lifeasdaddy

One Australian boy's contribution to the space race. Update added at end.

1957 was a big year.

The Cold War was nearing its height and on October 4 fear of the Soviet Bear was pushed along when the first artificial satellite Sputnik-1  was launched.

One night in October 1957 Denis Cox and Brian Ball were on their way to their local band hall in Mordialloc, Victoria.  They gazed up trying to spot Earth's only artifical satellite,  imagining what it meant for them and their nation.   Then Denis and Brian got on with what they set out to do that night, and joined the Mordialloc Brass Band.

Sputnik, and the threat the Soviet space program imposed on Australia was not lost on the Denis Cox, then a student at Mordialloc High School.  He put his ideas for a  rocket ship design down on paper and forwarded it to Australia's premier space weapons research facility, the Woomera Weapons Research Establishment, directed to the attention of the top scientist.

Denis' letter was carefully filed, and was brought to light recently by the National Archives of Australia in their Find Of The Month feature.

 

[ NAA: D250, 56/486 Part 1 ]

 

Denis supplied an elaborate design finely sketched in blue ball point ink, including important featrues such as four Rolls-Royce jet engines and guided missile armament.  An obvious patriot, and in accordance with the rules of war, his design included Australian markings on the rocket ship.  Realising that at such a tender age he did not yet have a definitive design, he invited the Top Scientist at Woomera to " ... put in other details.".

  

[ NAA: D 250, 56/486 Part 1 ]

[ NAA: D250, 56/486 Part 1 ]

Denis requested a letter in return, but he tells me he is still waiting.  The wait for a response has not embittered him, and here is a photograph of Denis at last year's office Christmas party.  He's the one not wearing a red suit:

Although the images of the Denis's letter have been downloaded from the National Archives of Australia website, the NAA has not asserted copyright over use of the images, and instead advised me that copyright of the letter from Denis Cox to Woomera's Top Scientist rests with Mr. Cox. 

Denis Cox has generously granted me permission to reprint his letter here, and kindly supplied the recent photograph of him.

As a boy, I too was fascinated by space, rockets and astronauts.  I'll write more on that when the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing nears.

 

UPDATE ADDED September 28, 2009:  Last week the Australian nationally broadcast radio current affiars program ABC PM did a brief feel-good piece about this, including an interview with Denis Cox.

Transcript is here.  MP3 audio is here.

Looks like Denis is going to get his letter - 52 years after the fact.

UPDATE ADDED December, 2009: Denis Cox gets his replay from a top rocket scientist.

Older people look like being more immune to swine flu.

Due to exposure to long-ago active strains for influenza throughout the 20th century, it looks like people born before 1957 have some immunity to the swine flu virus.

New York Times story here.

"The image above of the newly identified H1N1 influenza virus were taken in the CDC Influenza Laboratory"

The images below of the newly identified H1N1 influenza virus were taken in the CDC Influenza Laboratory

Here is the World Health Organization's swine flu page (in English).

"26 May 2009 -- As of 06:00 GMT, 26 May 2009, 46 countries have officially reported 12 954 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 92 deaths."

Here is the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) H1N1 page.

Here is the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing's page on swine flu.

The story of the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable.

A bit over 5 minutes, but worth it.

The Unknown Sailor of Christmas Island - Part Seven

See previous parts in this feature series here under my blog category "The Unknown Sailor".

The body of the Unknown Sailor of Christmas Island was retrieved from a life raft near Christmas Island on 7 February 1942.  The Sailor is thought to be the only known body anywhere from the 645 crew who perished with the ship HMAS Sydney (II) during World War II.

The body was buried shortly after that in the cemetery on Christmas Island, and was retrieved by a Royal Australian Navy led expedition in 2006.

Since then a number of means of trying to identify the body have been followed, finally centering around DNA testing of surviving relatives. 

As I have said before, the identification team, based upon supposed testing at the Australian War Memorial which suggested that the Sailor was wearing a WHITE boiler suit seems to have ignored eyewitness acounts from the time which stated the sailor was wearing a BLUE boilersuit.  Thus, I proprosed that the identification team concentrated their efforts in gaining DNA matches from survising relatives on the wrong group within the crew.

The fate of the HMAS Sydney (II) and her crew, which was Australia's greatest wartime loss is presently the topic of investigation by the Australian Government through a Commission of Inquiry, led by The Honourable Terence Cole, AO, RFD, QC

Well, guess what?

Turns out I was right.

Further testing by the Australian Federal Police has indicated that the press studs found with the corpse contained BLUE material, not WHITE material.

This, from the transcript of testimony before the Commission of Inquiry today, on page 32:

THE PRESIDENT: CMDR Rush, there is one other matter that

I should have asked Mr Bailey about. My understanding is

that the most recent investigation of the press studs

indicated that they had fragments of material attached to

them, and that whilst in the past it was thought that the

textiles were white and may have been dyed, the view of the

Federal Police was that it was likely that the textiles

were in fact blue, and not white. That may affect

Ms Challenor's evidence. I don't know.

CMDR RUSH: I might start with Ms Challenor and see if we

can deal with it through her, and, if not, I will recall

Mr Bailey, sir.

Q. Ms Challenor, you heard the comment of the

Commissioner as to an understanding that has been given to

the Commission of Inquiry as to the actual colour of the

overalls as a consequence of the further testing that has

been done. What is the position in relation to whether

they were white originally, or blue and have faded?

A. In my original report, I said that there were

definitely fragments of the cloth that appeared to be

undyed; however, I could not positively say that it had

been dyed or undyed. The evidence that I had in front of

me at the time, which came from the - when we broke open

one of the press studs, two layers of material came out,

and in that sample - and this is in my report - there were

bands of colour, possibly from corrosion, and I think

I indicated that it may have been dyed at one time, but

there was no very obvious evidence of that.

However, since writing that report two years ago, we

have broken open another stud to take more layers of fabric

out, and those fragments actually revealed a definite blue

colouration. At this stage, it is too early to say that it

is definitely a dye, but it is definitely a blue colour.

Obviously, we've taken images, and the AFP are now

following on from that to see if they can identify dye from

that.

THE PRESIDENT: Q. That means that the investigation

which has been progressing on the basis that it may have

been undyed or white, and thus may have been the boilersuit

of an officer, may have been misconceived, if this material

is blue.

A. Yes.

[ Department of Defence photograph, copyright expired ]

The Sydney Observatory. A great place for a family visit.

On Saturday we took a trip to the Sydney Observatory which is now a museum of astronomy and a division of the Powerhouse Museum .  Edward's cousins went there for a tour last week and told him about looking at the Sun through the big telescope.  He was keen.  It would also give me the opportunity to take some photos for my Sydney then and now ... photographic project.

We knew that the first tour would start at 11am, so Saturday at 10.20am was a good time to look for a parking spot in Upper Fort Street, and we got the closest public parking space to the Observatory.

I took a couple of important photographs for my project and then we went inside and read out some of the informational plaques to Edward along the way.

This one explains the time ball.

 

We went inside to the reception desk and booked ourselves into the 11am tour.  Usually the fee is $7 for adults and $5 for children (from 4 to 15 years) but because we are members of a museum with reciprocal visiting rights at the Powerhouse Museum, for us it was FREE!  

Then we entered and walked through the other parts of the Observatory viewing the range of exhibits.  These included historic astronomical  instruments including telescopes and orreries and explanations of some of the principles of optics.Here's the transit circle:

 

  Ed got a lot out of pressing the buttons on the interactive exhibits.  We also walked through the gardens and admired the outstanding views afforded by the position of Observatory Hill.

 

Then it was time for the 3-D movie show and the telescope viewing.

The movies on show were Bigger than Big and After Stars   both produced by Swinburne's Space Works.

The old-school 3-D glasses were obligatory, and wearing them added to the fascination for Ed.

Movies over and our knowledge of some facets of astronomy enriched, it was off to some telescope viewing led by our guide, Lisa.  We ascended the narrow stairs to the southern dome and saw the auspiciously named Meade LX200 EMC telescope.  I think this one is a 16-inch model, which is actually the same as used in the Meade company's own observatory.

 

 

Lisa mounted a small ladder and started to manually turn the wheel to open the dome.  You'll see here too a view of the cover on the end of the telescope.  Whilst I'm sure it is of the highest quality, it does look as though it was made by Playschool presenters out of cardboard and sticky tape.

 

 

We did not actually use the 16- inch telescope, we used a parrallel smaller telescope fitted with a filter. The filter on the telescope permitted direct viewing of the Sun, which would otherwise cause blinding to the viewer.  I can't show the view through the eyepiece, but I can give you a good view of the bridge framed by the dome aperture.

A tour of the  grounds of the Observatory Hill reserve even revealed a war memorial of which I had been unaware.  This one for the New South Wales contingent to the South African (Boer) War.

It includes this small artillery piece which was manufactured by Fried. Krupp in 1896 at Essen.

 

 

 

The visit to the Observatory sparked plenty of questions from Edward about black holes, pulsars and stars so today we borrowed some books on astronomy from the library.  Edward got straight down to reading them when we got home.

 

 

 

 

Here's the heritage listing for the Sydney Observatory which gives some good detail about the history of the buildings.
 

Annual Australian Climate Statement for 2008

The Australian Government's Bureau of Meteorology recently released its Annual Australian Climate Statement 2008.  This gives in summary detail about our climate over the 2008 year regarding rainfall and temperature, especially in comparison to national averages, and in comparison to the period 1900 to 2008.

It has received little attention in the Australian press so far.

The national debate about climate change is so emotionally and politically charged that lest I be accused of quoting selectively to confirm my own biases on this, I simply encourage you to read it here for yourself.

Since the actions to be taken by the Commonwealth Government on our behalf regarding the matter of climate change is likely to be one of the two most significant things this government does in the present term, we really need to be very well informed about the facts of the matter on climate change.

Sydney then and now: Sydney Observatory

Sydney Observatory, originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum Collection.

I could not get to the same position as the original photographer because that place is now in the air above the Cahill Expressway Loop.

This is the best I could do today wihtout a crane and a suspension cage:

and here is a view of the building unobscured by the trees:

The Sydney Observatory  is now part of the Powerhouse Museum.  Today we checked out the observatory, did the tour, and looked through the telescope and I'll blog more about that visit soon.

The FBI's code cracking contest

See how you go.

[ tip from Schneier ]

2009 - The International Year of Astronomy

Cassiopeia A: Chandra Discovers Relativistic Pinball Machine, originally uploaded by Smithsonian Institution.

Happy New Year my friends.

This photograph of Cassiopeia A is from "NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Comlumbia on July 23, 1999."

So it's a visually spectacular introduction to the International Year of Astronomy.

Closer to home, I commend the website and blog of the Sydney Observatory.

For old school stuff, I've got an especially soft spot for the Sydney Observatory's Historic Letters Blog.

NASA also has a pretty cool site featuring the IYA here.

"So Superman has holes in his cape!"

Richard Edelman's own story of the diagnosis and treament of his prostate cancer.

Very well written.  AS would be expected, a model for communicating a very difficult personal topic.