Representing what may be the first long term lunar environmental impact study, recent laser ranging data from the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico suggests theLunar Ranging Retro Reflectors (LRRRs) left on the Moon by Apollo missions 11, 14 and 15 are beginning to shows signs of age.(...)Read the rest of It´s Not Just The
Posted by Universe Today
February 24, 2010This is the Lunar Sample Return Facility at Johnson Space Center. Apollo 14 landed in the Fra Mauro formation, the intended site of Apollo 13. Sample 14003,96 was a contingency sample collected by the crew at the beginning of their first EVA in February 5, 1971. This returned sample was unopened by anyone in 38 years! Today is the great honour of touching the Moon. Apollo samples are beyond priceless. Only by many months of applying and experimenting can one get a piece. 14
Posted by GM=tc^3
... preparing its second moon orbiter for launch in October of this year. The Chang'e 2 probe will carry
Posted by Colony Worlds
Continuing from the last post, here's a snapshot of the Moon continuing on its journey across the morning sky, a series of guideposts to the Ecliptic. The view is what you would see around 5:30 am each morning here in San Francisco.
Posted by The Urban Astronomer
Need a little bit of jaw-droppiness today? Mwuahahaha. Let me show you something:a hole in the Moon.[Don't tell anyone, but that's where they faked the Moon landings!]This is an image from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, one of my favorite spacecraft in existence. It's been mapping the Moon at an incredible 50 cm/pixel resolution — that's
Posted by Bad Astronomy
If we want to build a permanent base on the Moon – and the question of whether we ever will (or even should) remains very open – we need to have some idea of the effect the lunar environmental conditions will have on our equipment. There's no point going to all
Posted by we are all in the gutter
Three iPhone apps recently came out that pertain to some favorite topics on this blog, so here's a quick roundup of them. 1) John Cook, like me, got tired of hearing the same old long-debunked claims from global warming deniers being used over and over again, so he created an app debunking these claims. Called Skeptical
Posted by Bad Astronomy
... ice deposits near the moon's north pole. Mini-SAR, a lightweight, synthetic aperture radar, found more than 40 small craters with water ice. The
Posted by Universe Today
Almost five months ago, the LCROSS spacecraft had an abrupt end to its flight when it impacted a crater on the Moon's south pole. But that was only the beginning of the work of principal investigator Tony Colaprete and the rest of the science teams, who have since been working non-stop to get
Posted by Universe Today
The Moon, like the planets and the Sun, travels along a special path in the sky called the ecliptic. Observationally, the path arcs generally across the southern half the sky from west to east, but it is not a simple arc that is in the exact same part of the sky year round. Rather, it curves higher in the sky and lower in the sky as the seasons change. Right now, in late winter, the Sun remains low in the sky but is gradually climbing the ecliptic, getting slightly higher each day. The Moon this
Posted by The Urban Astronomer
... rings and the larger moon Rhea. The northern part of Janus can be
Posted by Universe Today
Gemini is one of the finest constellations you can see during the winter months, easy to spot because it traverses the highest spot in the sky (the zenith) and features two bright stars, the twins Castor and Pollux. These two stars are well known because they symbolize the heads of the mythical twins. The stars that make up the rest of the bodies of the twins are less bright and require slightly darker conditions than we will have this week, but I provide an image nonetheless so you can see the
Posted by The Urban Astronomer
This is probably the best move NASA has made since launching a web page to prove why the agency was still relevant. While that last manuver obviously failed (as Obama is outsourcing the Moon to the private sector), their latest iPhone app may help show the public how fun (not to mention difficult) it is
Posted by Colony Worlds
Here's a photo of waxing crescent Moon taken tonight at 19:00 GMT from Amsterdam. Only 2 days and 17 hours old, not many features are visible on the surface. The two prominent craters visible at the bottom just at the terminator are Langrenus (right) and Petavius (left).
Posted by SciBuff.com
About | List of blogs | Leave a comment | Last updated: Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:08 UTC