pale blue dot
The story of Apollo 13 (called a “successful failure” by the mission commander Jim Lovell) goes beyond a tale of survival. The mission also successfully completed a science investigation that is still helping to inform our understanding of the Moon to this day. Early in Apollo 13’s voyage, Mission Control sent the spacecraft’s empty S-IVB …
Continue reading “Apollo 13 booster impact experiment – footage by NASA”
…and may enable us to resurrect extinct species Duncan T Odom, University of Cambridge Life is the last thing you would associate with the eternally dark craters of the lunar poles. But these craters could hold the key to explaining how complex, multi-cellular organisms evolved on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago, affording unimaginable …
Continue reading “Moon rocks could help reveal how life evolved on Earth”
The moon landing was faked? Many conspiracy theorists hold that the Apollo Moon landings were a hoax, despite tons of evidence it really happened. When I get into a debate with any moon landing conspiracy theorists (I usually try not to get into, life is too short to debate with morons), I send them this …
Continue reading “This is how I instantly shut down a “the moon landing was faked” debate”
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for February 1, 2020: a crescent Earth rising over the Moon, seen from Apollo 14 on February 6, 1971. This photo is not as famous as the Apollo 8 Earthrise, or the Blue Marble, but it has such an eerie beauty.
NASA and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) chose 13 new astronauts, and the good news is, almost half of them are women. Nicknamed “turtles”, six women and seven men were selected from record-breaking 18,000 applicants representing a wide variety of backgrounds and specialties.
Today is the last day of the 2010s – and what a decade it has been for space science and space exploration! Here is a timeline of the top 20 major (and exciting!) advances in space science in the 2010s.
NASA has published a beautiful photo of Apollo 12 at the launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39. This historic image, taken on October 28, 1969 (50 years ago) frames the Apollo 12 spacecraft atop the mighty Saturn V rocket and its destination, the Moon, in a single photo.
On October 18, 2019, NASA held an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit. Scientists from the space agency answered questions about Van Allen Probes, two robotic spacecraft that were used to study the Van Allen radiation belts that surround planet Earth.
Half a century after humans first walked on the moon, a number of private companies and nations are planning to build permanent bases on the lunar surface. Despite the technological progress since the Apollo era, this will be extremely challenging. So how should you get started? Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University …
“Tranquility Base here. The eagle has landed.” Neil Armstrong said so as the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle touched down on the lunar surface on Sunday, July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC.
