Smartphones becoming the first choice for online access

©Mark Ollig 

Remember using an America Online (AOL) program disk?

During the 1990s, AOL was giving away a 3.5-inch disk containing its setup program we installed on our computer.

Those AOL disks seemed to be everywhere.

They were sent in the mail, and you saw them available in many stores.

I recall inserting the AOL disk into my tower computer’s disk drive and running the setup program.

The program called the AOL telephone number over my telephone line which was plugged into the computer modem. When the line wasn’t busy, I would hear the confirming handshake between the AOL modem and my computer modem.

Once connected and signed in, I would check my email, and then access the web/internet through AOL’s network gateway.

It was common knowledge some people collecting those free disks did not install the AOL program. They would instead reformat the disks and store their text and photo files on them.

By 1997, AOL had become so popular; nearly half of all US households had internet access through its online portal.

I also had a subscription to the Prodigy online service during the mid-1990s. Prodigy was a large, dialup computer bulletin board service (BBS) with an easy-to-navigate graphical user interface, and many topic-specific community chat rooms.

At the time, subscribing to an online commercial (or computer hobbyist) BBS dialup service was the standard way of getting online.

It was the ‘90s, and folks were asking each other, “Are you online?”

We were slowly migrating into this new, virtual online community.

The word “online” was probably one of the most common words being used in conversations during the 1990s – at least it was in mine.

But, I digress.

Today, more of us are using our smartphones as the primary way of accessing websites, social media networks, and other online services.

Pew Research reports over the last eight years, there has been a 46 percent increase in the number of people who own a smartphone.

A smartphone is analogous with a mobile cellphone having internet access. A smartphone also performs, more or less, the functions of a computer.

Today, 81 percent of Americans own a smartphone, according to Pew.

Of all adults polled, 37 percent say they mostly use a smartphone when accessing the web/internet, which is about double what it was in 2013.

It’s no surprise to learn 58 percent of today’s young adults, 18- to 29-year-olds, say they use their smartphone for online access. This is an increase of 41 percent since 2013.

When we look at adults age 30 to 49 using a smartphone for internet access from 2013 to today, a 23 percent increase is realized, as 24 percent said they used their smartphone in 2013 for online access compared with 47 percent today.

The percentage shift in using smartphones for internet access also shows more folks are not using their home broadband connection, and instead, are favoring their smartphone’s wireless connection to the internet.

Speaking for myself, I use my smartphone (Galaxy S9+) for accessing not only social media, but news sites, and, of course, Googling.

While writing, I sometimes grab my smartphone and ask Google for a word synonym, or to verify the spelling of a specific word.

It is a given; soon, we will use smartphones using 5G (5th generation) cellular wireless technology tethering with our other computing devices.

The Pew survey of adults shows 27 percent currently do not subscribe to traditional home broadband service. These folks are using their smartphones, instead.

Of the 45 percent not having a broadband internet connection, they say it is because their smartphone allows them to access everything they need online.

Others surveyed by Pew said the area they live in is not served with affordable high-speed internet, so they use their smartphones instead.

Of this group of non-broadband users, 80 percent said they are not interested in getting high-speed internet connections at their home.

Our reliance on our smartphones is increasing, and it has become a necessity for most. Just think of how you felt when you thought you lost your smartphone – yup, I felt that way, too.

Today, AOL is owned by Verizon Media and has merged with another 1990s online web service provider, Yahoo!

For those keeping track, I used the word “online” only 16 times in this column.

First privately-financed sub-orbital space flight

©Mark Ollig 

On this day 15 years ago, 64-year-old civilian test pilot Michael Melvill was having the ride of his life.

Melvill was inside a spacecraft called SpaceShipOne, which was in a sub-orbital trajectory over the Earth.

As he gazed out the small, round cabin window in his craft, he could see the curvature of the Earth.

What Melvill did next may have surprised a few folks.

While weightless above the Earth, he opened a bag of M&M’s and observed the round, colorful candy pieces as they floated inside the cockpit.

“It was amazing,” Melvill reportedly said.

If it were me experiencing weightlessness, I would rather see a model of the original “Star Trek” USS Enterprise NCC-1701 floating. Of course, Melvill could eat those M&M’s.

Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites designed the SpaceShipOne, and the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen provided the $25 million to build and fly the craft.

This aerospace adventure, designated Flight 15P, was unique because there was no government financial assistance, and NASA was not involved. This was a purely private civilian commercial effort.

June 21, 2004, Flight 15P took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, a civilian aerospace test center certified as a spaceport by the Federal Aviation Administration June 17, 2004.

The 28-foot-long, three-seat SpaceshipOne aircraft, registration number N328KF, was attached to the underbelly of the launching aircraft, White Knight One, as it took off from the spaceport.

When both reached a height of 47,000 feet, SpaceshipOne was released from White Knight One over the Mojave Desert.

White Knight One returned to the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Meanwhile, aboard SpaceShipOne, Melvill ignited the hybrid nitrous-oxide solid-propellant rocket engines.

He maneuvered the now soaring craft 62.2 miles above the Earth – 62 miles is considered to be when one officially reaches space.

Melvill, in his spacecraft, spent approximately three minutes weightless above the atmosphere.

Once SpaceshipOne reentered the Earth’s atmosphere, it engaged a folded-wing feathering aerobraking technique.

SpaceShipOne landed at the same spaceport runway it had taken off from in Mojave, CA.

Michael Melvill, at age 64, is the second-oldest person to have been in space.

NASA astronaut John Glenn became the oldest person to travel in space at the age of 77, while serving as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998.

Glenn is also the first American to orbit the Earth in the Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft in 1962.

Today, SpaceShipOne is on display next to Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis monoplane and the Bell X-1 rocket-powered supersonic research airplane at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

Another historic flight took place June 21.

June 21, 1908, Glenn H. Curtiss piloted “The June Bug,” which was a two-blade propeller airplane, using his Curtis air-cooled 40-horsepower V8 engine. It was the first aircraft to fly one kilometer (3,280 feet).

Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the first powered airplane with a four-cylinder gasoline engine producing 12.5 horsepower. It was called the Wright Flyer, and it flew 20 feet off the ground for a distance of 852 feet Dec. 17, 1903.

SpaceShipOne while in Earth's atmosphere

 

View out the window aboard SpaceShipOne

The Apollo 10 mission and Snoopy’s fate

©Mark Ollig 

May 18, 1969, CBS News correspondent Walter Cronkite was broadcasting from the Kennedy Space Center.

Cronkite was there to report on the Apollo 10 mission to the moon.

It was Cronkite’s enthusiastic and informative commentary which kept this youngster’s eyes focused on my parents’ living room television during the Apollo space program.

This mission was a dress rehearsal; a practice run, and final testing of all the systems, maneuvers, and procedures to be used for ensuring Apollo 11 a successful July moon landing.

The Apollo 10 lunar module (LM) spacecraft was not to land on the moon; however, it did get very close to its surface.

Since the LM was going to be “snooping around” the moon’s surface, it was named “Snoopy.”

Of course, it just made sense to name the command module, the spacecraft all three Apollo 10 astronauts rode to and from the moon in, “Charlie Brown.”

May 22, 1969, Apollo 10 achieved an orbit around the moon. Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Thomas Stafford left the command module and climbed into the crew compartment of the ascent stage (the upper portion) of the two-stage lunar module.

Once inside the LM, they undocked from the command module.

Snoopy was now floating in moon orbit as it slowly began its descent toward the grayish lunar surface.

The command module, Charlie Brown, was being piloted by astronaut John Young, who would continue to orbit the moon.

The astronauts in the LM tested the guidance computer, ignited the reaction control system’s thruster quad engines, and performed tests on the lower-stage descent propulsion system.

They confirmed the lunar landing radar was operating correctly, along with verifying reliable radio communications with the moon orbiting Charlie Brown, and Mission Control in Houston, TX.

The astronauts aboard Snoopy also completed a video survey of the Sea of Tranquility, the designated landing site for Apollo 11.

As Snoopy flew over the Sea of Tranquility, the descent stage (bottom platform lander section of the LM) successfully fired its engine, slowing their descent.

The closest Snoopy would come to the moon’s surface would be 9.5 miles.

After achieving their moon landing mission objectives, the two astronauts jettisoned the descent stage of the LM, which slowly fell toward and crashed on the moon.

So, a part of Snoopy did make it to the lunar surface.

Stafford and Cernan ignited Snoopy’s upper ascent stage rocket engine to gain altitude, and position themselves into a rendezvous orbit with the command module.

After docking with and boarding the command module, the astronauts jettisoned the abandoned lunar module ascent stage, Snoopy, into space.

Once the ascent stage had drifted off to a safe distance from the command module, NASA flight controllers in Houston transmitted the command to remotely ignite Snoopy’s ascent rocket engine to drain the remaining fuel left in its tanks.

Snoopy’s ascent stage began traveling away from the moon.

May 26, 1969, the Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth.

So, where is Snoopy today?

For the last 50 years, Snoopy’s lunar module ascent stage; which includes its crew compartment, has been in a heliocentric orbit (traveling around the sun).

Snoopy is the only surviving Apollo lunar module ascent stage which went to the moon and is still voyaging through space.

Over the years, I often wondered if the two astronauts aboard Snoopy were ever tempted to land on the moon so they could lay claim to fame as being the first to do so.

Mission preparations did not include for an actual landing or lift-off from the moon’s surface.

There wasn’t enough fuel remaining in the propellant tanks of the descent stage to make a controlled landing, or enough in the ascent stage to take off and reach a high enough lunar orbit to rendezvous with the command module.

If they did manage to land Snoopy safely on the moon, the two astronauts would have been marooned there.

The orbiting command module could not land on the moon to make a rescue, so John Young would have been the only astronaut returning to Earth from Apollo 10.

Of course, Snoopy did not deviate from its mission, and the astronauts carried out and successfully completed the practice moon landing according to the flight plan.

Speaking of Snoopy, this week some exciting news was made public by astronomer Nick Howes of the Royal Astronomical Society in the United Kingdom.

Howes said he is 98 percent certain he found Snoopy.

Eight years ago, Howes and others began a project to find the still space-traveling Apollo 10 lunar module ascent stage.

“Until we get close-up radar data . . . then, nobody will know for sure . . . but it’s promising,” he wrote on his Twitter account, @NickAstronomer.

He mentioned, when Snoopy gets closer to Earth during its orbit of the sun, a detailed photo of it could be taken.

It wouldn’t surprise me if someday an attempt is made to retrieve Snoopy and bring it back to Earth.

The late astronaut Eugene Cernan, who was the lunar module pilot of Snoopy, reportedly told Howes, “Son, if you find that and bring it down, imagine the queues [lines] at the Smithsonian.”

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has information on the fate of every Apollo lunar module at http://tinyurl.com/nxwyrl6.

 

The Apollo 10 lunar module ascent stage -- Snoopy --
  (credit NASA)