Saturday March 7th 2009. Launch -40 days. Golf match v NASA.

 

I wish that I could regale you with a tale of how Herschel’s golfers helped us to a magnificent victory over the NASA team today. Unfortunately, I cannot. In fact, we were absolutely beaten out of sight. Your correspondent was the best player on the ESA team, but that was rather like claiming to be the best football team in Greenland (no slight intended to Greenland’s football, which is undoubtedly better than our golf). No amount of mathematical manipulation can make the result look other than an absolutely awful. The worst score of the NASA team beat our best ever score at the course by a small matter of 10 shots and we are talking about over 9 holes here… Looked at another way, my own score was the third best round that we have registered at the course in our various visits and I was only 16 shots behind the worst NASA score. How can you put a positive spin on that??

 

However, the weather was wonderful after a long winter – I am even a little sunburnt – we laughed a lot, we had an excellent lunch (the losers paid for the winners with good grace) and we enjoyed it so much that we have agreed to play again in 5 weeks time. One can only assume that we are gluttons for punishment.

 

Other than that, all quiet on the launchpad front. Various congratulatory messages have gone round about the second instrument go-ahead. Things almost seem to be going too well and when that happens you half expect something to happen. If the only news to come out of Kourou is good news I think that we’ll survive. Tomorrow that tens column is going to flip down from “4” to “3” and suddenly that launch is going to feel awfully close.

 

A few days ago I got a message from my publisher asking if I would be interested in writing a book on “The Physics of cricket”. It sounds like a fun project. I wonder if something will come of it. He has just published a book on the Physics of Rugby.