Category: Moon Landing

Neil Armstrong’s Parents at I’ve Got a Secret (video)

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date November 30, 2018
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On September 17, 1962, Neil Armstrong’s parents, Stephen Koenig Armstrong and Viola Louise Engel Armstrong joined “I’ve Got a Secret”, a panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. They had a “secret” that their son just became an astronaut for NASA on that day, one of the nine newly chosen men for the future space missions.

Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong whispers the Host Garry Moore’s ears their secret: “Our Son became an astronaut today”.

A few minutes later, Moore asks an incredible question: “Now, how would you feel, Mrs. Armstrong, if it turned out – of course, nobody knows – but if it turns out that your son is the first man to land on the moon? What, how do, how would you feel?” He asks this nearly seven years before it actually happens on July 20, 1969! Neil’s mother’s reply is priceless, “Well, guess I’d just say god bless him and I wish him the best of all good luck.”

Moon Landing Space Exploration

Apollo 11’s journey to the moon, annotated [video]

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 27, 2018
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Apollo 11 significant events — Significant events of Apollo 11 and proposed constellation mission. Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first two humans on the Moon. Mission commander Neil Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) and pilot Buzz Aldrin (born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) landed the lunar module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC. A third astronaut, Michael Collins (born October 31, 1930) piloted the command module *Columbia* alone in lunar orbit while they were on the Moon's surface. Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface six hours after landing on July 21 at 02:56:15 UTC; Aldrin joined him about 20 minutes later.

On July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, two American astronauts, Apollo 11 mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the lunar module Eagle on the Moon. It was the first time humans set foot on another planetary body other than Earth, making the moon landing probably the most monumental event in history.

Vox.com published a beautiful video highlighting the key moments of the Apollo 11 mission.

Space Exploration Mars Moon Landing Robotics Technology

How NASA Reinvented The Wheel

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 1, 2018
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Spring Tires (NASA) — During the mid-2000s, NASA Glenn engineer Vivake Asnani worked with industry partner Goodyear to develop the Spring Tire, an airless compliant tire that consists of several hundred coiled steel wires woven into a flexible mesh, giving the tires the ability to support high loads while also conforming to the terrain. The Spring Tire has been proven to generate very good traction and durability in soft sand and on rocks. This innovation led to an R&D 100 Award for Top Inventions of the Year. Spring tires are light, they are capable of bending, and conform to the terrain without permanently deforming. They are also capable of holding a heavy vehicle. Engineers use a new material called Nickel titanium, also known as Nitinol (part of shape memory alloy). Nitinol alloys exhibit two closely related and unique properties: shape memory effect (SME) and superelasticity (SE; also called pseudoelasticity, PE). Shape memory is the ability of nitinol to undergo deformation at one temperature, then recover its original, undeformed shape upon heating above its "transformation temperature". Superelasticity occurs at a narrow temperature range just above its transformation temperature; in this case, no heating is necessary to cause the undeformed shape to recover, and the material exhibits enormous elasticity, some 10-30 times that of ordinary metal.

On August 6, 2012, at 05:17 UTC, NASA has successfully landed a Mini-Cooper-sized rover, Curiosity, on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars. The 900-kg rover (899 kg, to be exact, which is 1,982 lbs) is equipped with six 50 cm (20 in) diameter wheels in a rocker-bogie suspension (see notes 1). For the first time in the history of space exploration, the suspension system also served as landing gear for the vehicle, unlike its smaller predecessors.

Curiosity “soft-landed” (wheels down) on the surface of Mars. But, even it’s called “soft-landing”, the touchdown speed was 0.6739m/s vertical and 0.044m/s horizontal, which could damage the wheels. Plus, while the rover is moving, the wheels should withstand the substantial damage through the rough Martian surface. That’s why the wheels of the Curiosity rover have been one of the biggest technical difficulties encountered on the mission (see notes 2).

Moon Landing Space Exploration

NASA Has Released Apollo 11 Mission Audio

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date August 2, 2018
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Buzz Aldrin on the Moon (cropped) — Moon Landing: Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, stands on the surface of the moon near the leg of the lunar module, Eagle, during the Apollo 11 moonwalk. Astronaut Neil Armstrong, mission commander, took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera. While Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the lunar module to explore the Sea of Tranquility, astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remained in lunar orbit with the Command and Service Module, Columbia.
This is the actual photograph as exposed on the moon by Armstrong. He held the camera slightly rotated so that the camera frame did not include the top of Aldrin's portable life support system ("backpack").
A communications antenna mounted on top of the backpack is also cut off in this picture. When the image was released to the public, it was rotated clockwise to restore the astronaut to vertical for a more harmonious composition, and a black area was added above his head to recreate the missing black lunar "sky" (Related: Why there are no stars in space photos?). The edited version is the one most commonly reproduced and known to the public, but the original version, above, is the authentic exposure. This image was cataloged by NASA Headquarters of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: AS11-40-5903. Image: Wikipedia

NASA has just published Two Years’ Worth of Apollo 11 Mission Audio (the first crewed moon landing mission) on their website “Explore Apollo“. That’s more than 19,000 hours of audio.

So now anyone can hear the endless hours of conversations between the Apollo 11 astronauts and Houston. Some recordings are really exciting, for example, the audio of the lunar module landing. When the lunar module enters the lunar orbit some interesting, tensed, and nail-biting technical challenges are encountered and are solved.

Moon Landing Space Exploration Technology

Why can’t we Remake the Rocketdyne F-1 Engine, which took humans to the Moon?

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date July 27, 2018
6 Comments on Why can’t we Remake the Rocketdyne F-1 Engine, which took humans to the Moon?

Apollo 11 launch (cropped) — The Apollo 11 Saturn V lifts off at 9:32 a.m. EDT July 16, 1969, from Kennedy's Launch Complex 39A. As of 2018, Saturn V launch vehicle still remains the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever built. This is a cropped image. You can see the full image at: NASA The Apollo 11 mission, the first manned lunar mission, launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida via the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) developed Saturn V launch vehicle on July 16, 1969 and safely returned to Earth on July 24, 1969. The Saturn V vehicle produced a holocaust of flames as it rose from its pad at Launch complex 39. The 363 foot tall, 6,400,000 pound (2,902,991 kg) rocket hurled the spacecraft into Earth parking orbit and then placed it on the trajectory to the moon for the humanity's first lunar landing. Aboard the space craft were astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, Command Module pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., Lunar Module pilot. With the success of Apollo 11, the national objective to land humans on the Moon and return them safely to Earth had been accomplished.

The mighty Saturn V, the rocket that took humans to the moon, remains the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever brought to operational status (as of 2018). It was used by NASA between 1967 and 1973. It was powered by five Rocketdyne F-1 engines. With a thrust of 1,746,000 lbf (7,770 kN) in vacuum (1,522,000 lbf / 6,770 kN at sea level), the F-1 remains the most powerful single combustion chamber liquid-propellant rocket engine ever developed.

Today, private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and space agencies like NASA trying to build powerful rockets in order to reach Moon and Mars. But, we’ve already built a rocket that took us to the moon, why don’t we simply remake it (and the engines)? In the video below, Youtube user Curious Droid answers this question.

Moon Landing Space Exploration

I was on the Moon!

On July 20, 2018 (on the 49th anniversary of the moon landing), Linn LeBlanc, Chief Operating Officer at Buzz Aldrin Ventures, LLC asked on Twitter that: “Where were you 49 years today when @TheRealBuzz and Neil Armstrong made those historic first steps onto the Moon. Congratulations to the #Apollo11 crew and to the thousands that made those steps possible!” And Buzz Aldrin’s answer to that question was brilliant: “I was on the Moon!”

Earth from Space Moon Landing Space Exploration

Incredible Images of Earth and Moon [Captured by Chinese Satellite]

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date June 16, 2018
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Cropped: Earth from Moon (taken by the Chinese Queqiao satellite) of Chang'e 4 mission — The first images of the Earth and the Moon captured from China's Queqiao lunar communications relay satellite, a key component of Chang'e 4 lunar landing mission. Chang'e 4 is a planned Chinese lunar exploration mission, to be launched in December 2018, that will incorporate an orbiter, a robotic lander, and rover. After Chang'e 3, it will be China's second lunar lander and rover. Queqiao, meaning "Magpie Bridge", is a key component of the mission. The satellite was launched to Earth-Moon L2 point ^{Notes 2} on 20 May 2018. It will provide a continuous communications link to Earth while the probe does its exploratory work on the far side of the Moon: a job the lander and rover can't do for themselves because all the rocky body of the Moon would get in the way. Image: CNSA

On his Twitter account, Andrew Jones, a journalist reporting on China’s space program and related activities, has published amazing images of the Earth and the Moon captured from China’s Queqiao lunar communications relay satellite, a key component of Chang’e 4 lunar landing mission.

Moon Landing Space Exploration

Alan Bean, the fourth person to walk on the Moon has died

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date May 26, 2018
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Alan Bean on the moon during the Apollo 12 mission (cropped) — Image: AS12-49-7278 (19-20 Nov. 1969) --- Astronaut Alan L. Bean holds a Special Environmental Sample Container filled with lunar soil collected during the extravehicular activity (EVA) in which astronauts Charles Conrad Jr., commander, and Bean, lunar module pilot, participated. Conrad, who took this picture, is reflected in Bean's helmet visor. Conrad and Bean descended in the Apollo 12 Lunar Module (LM) to explore the lunar surface while astronaut Richard F. Gordon Jr., command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) in lunar orbit. This is a cropped and resized image. You can see the original image at NASA.gov

Alan Bean, the fourth person to walk on the Moon has died today (May 26, 2018). He was the fourth person to walk on the Moon: in November 1969, he spent 10+ hours on the lunar surface during Apollo 12 mission, the sixth crewed flight in the United States Apollo program, and the second to land on the Moon.

Born March 15, 1932, in Wheeler, Texas, Bean received a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Texas in 1955. He attended the Navy Test Pilot School and accumulated more than 5,500 hours of flying time in 27 different types of aircraft. He was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as part of Astronaut Group 3.

Earth from Space Moon Landing Space Exploration

Earth as seen by Apollo 4

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date May 24, 2018
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Earth from Apollo 4 (cropped) — Crescent-Earth: Coastal Brazil, Atlantic Ocean, West Africa, Sahara, Antarctica, (looking west), as photographed by an automatic camera aboard the unpiloted Apollo 4 command module on November 9, 1967, at an altitude of 11,200 miles (18,000 km). Apollo 4, (also known as AS-501), was the first unmanned test flight of NASA's mighty Saturn V rocket, which was used by the U.S. Apollo program to send the first astronauts to the Moon. This is a cropped image. You can see the full-size image on NASA.gov.

A crescent-Earth photo, by an automatic camera aboard the unpiloted Apollo 4 command module on November 9, 1967, at an altitude of 11,200 miles (18,000 km). Apollo 4, (also known as AS-501), was the first uncrewed test flight of NASA’s mighty Saturn V rocket, which was used by the U.S. Apollo program to send the first astronauts to the Moon.

Mars Moon Landing Science Fiction Space Exploration

Others Will Follow [Short Sci-Fi Film]

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date March 8, 2018
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A great science fiction short film, "Others Will Follow", published on Vimeo, tells the story of a manned Mars mission. An accident occurs and the lone survivor uses his last moments to inspire the people on Earth. The film is inspired by the undelivered speech of Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994), the American politician who served as the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 until 1974. The speech was revealed in 1999. It was prepared by Nixon's then speechwriter, William Safire (December 17, 1929 - September 27, 2009), the American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter, to be used in the event of a disaster that would maroon the astronauts on the moon.

A great short science fiction film, “Others Will Follow”, created and directed by Andrew Finch and published on Vimeo, tells the story of a crewed Mars mission. An accident occurs and the spacecraft breaks apart, the last survivor (we don’t see what happens to the rest of the crew, but presumably they have died) manages to send an inspirational message back to Earth. A must-watch.