WOW!! Nice one Doug............... , nearly fell off my chair when I logged on....
Brian
It all began 50 years ago today. We couldn't let that milestone go un-marked, and hence until Jan 4th ( the 50th anniv of Sputnik 1's re-entry) we will be wearing a celebratory logo.
very nice! though from the colour scheme it looks like we're mourning
Unexpected and beautiful!
I spoke with my father last night (he is 91) and we both recalled going out for several weeks and trying to see sputnik during those chilly fall nights 50 years ago! I don't recall ever seeing anything (I guess only the booster was visible since sputnik was only a foot or two across), but I do remember one night when he took me outside and we both saw Echo (200 foot mylar like beach ball) fly over the house just when the paper said it would !
thanks Doug
Nice work Doug, looks distinct.
Happy Aniversary Travelling Companion!
And thank you, both, Sputnik and Ellison, for gathering us all!
Nice, but it took me a while to find it. It only appears on the "Pro" skin, and I am set to use the default.
Doug,
I was wondering if you are going to do some commemorative merchandise for the shop based on the new ( if transient) logo?
Cheers
Brian
Very clean and classy look, Doug! The new color scheme seems easier to read and navigate. It also feels rather more upscale, and I think I will have to behave myself when I am in here.
It's about time for a fresh look.
Looks great.
Wow - very nice. I second Brian's suggestion - some merchandise would be good, I need a couple of new T-Shirts .
Waaw, I was amazed when I first saw the webpage... Great initiative!
Happy Birthday Sputnik!
Nice forum logo. And Happy Birthday to Sputnik (and me)!
Very nice especially the top banner.
A happy sputniki birthday to all.
Roy
What a nice surprise, and a perfectly fitting tribute...very well done, Doug!
PB: Way to choose a birthday, you sly dog! Hope we're on Mars when you hit the big five-oh...
OK, I guess it's up to me to play dissenter then.
While I like the new logo--and a well done is definitely in order there--I much prefer the previous colour scheme. It was much easier on the eye and (just MHO) distinctive. Also as someone else pointed it looks like the forum is in mourning.
Space may well be black (although the forum's new colour scheme looks more a kind of greenish-black than the jet black variety; but maybe that's just my own eyes), but I'm not sure that black is an appropriate colour for a forum with a subjet-matter like this one when the era we live in is one where money for unmanned spaceflight is so hard to come by and missions are either suffering cutbacks (eg MSL) or are not happening at all (eg the NASA's promised follow-up missions to next year's lunar orbiter, not to mention the perennial bridesmaid which keeps being left behind at the altar: the Europan orbiter). And all the more so if you tie that colour to Sputnik. It could be construed to imply that the Sputnik era was the dead pinnacle of unmanned space exploration we're all in mourning for rather than just the beginning of a bright new era in human accomplishment. That is, as if we're looking back toward a dead utopia rather than looking forward (and with hope) towards the future.
Just my two cents.
=====
Stephen
Ok, here is my space age rant, FWIW. This is without a doubt one of the most important space anniversaries we have had to celebrate in recent times. It truly is worthy of reflection now that it is 50 years later. As a civilisation, we probably could have advanced further into space exploration and space mobility than we have over the past half century, but the Sputnik program was beyond any doubt, the beginning marker of the space age and the subsequent space race. It essentially sparked the creation of NASA, and ultimately all the other national space agencies. It is a bit early to comment on the private space enterprises, but we've certainly come quite a long way since the early days.
One can argue that we should be further along with the agenda by now, but as we look at the great variety of exploratory missions that our species has recently launched, and are currently controlling, I look back at the collective enterprise as quite an outstanding accomplishment for our planet's diverse nations. I think we can all feel proud, and thank the Sputnik creators for kick-starting the whole thing.
As I think back on my personal experiences from 50 years ago, they very much parallel those described by PDP8E. I was 7 years old that day, and I remember my Dad taking me outside at night to see if we might see the satellite pass overhead. We didn't see it, but we did watch the evening or nighttime news, where we heard television broadcasts of the http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/. It was a special day for me, and one that turned me into a space exploration enthusiast 50 years ago. On a later date, we did go out to see the Echo satellite pass overhead, which also turned me into a satellite hunter. My dad gave me a 1x1 inch sample of the metallicized Mylar material used in the "beach ball" before we went out and saw that artificial satellite pass overhead. That pretty much cemented my interest in space.
As an international community, we all need to find ways to instill the wonders of space into the minds of our children.
I like it. It's minimalist, but I like minimalist in this case.
For those who feel inclined it is possible to compare the new look with the old look using Google's cached pages.
For example, here's the http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:bnBzZMasKb8J:www.unmannedspaceflight.com/+%2Bsite:unmannedspaceflight.com&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=au..
A few notes:
1) The lineup of the planets in the new logo is rather harder to make out than in the old one. To make the lineup standout better I would suggest either lightening the shade of black used in it or brightening the outlines of the planets. Or if the lineup no longer matters any more (and maybe it doesn't; Sputnik did, of course, only go round and round, as opposed to go outward bound) then alternately drop the lineup altogether.
2) I notice there are still nine planets in the logo's lineup. Was that a subtle message of defiance to the IAU? Or merely an artifact of the speed with which the new llogo was designed? :-(
3) The icons marking the subforums look slightly larger than the old ones, but I presume that is just an optical illusion.
4) Quotation mark icons have replaced the "IPB" icons. I take it this to be just a feature of the new Invision version. That said, if you look closely at the old version the non-IPB icons (those with backward "L"--or whatever that corner icon thingie is) in fact have an "IPB" inside of them. The new ones have a slightly larger backward "L" but no "IPB" or quote mark.
5) Looks like the text font used has been altered also. If you compare "Front Page Stories" in the two versions, for example, you will notice that the letters are slightly more widely spaced in the old version than in the new, which have a slightly more "squashed" look, which is more obviously a variable size font than the old one. If the font used for the message text has also changed then that potentially can play havoc with certain things like user sigs. (Like, well, um, mine for example.)
6) The "5" in the logo looks noticably larger than the (filled in) "O". But I presume this is just an optical illusion too.
But of course I guess I'm just "over analyzing" again. Best of luck with the new schema.
=====
Stephen
I am amazed by this whole discussion. I come to this site for the CONTENT not the garnish.
I don't know what skin I was using before -- for me the main change has been from a light
blue scheme to a gray. I find both simple, pleasant, and NON-DISTRACTING from the content.
Previously someone asked about the numbers of planets in the line up. Until someone recalls the two Pioneer spacecraft and etches out Pluto on their plaques (for that is where they, and the normal logo come from) then it will remain as it is
Dou
That's interesting, Stu. I've also given talks at local schools (spurred on by encouragement via e-mail from David Levy) but I only ever talk about the past and present. My talks are driven by the excitement of what we've learned and our current exploits. The future is not something I ever think about. As a consequence, I'm not envious at all. Not sure why I am "future-blind"; is it a blessing or a curse?
Good to hear of someone else doing schools Outreach Del! Personally, I can't imagine going into a school and giving a talk without mentioning what those kids could do in the future. I like to leave a school thinking that I've maybe helped inspire just a couple of the little monsters young children enough to make them at least want to find out more on their own, or maybe think seriously about how they might go into space, or science, when older. I also shine a spotlight on what we've achieved, and are doing today, but I can't imagine not discussing the plans to send people to the Moon and Mars, or land probes on Europa, or one day take images of Earth-like worlds orbiting distant stars... If you don't talk about the future, it's just history and current affairs.
Different when I talk to a U3A or WIDENING HORIZONS group - all retired people - because chances are rather slim that they'll ever "grow up" to walk on the Moon but with a school class or a church hall full of Brownies or Scouts or whatever I feel a kind of obligation to try and get them excited about the possibilities in their future, and maybe help give them something else to think about instead of hanging around street corners listening to 50 Cent on their mobile phones and secretly swigging cider out of Coke cans...
I like the new design, it IS a significant anniversary worth marking, and I was pleased to see some recollections from the few of us old enough to actually recall the event.
Here, for anyone interested, is my take on Sputnik and the first 50 years of the space age, as it appeared in The Herald newspaper, Glasgow, last week. To test the observant and the knowledgeable, there is a small error re Laika.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/features/display.var.1733994.0.how_sputnik_launched_a_lifelong_love_affair.php
Great to see the Sputnik logo is still 'alive & kicking'
What will be the next Unmanned spacecraft in the logo ( Echo 1 ) ???
There are plans.
Ha! 100,000 posts, I take it? Congratulations, Doug!
Kudos to Astro0 who has been my banner-logo guru for a long time - we've got a conjunction special for the next couple of weeks
How fitting, good call Doug, I was wondering when you were going to change the logo;-)
It's all Astro0's doing - suddenly my inbox will have a pertinent, stylish logo in it :0
No offense to Astro0, but when it first popped up I tried to brush whatever it was off my monitor.
Is everyone ready for a completely ignorant question? ^_^
... what exactly is it?
The Sun between Mars & Earth.
I like it! Thanks, Astro0 & Doug.
Shortly after conjunction we will be in the lead up to the 5th anniversary for the twin Rovers.
Keep an eye out for a new addition the banner.
Not long after that, UMSF reaches 5 years!!!
Astro0
Another great logo and we're already looking forward to the next and to an amazing 5th anniversary !!!!!
Take a look at the logos of the planets on the cover of this 1983 NASA-JPL publication:
Doug, you may be want to change the forum's name to UnMARSned Spaceflight
What the hell is that little symbol out from Pluto? Eris?
Looks like after Pluto they have a comet symbol.
All I can say is that I'm glad when someone notes here when the logo is changed on the IP.Board Pro skin, since I find that skin rather ugly and never use it, and would never see the new logos unless someone pointed them out (at which time I switch skins for a minute to see them).
The logo on the IPB 2.2.0 Default skin that I vastly prefer still reads "1500 Sols," and while I know I'm likely the only guy who prefers this skin and am not asking for that logo to be updated on this skin when it's changed on the Pro skin, it's nice that I can get some notice when the main skin is updated so I can at least switch over and take a look, before going back to my preferred skin.
-the other Doug
With the upgrade to Invision 3, you will have to say good bye to the legacy skin I'm afraid - it just makes no sense to spend the time to make it work.
Oh, I understand. I'm thankful that I've been able to use this skin as long as I have (Verdana being my font of choice for more than 10 years, now, far predating this forum).
But, and I think I speak for most everyone here, in the final analysis, it's not the font and colors that keep me coming back to UMSF. It's the content, and that content is, pardon the expression, color-blind...
-the other Doug
I thought I'd stick with Verdana as well, but I moved to the newer skin sometime in the past and have forgotten how it was easier to read words like nihilism and philistine.
A superb MER Sol 2000 logo ...
Most cool indeed!!!! Is this another Astro0 original?
As ever
Yes! A very cool surprise just after woke up and clicking on the forum title to refresh it .
Love the new logo.
It's excellent as usual. Go Spirit!
Right on!!!:)) Nice work, Astro0 & Doug.
All Astro0's work - I just pin them up
Banner's lookin' sweet, Astro0!
EDIT: Fun idea- any chance of posting a gallery of past UMSF banners for nostalgic purposes?
nprev, these are all the banners I could find on my harddrive.
Not sure about the order.
Hey thanks for that blast from the past !!
Did not recall them changing so often.
Funny how they are all more excellent than the rest . . . . . . .
Astro0 strikes again!!! A great-looking & fitting tribute to one hell of a milestone by the toughest little rover to ever chew up regolith.
The site is on archive.org too, if anyone wants to see them for themselves, going back almost all the way to the start of the domain.
By the way, what's with http://mer.rlproject.com/ ?
It seems to have been taken over...
I let the rlproject.com domain go - no point spending £/year maintaining it when I didn't use it any more.
Domain squatters.
EDIT: actually that appears to be a domain error message in Japanese, so that must be where Doug's discount hosting company was located.
This new banner looks really nice, Astro0; GO HAYABUSA!!!
Seconded!
Remember that you can always buy the t-shirt
http://www.cafepress.com.au/planetaryshop.441600448
It helps the outreach work of The Planetary Society.
Astro0 hit again...
Any chance that when you click on the logo in the banner it can link to the prime thread about the subject of the banner?
Nope. It's coded into invision as a link to the 'home' url of the forum.
Yeah! Some proper EPOXI limelight! (Good luck team)
Better late then never, I guess...sweet logo, Astro0!
BTW, UMSF travel advisory: There are many parts of Okinawa that utterly lack Internet connectivity, specifically my in-laws' house & surrounding environs. I'll be back to my frequent inane postings from Los Angeles next week...
I thought things had been refreshingly quiet around here!
Phil
Watch it, Map Boy!
Sorry Sir.
Phil
Astro0--sweet!!!
Man, you guys sure spoil us!
Anybody notice the new forum logo?
Yep -- Looks nice, too
Yeah, this one is really nice...killer work, Astro0!
Just out of curiosity, what are you using to make these banners? My last experience with this kind of stuff (years ago) involved Macromedia Fireworks.
It's just Photoshop
Very nice, on the 7 yr logo.
A beauty to be sure!
Seven years...man...tempis fugit.
How long has the forum logo been 3D?
The 3D UMSF@7 banner will only be up for a few days as there is another big event happening NExT week
TIP: Wearing your 3D glasses also take a look at the banner from the far left or right (ie: the screen angled away from you)
OMG It's like you're ACTUALLY THERE.
A trip indeed; thanks, Astro0!
Haha, nice one! Just don't look at it too long without glasses. Feeling dizzy now
Doug, you just freakin' made my freakin' day. Really. Thank you.
Looks like the logo have something *put on 3D glasses* deeper in it.
YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
Man, I wish I was better at image processing. I'd have that ship sailing beyond the sunset!
And Astro0 once again delivers the goods--beautifully!!!--for the impending arrival of Messenger.
Well done, sir, well done indeed!
What a great new tribute logo; is that Astro0's work again?
Who else
And done from 'on the road' as well.
'It's the way it's been done for billions of [UMSF] years'...
By the same Master (all bow!)
And, as usual, most apropos...what else can we possibly say but thank you to Spirit as a work of the minds & dreams of a cast of thousands, who labored to do something that was unimaginable perhaps thirty years ago, WAS unimaginable at the start of the mission?
Whoa, Astro0; the new Dawn banner is a real knockout!!!
Busy those times, eh Astro0?
And Io makes a return to the forum logo! Well done, Astro0!
In my opinion, you can't go to Jupiter without taking a look at the old volcanic pizza
It'll be a cold day at Tvashtar Paterae before we forget about Io while you're around Jason.
A real beauty, Astro0!!! Might be my fav so far (but it is HARD to pick!)
EDIT: Nope, definitely my favorite. I keep looking at it over & over. REALLY nice!!!
Nicely understated, Astro0...very classy! Great stuff happenin'....
We've had this one up before. Just a place holder until I can get the GRAIL banner done
Thought it looked a bit familiar. But we're payin' attention!!!
GRAIL ahoy! Looks great, Astro0!
Nice new one! Same artist as always?
Seems I have the job for life or until Doug decides otherwise
Then by all means please live long and prosper, sir!
TOTALLY pimped...love it!!!!
Excellent work as always!
I just noticed a small typo in the Forum logo: it should be "yinghuo" instead of "yinghou".
From Astro0 - thanks for spotting that. An admin will upload a corrected version soon.
And another great one! Nice 2001 reference too! (MSL doesn't really have a glowing Terminator eye, does it?)
Also red for Mars.
It's a beauty...seems like Astro0's banners just keep getting better every time!
EDIT: BTW, Astro0, every time I read the slogan the more genius it is. Very well done indeed!
Well spotted Explorer1. That is infact HAL9000's 'eye' from 2001: A Space Odyssey
Ha ha, excellent banner for MSL Astro0. The 2001's reference is quite good. This glowing eye, it's so -ALL GLORY TO HYPNOROVER
Admin: A few posts responding to this moved http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=7128&hl=.
Great new forum logo! Just in time for GRAIL LOI. Christmas holidays don't deter you from your artistic work, Astro0?
Beautiful as always, Astro0!
This mission really needs some love. It's gonna do some VERY heavy lifting in terms of performing fundamentally important lunar science, but unfortunately it won't show much on the general public's radar screens.
Now that's awesome.
Beautiful!
Wauw, this one takes the logos to a whole new level. Love it!
Btw, reading thru this thread gets a bit confusing when the new logos aren't linked. I'd suggest that "first commenters" show the new logo in their posting.
I'll try and do that sometime before MSL EDL, because after that, things are going to get a little crazy!
Nice idea!
Superb new logo with our mighty new rover! Thank you, Astro0
This is something I was waiting for ... at least 9 months.
PS: did you find some time to prepare logo-archive for posting here?
Not yet. I still have every one one of them on the harddrive and backup drive though.
Been a bit busy recently because of some Mars thingy.
Astro0, I just noticed the ghost of Spirit in the current banner and had a sad. She's still missed!
Ah, but did you also spot Phoenix and Vikings 1&2 in the same banner.
They're all just over those far hills!
Perhaps Phil-o-Vision can pick them out.
Someone on Twitter (astronomer Alex Parker) just HAD to point out that if Spirit is incorporeal, so should Sojourner be. Unless it's a zombie Sojourner. Interesting thought.
Hmm, we know that the Pathfinder mother station stopped working, but no one knows if Sojourner gave up the ghost! Just sayin'
All hail Zombie Sojourner!!!
Yeah, I had a sad too for Spirit, Astro0. But, wow, your work just knocks my eyes out, every time. Good thing I keep a spare set in my chest compartment...
LOL at Phil-o-vision and Zombie Sojourner. I can imagine her still roaming the Ares Vallis for CPU brains.
Also mention of the far away hills brought to mind Twin Peaks and how we would never even try to get there. How have the scales of the distances and ambitions changed.
For the record...
I second your salute to the DSN stations. I don't know where *I* would be without them but surely all the BUDs of SoCal would have been horded and assembled by JPL to talk to our probes. Sort of like a VLABUD (very large array of big ugly dishes) ;-)
Paolo
Glad to see the tribute to Mariner 2, the one that started it all.
Yes, it looks very nice; though technically it all began with the Luna probes in the late 1950s. A trip to the Moon counts as 'unmanned spaceflight'!
Mariner 2 was the first successful interplanetary mission. Who said anything about it being the first successful UMSF?
That would be Sputnik I, if you want to be completely pedantic about it.
True, and with all those 50 year commemorations on the first couple pages of the thread, they're represented well.
Thanks Astro0, for the Mariner 2 logo... it made me remember...
I remember the newspapers describing the launch in the summer of '62. My Dad (a WWII Big-Red-One vet and ham radio guy) would always make sure we read the 'space' articles. We would sit around the kitchen table after dinner, and since we all couldn't read it at the same time, one of us (5 kids) would be tasked to read 'the interesting news' out loud (as Dad called it). That night, the interesting news was that "we where actually going to Venus!".
Then later in that winter, I remember that we were reading about what Mariner 2 had found. The big news was that the surface was scorching! No life there, we all concluded. (no images either, that would have to wait for Mariner 10, I think)
Its kind of quaint (in this fast paced internet age) how we depended upon the newspapers back then for our 'real time' space info. Our huge kitchen table was the center of our life. We had a 5x3 blackboard on one wall of the kitchen, with chalk and erasers so that any one of us could explain or develop a problem or just draw. It was where we shared meals, read the papers, did our homework, debated everything, and learned about the world...and all the while Dad's old Hallicrafters SB-40 radio was always on, softly audible from its shelf in the "pantry/Ham Radio Shack" off the kitchen, tuned to WBZ news.
Those 50 years have really zipped by...
I miss Dad, he would have loved the news from all the space craft 'out there' today.
A slightly more traditional banner to follow on from today's temporary version
That was an important mission -- it really made an impact.
Yep, very important mission, and the logo is really sweet.
However -- since NASA decided to name the impact point(s) after Sally Ride, I guess I expected to see some nod to the "Sally K. Ride Impact Site" in there somewhere. Not sure how you'd do it, though.
I think, however, that I'll refer to it as Ride Landing, since "Impact Site" makes it sound a bit like ol' Sally was trying to land her spacecraft, but let the delta-V get a little out of control...
-the other Doug
...I got a doctor's note that says that I can't participate in the "Feats Of Strength"...
(Awesome banner, Astro0; thanks!!!)
But you should be good to go for the "airing of grievances"!
True. "I got a lotta problems with you people!!!"
New banner to mark the MER anniversaries for Spirit and Opportunity during January. Nine years and counting!
Beautiful & pertinent as always!
Wow...9 years...how many of us dared dream of this back in 2004?
I like this one a lot Here's to MER Steve & Co. and while we're at it UMSF Doug & Co. , happy 9th all !
OMG! It's been a year since we had a special banner for the Forum.
Nice work as usual! Time flies, doesn't it?
Better do something special for Rosetta this year too!
UMSF 10th anniversary banner
Stunning as per your usual, Astro0. That's REALLY beautiful, man!!!
Good luck MAVEN and MOM!
That's a beauty, Astro0.
Prety busy those time, eh ?
Nice BTW
Major props for the most timely possible logo, Astro0!!!!
Very nice! Too bad the Philae banner might be replacing this soon...
(Oops...meant to hit the "like" button!) Beautiful; thank you!
Very nice as always!
btw at first to me the "11" looked like the World Trade Center towers, it took me a moment to realize that it was an artistic projection of the wheel's.
LOVE the conceptual Ceres, complete with Great White Spot!
Curious is that ceres true color?
Decepticon: Curious is that Ceres true color?
It's totally an artistic interpretation of features and colours.
Variation on the previous banner now that Dawn has arrived at Ceres.
I hardly noticed the difference
S W E E T ! ! !
Back to the standard banner for a little while.
Some new milestones to highlight soon.
An excellent tribute. I'm sure any program people who come by will appreciate it very much.
Another masterpiece by Astro0, and happy 1000 sols to MSL!
Probably should have remembered to post the banner art here for the record
Beautiful, Astro0. I've been waiting to see this banner for a LONG time!!!
Gee, Astro0, you should've put that beauty up three weeks ago!
As long as this topic's active, if anyone is a banner design wizard we'd love to start putting up topical ones again...
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