Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft during cruise, artist's concept This is an artist's concept of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft during its cruise phase between launch and final approach to Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

An engine firing on Jan. 11 will be the biggest maneuver that NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft will perform on its flight between Earth and Mars.

The action will use a choreographed sequence of firings of eight thruster engines during a period of about 175 minutes beginning at 3 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. It will redirect the spacecraft more precisely toward Mars to land at Gale Crater.

The trajectory resulting from the mission's Nov. 26, 2011, launch intentionally misses Mars to prevent the upper stage of the launch vehicle from hitting the planet. That upper stage was not cleaned the way the spacecraft itself was to protect Mars from Earth's microbes.

The maneuver is designed to impart a velocity change of about 12.3 miles per hour (5.5 meters per second).

"We are well into cruise operations, with a well-behaved spacecraft safely on its way to Mars," said Mars Science Laboratory Cruise Mission Manager Arthur Amador, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "After this trajectory correction maneuver, we expect to be very close to where we ultimately need to be for our entry point at the top of the Martian atmosphere."

The mission's schedule before arrival at Mars on Aug. 5 in Pacific Daylight Time includes opportunities for five more flight path correction maneuvers, as needed, for fine tuning.

The Jan. 11 maneuver has been planned to use the spacecraft's inertial measurement unit to measure the spacecraft's orientation and acceleration during the maneuver.

A calibration maneuver using the gyroscope-containing inertial measurement unit was completed successfully on Dec. 21.

The inertial measurement unit is used as an alternative to the spacecraft's onboard celestial navigation system due to an earlier computer reset.

Diagnostic work continues in response to the reset triggered by use of star-identifying software on the spacecraft on Nov. 29.

In tests at JPL, that behavior has been reproduced a few times out of thousands of test runs on a duplicate of the spacecraft's computer, but no resets were triggered during similar testing on another duplicate.

The spacecraft itself has redundant main computers. While the spacecraft is operating on the "A side" computer, engineers are beginning test runs of the star-identifying software on the redundant "B side" computer to check whether it is susceptible to the same reset behavior.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission will use its car-size rover, Curiosity, to investigate whether the selected region on Mars inside Gale Crater has offered environmental conditions favorable for supporting microbial life and favorable for preserving clues about whether life existed.

On Jan. 15, the spacecraft operations team will begin a set of engineering checkouts. The testing will last about a week and include tests of several components of the system for landing the rover on Mars and for the rover's communication with Mars orbiters.

The spacecraft's cruise-stage solar array is producing 780 watts. The telecommunications rate is 2 kilobits per second for uplink and downlink. The spacecraft is spinning at 2.04 rotations per minute.

The Radiation Assessment Detector, one of 10 science instruments on the rover, is collecting science data about the interplanetary radiation environment.

As of 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on Saturday, Jan. 7, the spacecraft will have traveled 72.9 million miles of its 352-million-mile flight to Mars. It will be moving at about 9,500 miles per hour relative to Earth and at about 69,500 miles per hour relative to the sun.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

More information about Curiosity is online at www.nasa.gov/msl and at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.

You can follow the mission on Facebook at www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/marscuriosity.

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Orion, the next deep space exploration vehicle, will carry astronauts into space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel, and ensure safe re-entry and landing.

Water drop testing on the vehicle, which began in July 2011, simulated different water landing scenarios and took into account different velocities, parachute deployments, entry angles, sea states and wind conditions that Orion could face when landing in the Pacific Ocean.

On Friday the vehicle was put through what represented a worst case landing for an abort scenario in rough seas.

The test impact conditions simulated all parachutes being deployed with a high impact pitch of 43 degrees. The capsule traveled approximately 47 miles per hour before splashing into the basin and rolling over into the Stable 2 position.

This type of landing scenario isn't likely to occur during actual vehicle operation, but is essential for the validation of analytical models.

As was the case with Apollo, the Orion flight design will feature an onboard uprighting system.

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After six months of testing, an 18,000 pound Orion mockup took its final splash into NASA Langley Research Center's Hydro Impact Basin on Friday, Jan. 6, 2012. Photo courtesy of NASA.

The fire took place at 19827 Bear Valley Road, and was first reported at 7:46 p.m., according to a report from South Lake County Fire Protection District.

The district, in cooperation with Cal Fire, reported that resources responding to the home included 14 firefighters, three engine companies, one medic company, a water tender, a chief officer, two mutual aid companies and a rescue unit.

The fire was contained at approximately 8:20 p.m., but not fully controlled until 10:41 p.m., the district reported.

Approximately 40 percent of the home was damaged, South Lake County Fire said, but 60 percent of it was saved through the work of the firefighters.

The district said no injuries were reported as a result of the fire, which was traced to cooking on a stove in the home’s kitchen.

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A firefighter takes precautions in opening a suspicious package that had been reported to be smoking at the post office in Clearlake Oaks, Calif., on Friday, January 6, 2012. Photo by Gary McAuley.

CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – Firefighters from two local fire agencies responded to the Clearlake Oaks Post Office Friday morning after staff there reported a suspicious, smoking package.

Northshore Fire and Lake County Fire responded to the scene at around 8:30 a.m., according to Northshore Fire Chief Jay Beristianos.

Beristianos said a post office employee had moved a package and noticed that it began to smoke.

The package was taken outside and firefighters arrived to handle it, Beristianos said.

Inside the box they found a propane torch, which Beristianos said was being shipped along with drug paraphernalia.

He said the propane torch started to burn the cardboard when the box was moved.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office took possession of the box and its contents, according to Beristianos.

There was no word from the sheriff’s office on Friday regarding the origin of the package or who was responsible for shipping it.

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Firefighters look into an parcel that they opened after it was reported to be smoking by staff at the Clearlake Oaks Post Office. Photo by Gary McAuley.

Once firefighters opened up the package they found a propane torch and drug paraphernalia. Photo by Gary McAuley.

In conjunction with January being National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, Harris said the Human Trafficking in California Web site has been launched.

The site, which can be found at http://oag.ca.gov/human-trafficking, is a hub for information and resources designed to connect Californians in the fight against human trafficking, Harris said.

"This month, we are called upon to acknowledge the appalling existence of modern-day slavery – and to join together in the effort to eradicate slavery once and for all,” Harris said in a statement released by her office. “This effort requires our collaboration to protect victims and hold traffickers accountable, as well as our vigilance to protect these abuses from occurring in the first place.

“I have long been committed to fighting human trafficking,” Harris continued. “As district attorney of San Francisco, I co-sponsored the California Human Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2005, which made human trafficking a felony in this state. Now, as Attorney General, I am making the fight against human trafficking a priority for the California Department of Justice.

“I am proud to have many partners in this work, and to participate in the National Association of Attorneys General's Pillars of Hope initiative to combat human trafficking,” Harris said.

Harris said the new Web site “includes highlights of the important work being done across the state, as well as comprehensive resources to identify and report human trafficking. I encourage every Californian to visit the website, and to join in the fight against human trafficking."

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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Wednesday night, Lake County’s nighttime sky was graced not just by a big, beautiful moon, but by a moon with a halo.

County resident Dwain Goforth captured this picture of a lunar halo and the moon, with the planet Jupiter pictured up to the right of it.

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the halo occurs when light refracts through tiny, hexagonal-shaped ice crystals contained in thin, high altitude clouds.

The light refracts 22 degrees, which NASA said corresponds to the moon halo’s radius.

The effect is not uncommon, NASA reported.

The Farmer’s Almanac said weather lore holds that lunar halos are a precursor of stormy weather, noting that cirrus and cirrostratus clouds – which contain the tiny crystals – often come before storms.

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Animal Care and Control Director Bill Davidson said he and Officer Control Morgan Hermann responded on Thursday to assist Clearlake Animal Control Officer Lee Lambert with the rescue operation.

Davidson said a female pit bull had reportedly been living for several months at a house that had been vacant for years.

Lambert had tried to set up a trap to catch the dog, which Davidson estimated to be between 2 and 3 years old. However, within a few hours of Lambert setting up the trap, it was stolen.

“He was basically at his wits’ end,” said Davidson.

A neighbor had been feeding the dog, and could get the animal to come when she called, but not to let her touch it, Davidson said.

Davidson said he and Hermann took tranquilizer equipment, crawled under the house and tranquilized the dog, who had with her six puppies.

One of the puppies had been injured and was taken to Clearlake Veterinary Hospital for treatment, Davidson said.

Animal Care and Control’s contract with the city calls for the agency to accept animals the city brings to it, and Davidson said he and his staff took the mother dog and five puppies.

He said he’s working to get a foster situation set up for the dog and her puppies, which he said are five weeks old.

“At the very least we’ll be able to find homes for all the puppies,” he said.

Davidson said the mother dog could also be adopted out if she can be socialized. “I don’t think she’s completely feral.”

It’s not clear where the dog came from, although Davidson said the neighbor that had been feeding the dog indicated transients had been coming and going from the house for a long time, raising the possibility that she had been abandoned.

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The fire was reported shortly before 3:30 p.m., as Lake County News has reported.

Willie Sapeta, who starts off 2012 as the new chief of Lake County Fire Protection District, said Thursday that the fire burned between three to five acres.

Sapeta said the fire was located south southeast of the old white bridge off of Lakeview Way, which radio traffic on Wednesday had indicated was the main road for accessing the blaze.

He said it occurred in an area of tules, which accounted for the thick black smoke witnesses had reported seeing.

“Every year we end up with a fire out there,” Sapeta said of the marsh's tule area.

The fire was difficult to reach, and Sapeta said firefighters had to park their engines way out and walk in.

A total of two hand crews, five engines, one water tender and two company officers responded, Sapeta said. Reports from the scene indicated there was assistance from Cal Fire.

Firefighters were able to clear the scene at about 6 p.m., Sapeta said.

Sapeta said the fire is still under investigation.

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A fire at Anderson Marsh in Clearlake, Calif., was reported on Wednesday, January 4, 2012. Photo courtesy of Cool Ghoul Tattoo in Clearlake.

The fire, located on Anderson Marsh’s “North Flat,” was reported shortly before 3:30 p.m., according to radio reports.

Witnesses in the area reported seeing thick black smoke rising from the fire.

Cal Fire and Lake County Fire engines responded to the blaze, which initially was reported to be between three to five acres, although Lake County News received information that it may have reached seven acres in size.

Firefighters accessed the fire from Lakeview Way, according to radio reports.

A Cal Fire helicopter that was called was canceled because firefighters on the ground were able to handle the blaze, but radio calls indicated at least one bull dozer was sent in.

Information on the fire’s cause wasn’t immediately available on Wednesday.

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Tyler Vanderwall, an aspiring young comedian from Lake County, Calif., is going to be performing around Lake County and beyond in the coming year. Courtesy photo.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – When you think of comedians, you may tend to think of a loud man telling rude jokes in a comedy club.

Maybe you’ve been embarrassed by making the unfortunate misstep of taking a first date to a comedy club and somehow ending up in the only two remaining seats, which just happen to be in the front row line of fire.

Maybe you envision someone like Rodney Dangerfield, or the newer more caustic model male comedian like Carrot Top whose verbal repertoire consists of more four letter words than you ever knew existed.

Female comedians like Margaret Cho and the razor sharp Chelsea Handler have broken the boundaries of comedy with their razor sharp and often painfully exposed version of humor.

Almost never do we envision a 10-year-old, red-haired, 57-pound boy doing standup.

Until now, when our very own hometown Tyler V has broken the barrier for just barely double-digit aged comedians.

Tyler V, aka Tyler Vanderwall, is the polar opposite of what you’d expect to find in a comedy club.

His first public performance was last spring at Konocti Christian Academy’s annual Talent Show.

Since then he’s performed for Refuge youth group at Grace Evangelical Church, Rotary and Kiwanis.

He won first place at the Lake County Fair Amateur Talent Show and is now performing with professional comedians in the Bay Area.

Ten years old, slight of build, red of head and cute as the proverbial bug, he approaches what seems to be an overly large microphone with the confidence of a seasoned showman.

His smile flashes disarmingly over the crowd who by this point are wondering if they’re really in the right place.

Tyler grabs the mike and takes charge of his performance the way you’d expect of a much older performer. He launches right into his routine and almost immediately has the crowd laughing as he pokes fun at his age and limited life-experiences.

We have become so inured to rude comedy that clean comedy from a kid it is both unexpected and appreciated.

What he lacks in age and physical stature compared to older comedians, Tyler more than maintains comedic sensibility by poking fun at his age, his lack of a cell phone and his parents. The crowd eats him up with a spoon, as he packs that palpable sense of a born entertainer.

At ease with himself and the audience, his timing is remarkable and his jokes cross age boundaries. He pokes fun at his parents by noting that they were married for such a long time before he was born that he really should be an 18-year old freshman at Chico State if only his parents had gotten with the program earlier.

He questions his parents’ strictness and their decision to deprive him of a cell phone while he’s surrounded by kindergartners who have fancy phones even though they can’t even spell.

He’s well liked by his fellow comedians that he’s shared the stage with and they had only glowing compliments to throw his way.

Young Tyler Vanderwall and comedian Juan Carlos. Courtesy photo.

At the bequest of Tyler, Sonoma comedian Uncle Charlie Adams visited Finley recently to entertain at a Christmas party.

“It’s tough to go on after Tyler, he’s not just cute, he’s really good!” said Adams.

Probably one of Tyler’s biggest fans is professional standup comedian Juan Carlos.

Juan Carlos has performed at many of the major comedy clubs of the West Coast. He is the resident comedian at the new hot spot for comedy in Sonoma County, Sweet River Grill. He was on a recent episode of the Discovery Channel’s show “I Almost Got Away With It.”

Juan Carlos had nothing but positive props for Tyler. “I love Tyler’s energy and at such a young age to be as comfortable on the stage as he is a real good sign of someone with the potential to be great! I’ve booked him on my shows at the Sweet River Grill in Santa Rosa and plan to keep him on solid rotation as he’s very funny and the crowd loves him! His next show here will be on Jan. 7.”

Well-known Sonoma Disc Jockey Rob Cervantes of Monkey Fight: Comedy Night at the Sweet River Grill in Santa Rosa has seen a lot of stand-up comedy in his line of work and loves having Tyler as an opening act. “He’s funny, brilliant, and over the top!”

Tyler’s upcoming shows at Monkey Fight Comedy Night at Sweet River Bar and Grill in Santa Rosa on Saturday, Jan. 7 at 8:30 p.m.

He can also be seen at the KO Comedy Club at Tommy T’s in Rancho Cordova on Saturday, Jan. 21, and at Clear Lake High’s Sober Grad Night March 3.

For more information on upcoming events become a friend of Tyler V’s Facebook page.

I recently interviewed Tyler and asked him a few questions. He was polite and funny, often without meaning to be.

What led him to comedy at his young age? “My dad thought I was really good so he led me into comedy,” he said.

Do you like doing comedy? He said yes. “It’s fun and I like to make people laugh.”

How’s it going with your parents being strict? “They’re OK really.”

How is it being in a comedy club? “It’s kind of hard being the youngest one there but I get used to it.”

Are the people nice to you? “The comedians sometimes give me hints like they tell me some times good jokes I can use.”

A lot of comedy uses bad language and rude jokes – how do you deal with that at your age? “I’m an opener and I go to the back room and wait there.”

Is it harder to be funny without being rude? “Yes!”

I hear you have a Facebook page? How many friends do you have? He’s now got about 86. He’d liked to get to 100. (Visit his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tyler-V/193525877389756?ref=ts&sk=wall.)

Are you working on any new material? “I’m working up some new jokes about my brother.”

How's that going to go over? “I think it will go over pretty well. He has a good sense of humor.”

What about your little sister? Is your little sister off limits? “She’s off limits, she’s too little

Is this something that you can see yourself doing for a while? “Yep!”

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The clinic will take place at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 21, Redbud Park, 14655 Lakeshore Drive in Clearlake.

In October, the association – in conjunction with the Clear Lake Area California Highway Patrol conducted – the same clinic in Lakeport.

“It was a great event, you could see the kids getting better as the day went on and as they got more confident in their skills,” said CHP Public Information Officer Kory Reynolds. “We are hoping this event will be even bigger and better.”

This time around, the event is going to the other end of the lake.

“We approached the city of Clearlake and they have been great,” said Reynolds. “They suggested Redbud Park and it has a big parking area, plenty of room to conduct the drills.”

He added, “People approach me all the time telling me they are worried about their teen driver, this event is one of the best, if not the best thing you can do for them.”

The National Auto Sport Association has conducted these clinics all over the United States and the focus is to teach kids how their cars will react in emergency situations.

Participants will perform such drills as ABS braking, split decision braking, reverse driving, skid pad, parallel parking and a two wheels off the roadway drill. The drivers will perform each drill several times and rotate in groups to the next drill.

“They perform these drills using their own cars so they know how their car will react,” Reynolds said.

In October Reynolds’ daughter participated in the event.

“I know parents are thinking ‘what about my car?’ But these are things our cars are made to do, my daughter is a much better driver thanks to NASA, I can’t thank them enough,” he said.

NASA operates the Teen Car Control Clinic as a nonprofit organization. A fee of $99 is charged but is used to cover insurance fees. Scholarships are available to all participants.

“The $99 is tax-deductible after the insurance is paid anything left over is put into the scholarship fund.” Reynolds said “At our last clinic 12 scholarships were available.”

To learn more about NASA and the Teen Car Control Clinic visit their Web site at www.nasacarcontrol.org or by contacting the event director Will Faules at 510-232-6272 or Officer Kory Reynolds at 707-279-0103.

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The Clearlake Police Department reported that on Wednesday Officer Andrew Jones, a member of the department who also works as a school resource officer for Konocti Unified School District, was requested at Lower Lake Elementary School.

The school reported that a juvenile student had furnished marijuana laced pastries to three other juvenile students, one of whom had become ill, according to the police report.

As a result of Jones’ investigation, police said a 14-year-old female student was arrested for a violation of Health and Safety Code 11360(B), furnishing or giving away marijuana, which is a cite-only offense.

Jones cited the girl and released her to the custody of her family pending a later court date, police said.

The source of the pastries is not yet know, however the investigation is continuing, according to police.

Persons with information about this case is asked to contact School Resource Officer Jones at 707-994-8251.

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