Science Fun (part 2), now with poster printables

There's nothing quite like playing with legos indoors while waiting for the next Nor'easter to hit.  Hardly any snow in February, and now 4 blizzards in March.  But we don't mind.  It gives us more time to work on our personal projects.

The human and her male counterpart did their best to raid the AG store back in January, and we're still reaping the benefits.  Lily has claimed the new dinosaur t-shirt.  We have all learned from past experience that we do not ask about what exactly Lily is making in the lab.  It's better for everyone that way.

Human interjection:

A quick review of some of the new clothes (the t-shirt from the NASA souvenir set, and the dinosaur t-shirt):  they run small.  Sized for dolls with a 10.25" waist and 10.75" chest small.  Only the dolls made after 2015 could wear them.  Also, the sleeves on the dinosaur shirt barely go over the hands.  I like the shirts, but the issue of fit is definitely making me not want to buy new doll clothes from AG unless I take a doll to the store, try it on the doll in-store after purchase, and return what doesn't fit immediately.  Luckily, I can also just sew my own.

And now back to the dolls...

Sam is working on ...something... involving programing a tiny microcontroller.  Turns out, if you have a tiny Adafruit Gemma microcontroller board, you can kind-of-sort-of attach it to an AG laptop.  And Sam has her programming buddy, LEGO Margaret Hamilton, to help her debug.  We do not yet have a doll-sized stack of Apollo guidance module control code.  The human might have balked at printing out 4500 sheets of doll-sized paper for it (and that's the doll-scale model).

Nellie and Cauth have done that thing of making LEGO landmines all over the floor.  They'll finish the Women of NASA LEGO set eventually, we think.  And then it will be time to start the LEGO BB8.  We desperately need to go along with our R2 unit.  It's smaller, so we're sure we can find a place for it here somewhere.

Yes, that is a sonic screwdriver.  No, you may not have it.

And finally, a cute little craft for those last minute Easter baskets or because someone needs more posters in their room:  the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's vintage space tourism posters.  The Mars poster is the same one in Luciana's Mars Habitat.  There's 20 different posters in all.  Print them on lightweight cardstock for the best effect.

JPL Space Tourism Posters

Science Fun (part 1)

It's not every day that the human gets a day off from work, and definitely not every day that the science lab is set up for business.  And, if you haven't met me yet (don't worry, the human has been really really slow about introducing me to the world), I'm Vega.  Jaime Luciana Vega.

And we (meaning Shep, myself, and the human), have been planning space adventures.  Hence Shep's new stash of space toys, and my stash of activity books.  Now for the human to get logistics under control.  Maybe start the Space Tourism Bureau?

I'm not the only new inhabitant of (well, I want to call it the SR2 Normandy.  Raise your hand if you get the reference), but I'll go with 'The Presidium' because it sounds better than 'The Madhouse with a giant cat'.  Meet Liz, the lizard, current perching on Nora.  Next thing you know, there'll be an octopus in the neighborhood.

My new activity books are mostly made from official NASA printables, shrunk down to 1/3 scale.  All except the 'My First Outer Space' coloring book.  That one was made from Dover free samples.  We've got a nifty little 'Space Tech' activity pad, and a little 'What we need to colonize Mars' activity book.  And then we've got some color books on the latest and greatest NASA gear:  the Space Launch System and ORION.

Doll Sized:

Outer Space coloring book

NASA activity books and Assembly instructions

Orion and Space Launch System coloring books

Human Sized:

NASA Space Tech Fun Pad

NASA Surviving and Thriving on Mars

and other coloring books from NASA

1950s Space Magazines for Dolls

This is Shepard, and welcome to your sporadic dose of space exploration history.  At some point, AG put that that Maryellen short video about AstroGirl, and astronomy and all that good stuff.  And during the video, Maryellen mentions something "I read that in Collier's." when talking about space travel with her friends.

Most people probably went 'Oh, that's just some random background thing AG put in there.'  It's not.  In 1952, Collier's Magazine put out a series of 8 articles (6 of which had cover art) on how "Man Will Conquer Space Soon".  It covered everything from basic space travel to astronaut selection to lunar bases and getting to Mars.  The articles were written by people like Fred Lawrence Whipple, Dr. Joseph Kaplan, Dr. Heinz Haber, and Wernher von Braun.  The concept art is absolutely stunning.

Obligatory Wikipedia link: Man Will Conquer Space Soon!

In 2012, for the 60th anniversary, the Houston Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics did a complete reprint of the series in their newletter.  You can read the original articles at http://www.aiaahouston.org/newsletter/.  Scroll down until you hit the 2012 newsletters.

Since there were only 6 covers but 8 articles, I've combined some of the issues.  For once, the print is really too small to read, but you and your local space cadet can still enjoy the gorgeous artwork

Collier's Magazines

Instructions

If you liked these, please visit our etsy shop at JinjiaMixedGoods for more printable books for dolls.

Also, we're holding a book pattern giveaway until 12/31/2015.  Leave a comment here with what book published before 1923 (aka 'in the public domain') you'd like to see made in doll size to enter.  The winner will get a full 18 patterns for a complete Hogwarts textbook collection.