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Posted by: David Jun 20 2006, 03:40 PM

You know you're a UMSF fan when:

You have to get your UMSF fix every morning before leaving for work.

But you know you're a hardcore UMSF fan when:

Your co-workers have started commenting on the number of bathroom breaks you take so you can log into UMSF from your laptop.

You know you're a UMSF fan when:

You've got the Cassini encounter schedules entered in your PDA a year in advance.

But you know you're a hardcore UMSF fan when:

You take vacation time off to coincide with Cassini encounters.

You know you're a UMSF fan when:

Your walls are covered with posters showing the view from the top of Husband Hill.

But you know you're a hardcore UMSF fan when:

You've replaced all the windows in your home with backlit screens showing the view from the top of Husband Hill.

You know you're a UMSF fan when:

You know the area between Endurance and Victoria better than you know the streets within half a mile of your own home.

But you know you're a hardcore UMSF fan when:

You turned your entire backyard into a to-scale model of the area between Endurance and Victoria.

You know you're a UMSF fan when:

You go "squee!" when Steve Squyres appears on NASA-TV.

But you know you're a hardcore UMSF fan when:

You recently went shopping for a gilded frame for the picture on your Steve Squyres altar at home.

You know you're a UMSF fan when:

You name your pets "Spirit" and "Opportunity".

But you know you're a hardcore UMSF fan when:

You name your children "Spirit" and "Opportunity".

You know you're a UMSF fan when:

Your kids want to be rover drivers when they grow up.

But you know you're a hardcore UMSF fan when:

You want to be a rover driver when you grow up.

You know you're a UMSF fan when:

You're more interested in possible methane showers on Titan than whether it's going to rain tomorrow.

But you know you're a hardcore UMSF fan when:

You carry an umbrella especially designed to repel methane showers.

You know you're a UMSF fan when:

You know exactly how old you're going to be when New Horizons reaches Pluto.

But you know you're a hardcore UMSF fan when:

You checked the annuity tables to find out what your risk is of dying before New Horizons reaches Pluto.

You know you're a UMSF fan when:

You decorate your Christmas tree with models of planets, moons, and interplanetary spacecraft.

But you know you're a hardcore UMSF fan when:

You celebrate launch and flyby anniversaries instead of Christmas.

You know you're a UMSF fan when:

You wrote a letter to Congress when DAWN was cancelled.

But you know you're a hardcore UMSF fan when:

You made a bargain with the space gods that they should take your life instead of DAWN's.

You know you're a UMSF fan when:

You remember exactly where you were when the first plume was observed on Enceladus.

But you know you're a hardcore UMSF fan when:

You remember exactly where you were on Sol 465.

You know you're a UMSF fan when:

You think there ought to be a mission dedicated to exploring Uranus.

But you know you're a hardcore UMSF fan when:

You think there ought to be a mission dedicated to exploring Uranus, and THAT'S NOT A JOKE!

Posted by: djellison Jun 20 2006, 03:44 PM

That...is GENIUS...seriously - I scheduled my last major holiday at a period when I knew there wouldn't be too much MER activity

Doug

Posted by: volcanopele Jun 20 2006, 03:59 PM

To the first, only a year? I spent a couple of hours inputting Emily's entire encounter table onto mine.
As to the second part, would mine be instead that I work for 24 hours straight during Cassini Encounters (okay, not anymore)

Posted by: Richard Trigaux Jun 20 2006, 04:25 PM

Today the weather is very hot, it would be fine if I had an UMSF fan to blow some cool air. Maybe I should go shopping in the UMSF goodies page.

Er, what's wrong?

Posted by: Phil Stooke Jun 20 2006, 04:36 PM

Brilliant!

Phil

Posted by: Bjorn Jonsson Jun 20 2006, 04:41 PM

I wonder into which category the following (some of which I am a bit familiar with ) falls:

(1) You remember every targeted and nontargeted Galileo flyby of the Galileans (e.g. the G8 Ganymede images and the Callisto images during that same orbit, the G28 Ganymede images, the very high resolution E12 Europa images and the Ganymede Gilgamesh images from the same orbit etc.). You also remember the approximate dates of these flybys...

(2) You had to get yourself a bigger computer and extra hard disks to be able to process and store PDS images from various spacecraft.

(3) You don't know how many PDS images you have on your computer but saying that you have tens of thousands is an understatement.

(4) You left your computer running for 200+ hours to do a big animation of the Cassini SOI...

Posted by: Richard Trigaux Jun 20 2006, 04:52 PM

Perhaps not a fan of UMSF, because I was already sick from long ago:

-when I look at the sunset, I don't see the sun lowering behind the horizon, but the earh rotating and hiding the sun

-looking at the moon (by day) while holding an orange in my hand, and see the same crescent on the moon and the orange.

-when looking at the sunset, I sit down and them get up to follow the last contact for about half a second

-Once when taking a rendez-vous with a social worker, I told her that I cannot accept the date she proposed because of the venus transit. What's the heck, serious things first.

-looking space odissey 2001 in a loop, and change only to see space odissey 2010. And I am still not happy, I'm waiting for 2068 and 3001 in movie.

-others

Posted by: ElkGroveDan Jun 20 2006, 05:32 PM

Me too. I was forced to spend the July 4th holiday in 1997 at my mother-in-law's house for a family barbecue. I had cable television service installed ahead of time so that I could watch Pathfinder coverage.

Posted by: Nix Jun 20 2006, 06:11 PM

Guilty of;

- checking UMSF before going to work
- 'decorating' half of the living room with Mars pans, after having painted the walls in caramel and brown tints
- having spend about $ 800 on hard disks to cope with raws and pds downloads and memory to run big pans
- about to invest another $ 2000 for a second 'off-the-net' computer and a 21" high-quality lcd
- went to Cambridge to meet up with Doug, Helen and of course Steven, while I was actually very tired at the time (little -adorable- growing kids..). Though I'm sure Steven was the one who was really exhausted..

- sleeping insane hours to get the most out of preparing a panorama-DVD and learning colorimetry
- having a daughter calling every brownish item resembling Mars
- neglecting friends and family to follow the rovers' every step
- dreaming of a one way trip to Mars when my kids have grown up -spending some time walking through the big valley and when my supplies are thru, find a nice spot and take off the helmet.. (yes, I am serious, no; I'm probably not that sane -but I don't care )

Nico

Posted by: climber Jun 20 2006, 09:06 PM

Only trouble for me is that all of this started by december 1968 during Apollo 8 flight and it's not gona give up for quite a while...

Posted by: paxdan Jun 20 2006, 09:18 PM

you start buying models again after a 20 year hiatus...

Posted by: um3k Jun 20 2006, 11:05 PM

"But the fool on the hill sees the sun going down, and the eyes in his head see the world spinning round..."

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jun 20 2006, 11:57 PM

Guilty as charged, M'Lud, and I'd like another twelve similar 'enthusiasms' taken into account.

Bob Shaw

Posted by: nprev Jun 21 2006, 12:33 AM

I was actually on the third day of my honeymoon then, and my wife was quite upset that I insisted on watching CNN coverage of Pathfinder at the hotel and deferred, uh, more traditional activities...

Hard-core? You bet, since Mariner 9! (Hmm...is there another "you know you're a..." there if you remember missions more than 30 years old?) I should get an UMSF tattoo...

Posted by: Richard Trigaux Jun 21 2006, 09:11 AM

This is a very good motive, which had very much pleased your woman, of course.





The stage further hardcore: UMSF fundamentalist WARIOR

but I'm afraid it becomes illegal, please continue this discution privately

Posted by: ustrax Jun 21 2006, 09:25 AM

I know what you mean...

Posted by: Borek Jun 21 2006, 10:05 AM

You know you're a UMSF fan when you try to access unnmannedspaceflight.com every morning even if you know that it won't work - just in case something has changed.

Sorry, guys, I am on of those poor souls whose home IP address is blocked from the UMSF site's host.

Borek

Posted by: djellison Jun 21 2006, 10:23 AM

THEN SEND ME A TRACERT AND I'LL FWD IT TO THE HOSTING GUYS

If you can't help me..I can't help you.

Posted by: ilbasso Jun 21 2006, 12:42 PM

You know you're hardcore if...
... you have bitterly broken off a longstanding friendship because of the near rim/far rim debate

Posted by: climber Jun 21 2006, 12:44 PM

[quote name='djellison' date='Jun 21 2006, 12:23 PM' post='59269']
THEN SEND ME A TRACERT AND I'LL FWD IT TO THE HOSTING GUYS
If you can't help me..I can't help you.

And it works beautifully...no more troubles for quite a while..

Posted by: climber Jun 21 2006, 12:52 PM

Fan when you send your name on a spacecraft's chip
Hardcore when you want your picture on BBQ party

Not talking about you Boss, I promess, not talking about you

Posted by: mars loon Jun 22 2006, 12:00 AM

This qualifies me as hardcore alright

along with some others

now I just need to find the right place to hang that BBQ pic

when I printed it out at work, there were some strange stares.

Yeah David, this thread is brilliant


hardcore: memorize Davids ode and repeat at a UMSF Forum contest

and what shall be the prize?

Posted by: PhilCo126 Jun 22 2006, 10:52 AM

Quote:
But you know you're a hardcore UMSF fan when:
You turned your entire backyard into a to-scale model of the area between Endurance and Victoria.
End quote.

O.K. who has (really) done this ?

Posted by: climber Jun 22 2006, 11:28 AM

JPL

Posted by: DFinfrock Jul 1 2006, 02:57 AM

I have had this same fantasy Nico. What a way to go out. I also thought it would make a great ending for a movie.

David

Posted by: climber Oct 19 2006, 08:32 PM

You know you're a UMSF fan when....
You hope Oppy & Spirit will try to use both MRO and Cassini as relay during superior conjunction

Posted by: Stu Oct 19 2006, 08:39 PM

Well, it would, but it was wasted in a RUBBISH movie - "Red Planet", remember? Where Val Kilmer and his equally unconvincing astronaut buddies take off their helmets, ready to die, only to find that - gasp! surprise! - they can breathe the air because martian beasties have breathed out oxygen and given Mars a breathable atmosphere...!

(Actually, confession time... I quite like parts of "Red Planet", even though it's as scientifically accurate as an episode of Button Moon. Cool robot, and Carrie Ann Moss as a kick-ass female spaceship captain... I could live with that! )

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Oct 19 2006, 08:39 PM

You guys fidgeting through solar conjunction really need another hobby besides UMSF.

Posted by: tuvas Oct 19 2006, 09:29 PM

UMSF fan when you ditch class to see the first HiRISE science images come in.
Hard Core when it gets written in the local paper, and your teacher comments about it at the begining of class.

Well, that was me.
http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/news/149017 for the article.

"I'm going to be missing class," Pearson said as he decided to stick with the imaging group effort.

Posted by: Patteroast Oct 20 2006, 12:41 AM

I'll let others decide where this ranks up, but I convinced my high school calculus teacher to let me watch NASA TV on the computer when Huygens landed during lecture. Everyone else in the class doing math, me in the corner with the computer's volume low pretending to be paying attention.

Posted by: tuvas Oct 20 2006, 02:39 AM

All I can say about this topic is, I'm glad I'm not the only one;-)

Posted by: PhilCo126 Oct 20 2006, 07:24 PM

Weird hé ... isn't it ?

Posted by: Phil Stooke Oct 20 2006, 07:58 PM

Pateroast: "I convinced my high school calculus teacher to let me watch NASA TV on the computer when Huygens landed during lecture. "

Well.... I did a similar thing a long time before that, asking my school principal if I could take time off school to watch the Apollo 12 EVAs. Apollo 11 happened during the summer. As it turned out the TV camera failed early in the EVA (pointed at the sun). But then the principal - or headmaster as he was known there - knew I was interested, so when he heard that Apollo 13 had 'had a problem' he was the first to tell me.

Phil Stooke

Posted by: tuvas Oct 20 2006, 11:23 PM

I can't see how a school wouldn't be watching such a momenteous moment in history... I mean, why teach history when you can live it, if only for a few minutes...

Posted by: Stu Oct 20 2006, 11:45 PM

Ah, happy memories resurfacing.... by the time Apollo 14 came around I was at junior school, and we were all made (well, obviously I wasn't made, I wanted to!) to sit in the school hall and watch the TV coverage on The Big TV, which was a monster of a thing, wheeled into the room in sloooow motion, like it was one of the standing stones of Stonehenge, brought it on an enormous stand and planted at the front of the room like some big statue for us all to worship... eeeh, those were the days...

They don't do that in schools now, of course, at least not the schools I visit when I do my Outreach work. Shuttle missions aren't mentioned, the Mars rovers neither. When I visit schools I often want to bang some of the teachers' heads together within 10 mins of walking through the door, just because they don't have the sense of importance these things deserve. Not all teachers, I hasten to add, some are very much on the ball, but some teachers just don't care, and I've lost count of the number of times I've been told by kids that they didn't know people had walked on the Moon, or that astronauts had lost their lives in shuttle explosions, or that two brave little rovers are trundling around Mars right now, beaming back pictures for us all to see. Wrong, just wrong, damnit.

Sorry, rant over.

Posted by: dvandorn Oct 21 2006, 02:27 AM

I was in grade school during the Mercury missions, and we all gathered in the auditorium and watched John Glenn's launch in February of 1962. Because the launch was delayed several times, we were gathered several times, and the last time, when the launch actually occurred, we all got there just before he went off.

The launch of Apollo 7 was 'cast through my junior high school's PA system, as well... they thought more highly of the space program in the schools back then.

-the other Doug

Posted by: nprev Oct 21 2006, 02:40 AM

The only time my school system bothered to acknowledge spaceflight was for the first launch of Columbia (I was a senior in high school then). We got to watch it on a 19" TV.

On Feb 26, 1979, a total solar eclipse occurred across the NW portion of North America. I was fortunate enough to have a teacher that was as interested in space as I was, and she & I traveled to central Montana to witness totality. By contrast, my classmates back in Butte, MT on that day were instructed not to look out of the windows during the event while all the blinds were drawn in an apparent attempt by the school district to avoid lawsuits for blindness...I still wonder why they didn't go all the way and sacrifice a goat or something..

Posted by: mchan Oct 21 2006, 02:49 AM

I was out of school by the time of the Voyager 2 Neptune flyby, but I took two days vacation to attend the TPS Planetfest event in Pasadena. From the number of people watching a TV monitor at 4am, I'd say there are a lot of hardcore UMSF fans.

Posted by: dvandorn Oct 21 2006, 03:07 AM

I still have a 17-year-old videotape of PBS's presentation of "Neptune All Night," when they covered the Voyager 2 Neptune encounter. With a member of Firesign Theater no less, doing his character of George LeRoy Tirebiter...



-the other Doug

Posted by: climber Oct 22 2006, 08:00 PM

I came from France to be at Planestfest 89 and I didn't know YOU were there
That was something, wasn't it! And that's the reason I was back there for Spirit landing. That make me laught when I remember they were saying she will last 90 sols. I still can't believe she'll be 1000 next week

Posted by: hendric Oct 23 2006, 05:17 PM

OK, here's a challenge: Modify a Spirit image, with appropriate geriatric gear attached: cane, glasses, etc.

Posted by: Phil Stooke Oct 23 2006, 06:45 PM

Duh...

Phil

Posted by: climber Oct 23 2006, 08:17 PM

Whoua! Very unlucky Spirit...the cleaning event went by very close

Posted by: nprev Oct 23 2006, 09:09 PM

Heh, heh, heh...well, she's still pretty hot in my book for an old lady!

Posted by: ElkGroveDan Oct 23 2006, 11:42 PM

You forgot something Phil.

Posted by: nprev Oct 23 2006, 11:49 PM

...Dan, why'd you have to make it look so full?

Posted by: Phil Stooke Oct 24 2006, 12:17 AM

That was very, very naughty of you, EGD...

Phil

Posted by: lyford Oct 24 2006, 12:49 AM

As long as no one makes any Mars sample return comments....

Oops.

Posted by: nprev Oct 24 2006, 02:40 AM

Well, at least there'd be no question of detecting organics...

Posted by: icez Oct 24 2006, 04:35 AM

New Horizons was suposed to launch on my birthday but it was delayed for 2 days. I almost cried

Posted by: mchan Oct 25 2006, 06:10 AM

I don't recall the attendance numbers for 1989, but guessing at least 10,000 were there at some time over the 3 day event. The "hardcore" were the ones sitting in one of the auditorium meeting rooms waiting for the Triton close-ups to come in. There was a group of around 30. Being among the first to see the canteloupe terrain, the "frozen lake" feature was unforgettable. It was like downloading Cassini or MER raws, but a much more immediate and shared experience.

Posted by: PhilCo126 Jan 11 2007, 02:20 PM

You buy something at the UMSF store

http://www.cafepress.com/unmannedspace

Posted by: Thu Jan 13 2007, 12:45 PM

UMSF hardcore fan:
You care more about dust-cleaning events on Spirit than the dust accumulating on our car

Posted by: centsworth_II Jan 13 2007, 05:16 PM

That's a good one.

Also, MER photos take up more space on computer than family photos.

Posted by: Decepticon Jan 22 2007, 07:46 AM

I know I'm a fan, I had a nightmare a week before Galileo entered orbit around Jupiter and found that Europa's ice crust had disappeared!


Man I woke up and shot straight out of bed.

I also have dreams of walking on Mars and finding fossils! I can clearly remember picking up a rock and finding a shell that looked like a octagon.

Posted by: Nix Jan 22 2007, 01:48 PM

I had an amazing dream about Mars this morning...

I dreamed I was walking around Husband Hill and suddenly right in front of me, were a group of grey-greenish patches. When I reached out and touched the soil, it was wet. I got very excited and suddenly found a little pool containing a greenish fluid. Then suddenly the dream was spoiled when some Disney-characters with an alien look came up to me, I remember waking up and thinking; damn, such a fine dream ruined by fantasy taking over too much...

Ah well...

Nico

Posted by: ustrax Jan 22 2007, 04:04 PM

I know what that is...
Long before Spirit reached Everest, I dreamt I was walking down Husband Hill and seing for the first time how Ultreya was like.
Damn! It was such a vivid dream!
Even the sound of boots on the ground and little pebbles falling down...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v352/ustrax/ultreyadreamt.jpg

Posted by: mhoward Jan 22 2007, 04:24 PM

Had a dream last night that they were going to have a press conference about Victoria, and they were going to announce that they were done with the traversal and were going to drive Opportunity into the crater at a selected location. Woke up this morning unsure whether that was a dream or something that actually happened. After a little investigation, have to conclude it was a dream

Posted by: Thu Jan 22 2007, 04:38 PM

My dream is to go skiing on Mars and go fishing on Titan

Posted by: dvandorn Jan 23 2007, 01:38 AM

I'm not sure if you'd want to eat any fish you caught on Titan, though, Thu. I'd bet they would have ethane for blood... of course, that means you might want to stuff your catch into your heating unit!

-the other Doug

Posted by: nprev Jan 23 2007, 02:10 AM

You know you're a UMSFer when every July 20th your first waking thought is "wow...this is the xxth anniversary of Viking 1's landing!"

BTW, wouldn't Titanian fish be more like terrestrial frozen fish-sticks...?

Posted by: mchan Jan 24 2007, 04:52 AM

You know you're a UMSF fan or space junkie in general when you read a post here about "the press latest breathless update on Brangelina", and your first thought is, did I miss something on a Torino scale 4 NEO that was just found.

Posted by: climber Jan 24 2007, 06:38 AM

As we could have say after your quote in French : Jolie !

Posted by: Tesheiner Feb 12 2007, 01:31 PM

I didn't want to open a new thread for this, so thought here could be an appropriate place to give this note of attention.

"Is there anybody out there?".

Posted by: djellison Feb 12 2007, 01:54 PM

What do you mean?

Doug

Posted by: Tesheiner Feb 12 2007, 02:09 PM

Oh, I thought the image was clear enough.

Just a remark about the very small activity on the forum I've observed these last weeks, at least on the MER side.

Posted by: Phil Stooke Feb 12 2007, 02:49 PM

Speaking for myself, just busier than usual.

Phil

Posted by: djellison Feb 12 2007, 03:14 PM

General activity isn't down - Jan and Feb activity is slightly higher than Nov and Dec activity.

Spirit has been doing 9/10ths of nothing over the past couple of months, Opportunity is in a 'cruise' phase after the excitement of the first Victoria arrival - things seem fairly normal here to be honest.

Posted by: climber Feb 12 2007, 04:49 PM

As a coincidence, I was going to ask Doug about an updated figure of the one you posted about 6 months ago showing the site activity.

Posted by: djellison Feb 12 2007, 04:53 PM

Unfortunately - the host has screwed up the stats for a few months - so they are increasingly guestimates - what I can say is that as of today...

6625804 topic views
82174 posts

I'm trying to do best guestimate figures based on the average for any week in a month that seems to be intact - but that's not very often sadly.

Doug

Posted by: djellison Feb 12 2007, 05:36 PM

Something of a 3 year report.... I would add +/- 10% to the last three months as there have been big holes in the stats...some days just showing 0 - which and of course you don't know how much it's missed of the days either side of a 0 day - so I've been taking the number of 0 days - call it X... and then all the stats have been...

Reported Stat * 1 + ( (X*1.5) / 30 ) = best guestimate stat.

Doug

Posted by: climber Feb 12 2007, 10:57 PM

If I get it right, Oppy arrival at Victoria is very noticeable here.

Posted by: djellison Feb 12 2007, 11:22 PM

Yes

DOug

Posted by: ngunn Feb 13 2007, 05:21 PM

I was wondering if the Victoria arrival caused a surge in membership too. I noticed a post from member 1671 the other day. I'm sure it was not that long ago we topped 1000.

Posted by: nprev Feb 13 2007, 05:27 PM

Does the "unique visitors" curve show just discrete member log-ons, or is this a direct measure of new members coming online, or is that just unique IPs hitting the site? It looks like it's trying to go exponential...

Posted by: djellison Feb 13 2007, 08:20 PM

It's the number of unique IP's visiting in a month.

Monthly posts and monthly topics is from the forum softwares own stats. Unique visitors and Page views is from AWStats from the hosting package.

As for member numbers - the ACTUAL number of members is 1111 - there are a huge number (i.e. 5 to 1 ) of spoof registrations from gratuitous spammers when you compare to the number of actual registrations - that probably takes the 'member no:' artificially high.

Doug

Posted by: PhilCo126 Feb 16 2007, 06:02 PM

when You plan the Ski- and Summer holidays by listing those hotels with internet access in the rooms

Posted by: DFinfrock Feb 17 2007, 12:06 AM

Tesheiner,

I have been a member of UMSF for a year and a half, and I read the latest posts almost every single day. But since I don't post very often myself, I don't always sign in, so I am probably one of those counted as a "visitor". I do a lot more "lurking" than posting. There are undoubtedly others like me. Maybe that explains these numbers.

David

Posted by: nprev Feb 17 2007, 12:57 AM

Thanks, Doug.

Interesting. So, the actual site traffic is really what's on the rise; I'd say that even minus the bots & spammers (may they all be sent to the electronic equivalent of the surface of Venus wearing nothing but Bermuda shorts & BBQ sauce), UMSF is quite a hit!