Moon Trees

Posted by Miss Cellania in Science & Tech on August 19, 2009 at 8:16 am

The ultimate backyard status symbol is a tree that has been to the moon. There are hundreds of them, and most are unaccounted for. Astronaut Stuart Roosa took a packet of tree seeds on the Apollo 14 mission to the moon in 1971. After orbiting the moon 34 times, the seeds were planted on earth and grew into trees.

Everyone wanted a Moon tree. In 1975 and ‘76, trees were sent to the White House, to Independence Square in Philadelphia, to Valley Forge. “One tree went to the Emperor of Japan. Senators wanted trees to dedicate buildings. We even did some plantings in New Orleans because the mayor there, Mayor Moon, wanted some,” says Krugman. There were so many requests that “we had to produce additional seedlings from rooted cuttings of the original trees.”

No one kept systematic records, notes Dave Williams. That’s why the whereabouts of the trees today are mostly unknown.

There may be a moon tree somewhere near you! Link to story. Link to website. -via reddit

 
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Apollo Astronaut or Pro Golfer?

Posted by Miss Cellania in Everything Else on August 10, 2009 at 11:31 am


The more astronauts we had, the less likely their names stay in your memory. Twelve men walked on the moon, but few of us can name those whose mission number was higher than eleven. In today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, you’ll be given names that could be a pro golfer, or could be an Apollo astronaut. Can you sort them out? I surprised myself by scoring 92%, or 11 out of 12. Link

 
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Map of the First Moonwalk Superimposed on a Baseball Diamond

Posted by John Farrier in Science & Tech, Sports on July 20, 2009 at 4:24 pm

NASA has created a map of Aldrin and Armstrong’s journeys on the surface of the moon to the scale of a baseball diamond. It helps put their activities at the landing site in perspective. Also, we know “Who’s on first?” It was Buzz Aldrin.

Link via Popular Science

 
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New Pictures of Apollo Landing Sites

Posted by Miss Cellania in Pictures, Science & Tech on July 17, 2009 at 4:27 pm


Forty years later, you can still see the lunar modules, and even footprints, left on the moon by the Apollo missions. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO took new pictures between July 11th and 15th.

“Not only do these images reveal the great accomplishments of Apollo, they also show us that lunar exploration continues,” said LRO project scientist Richard Vondrak of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “They demonstrate how LRO will be used to identify the best destinations for the next journeys to the moon.”

NASA officials say the next round of photographs, to be taken during the final mapping orbit, will have even greater resolution. Link -via Bad Astronomy Blog, where these pictures caused great excitement.

(image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University)

 
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8 Moon Landing Myths Busted

Posted by Miss Cellania in Pictures, Science & Tech on July 16, 2009 at 11:00 pm

National Geographic takes on conspiracy theorists over the Apollo moon landing. Each accusation is countered by spaceflight historian Roger Launius of the Smithsonian Institution or astronomer Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy Blog.

You can tell Apollo was faked because … only two astronauts walked on the moon at a time, yet in photographs such as this one where both are visible, there is no sign of a camera. So who took the picture?

The fact of the matter is … the cameras were mounted to the astronauts’ chests, said astronomer Phil Plait, author of the award-winning blog Bad Astronomy and president of the James Randi Educational Foundation.

In the picture above, Plait notes, “you can see [Neil's] arms are sort of at his chest. That’s where the camera is. He wasn’t holding it up to his visor.”

Link

 
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Apollo 11 in Pictures

Posted by Miss Cellania in Pictures, Science & Tech on July 16, 2009 at 8:52 am


40 years ago today, Apollo 11 lifted off from Cape Canaveral. The Big Picture celebrates with a collection of large images of the mission. This photograph was taken by astronaut Michael Collins as the Eagle approached the Command Modeule to rendezvous for the trip home. Link -via the Presurfer

(image credit: NASA)

 
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We Choose The Moon

Posted by Miss Cellania in Travel & Places on July 13, 2009 at 1:09 pm


How will you commemorate the 40th anniversary of man’s first step on the moon? There’s plenty to explore on the site We Choose The Moon now, but you’ll also want to bookmark it so you can follow the events of 40 years ago recreated in real time, beginning with the launch of Apollo 11 on July 16th. Meanwhile, browse the site for information and pictures from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Link -via Metafilter

 
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Ten Things You Didn't Know About the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

Posted by John Farrier in Science & Tech on July 13, 2009 at 12:49 pm

Craig Nelson offers ten lesser-known facts about the first human moon landing:

6. The “one small step for man” wasn’t actually that small. Armstrong set the ship down so gently that its shock absorbers didn’t compress. He had to hop 3.5 feet from the Eagle’s ladder to the surface.

7. When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle’s door because there was no outer handle.

8. The toughest moonwalk task? Planting the flag. NASA’s studies suggested that the lunar soil was soft, but Armstrong and Aldrin found the surface to be a thin wisp of dust over hard rock. They managed to drive the flagpole a few inches into the ground and film it for broadcast, and then took care not to accidentally knock it over.

Link

 
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Rigging Apollo 11 on the Moon

Posted by Miss Cellania in Book & Lit, Science & Tech on July 6, 2009 at 11:07 am

The more we find out about the Apollo moon missions, the more we find they were operating closer to the edge than anyone outside of NASA knew. In an excerpt from Buzz Aldrin’s new book, “Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon”, he tells about a crucial circuit breaker he and Neil Armstrong found broken on the floor of the moon lander. Aldrin rigged the circuit by inserting a felt-tip pen, and hoped it would work during their liftoff.

The liftoff from the moon was intrinsically a tense time . The ascent stage simply had to work. The engines had to fire, propelling us upward, leaving the descent stage of the LM still sitting on the moon. We had no margin for error, no second chances, no rescue plans if the liftoff failed. There would be no way for Mike up in Columbia to retrieve us. We had no provision for another team to race from Earth to pick us up if the Eagle did not soar. Nor did we have food, water, or oxygen for more than a few hours.

Link -via Digg

 
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Replica Apollo 11 Spacesuit

Posted by Alex in Science & Tech on December 15, 2008 at 2:32 am

Space tourism is still horribly expensive (a flight to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz spacecraft goes for about $20 million). But if you want, you can now step into the boots of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin by donning the replica of the iconic Apollo 11 spacesuits. It’ll set you back $9.5K (Tang not included): Link

 
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