Kevin's Journal, Final Kagoshima Entry: July 17, 2005

Early in the Mornin', Just About Suppertime

I don't know what time it is any more. You've probably seen the maps of spacecraft orbits, in movies like "Apollo 13," where the spacecraft track makes a kind of sine wave across the Earth, with the peak at a different place each time. That's because the satellite travels in a fixed path, taking about 90 minutes to get back to the same place, while the Earth rotates underneath it.

Well, not exactly. If the orbit were truly stationary, the time when the satellite appears each day would get 4 minutes later per day on average (those of you who have been paying attention will recall that 4 minutes as the difference between a solar day and a sidereal day).

But actually the satellite's orbit isn't fixed. The equatorial bulge of the earth puts a torque on the orbit, so (in our case) it actually gets about 30 minutes earlier each day. And we only have the one ground station, at the launch site, so we can only communicate with Suzaku when it's over that station. Which is earlier every day.

All of which boils down to we're now getting up (and by "we" I mean "me and Dan") in time to be in the control room ready to go at 5AM. And it's gonna get worse before it gets better.

Goin' Up the 'Pool

Thursday was a holiday, so they put Suzaku in safe-hold mode and we all took the day off. They needed to test safe-hold mode, and the ops team needed a break, so that worked well. In safe-hold mode it spins very slowly, facing the solar panels directly toward the sun, and turning off most operations. Most satellites have such a mode; they put themselves into it automatically in certain situations, e.g. if they detect a problem with the attitude control system.

While Suzaku spun slowly in the void, we went all resort-y. After working in the morning (hey, there's already lots of housekeeping data to look at), we took off for the afternoon. It was a beautiful day, so we partook of the local scenery (and 'round here, scenery is about all there is).

Steps 1 through 555 were up the side of one of the local small mountains. The Japanese number 5 is "go", so 555 is "Go-go-go!" We didn't count the steps, but there's a sign saying there are 555 of them. There's a boardwalk at the top of the steps, with a nice view. A further short hike goes up to the top of the hill, where there are some cute little hexagonal cottages, a little shrine, and a cell phone tower. The old and the new, y'know.

Course it was probably at least 90 degrees out, and very humid, but hey, ocean! There seems to be essentially nobody on the beach behind the hotel, so after the mountain climb we went for a swim. Beautiful water, nice sand, and a six-pack. Can't beat that!

Or can you? After the beach, the onsen. For those unfamiliar with the concept, it's a Japanese hot spring. The one at this hotel has a number of pools: a mineral bath; a hot bath with bubble jets (and electric shocks if you want them!); a cold bath; and a sauna. You first undress in the changing room, then clean yourself at one of many little washing stations with water and soap and shampoo, and then go to the bath. No, the men's and women's sides are separate.

The sauna sits at 86 degrees C, which is over 180 Fahrenheit. They have a 12-minute shot clock in there, and by the time the 12 minutes is up it seems mighty hot. Then back into the cold bath. (Yes Christina, the difference is only 100 degrees, you win.)

Many of the others enjoy the massage chairs after, but they just hurt me. I think I'm too big for 'em.

Anyway, we were all very rested after that!

That's the News and I am Outta Here

Our time here is almost through. The last contact orbit today ends before noon, so we'll fly back to Tokyo after that, and be there ready to get started again Monday morning. Me personally, I'm going to Denny's on Monday morning and order everything they have that doesn't include fish! The food here wasn't bad, but I'm sure ready for something else.

So far things are going great. Another week or so until we do the first cooling cycle and see if our detectors are really working. But at this point everything looks both hunky and dory.

Sure feels good!

Signing off from Kagoshima.

-Kevin