Low-energy Sunday

Voyager 1 has shut off another scientific instrument to keep power margins available. The Low Energy Charged Particle detector was observing ions, now the only powered instruments are the plasma wave and magnetic field instruments.https://t.co/zeyccvf9gO

— Scott Manley (@DJSnM) April 18, 2026

Not even the Energizer Bunny has legs like this:

On April 17, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California sent commands to shut down an instrument aboard Voyager 1 called the Low-energy Charged Particles experiment, or LECP. The nuclear-powered spacecraft is running low on power, and turning off the LECP is considered the best way to keep humanity’s first interstellar explorer going.   

The LECP has been operating almost without interruption since Voyager 1 launched in 1977 — almost 49 years. It measures low-energy charged particles, including ions, electrons, and cosmic rays originating from our solar system and galaxy. The instrument has provided critical data about the structure of the interstellar medium, detecting pressure fronts and regions of varying particle density in the space beyond our heliosphere. The twin Voyagers are the only spacecraft that are far enough from Earth to provide this information.

I just hope they don't end up having to turn off the toilet.

<exits singing, Man, it's happenin'>

The trouble is over!

I'm going to be happy forever!

All the Boys and Girls Now

Joy:

Transfixed on paper the butterfly thought
Blinks on a pin: All is well. 

Some delusions are foolish, distraught
Attempts to reduce their stormy swell
And tumult prove, yet keeping track
Of how they go, one soon can tell
Which to follow, which put back. 

And once determined, the results may fill
A page, a pedestal, or room,
Resounding like a cathedral bell
Which shakes the building with its boom
And booms to heaven: All is well! 

Emma Swan.

In Space, No One Can Hear You Flush

Beautiful view of the constellation Urion: pic.twitter.com/dmQ0TT7aeD

— NTodd - Antifa IT Support 🇺🇦🐸 (@ntoddpax) April 5, 2026

Peepee¹ in spaaaaace!  As for the naming convention, that's courtesy of Jolly Wally:

Tom and I snapped color photographs of the molecular cloud...I had them on the table during an astronomy debriefing, mixed with other celestial photos. Dr. Gill noticed one and asked, "Wally, what constellation is this?'

"Jocelyn,", I replied, "that's the constellation Urion."

— NTodd - Antifa IT Support 🇺🇦🐸 (@ntoddpax) April 4, 2026

Anyway, nobody needs to be mean to the heavenly potty: 

Artemis 2's space toilet doesn't deserve the bad press it's gotten over the past two weeks, according to mission commander Reid Wiseman.

Wiseman took some time to defend Artemis 2's lunar loo on Thursday (April 16), during a press conference at which the mission's four crewmates — fellow NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen — discussed their historic mission.

"I just want to say, 100% point blank: That was a wonderful toilet," Wiseman said. "The toilet worked great."

As you probably already know, there were some waste-disposal issues on Artemis 2, the first crewed mission to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. But, Wiseman stressed, the blame doesn't lie with the toilet itself, which is a more compact version of the loo that flies on the International Space Station.

"The toilet flushed just fine, but then when the liquid went out the bottom of the toilet, it got clogged up in our vent line," he said.

That vent line carried urine from the toilet to the hull of Artemis 2's Orion capsule, named "Integrity." From there it was expelled into space, creating quite a spectacle.

"I mean, that is an interesting thing to see out the window," Wiseman said. "It's just like a billion little tiny flecks of ice heading out into deep space."

I would hate the idea of needing to keep track of how many "urination events" had occurred, but it's still way better than what they had on Apollo, as illustrated by the Recommendations to Improve Crew Health and Performance for Future Exploration Missions and Lunar Surface Operations report:

Issue: Waste Management

Description: a) Requires approximately 45 minutes from start to end in case there are any problems b) Fecal cannister would be helpful

Comments: BM Log: For defecation the crew had to strip the underwear off, requiring the biomed sensors to be removed...  

Questions: Fecal bag recommendation : Calibrations of "crew member anus with respect to the front of the sticky part"?  

The bottom line, as it were: "Crew preferred to strip naked to move bowels." 

In conclusion: I'll never forget my old dad when these things would happen to him...the things he'd say to me.

1 - I was a bit cornfused about the potty situ at the time, but it really was urine, as the above article discusses.  It was all a matter of liquid waste volume/available capacity.

They Walk Ahead Into the Darkness, and They Do Not Come Back

Thinking about complicity, bringing back this classic:

Selah.

You're eating crazy cheese

Like you would think I'm from Paris.

Freie Verse

Free Verses:

Last night I awoke knew

That I should say goodbye now

To these verses. That's how it always goes

After a few years. They have to get out

Into the world. It's not possible to keep them

Forever! here under the roof.

Poor things. They must set out for town.

A few will be allowed to return later.

But most of them are still hanging around out there.

Who knows what will become of them. Before they

Find their peace.

Sarah Kirsch.

To Infinity and Beyond

ICYMI.

And This Is How the Message Ran

Sci-Fi:

There will be no edges, but curves.

Clean lines pointing only forward.

History, with its hard spine & dog-eared

Corners, will be replaced with nuance,

Just like the dinosaurs gave way

To mounds and mounds of ice.

Women will still be women, but

The distinction will be empty. Sex,

Having outlived every threat, will gratify

Only the mind, which is where it will exist.

For kicks, we'll dance for ourselves

Before mirrors studded with golden bulbs.

The oldest among us will recognize that glow—

But the word sun will have been re-assigned

To the Standard Uranium-Neutralizing device

Found in households and nursing homes.

And yes, we'll live to be much older, thanks

To popular consensus. Weightless, unhinged,

Eons from even our own moon, we'll drift

In the haze of space, which will be, once

And for all, scrutable and safe.

Tracy K. Smith.

#throwbackthursday

Sabertooth Sadie at OMSI, second to last field trip that I chaperoned for either kid.  (2019)

He may not have a clue and he may not have style

But everything he lacks, well, he makes up in denial.

Narrow Here, More Rapid There, Here Slower, There Broader

River:

The bare (brindled) word of it word enough; brim-rhyming as it runs 
                             alongside reverie-bank (all rindled roots) and order.

Atsuro Riley.

Excuse Me, Does This Trolley Stop at Omelas?

Busy today validating an old lab, beta testing a new lab environment, and tinkering with my new lifesaving AI assistant, but time enough for a quick hit (or so Pecci tells me, lol).

So my Brother William app has quite a bit of backstory (almost world-building, even), with its Order of St Isidore, meditating on AI and ethics and the human condition at the Abbey of Perpetual Inquiry, which is built upon Mount Bedrock.  There are a number of Easter eggs in the mix, including the Abbey's mythical location: near the Village of Omelas.

Fans of Ursula K. Le Guin¹ will recognize the reference to The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, which at heart is an exploration of the Trolley Problem, albeit in a messier, truer fashion, at least from where I sit.  Some redditors, too:

Whether it's children mining cobalt for our phones, or gig workers delivering McDonald's in hopes of a decent tip to pay for healthcare, or data labelers doing the invisible hard labor that makes today's LLMs possible, we must come to grips with the fact that we all live near Omelas.

Selah.

1 - Did I ever tell all y'all that I am one handshake away from her?  Ericka took a creative writing class with Le Guin long ago.

Yeah, yeah, yeah

Stop talking!