Helios

Helios (/ˈhiːli.ɒs/; Ancient Greek: Ἥλιος Hēlios; Latinized as Helius; Ἠέλιος in Homeric Greek) was the personification of the Sun in Greek mythology. He is the son of the Titan Hyperion and the Titaness Theia (Hesiod) (also known as Euryphaessa (Homeric Hymn 31)) and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn.

Helios was described as a handsome titan crowned with the shining aureole of the Sun, who drove the chariot of the sun across the sky each day to earth-circling Oceanus and through the world-ocean returned to the East at night. In the Homeric hymn to Helios, Helios is said to drive a golden chariot drawn by steeds (HH 31.14–15); and Pindar speaks of Helios's "fire-darting steeds" (Olympian Ode 7.71). Still later, the horses were given fiery names: Pyrois, Aeos, Aethon, and Phlegon.

As time passed, Helios was increasingly identified with the god of light, Apollo. However, in spite of their syncretism, they were also often viewed as two distinct gods/titan (Helios was a Titan, whereas Apollo was an Olympian). The equivalent of Helios in Roman mythology was Sol, specifically Sol Invictus.

NASA Pathfinder

The NASA Pathfinder and NASA Pathfinder Plus were the first two aircraft developed as part of an evolutionary series of solar- and fuel-cell-system-powered unmanned aerial vehicles. AeroVironment, Inc. developed the vehicles under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program. They were built to develop the technologies that would allow long-term, high-altitude aircraft to serve as "atmospheric satellites", to perform atmospheric research tasks as well as serve as communications platforms. They were developed further into the NASA Centurion and NASA Helios aircraft.

Pathfinder

AeroVironment initiated its development of full-scale solar-powered aircraft with the Gossamer Penguin and Solar Challenger vehicles in the late 1970s and early 1980s, following the pioneering work of Robert Boucher, who built the first solar-powered flying models in 1974. Under ERAST, AeroVironment built four generations of long endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the first of which was the Pathfinder.

Helios (propulsion system)

Helios is a design for a spacecraft propulsion system such that small (0.1 kiloton) nuclear bombs would be detonated in a chamber roughly 130 feet in diameter. Water would be injected into the chamber, super-heated by the explosion and expelled for thrust. It was a precursor concept to the Orion project. Like Orion, it would have achieved constant acceleration through rapid "pulsed" operation.

This design would have yielded a specific impulse of about 1150 seconds (compared to a modern chemical rocket’s 450 seconds). However, a number of technical problems existed, most prominently how to keep the combustion chamber from exploding from the great pressures of the atomic detonations.

The Helios propulsion system was conceived originally by Freeman Dyson.

See also

Further reading

Mood

Mood may refer to:

Music

Places

Moods (Barbara Mandrell album)

Moods is a studio album by American country music singer, Barbara Mandrell, released in September 1978.

Moods became Mandrell's most successful album during her career up to this point. The album spawned two singles, both of which became number-one country hits, "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed" and a remake of the popular Luther Ingram R&B hit, "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right". Both singles also charted on the Pop and Adult Contemporary charts. "If Loving You Is Wrong" became Mandrell's only Top 40 Pop hit, peaking at #31. The popularity of these singles made Mandrell's album a success, peaking at #8 on the Top Country Albums chart - her highest charting album up to this point. The album peaked on the Billboard 200 at #132.

Moods consisted of 10 tracks, ranging from sultry ballads to bouncy pop tunes. The album foreshadowed the success Mandrell would have well into the 80s, when she would achieve more best-selling albums and reach the pinnacle of her career. She would become one of the few women to win "Entertainer of the Year" (and the first person to ever win it twice) from the Country Music Association and would also win American Music Awards and two Grammy awards.

Monday Michiru

Monday Michiru Sipiagin (maiden name Mariano, more commonly known as Monday Michiru or MONDAY 満ちる, born August 19, 1963) is a Japanese American actress, singer, and songwriter whose music encompasses and fuses a wide variety of genres including jazz, dance, pop, and soul. She is arguably best known for being a pioneer of the acid jazz movement in Japan in the early 1990s yet she has created her own unique style of music that transcends traditional definitions of the aforementioned genres.

Monday was born in Tokyo, Japan, to jazz pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi and her then husband, jazz saxophonist Charlie Mariano. At an early age, she expressed an interest in music; she studied modern dance and ballet from age eight, and the classical flute for eight years. It wasn't until she went to the Interlochen Arts Academy that she discovered her true passion of singing.

In 1987, Monday appeared as a lead in the movie Hikaru Onna (Luminous Woman) in which she was credited as Michiru Akiyoshi. Monday's unintentional acting career took off as she won Best New Actress awards from Kinema Junpo, The Japan Academy, and the Yokohama Film Festival. With all this success, Monday became somewhat of a celebrity and could be seen on commercial ads and as a “personality” on several major television networks.