Saul Grinberg Filho

NASA’s Space Shuttle Program conducted the final test firing of a reusable solid rocket motor Feb. 25 in Promontory, Utah.  This test (52nd in over three decades) marks the last of this entire program.

The flight support motor, or FSM-17 (also know as Solid Rocket Boosters), burned for approximately 123 seconds — the same time each reusable solid rocket motor burns during an actual space shuttle launch. Preliminary indications show all test objectives were met. After final test data are analyzed, results for each objective will be published in a NASA report.

This test proved the motors are still good to be used in the four remaining flights of the Space Shuttle program.

Here are some pretty incredible images… keep in mind these rockets produce about 2.6 million pounds of thrust (both rockets combined on a shuttle assembly generate 80% of the lift required to put the orbiter into space):

Final test firing of reusable solid rocket motor FSM-17 on Feb. 25 in Promontory, Utah. (NASA)

Final test firing of reusable solid rocket motor FSM-17 on Feb. 25 in Promontory, Utah. (NASA)

Smoke curls into the Utah skies as FSM-17 completes its successful test firing. (NASA)

Flight Support Motor-17, the final solid rocket ground test motor of the Space Shuttle program. (ATK)

Mist surrounds Flight Support Motor-17 prior to a successful test on Feb. 25 in Promontory, Utah. (NASA)

Lately I’ve been having the privilege of helping direct and record the voices for the Portuguese version of South Park’s 12th season – it’s been quite an amazing experience. It’s very interesting to attempt to convey the message presented in the original version in another language… sometimes it’s a lot harder than it might seem. The most difficult aspect that I’ve encountered so far are some of the jokes….some of them simply don’t work in Portuguese as they do in English.

Take this one, for example. In the first episode of the season, “Tonsil Trouble” (Original Air Date: Mar 12, 2008), Cartman keeps repeating “I’m not positive, I’m HIV positive”.

In English, the catch clearly works. In Portuguese… eh, not so well. After playing around with the words for about half an hour, we came up with a solution that allowed us to convey the same idea and still be comical, even though it lost a bit of its kick – sometimes a necessary compromise when dealing with international dubbing. I’ll post up a clip of the final dubbed version as soon as possible!

New video up!

This time, it’s Iron Maiden’s “Wrathchild”, from the “Rock in Rio” live album. I’ve always loved this song but never formally covered it, so here it is. I had lots of fun! Hope you enjoy!

Direct Youtube link (if you want to watch in High Quality): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Nh_Ujgzpo

I updated the layout on my Youtube Channel to somewhat reflect this site’s layout. I’ll be tweaking it as I have time, but the basic idea is there.

Check it out – I’ve got some more random videos there!

http://www.youtube.com/user/saulgrinberg

This amazing video was shot at ONE MILLION frames per second (over 41,000 times the speed of traditional film). To achieve such frame rate, two Shimadzy HPV-1 cameras running at 312×260 resolution had to be used. The lower resolution allowed them to capture images at a much greater frame rate.

What a great way to spend ten minutes of your Saturday night! Special treat comes in at around 7:30 – hollow points hitting ballistics gel.