wiring up the actuators and accompanying arduino code to link up with Ben, Bill, and Marks twilio interface code base. I worked with Mark on a display that showed debug info from the arduinos ( blogarythmic cred ) as well as caller ( aka stabber ) id when stabbing.

We finished up about 5 minutes before time was called… literally. Came down to the wire. Stabby was awarded a runner up award, and supposedly will be on display at Tech Crunch on Wednesday some time during the day.

We had a hell of a lot of fun, and were excited to present a functioning project ( a first for me =P ). Even more exciting was winning a runner up award in a contest that didn’t actually have runner up awards. I guess they were afraid of being stabbed.

We’re time lapsing, and Mr Stabby is here getting his API action on… literally.

Stop by what we are calling battle station resistor in the deep recesses of the hacker caves.

If you have spare sparkfun line relay breakouts… we could use 4 to six if you have some to spare… otherwise we’ll be rube goldeberg a solution.