Category: Space Exploration

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Earth from Space Space Exploration

Astronaut describes seeing Earth from space for the first time

Sunrise from space (NASA)
Image: NASA - ISS013-E-78960 (9 Sept. 2006) - A rising sun and Earth's horizon are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 13 crew member on the International Space Station.

In a video published by the European Space Agency on Twitter, retired American astronaut Scott Kelly describes seeing Earth from space for the first time.

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Earth from Space Moon Landing Space Exploration

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

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.

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Earth from Space Space Exploration

An amazing view of Earth by astronaut Ricky Arnold

Ricky Arnold selfie during Expedition 55 EVA 2
Ricky Arnold selfie during Expedition 55 EVA 2. This is a resized image, you can see the full-sized image at NASA.gov. During the spacewalk which lasted for 6 hours and 31 minutes, Arnold and fellow NASA astronaut Andrew J. Feustel transferred a Pump Flow Control Subassembly over to Dextre stowed failed PFCS on ESP-1, replaced camera and lights used to film NASA TV, replaced Space to Ground Transceiver Controller, preformed get aheads to Install handrails on Radiator Grapple Bars on S1, removed thermal blankets and MLI from two Direct Current Switching Units on ESP-2, and prepped the Flex Hose Rotary Coupler on S1 for replacement. Spacewalk suffered a 7-minute delay because of a water leak which formed ice crystals inside the airlock.

NASA Astronaut Ricky Arnold published an amazing “selfie” from space on his Twitter account saying “An amazing view of our one and only planet”. He took this selfie during the May 16, 2018 spacewalk to perform upgrades on the International Space Station. We can see the Earth, the beautiful blue marble, reflecting on his helmet’s visor.

During the spacewalk which lasted for 6 hours and 31 minutes, Arnold and fellow NASA astronaut Andrew J. Feustel transferred a Pump Flow Control Subassembly over to Dextre stowed failed PFCS on ESP-1, replaced camera and lights used to film NASA TV, replaced Space to Ground Transceiver Controller, performed “get aheads” to Install handrails on Radiator Grapple Bars on S1, removed thermal blankets and MLI from two Direct Current Switching Units on ESP-2, and prepped the Flex Hose Rotary Coupler on S1 for replacement.

Spacewalk suffered a 7-minute delay because of a water leak that formed ice crystals inside the airlock. The spacewalk brought Arnold’s cumulative EVA (Extravehicular activity) time to over 18 hours.

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Moon Landing Space Exploration

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

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.

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Earth from Space Moon Landing Space Exploration

Earth as seen by Apollo 4

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.

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Earth from Space Space Exploration

Buzz Aldrin’s “Selfie” during Gemini XII Mission

Buzz Aldrin's Selfie during the Gemini 12 Mission (cropped)
On November 12, 1966, during the Gemini 12 mission EVA 1 (Extravehicular activity), NASA astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin took his own self-portrait with his camera with our beautiful Earth is in the background. This historic photo is widely regarded as the "first space selfie". This is a cropped image. The full-resolution of this photo can be found at United States National Archives with the identity number of 5807070.

On November 12, 1966, during the Gemini 12 mission EVA 1 (Extravehicular activity), NASA astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin took his own self-portrait with his camera with our beautiful Earth in the background. This historic photo is widely regarded as the “first space selfie”.

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Earth from Space Places Space Exploration

Mont Saint-Michel, France, From Space

Mont Saint-Michel from space (cropped)
Lying between Brittany to the west and Normandy to the east, this remarkable bay, which is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, sees some of the biggest tides in continental Europe. There can be up to 15 m difference between low and high water. When spring tides peak, the sea recedes about 15 km from the coast and when it returns it does so very quickly, making it a dangerous place to be. Sentinel-2 captured this image when the tide was out so that the vast area of sand dunes is exposed cut by meandering channels of shallow water. Three rivers empty into the bay: the Couesnon, the Sée and the Sélune. The famous rocky islet of Mont Saint-Michel, visible as a small dark spot in the south of the bay, is about 1 km from the mouth of the Couesnon. Home to a Benedictine monastery and village, Mont Saint-Michel is also a UNESCO world heritage site and a mecca for tourists. The bay, however, has been prone to silting up in the last couple of centuries. Actions by man, including farming and the building of a causeway to the island monastery, have added to this problem. A major campaign has ensured that Mont-Saint-Michel preserves its maritime character and remains an island. The main river into the bay, the Couesnon, for example, is being left to flow more freely so that sediments are washed out to sea. This is a cropped image. You can see the full-size image at: ESA - Space in Images

The European Space Agency (ESA) occasionally posts high-resolution photos of space under the title of “week in images”. This amazing image of the Mont Saint-Michel from space, which was captured on 21 June 2017, is also featured on the ESA’s Earth from Space video programme, presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web-TV virtual studios.

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Physics Astronomy Space Exploration Technology

Soon, the ISS Will Be the Coldest Known Place in the Universe

Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL)
NASA is going to launch a facility to the International Space Station (ISS) that will contain a spot 10 billion times colder than the outer space. The new Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) facility, which will operate in microgravity, could help answer some big questions in modern physics, allowing researchers to dive deep into the quantum realm in a way that would never be possible here on Earth. Inside the Cold Atom Lab, scientists will use lasers and magnetic traps to slow atoms down until they are almost motionless.Notes 1 Then, the atoms can form a distinct state of matter called Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC).Notes 2 In this state, the wave characteristics of matter become more noticeable. On Earth, the pull of gravity causes atoms to settle toward the ground, ad the freely evolving BECs are typically only observable for fractions of a second. But, inside the CAL, ultra-cold atoms can hold their wave-like forms longer while in a freefall (microgravity), giving scientists more time to observe and understand physics at its most basic level.

Where is the coldest known place in the Universe? It may sound strange, but today, it is here on Earth: in 1995, in a laboratory in M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the German physicist Wolfgang Ketterle and his colleagues have cooled a sodium gas to the lowest temperature ever recorded, only half-a-billionth of a degree above absolute zero.

But, soon, this record will be broken. NASA is going to launch a facility to the International Space Station (ISS) that will contain a spot 10 billion times colder than outer space. The new Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) facility, which will operate in microgravity, could help answer some big questions in modern physics, allowing researchers to dive deep into the quantum realm in a way that would never be possible here on Earth.

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Space Exploration Mars Photography

Photographer catches NASA’s Mars InSight Lander launch

The launch of NASA's InSight Mars Lander (cropped)
On May 5, 2018, NASA's robotic Mars lander, InSight, which designed to study the interior of Mars, was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base space launch complex 3-East. This was the first American interplanetary mission to launch from California. Andy Fortson, adventure and lifestyle photographer based in Los Angeles, California has photographed the launch and the result is stunning. Fortson wrote: "This morning I got to watch my first rocket launch - the first rocket ever headed to another planet from the West Coast. I've been with #NASASocial for the last few days touring Vandenberg Air Force Base while they prepared to launch the Insight Lander to Mars. Not only did I get to stand in the launchpad just 100 yards from the rocket, we also toured the Missions Director's Center, the Western Range Operations Control Center, and met NASA's chief scientist and engineers. I can't thank @NASA enough for inviting me to help tell this story."

On May 5, 2018, NASA’s robotic Mars lander, InSight, which designed to study the interior of Mars, was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base space launch complex 3-East. This was the first American interplanetary mission to launch from California. Andy Fortson, an adventure and lifestyle photographer based in Los Angeles, California has photographed the launch and the result is stunning.

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Space Exploration Astronomy

Virtual Moon Tour [4K Ultra HD]

NASA virtual Moon tour
Using data provided by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft since 2009, NASA has published an amazing virtual Moon tour in 4K Ultra HD. In the image here, The South Pole-Aitken basin can be seen - a large lunar impact crater that lies on the far side of the Moon. At roughly 2,500 kilometers (1,600 mi) in diameter and 13 kilometers (8.1 mi) deep, it is one of the largest known impact craters in the Solar System and the largest, oldest, and deepest basin recognized on the Moon. It was named for two features on opposing sides: the crater Aitken (named for the American astronomer Robert Grant Aitken, December 31, 1864 - October 29, 1951) on the northern end and the lunar south pole at the other end. The outer rim of this basin can be seen from Earth as a huge chain of mountains located on the Moon's southern limb, sometimes informally called "Leibnitz mountains". Simulations of near vertical impacts show that this basin should have dug up vast amounts of mantle materials from depths as great as 200 km below the surface. However, observations thus far do not favor a mantle composition for this basin, and crustal thickness maps seem to indicate the presence of about 10 kilometers of crustal materials beneath this basin's floor. This has suggested to some that the basin was not formed by a typical high-velocity impact, but may instead have been formed by a low-velocity projectile around 200 km in diameter that hit at a low angle (about 30 degrees or less), and hence did not dig very deeply into the Moon. Putative evidence for this comes from the high elevations north-east of the rim of the South Pole-Aitken basin that might represent ejecta from such an oblique impact. The impact theory would also account for magnetic anomalies on the moon.

Using data provided by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft (see notes 1) since 2009, NASA has published an amazing virtual Moon tour in 4K Ultra HD (see notes 2). As the visualization moves around the near side, far side (see notes 3), north and south poles, interesting features, sites, and information gathered on the lunar terrain get highlighted.

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