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Tag 2

Tag 1, Bergen

I am very thankful that I have been invited to the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt to join the official launch event for the ESA Gaia mission. Here are some pictures. All in all it was a very cool event, although it was more press than science oriented.

What is the most delicious way to prepare poultry, and probably other meat and dishes too? At least for turkey I found it out: deep frying it! I was a little bit skeptic when I first heard of it in the US. It sounded a little “insane” for the German guy … at least it sounded somewhat dangerous and like a big hassle. Anyway, back in Germany I got a big turkey frying but from amazon.com (yes they indeed ship them here). The rest was family action: my mother got 20L of frying oil, my aunt organized a organic free range turkey from a local farmer (extraordinary quality), my grandma provided her garden and rooms and my mothers partner set up “the stove” with me.

Was ist die leckerste Möglichkeit einen Truthahn zu zubereiten, und wahrscheinlich anderes Geflügel und Essen ebenfalls? Zumindest für den Truthahn haben wir es herausgefunden: Frittieren! Ich war ja erst etwas skeptisch, als ich zum ersten mal davon in den USA gehört habe. Es klang etwas “Geisteskrank” für den Durchschnittsdeutschen … oder zumindest etwas Gefährlich und wie zu viel Aufwand. Wie auch immer, zurück in Deutschland habe ich mir einen großen Truthahn-Frittier-Topf beu amazon.com gekauft (wird tatsächlich aus den USA geliefert). Der Rest war eine Familien-Aktion: meine Mutter hat 20L Frittieröl besorgt, meine Tante einen Freiland-Bio Truthahn vom örtlichen Bauern (absolute Spitzenqualität), meine Oma hat Ihren Garten und die Räumlichkeiten zur Verfügung gestellt und der Lebensgefährte meiner Mutter hat mit mir “Den Ofen” gebaut.

We pre-heated the oil indoor to around 130°C and heated it further outdoor to 190°C. Put the turkey in and basically waited a little more than an hour. The smell during the procedure was awesome, half of the neighborhood must have smelled it. After we got the bird out of the oil we set it to rest for 20 minutes and prepared some potatoes and BBQ skewers. The final result was incredible delicious, the meat is crispy at the outside (especially the skin) and very soft inside, not dry or fat at all.

Wir haben das Öl im Haus erstmal auf 130°C vorgeheizt und Draußen dann auf 190°C gebracht. Nachdem wir den Vogel abgesenkt hatten, war er für etwas mehr als einer Stunde im siedenden Öl. Der Duft während der ganzen Prozedur war genial, die halbe Nachbarschaft muss es gerochen haben. Nachdem wir ihn raus genommen haben, musste er noch 20min Nachgaren, in der Zwischenzeit haben wir noch Grillspieße und Kartoffelspalten in das Öl geworfen. Das Endergebnis war unglaublich lecker, das Fleisch war außen knusprig und innen sehr weich, sehr saftig und überhaupt nicht fettig.

We definitely decided to do it again in summer instead or alongside a BBQ party, in October it was actually too chill and windy outside. I spare my readers from all the safety advices at this point. Only that much: you should be really careful, and you should definitely do it far outside (no balcony or something like that).

Wir haben definitiv beschlossen das nochmal im Sommer anstatt oder während einer Grillfeier zu machen. Im Oktober war es einfach zu windig und kalt draußen. Ich erspare meinen Lesern an der Stelle auch die üblichen Sicherheitshinweise. Nur so viel: man sollte wirklich vorsichtig sein und man sollte es wirklich weit draußen machen (also nicht auf dem Balkon oder so).

Thats bad news: http://blogs.esa.int/gaia/2013/10/22/gaia-launch-postponed/

I heard through the grapevine that the new launch window opens in mid December.

[UPDATE]:

Now ESA officially tells about the reasons:

Yesterday, the decision was taken to postpone the launch of ESA’s Gaia mission after a technical issue was identified in another satellite already in orbit. Gaia shares some of the components involved in this technical issue and prompt notification of this problem has allowed engineers working on the final preparations for Gaia’s launch to take additional precautionary measures. The issue concerns components used in two transponders on Gaia that generate ‘timing signals’ for downlinking the science telemetry. To avoid potential problems, they will be replaced. The transponders will be removed from Gaia at Kourou and returned to Europe, where the potentially faulty components will be replaced and verified. After the replacements have been made, the transponders will be refitted to Gaia and a final verification test made. As a consequence of these precautionary measures, it will not be possible to launch Gaia within the window that includes the previously targeted launch date of 20 November. The next available launch window is 17 December to 5 January 2014. More details will be given as soon as they are available. The new launch date will be announced when the timeline for completing the additional work has been confirmed and the overall launch manifest of Arianespace has been established.

The paper of me and Enrico Mai from the IFE in Hannover got accepted today. This marks some kind of final point in the very successful story of my pre-diploma thesis. I’ve cooperated with Enrico and he was a very good supervisos. So thanks again!

Article Title: Numerical Orbit Integration based on Lie Series with Use of  Parallel Computing Techniques
In: Advances in Space Research

[…]

I am pleased to tell you that your manuscript has now been accepted for  publication in Advances in Space Research and will shortly be sent to the publisher for processing.

[UPDATE]: The paper is now available online: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273117713006479 as usual behind a pay-wall … I have to check if I am allowed to upload the PDF to this page.

Die Mineraliensammlung Terra Mineralia in Freiberg ist auf jeden Fall einen Besuch wert, eines der großartigsten Museen in denen ich jemals war. Jetzt gibt es eine sehr schöne “Erweiterung” dazu: das Krügerhaus. Erst kürzlich eröffnet, beinhaltet es eine Sammlung ausschließlich deutscher Mineralien.

The mineralogical collection Terra Mineralia in Freiberg is absolutely worth a visit, it is one of the greatest museums I’ve ever seen. Now, there is a very nice “extension” to it: the Krügerhaus. It opened just recently and contains a collection of german-only minerals.

Einige Bilder der Flut. In Dresden hält sich der Schaden noch in Grenzen, zumindest im Vergleich zu anderen Orten. Die Pegel sind hier auch schon wieder schneller am sinken.

Some Pictures of the flood. The damage in Dresden is still manageable, at least in comparison to other cities. The water level also decreases quite fast now.