The Little Mountaineers on the Moon
With our outdoor equipment rental service and, among other things,bivouac equipment for rent, we are used to group rental inquiries for shipments. However, this is not the case with explorations! The difference ? The goal of exploration is a particular discovery! We take you behind the scenes of a bivouac equipment rental a bit special, on the Moon… or almost!
Rental of bivouac equipment for groups
Les Petits Montagnards offer individuals and professionals the outdoor equipment rental, for the winter sports, the Trek, the bivouac, the camping and the bikepacking. We equip groups from 7 people for their outdoor activities on the occasion ofprofessional events, in general corporate meetings, team building, seminars etc We also support event agencies organizing events in nature and in the mountains over there rental of tents, mattresses, duvets, etc, to speak here only of the bivouac. From now on, we are even associated with your most surprising events, such as the Asclepios III Mission!
A rental of bivouac equipment for the Asclepios III mission
Asclepios, a student association for space sciences
Asclepius aims to be a research platform for scientists wishing to test their protocols via the association's call for projects. Each year, Asclepios conducts an annual project, aimed at scientific students, engineers, space science enthusiasts, allowing them to learn and concretely apply their knowledge of the space field. Asclepios is an independent association run by EPFL students and supervised by the eSpace space laboratory at EPFL.
The analogous Asclepios III Mission
This international student project trains a dozen or so young analog astronauts in the future of space exploration, chosen during a long process of selective recruitment by professionals in this specialized industry. Scientific projects and tests are carried out during analog missions, taking place on earth in conditions similar to those of a space base on the Moon or Mars. Asclepios claims a learning-by-doing approach, so during the similar mission that will take place in an isolated base in July 2023, 6 students will have to carry out scientific experiments proposed by laboratories around the world. Each year, the analog mission focuses on a particular subject of life in space. 2023 is dedicated to space medicine.
Rental bivouac equipment for an extreme training camp
From February 7 to 11, 2023, the students participated in an extreme environment training course for which Les Petits Montagnards rented bivouac equipment. The objective of this scenario, to reproduce the conditions of a space expedition to the Moon, is to determine which of them will be the most able to resist the pressure and therefore to win their place within the base to the similar mission of July 2023. Thus prepared, the 6 roles of the students will be determined, from the base manager to the scientific and medical manager.
During the course of 4 days and 4 nights, their resistance to cold, dehydration, lack of sleep will be tested through scenarios and individual and collective activities. The small group will be accompanied by explorer Alban Michon for ice diving, himself in the process of organizing a similar mission under ice, named Biodysseus and which will take place aboard “the first oceanographic and space underwater research base dedicated to science and technology”.
So, of course Les Petits Montagnards are not yet leaving for the Moon, but we are doing everything to offer you the best of outdoor rental !
Photos by ©Timon Bachman


An Evening With Apollo 8
On May 14, 2016, the Apollo 8 astronauts reunited for ‘An Evening with Apollo 8’ at the Heritage Flight Museum, located
at Skagit Regional Airport in Burlington, WA.
This once in a lifetime opportunity is a fundraising event to support HFM’s
mission to honor veterans and keep history alive. This is indeed a rare opportunity to be a part
of history, and see and hear these explorers discuss the Apollo mission that
was instrumental in our landing on the moon.


Saudi Arabia has announced that it will send its first female astronaut into space this year.
A woman named Rayyanah Barnawi and a man named Ali Al-Qarni are the two people that the country will send to the International Space Station in the second quarter of 2023.
The country said that the purpose of the program is to increase the number of astronauts that the country has, and to take advantage of the activities that the space industry entails.
She also said that the program will help to develop scientific and technical research in many areas ranging from health, and progress to space exploration.
The two astronauts Barnawi and Al-Qarni will be among the crew of the AX-2 spacecraft that will be launched.
The spacecraft will be launched from the United States to the International Space Station. The program also includes the training of two more astronauts, Mariam Fardous and Ali Al-Ghamdi.
The head of the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority, Engr. Abdullah Al-Swaha said that the leaders of the country are ready to support the plan to create the space station.
Through this program, Saudi Arabia will begin scientific research at the levels of space science and develop its capacity to conduct its own research on the future of the country.
Then this will increase the desire of university students to study the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and provide more people with skills in this field.
Moreover, Mohammed Al-Tamimi, the chief executive of the Saudi Space Agency, expressed his happiness to the leaders of the country for supporting the agency to further develop the agency.
This has helped to reduce the number of problems and challenges faced by the agency, which will also help in the development of the country’s space sector.
The movement to space is a symbol that shows the strength and development of the country in the eyes of the world.
It is also an event that the world competes in the fields of technology, engineering, research and innovation.
This is a program that history will not forget, because it will make the country one of the few countries in the world to send two astronauts of the same nationality in the same spacecraft to the International Space Station and on time single.
The Civil Aviation Authority also said that this program is in collaboration with other ministries of the country under the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Sports, the Civil Aviation Authority and the King Faisal Specialist Hospital. and the country’s research center.
And with the collaboration of other international agencies including ‘Axiom Space’ which specializes in the field of space and manufactures the products that go to space with them in America.
It was previously reported that the Saudi Space Agency has launched a program to send astronauts.
But this plan to send astronauts is the great work that the agency has achieved with the aim of training citizens to go to the space station.
With the aim of conducting scientific research and participating in international research, as well as the future of the country’s space-related activities, it will also help to achieve the country’s goals by 2030.


Earlier this month, Satellite News posted this humorous bit of news. It seems that the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is hosting a viewing of that science fiction classic, MST3K episode 820, Space Mutiny. It happens on Saturday May 3rd at their Phillips Auditorium, doors opening at 6:30PM. If you’re near Cambridge, MA, give it a go. It’s also followed by 2010, if you needed the experience to be any more surreal. Check the site for more details.


A Photo Prompts a Post
My Photo taken at the Buffalo Museum of Science. This is a very large, spinning world in the center of a large room, not as intriguing as the photo of the real Earth taken from space and seen below. But it lit a spark…
The Earth is 4.5 Billion years old.
Looks like I had a nice space flight, doesn’t it? We live in a remarkable time. We have the technology to make unlikely dreams a reality. We see as no humans before us have seen. I would love to travel the Universe and see the wonders and vastness of space, but thank the tax dollars that allowed NASA to do it for us.
Ever wonder what it would be like to travel the Universe? Here is a fantastic interactive visualization of the scale of the universe. It shows a large selection of things you recognize and those you don’t in the universe that are arranged according to size and scale; from very small (theoretically small) to very large (that which is observable in the universe). The unique visualization was created by Cary and Michael Huang. It is a great tool for learning for kids, it gives perspective on things. Just use the scroll bar at the bottom of the window to travel the Universe.
I think this rainbow of gases in space beats out the ones I see of water at Niagara Falls any day.
NASA image of the Orion Rainbow
The Universe is approximately 14.7 Billion years old.
Did you know that an abundant compound in space is WATER? Unfortunately, most of it is frozen, but not all. Big problem though, it is inaccessible to us. But read on, we do have a huge supply here, but considering global warming trends, do we really want to see it in such extraordinary abundance?
Artist Rendering of Massive Water Cloud at Black Hole in Space, NASA
Quasars are black holes at the centers of galaxies and are very active and bright. They gravitationally consume all that they snare surrounding them, including light, all the while spewing out energy that may produce water vapor and dust particles. But let an expert explain what you are seeing above…
“As this disk of material is consumed by the central black hole, it releases energy in the form of x-ray and infrared radiation, which in turn can heat the surrounding material, resulting in the observed water vapor,” said study co-author Eric Murphy, an astronomer with the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California.
The vapor around this particular quasar represents enough water “to fill all the oceans on the Earth over 140 trillion times—that’s a lot of water.” The above quote was published here at National Geographic if you want to read more about space water.
Water is an amazing substance and plentiful the universe over. It is responsible and necessary for all life.
Did you know that March 22 was World Water Day?
I didn’t, but saw it on a photography blog that I subscribe to, Duck Cove Photography. His post is Running Water. Considering the inequity of dispersal on this planet, it really is something to think deeply about. It is pretty unlikely we will be harvesting it from space anytime soon. I have written on water many times, and was wondering why my older posts were being actively searched recently. World Water Day, who knew it would popularize my post, It’s a Tiny Planet.
This image is also from NASA and it is of water geysers of Saturn.
Can you imagine if water being sprayed out into space could have been responsible for the beginning of life? Religion and absolutes aside, there is a branch of science suggesting this. Just to think, everything we see on Earth, could have gotten a start somewhere far, far away. It makes you realize just how accidental we might have been. Even by grand design, it really was like winning the lottery because everything had to come together just right.
The term is panspermia. Literally, it means the seeds of life. Rather than life starting ‘in house’ in the primordial soup of Earth’s beginning, life could have been transported frozen, deep inside asteroids, from tiny, simple crystals to the size of icy mountains.
To survive in a new environment, the organisms need to have that which all life (or at least what we know as life) needs. They need a source of energy. Once they have food, replicate and evolve, the building blocks for the chain of life really begin. But what is probably the most necessary element for all of life? Water; the key to all known forms of life.
But water can take life away too. Many of us know that first hand, unfortunately, so life, if it wants to survive, must prove a need and willingness to. A life, any life, needs to find the way in which water benefits and avoid the ways in which it destroys.
And to be just right with liquid water for life, the planet needs to be in the Goldilocks Zone, not too hot or not too cold. That is really a short distance circling our sun. It only includes us and Mars. I guess you can say we got the ultimate lucky break here on Earth, like winning the celestial lottery. The first green (?) organism to grace the planet. Who knows what lies in galaxies beyond, planets revolving around far distant suns?
Mars seems not to have been quite as lucky being further away from the Sun in the long haul though, but science has postulated that Mars was similar to Earth supporting oceans and rivers. NASA has seen images sent back from robot explorers since the 1970s that shows drainage patterns and erosion possibly formed by oceans and rivers. White salts were found indicating contact with water. Or are they. It can be explained differently with this report. Plus the Rover Eye View Three Year Study video is on this site with 309 images of Mars surface. They are still looking for definitive proof of past or present life though. Just maybe, the ‘seeds of life’ could have ridden in via Mars.
Even though water is very common throughout the Universe, it is still a precious commodity here. You have to think of how lucky we are to have had it on Earth in the first place, to realize that we, ourselves are 60+ percent water (newborns about 78%), and that someday in the future water will likely disappear here too like it did on Mars.
Viking View of Mars (source)
It gives you a whole new perspective and appreciation on something so simple, plentiful, yet often wasted. It really gives you pause thinking of a planet without water. Could this be us in time? NASA original image from source.
The image below is also from NASA. It is such a remarkable image of a remarkable place, our place, inhabited by each and every one of us, as we float in space, fight over space, displace space, destroy space, pollute space, and waste space – space on Earth that is. We are destructive and polluting up in space too. We do leave a mess where ever we go it seems. There is an estimated 6000 tons of space debris in orbit around the Earth now, and NASA and the U.S. military’s Space Surveillance Network regularly track about 20,000 pieces of this debris. (source) An average of one object each day reenters Earth’s atmosphere. So what goes around, comes around and down.
Water surrounding our place in this world, and seen from this view, is so blue and visually amazing. If you want to be amazed by water and ice here on Earth and at Earth level, see the series Frozen Planet on the Discovery station, Sunday at 8 pm. Check your local listings.
It explores the frozen world through the seasons of the coldest places on Earth. The frozen icecaps provide 80 percent of the fresh water here on Earth, and glaciers move in rivers, it is amazing to see this pristine landscape. One third of our Earth is frozen which is as alien to us as those images shown from outer space.
The photography and scenery in this special is the best I have ever seen on TV. Don’t miss this special event, it really makes you appreciate our blue marble, with wonderment equal to that found in the spacial beyond. Here is the link to Frozen Planet on the web with video clips from the TV show.
- Sunday, April 1, 5:00 to 7:00 pm “The Ends of the Earth” The First Episode on March 18th and second, “Spring”
- Sunday April 1, 7:00 to 8:00 pm “Summer” Last Week
- Sunday April 1, 8:00 to 9:00 pm “Winter” NEW!
- Sunday April 8, 8:00 to 9:00 pm “The Making of Frozen Planet”
- Sunday April 15, 7:00 to 8:00 pm “On Thin Ice”
- Sunday April 15, 8:00 to 9:00 pm “Life in the Freezer”
Planet Earth, Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring
Click the Earth image and get taken to the Flickr image and the background on this amazing NASA shot.
This post preceded Spring in the Blink of an Eye, because… I wanted you to see the Sunday Discovery Channel special Frozen Planet. If (WHEN) you see it, let me know if you did not think this is the most awesome program you have seen of late. Spring is the Blink of an Eye is up next…I promise.


|APOLLO-12 "J002E3" COMES BACK FOR A VISIT IN SEPTEMBER OF 2002.|
Five of the Saturn-V's S-IVB boosters are purportedly out in a heliocentric orbit. One of the S-IVB's "J002E3" came into to orbit the Earth during the build up of America's Iraq War. It left one month after President George Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" aboard the supercarrier U.S.S. Lincoln. The suspicious timing of the S-IVB's orbit lends credibility to the notion that Apollo was in reality a cover for a military mission. It's aim was to conquer space. If America covertly built bases on the moon and Mars it could use these bases for the testing of exotic weapons. It could also give elements of the American ruling class a place to run to in the event of a nuclear war. Control of space is the ace up the sleeve of the American ruling class. In the event of nuclear war they will just leave while the American people die on Earth.
|Five the S-IVB''s are just out there somewhere.|


What is the right time to celebrate Navroze in your city?
Here is a detailed listing provided at the “ 7seen.com” i.e. Haft Seen .com
Click here: http://www.7seen.com
However to arrive at a more accurate time for your city please note the following.
Navrooz is that exact split second time, when the Sun crosses over from the Southern hemisphere into the Northern.
The timings given in the Tabulation for Indian cities is based on Indian Standard Time, calculated and based on 82.5 degrees East longitude.
(Bombay) Mumbai is about 72.5 deg East and (Calcutta) Kolkatta about 88.2 deg E. Delhi about 77.12 deg E. The Sun takes 4 minutes for every one degree
Hence the exact time should vary from those given for these cities. Check the time in the Fire Temples in Mumbai, you’ll find it is 40 minutes behind the IST.
Similarly (Calcutta) Kolkata 22.8 minutes is earlier than IST, and Delhi is 21.52 minutes behind.
Karachi 67.1 E being further West than (Bombay) Mumbai would be 61.6 minutes behind IST.
You may be able to arrive at a more accurate time for the 3 cities, by adding or subtracting the figures indicated here-in above from the IST time given in the attached tabulation
Check out the correct time for your city rather than go by the Time Zone your city/town falls in. Remember it is 4 minutes plus or minus for every degree that you place longitude and your time zone longitude is based on.
Filed under: Naurooz


The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Science and Technology Council is bringing NASA scientists to Hollywood. The Council will hold a panel called “ /Modern Figures: A Journey of Breakthroughs in Cinema and Space Travel” with NASA, on Wednesday, November 29, at 7:30PM at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. On the panel will be the Hidden Figures filmmakers with NASA scientists and even Fox 2000 president Elizabeth Gabler to discuss the past, present and future in space math, diversity and the movies.
Hidden Figures grossed $235.1M worldwide for Fox and became a sleeper hit for the studio when it was released last year. It also was nominated for three Oscars for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and for Octavia Spencer as Best Supporting Actress.
Moderated by former Deluxe/EFILM Executive Beverly J. Wood, Gabler will join Hidden Figures writer/director Theodore Melfi, film editor Peter Teschner, cinematographer Mandy Walker, NASA chief historian Dr. Bill Barry and NASA engineers Tracy Drain, Jennifer Trosper and Powtawche Valerino.
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I’m not a Sci-Fi junkie now, but as a kid I was obsessed. Whether it was Mork & Mindy, Star Wars, or E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, I always wondered if we were alone. And really, what would we do if we did find little E.T.’s out there? I’m sure with all the paranoid world leaders we put up with (and of course the media), we’d be coerced into FREAKING OUT. Sci-Fi films in the last several years have been sparse, and usually portray our bug eyed lizard friends as aggressive and evil. One recent film however, Another Earth, explores the idea of another YOU out there. Another Earth had me pondering equations I’m not qualified (or educated) enough to solve; the last scene will have you scratching your head for hours. It’s not a spaceship-droid-bad guy affair, but is thought provoking enough to make you wonder – WHAT IF?
SETI has launched a new site which lets you at home sift through radio frequencies from stars which they believe have the highest chance of alien life. From the SETILive site:
SETILive is taking the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) directly to you by presenting radio frequency signals LIVE from the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array (ATA) while it’s pointed at stars that, based on Kepler exoplanet discoveries, have the best chances of being home to an alien civilization. We’ll also be putting you “in the loop” where if enough of you see a potential extraterrestrial (ET) signal in the same data, then within minutes, the ATA will be interrupted and sent back to take a second look. The data you see will be from frequencies where human-made Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) crowds them and we believe the human eye will have a better chance than SETI’s computer algorithms to find ET signals there.
That’s a lot, but fascinating as all get out. Maybe you could take a listen to our extraterrestrial themed COLORCAST FOUR while you’re collecting data for SETI. It contains interviews from Susan Hiller’s WITNESS, an installation where you can listen to eyewitnesses recount their own UFO sightings, from South Africa to Oklahoma. It also contains tracks from Spiritualized, Cocteau Twins, Mahogany, O.M.D., Glass Candy, and more. And of course, if you find anything let us know.
Here is video of Susan Hiller and team installing WITNESS at the Tate. Also check out the Another Earth trailer and Carl Sagan’s message to humanity. Wow, he makes science so sexy!
posted by phil


The seal of Space Tree of Savior is a rather strange concept, to say the least. The idea seems rather bizarre to an audience of space explorers and theoretical scientists. The Space Tree is thought to have come from somewhere in deep space. Some claim that it is from the Sirius system. It grows in the presence of a black star cluster, also called a gamma ray burst, and its fruit is a purple and somewhat spherical seed.
Its significance is as uncertain as it is intriguing. Some followers believe it is a reference to the Christian religion. It is also used by the fictional characters in several science fiction books and movies. There are a number of theories circulating around the world as to its origins. One theory says that it came from ancient Babylonia, others say it came from Saturn. No one can say for sure where it came from or how it came to be, but it was probably sought after in some form by ancient cultures.
In ancient times, the Greek goddess Astraios (space or mother) sent down a replica of this tree from the heavens. It is said that she placed it there so that men would be enticed to go into space and explore space. The name of this particular Seal of Space has been around for a long time, however, as the name “Space-Tree” is rather misleading. This is not a true Space tree, but a replica, a fake, an imitation.
When it was brought to earth, it was planted in front of the Space Shuttle launchpad and became a marking stone for the launch of space shuttles. NASA still keeps the Seal of Space tree on the pad. It is there to remind workers to keep working on the Space Shuttle and to keep the memory of the space program alive.
A fake Space-Tree can last for years, it is extremely durable and can withstand high temperatures. Even without a protective covering, this type of tree can live for two decades without losing its shape or color. This is great news for fans of the Space Opera series who have been waiting for a long time for the show to come back on TV. A Space-Tree is the perfect item for this fantasy genre. And in these difficult economic times, it is a good idea to have a nice-looking decoration to adorn your home or office.
A genuine seal of space can be traced back to at least the first manned space flight. In fact, it may have been the inspiration for the seal of the original astronaut’s spacesuit. This strong artificial preservative was used as an adhesive for various pieces of equipment. In addition, it served to hold together the various systems that made up the space program including the experiments and the lunar missions. It is one of those extraordinary items from a time that most of us can’t even imagine.
In modern times, artificial Space- Trees are still being used to seal important packages, such as with wine shipments. They are also used in keeping scientific experiments in good condition and prevent dust from gathering and slowing down a scientist’s work. When using a seal of space, you can feel secure knowing that your expensive cargo or precious collectibles are going to be kept safe and undamaged. It’s better to keep something important out of the reach of children than to risk having it damaged, right? That is why artificial trees of Space Tree of Savior are very popular with collectors.
With the popularity of the artificial Space Tree of Savior, many manufacturers have stepped forward to create high quality replicas of the original Space-Tree. These synthetic trees are durable and look just like the real thing. Many artificial tree varieties available today are made from durable synthetic materials and come in attractive colors and textures, such as maple, pine, cherry or birch. So if you’re looking for a very authentic look, you should consider a space tree of Space- Simulator.


I’ll be the first to say it…black holes are everywhere.
What’s more, because they are everywhere, I believe black holes are the future energy source we’ve been seeking for so long.
When the Hadron Collider first came on line, one camp warned that the tremendous scale of energy the collider generated could create nanoscopic black holes that rapidly grow and consume the earth. OK…Another camp said these tiny black holes would be relatively stable, not expand, and dissipate rapidly. Others said, “People, stop mixing astrophysics with camping!”
While it is not clear whether any black holes do get generated during the high energy collisions, it is fairly clear that none with large appetites have formed…so far…unless the implosion of the earth has tossed us into a parallel dimension seamlessly and imperceptively – which I doubt.
But what if black holes are constantly being formed and dissipated at sub-atomic scales and within timescales that are beyond human observation? Then, Hawking Radiation – formed because of quantum effects at the event horizon of the black hole – would be extremely abundant. In addition, current thinking is those really tiny black holes we’re interested in called Micro Black Holes (MBH) shrink and dissipate faster, thus giving off larger amounts of energy, albeit in must shorter bursts.
And here’s another “but”: But what if these super abundant, super small bursts of energy could be captured by an energy sink that, like a template, could be laid across space-time? Infinite, free energy, that’s what!
That is the invention that I challenge you inventors to invent.
Go…why are you still here??!
OK, they’re gone…Now we can talk. For those of us too lazy or without the smarts to start thinking about that invention, I’ll continue opining: I’m aware that current thinking is that we don’t have the capabilities to generate the power needed to create a black hole. And I know you’re thinking (without any sarcasm of course), “when was the last time current thinking was wrong?” Which is my point exactly. We don’t even understand why women say they’re fine when we know they’re not, so I think there’s a small possibility some re-thinking on this could harbor some novel ideas. Especially you physicists, who obviously know nothing at all about women.
So forget about our capabilities and think about what may already be much more abundantly present in nature and available to harness than we ever thought: yes, black holes. While I’m fairly certain that this is true and I can’t prove it to you (you’ll have to trust the dog-faced magician that told me last night), I think there is something big we will discover in this domain – even larger than the benefits of free, unlimited energy!
Scientists have lately begun to be disappointed that the Large Hadron Collider is spewing out data that they expected. While it’s really interesting to wonder if the Big Bang was just somebody else’s “Hadron Collider-like” experiment, I think it would be more fruitful to look really hard for proof of those oceans and oceans of black holes that are everywhere and figure out how to harvest their Hawking Radiation. At the same time, physicists can begin to better mesh the theories of large scale gravitation and quantum physics.
Just my two sense (sp).


The moon with the history of the early solar system and that of the planet earth, etched on it beckons mankind from time immemorial to admire its marvel and discover its secrets. Understanding the moon provides a pathway to unravel the early evolution of the solar system and that of the planet earth. Drive of Human desire and quest of knowledge has led to the scientific study of moon.
In modern era, exploration of the moon got a boost with the advent of the space age and decades of 60s and 70s saw a myriad of successful unmanned and manned missions to moon. Hiatus of about one and half decade followed. During this period the humankind kept itself busy with refining the knowledge about the origin and evolution of the moon and its place as a link to understand the early history of the solar system on earth.
During this period the man kind kept itself busy with refining the knowledge regarding moon, earth and solar system. During the course of this refinement, several new question about lunar evolution also emerged and new possibilities of using the moon as a platform for further exploration of the solar system and beyond were formulated.
A New renaissance of rejuvenated interest dawned as moon again became the prime target for exploration. All the major space faring nations of the world plans to utilize moon for its own as well as a potential base for space exploration.
The following are the motivational factors for chandrayaan kind of missions:
1) In Twentieth century moon attracts the attention of Russia, Europe and USA.
2) In Twenty first century it also got hotter in India, China, and Japan.
The current phase of frantic activity centred on the moon, has been triggered off by 2 US expeditions in 1994 and 1998, which discovered the possibilities of exploring lunar resources for national advantage.
According to some vital data available on different internet sites, the main motives behind the moon mission are:-
1) Possibilities of human colonisation.
2) To prepare a 3D-atlas of both near and far side of the moon.
3) To conduct a chemical and mineralogical mapping of entire lunar surface for distribution of elements such as magnesium, aluminium, iron, silicon, calcium, titanium with spatial resolution of 20 km and high at radium, uranium, thorium with 40 km.
4) Simultaneous photo geo-logical and chemical mapping helping in hypothesis for origin and early evolution history of the moon and help in determining nature.
But, the main reason behind selection of moon, in order to conduct a full-fledged research is that it is the most accessible celestial body and thus became the base for research.
India’s moon mission was initiated in 1999, the idea of undertaking it was still under the womb of ISRO before a discussion took place in Astronomical society in the year 2000. And then the growth of the whole mission was even more interesting to watch just like watching a womb developing during its ‘Shaping-up’ tenure. ISRO constituted a task force known as National Lunar Mission Task Force, which will be extremely worthwhile to plan an Indian mission to the moon. It provides space inputs such as primary space objects of such a mission, plausible instrument to meet this objective. Launch and spacecraft technologies that need for DSN (Deep Space Network) station in India for communication.
Hence in my perception India should undertake more missions like this, particularly in view of the renowned international interest on moon with several exciting missions planned for the new millennium. Thrust to basic science and engineering research in country include new challenges to ISRO to go beyond geo-stationary orbit.
Chandrayaan (ISRO) was approved by government in November 2003. Odyssey of chandrayaan-1 was conducted by DSN on outskirts of Bangalore. This lunar craft was launched by a modern version of PSLV-XL. The next mission of this lunar craft chandrayaan-2 will come by 2010 under guidance of Dr.SreeKumar. The chandrayaan first was launched in October 2008 and there were two projects that undergone, first one consisted of a Lunar orbiter and the second one was having Impacter. It was successfully launched under the prior guidance of Mr.M.Annadurai, this whole mission was of about 386 crore rupees and reached to moon in nearly 5 and a half day time, this satellite was of 1.5m in size and it weighs around 1304 kg (590 kg of Initial orbit and 504 kg of dry mass) carrying high resolution, And also remote sensing equipment for visible and near infrared, soft and hard x-ray frequencies. The duration of the orbit is near about 2 years.
Whole project will include 5 ISRO payloads and 6 payloads from other international space agencies such as NASA and ESA and Bulgarian aerospace agency.
Name of the experiment by 6 playloads from International science communities:
1) Terrain Mapping stereo camera- ISRO
2) High energy X-ray camera-ISRO
3) Lunar last ranging instrument-ISRO
4) Hyper spectral Imaging camera-ISRO
5) Moon Impact probe camera-ISRO
6) Chandrayaan-1 X-ray spectrometer.
Thus, it is very true that CHANDRAYAAN is something which adds to honour in Indian astrophysics. Hope so these kind of missions should keep on progressing and further we will be able to take initiatives like this only. And its very inevitable that youth of our nation should opt the science perceiving a vision of leading Indian astrophysica and the whole world to larger than life avenues.


UT is a large school with many students and organizations, hence a large STEM community. For those of you interested in exploring this community, the following links might be a helpful starting point.
- Actuarial Science Club (ASC)
- Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM)
- Astronomy Student Association (ASA)
- Mathematics Teachers’ Circle (MTC)
- Society of Physics Students (SPS)
- Undergraduate Women in Physics (UWIP)
Battle of PMA (short for Physics, Math, Astronomy) is a fun social event that has taken place once every semester since Spring 2018. Battle of PMA is jointly organized by AWM, ASA, SPS, UWIP, and the UT Math Club and brings physics, math, and astronomy majors all together in one place. The event includes free food and prizes.
One big organization which started towards the end of the spring 2019 semester is the Physics, Math, and Astronomy Board for Student Advocacy (PMA BSA or just BSA for short). The primary aim of the BSA is to support and improve the community of students at RLM through concrete initiatives targeting unaddressed needs or underrepresented groups. If you are interested then go check out this fledgling organization.


It Has its Own Romance and Excitement
For science fiction writers, the universe has no limits. They imagine spacecraft conquering the unknown, the mining of asteroids, access to solar power and room for colonization by earthlings tempted by new frontiers billions of miles and dreams away. Or worlds to conquer barred by radioactive fields, devilish storms, metallic dust, unbearable darkness leading towards black holes and hell in space, and the sun, radiating up to 15 million degrees Celsius, which suggests nothing less than nuclear fusion. The incredible projections of science fiction authors are beginning to be overtaken by reality and technology, and the creativity of the human brain. Spacecraft such as the New Horizons and the twin Voyager 1 and 2, race with an average speed of 38,000 miles per hour into the unending universe, traveling 14 billion miles away from earth, having moved from the solar system into the interstellar universe. The 815kg Voyager 2 went to explore Uranus and Neptune, and is still the only spacecraft to have visited the outer planets. Forty-three years, nine months and 18 days (as of June 7, 2021) after launch, the Voyagers are still traveling, in communication with ground control, which needs seven hours to reach the spacecraft. Meanwhile, the New Horizons 478kg spacecraft (launched in 2006), traveling at 36,400 miles per hour, powered by a nuclear battery, is expected to continue exploring until the late 2030s and possibly move into interstellar space in the 2040s...
According to Alan Stern, planetary scientist and principal investigator of New Horizons, “Looking back at the flight from earth to 50 AU [Astronomical Unit; one = 93 million miles], almost seems in some way like a dream”. The exploration of space, says Stern, “is like the wild west. You get to be the first to do things. It has its own romance and excitement in addition to the actual research value”. In February, another step was taken towards the impossible. The Perseverance, a 3649kg minivan-sized spacecraft, estimated cost$2.2 billion, landed on Mars. On board was a mini helicopter, 1.8kg, which took a historic, first powered maiden flight on a planet other than earth. The BBC judged the helicopter experiment “as a Wright Brothers’ moment”. Perseverance’s interesting rock finds will be packaged into small tubes to be left on the surface of Mars. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have devised a multibillion dollar plan “to go fetch these cylinders towards the end of the decade. It will be a complex endeavor involving a second rover, a Mars rocket and a huge satellite,” said BBC News.
Back to the Forefront of Science
On February 9, 2021, the United Arab Emirates became the first Arab country and the fifth country to reach Mars. The Emirate’s 1500kg Hope (Misbar-Al-Amal) was designed and developed by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, and the spacecraft was assembled at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, United States. The spacecraft was launched from a Japanese rocket that lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center. During its mission of 295 days and 20 hours, the space probe will study daily and seasonal weather cycles and weather events in the lower atmosphere such as dust storms. Hardly established in space, the Emirates has already announced a far more ambitious goal: building a habitable settlement on Mars by 2117. The Emirati government, wrote Vicky Stein on Space.com (February 23, 2021)“said that it sees this satellite as a way to bring the Arab world back to the forefront of science and astronomy—a position the region hasn’t held since the Islamic Golden age, form the ninth to the 13th century”.
After exploring the moon Beijing has triumphed on Mars as well, landing its six wheeled Zhurong robot on Utopia Planitia, a vast terrain in Mars’s northern hemisphere. China, which has already placed a rover on the moon and brought lunar samples back to Earth, was jubilant. It plans a first permanent space station by 2022.
Meanwhile, Moscow informed its rivals in Washington D.C., with whom it shared for almost two decades the International Space Station, that in 2025 they would abandon the deal. Moscow is also planning to build a national space station, estimated to cost $6 billion, and possibly ready in 2030. There are already about 3000 satellites orbiting at heights of 160km to 2000km.
Using the Hubble telescope, scientists have already been observing deep space for more than three decades. Their observations have led to an understanding of the age of the universe (13.7 billion years), the mass and the size of the Milky Way, black holes and the expansion of the universe. The telescope has shown us how stars form, live out their lives, and die. It has characterized the atmospheres of planets around other suns, has revealed intricate details of the shapes, structures and histories of galaxies. If NASA decides to let Hubble fade away, without fundamental upgrade, it would re-enter Earth’s atmosphere probably between 2028 and 2040. A replacement is ready: the James Webb Space telescope (JWST), which is designed to operate in colder climates farther away from Earth. JWST is expected to detect stars in the early universe, approximately 280 million years older than the stars Hubble now detects.
Scientific advances in space are going even beyond the visualizations of science fiction. U.S. spacecraft ORSIS-Rex, for example, launched in September 2016, not only reached the near-Earth asteroid Bennu and analyzed its surface, soil and rocks for four years, but was ordered by ground control in October 2020, 220 million miles away, to descend on an area named Nightingale and attempt a “surface disruption”, meaning a touch-and-go maneuver, trying to scrap with a sampling arm dust, dirt, and rocks, securing at least 60 grams in a 46kg sample capsule. The normal cruising speed of 27,700 miles per hour was reduced, the maneuver succeeded, about one kilogram of samples were secured—a triumph for science, yes, but more to come. On May 10, the spacecraft fired its main engines, ready to return to earth. But prior to returning, the spacecraft will orbit the sun twice. On September 24, 2023, 1.4 billion miles later, above the Utah Test and Training Range, it will release a parachute with the precious cargo from space. The material is expected to enable scientists to learn more about the formation and evolution of the solar system, not least, the source of organic compounds that led to the formation of life on Earth.
The opinions expressed in this article belong to the author.


Amanda L. Mashburn graduated from the University of West Georgia (UWG) in Spring 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in Physics.
She is currently a graduate student at Kennesaw State University (KSU) pursuing a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering.
In Aug. 2016, Mrs. Mashburn was hired as the Assistant Laboratory Coordinator in the UWG Physics department. Then, in Aug. 2017, she was hired as a Laboratory Coordinator for the UWG Physics department, where she currently instructs Physics Laboratory classes and assists with the UWG Observatory.
During her time as a undergraduate, she participated in research projects in Astronomy (Photometry), Science Education, Astrophysics and Computational Atomic Physics.
She received awards for her research, such as the 1st place award for Outstanding Oral Presentation in Science Education at the Georgia Academy of Sciences in 2014. In 2016, she received 1st place in the UWG's College of Science and Mathematics Research Day, where she went on to present her research at UWG's Big Night 2016.
She was invited by UWG's President Dr. Kyle Marrero to present her research at the Leadership Development Institute (LDI) in May 2015. Her presentation can be viewed here.
Mrs. Mashburn's Astrophysics research has been published in high-impact refereed journals such as The Astrophysical Journal and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
As an undergraduate, Mrs. Mashburn was also a Teaching Assistant for the Physics department, instructing the Astronomy and Physics I & II laboratory courses, as well as the Lead Observing Assistant for the UWG Observatory.
She was the President of the Physics and Engineering Club at UWG from 2012- 2013, and oversaw the construction of a trebuchet for the public outreach event Pumpkin Chunkin'. The news article can be viewed here. A video of the trebuchet can be viewed here and here.
In Spring 2019, Mrs. Mashburn expanded her knowledge to mechanical and aerospace engineering by beginning the pursuit of an Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from KSU.
She has worked two internships as a mechanical engineering intern. In Summer 2019, she worked for UNIQ Technologies, Inc. where she assisted the Airwyse drone engineering team in developing the drone’s several subsystems.
In Summer 2020, she worked for Enercon Services, Inc. where she supported the design and analysis of changes to existing nuclear power plants as well as new plant systems.
- Principles of Physics I Laboratory (PHYS 2211L)
- Principles of Physics I Honors Laboratory (PHYS 2211L-25H)
- Principles of Physics II Laboratory (PHYS 2212L)
- Principles of Physics II Honors Laboratory (PHYS 2212L-25H)
- Introductory Physics I Laboratory (PHYS 1111L)
- Introductory Physics II Laboratory (PHYS 1112L)
Education / Degrees
- B.Sc., Physics, University of West Georgia, 2016
- M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Kennesaw State University, 2020


Today, Monday, August 21st, literal history will be made in the skies across North America. If you’re lucky enough to be in the “path of totality”, you will see one of the most incredible sights nature can deliver: a total solar eclipse with the moon completely covering the sun and, for the most part, its atmosphere (or its corona). Even if you’re on the fray of the path of totality, you will still witness a jaw-dropping partial eclipse.
Events like this hold monumental importance: they unite us when we seem to need it most. At Pepperjam, we’re taking full advantage of the opportunity to connect with events in each of our offices. We are encouraging our employees to step out of the office and be a part of something bigger than themselves, and we are having a little fun too by stepping up our usual snack room game by offering Moon pies, Sunchips and Milky Ways for everyone. Small, yet meaningful gestures go a long way in setting the experience up.
And by all accounts, this monumental global event could really constitute a holiday, of sorts. Employees, clients and partners will be distracted all day, and with good reason. A total eclipse (at any given location) typically happens just once every hundred years or so. Because of this, one can reasonably conclude that brands have been hunkering down for months in preparation for this once in a lifetime event. However, this conclusion is only partially correct: some retailers shined, and some were left in the dark. And when it comes to building momentum for widespread natural events like these, there may be nothing worse than being in the dark.
By August 18th, finding a pair of NASA approved viewing glasses was virtually impossible in brick and mortar stores and some online retailer were selling the very last of their inventory for upwards of $100 for a pair normally priced at about $1.98. No one seemed to care about the eclipse until we were right on its heels: something retailers should have considered when doling out their inventories across the US. But while some brands missed the proverbial boat, others are basking in their moment to shine (did we all see Chiquita completely winning the eclipse?). Other total eclipse winners include Denny’s (how could you go wrong with $4 all you can eat “mooncakes” today), Krispy Kreme’s “eclipse” donut deliciously moon-bathing in deep chocolate. Casper is setting up luxury tents equipped with their mattresses inside so sun gazers could see history in style and comfort. Even Twitter coined its own eclipse emoji and the internet went crazy.
The takeaway? For retailers, world-wide and national events like the total solar eclipse are excellent marketing and branding opportunities—after all, we knew this was coming for practically, ever. For us, despite being firmly grounded in the tech industry, we’re all people and we’re all connected. We should all be taking today as an opportunity to connect with each other in a real, human way.
No matter where you are today, try to take a few minutes to enjoy the eclipse and reflect on how magnificent the world really is. And if you were lucky enough to score some viewing glasses, please be sure to use them.


The year is 2419 and humans have colonized the solar system. Life on Mars is difficult, but offers a second chance to those living beneath the frigid surface.
Arriving on Mars is Marcus Truman, with only weeks left to live, but determined to secure a life denied him by cancer. With the best intentions in the world, he finds himself inextricably caught up in a lawless conspiracy trafficking in innocents and the unspeakably valuable treasure they embody.
Marshal Min Yang works to tear down the conspiracy, fighting corruption inside and outside the law. With his own life on the line and the future of Martian civilization hanging in the balance, he must win out against all odds and restore stability before it’s too late.
Available on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.
Audiobook on Amazon, Audible and iTunes.


Though you can see stars from anywhere, stargazing in the Negev desert in Israel is especially breathtaking. There is far less light pollution here, which means the night sky seems particularly astounding.
Mitzpe Ramon is a town in the Negev with the small population of about 5,000 people. It is situated on the edge overlooking the 500-meter-deep Ramon Crater.During the four weekends in August, Mitzpe Ramon hosts an unforgettable Summer of Stars Event. On those Thursday and Friday nights, all street lights will be turned off to allow for even greater viewing of the stars. There are activities suitable for the whole family, and each weekend has a special theme.
The first weekend, August 3-5th , is known as “Love Among the Stars”, as it celebrates the Jewish Valentine’s Day of Tu B’Av. There will be moonlight tours, stories of love in nature, and bonfires with marshmallows for roasting. If you are looking for some romance this weekend, you can enjoy a special meal, jazz concerts, and lectures on love and the stars. August 10-12th is the “Water and Sky” weekend featuring a solar telescope that allows viewers to visually study the sun safely during the day. Water and pool activities will also take place, rounding out the “water and sky” theme. The third weekend marks the spectacular viewing of the annual Perseids Meteor Shower. The fourth weekend is dedicated to bidding farewell to the summer holidays and recharging for the new school year.
If you are planning on attending the event this summer, please reach out to us so that we can assist you with your transportation and accommodation needs. Not going to be around this August but still want to do some stargazing during your vacation to Israel? Mazada Tours has got you covered! Simply contact us, and we will arrange a private tour in Israel that will suit your every desire.


Did you see it? Even though it’s still nearly impossible to see with the naked eye, Comet Neowise is still hovering above the skies after sunset around the area. C/2020 F3, known as Comet Neowise, sits beneath the Big Dipper in the northwestern area of the sky and can be seen now until July 26.
In Red Bank, there are certainly many different views where you can snag a photo of Neowise — even potentially seeing it with a pair of binoculars. We went down by Marine Park with the beautiful majestic Navesink River in the background, and despite the humidity, were offered some breathtaking sunset views.
Sunset has been close to 8:30 p.m., but you won’t be able to photograph Comet Neowise until closer to 9:00 p.m. Still, you’ll get better results come 9:30 p.m. and onward because there’s still a bit of light hovering around the horizon. Using long exposure photography, we’re able to clearly make out the tail of Comet Neowise. It’s not something you would typically see in the night sky, so you’re mesmerized when you do see it in picture because it’s one of those rare opportunities.
As we mentioned above, you can still catch a photo of Comet Neowise until July 26. In the meantime, you can check all of our photos below to get a glimpse of it.


During my recent trip to Utah, I caught a late morning moon “cradled” in a nook of the mountains above me. I’ve always loved the moon – and snapping pictures of it – and I enjoyed this unique (for me) framing of the moon. At home in Maryland, I don’t get many clear shots of the moon because of all of the trees!
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Dutch Astronaut and his favorite cheese descend to earth
A while back we posted about Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers, who requested cheese while aboard the International Space Station. So it's fitting that the same day Kuipers returned to Earth on July 1st, several hundred cubes of Old Amsterdam touched down in the Netherlands, complete with tiny parachutes.
On the morning of July 1, 2012, people in Hoek van Holland in the Netherlands were surprised when they saw hundreds of parachutes with cheese cubes attached to them landing on the beach. The cheese cubes seemed to be falling from the sky. The reason for this landing was the safe return to Earth of Dutch astronaut André Kuipers.


I See the Moon (Inscribed by Author) | A. L. Patterson Publisher: Writers Inc. (2003) ISBN-13: 095846782x Condition: Very good. Slight rubbing to covers. Otherwise clean, and tightly bound. Binding: Softcover Pages: 300 Dimensions: 21 x 14,8 x 1,8cm SKU: IZb0623 Weight: 0,45kg Price: R90,00
Weight: 0.45 kg
We currently have 1 in stock.
Please see photo for synopsis/table of contents/more details of book.


I saw the Sun, and it seemed to me I was seeing a glorious goddess; To Her I bowed for one last time in this world of Time.
– Song of the Sun, Edda poem Solarljod
New Year’s Eve is the threshold between our very recent past and our near future. December 31st is the bridge that links the darkest and longest day of Winter Solstice and the return of the sun. Our choices, our character and our past will lead us to this time of reflection. The doorway into the New Year lies charged with all that we have experienced and learned, and breathes mighty with the possibilities of our wishes and dreams. It is here that we must stand thankful for all that has been, willing to let go and create space for the new, and remain open to what is yet to come. The shadow dance between dark and light is an ever-vigilant presence and yet is especially brutal and breathtaking as it settles in for the winter months in Norway. This duality is the backdrop for the New Year’s Eve, where past and future collide in a burst of color.
Nowhere have I witnessed the magnitude, grace and beauty of the almost all-encompassing darkness to befall the days of winter as I have within the northern islands of Norway called Lofoten. The Lofoten islands rest within the Arctic Circle, and it is here that both the splendor and might of true night seeps steadily into the days, as sunlight is often only glimpsed for but an hour or two, if any, and is robed in a few stray rays of grey light.
It is believed that earliest settlers of Lofoten can be traced back to over 11,000 years, and Norse mythology chants of the darkness that comes to blanket the region and the glimmers of light as it slowly begins its rebirth. Tourists from all over the world flock to Lofoten over the summer months to experience the great beauty of the archipelago and revel in awe-inspiring nature, but winter to me is the most enchanting experience. The battle waged between darkness and light, is eternal, for they are two halves of the same whole as they sustain one another, and to witness it within ourselves and see it reflected across the night sky is a majestic and humbling feat.
The pagans of Scandinavia saw the embodiment of the sun as an elfin sung goddess, who during the winter months is swallowed up by the darkness of the winter wolf. The Sami called her Beaivi Nieida meaning the “Sun Maiden” and it was believed that she was the source of all life. As her rays touched the earth, life was breathed into the fields and the wombs of all living things. When you find yourself enveloped in a darkness that seems to encompass both the day and night within itself, you will know how every shard of light must be preserved, remembered and renewed.
The Aurora Borealis have been written about, painted and beautifully photographed, but absolutely nothing can compare to actually being able to experience the night sky as it moves with majesty of colors we often reserve for pictures taken in space. This ever-shifting spectrum of color is named for the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for wind, Boreas. I love to photograph, but there are moments in time where memory has to be allowed to be the lone witness, and such is the case when viewing the Aurora Borealis. The hues of blues and greens glide across the star scattered sky with such grace, that you almost want to hold your breath, to freeze the moment in time, for even within the span of seconds the tapestry of the sky is eternally changing.
The first time I saw the Northern Lights, I lowered my camera and stood in perfect awe. I have always loved the night sky scattered with stars, and on a trip through the desert from California to Las Vegas, I remembered thinking that as long as I could look up at the sky and see stars, I would never feel lonely. Watching the ribbons of ethereal light cascade across the Norwegian skies, I am reminded of all the people I love and somehow, no matter how far across the world we may find ourselves, the connections remain ever strong.
According to Hermetic writings, Earth mirrors the great heavens and is best encased in the quote “ As above, so below”. Perhaps my absolute favorite tradition to observe both on Christmas and New Years in Norway is the lighting of candles upon all the graves. These are the shards of light and love that break through the darkness, just as the sun goddess breaks free from the belly of the wolf, and enters the cycle of rebirth anew. Facing the ocean and the winds with their might and ability to bring change, held close by the embrace of those we love both living and those who have passed, supported by the steadfastness of the earth and the mountains, we are reminded that we are beings of light, and the light will always find a way.
The glow of candles in the cemetery breathes softly and the night skies are clear, scattered with starlight and the light of the new dawn blown by the winds in shades of primordial blues and greens. We hold hands and firecrackers in our free hands, because the world is made of light bursting through the dark.


Theoretical astrophysicist Michael S. Turner, director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago, will present two lectures on Thursday, April 14.
Turner’s first lecture, “Cosmic Acceleration and Dark Energy,” will begin at 3 p.m. His talk will review the present status of the mystery of cosmic acceleration, which is the observation that the expansion of the universe is speeding up. Refreshments will be served at 2:45 p.m.
His second lecture, “How Many Universes?” will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Life Sciences Lecture Hall, Room 3. It explores the development of knowledge and understanding of the extent of the universe in both space and time. The talk will end with speculations about the multiverse and its philosophical implications. The presentation is supported by the American Astronomical Society. Refreshments will be served at 7:15 p.m.
Turner is the Bruce V. and Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. A native of Los Angeles, Turner attended public schools, received his bachelor of science and master of science degrees from Caltech and his doctorate from Stanford. He also holds an honorary doctorate in science from Michigan State University. He helped to pioneer the interdisciplinary field of particle astrophysics and cosmology, for which he shared the 2010 Dannie Heineman Prize, and with Edward Kolb initiated the Fermilab astrophysics program, which accounts for about 10 percent of the lab’s activities.
Turner also led the National Academy study “Quarks to the Cosmos,” which laid out the strategic vision for the field. Turner’s scholarly contributions including predicting cosmic acceleration and coining the term dark energy, showing how quantum fluctuations evolved into the seed perturbations for galaxies during cosmic inflation, and several key ideas that led to the cold dark matter theory of structure formation. His honors include the Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society, the Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society, the Klopsted Award of the American Association of Physics Teachers, the Heineman Prize (with Kolb) of the AAS and American Insitute of Physics and the 2011 Darwin Lecture of the Royal Astronomical Society. Turner’s former Ph.D. students hold faculty positions at leading universities around the country, at national laboratories and on Wall Street. He has served as chief scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, assistant director for the Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the National Science Foundation, chair of the department of astronomy and astrophysics and president of the Aspen Center for Physics. Turner’s recent national service includes membership on the NRC’s Astronomy Decadal Survey and Board on Physics and Astronomy, and membership on the NASA Advisory Committee and on the senior editorial board of Science magazine. Turner is currently chairman of the board of the Aspen Center for Physics, a director of the Fermi Research Alliance and a member of the governing board of the National Academy of Sciences. Turner was elected to the presidential-line of the American Physical Society in 2010 and will serve as its president in 2013.
Sponsored by USA’s department of physics, the lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the department of physics at (251) 460-6224.


The concept of Mission Z Mars fashion comes from our understanding of Mars, Mission Z hopes to lead the era of Mars. Mission Z Mars Fashion hopes to create a civilized society belonging to human beings in outer space on Mars, including fashion, metaverse social and gamefi.
Following in the footsteps of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the mission Z group will be unwavering in its commitment to colonizing Mars and making humans a multi-planetary species. Looking forward to a self-sufficient city on Mars in 20 years.
At the same time, the mission Z group hopes to be able to deploy in various fields of Mars City. Design source of Z fashion: Fashion in the Enlightenment of Elegance "Space Age"In the 1960s, the moon landing plan, which represented the highest level of human science and technology, once aroused a new "futuristic" style in the fashion circle. Since then, the fusion of fashion and technology has affected groups of people.
With the continuous development of the aerospace industry and the continuous changes of fashion aesthetics, we have integrated more elements into fashion, ushering in a more diverse and richer era of "space fashion".
The "space department" looks that seem to transcend the times all show people the huge imagination of the concept of wearing in the age of technology, whether it is technology or fashion, it is precisely because of the yearning for "space", it is precisely because we have for Space is still so poorly understood that it is so fascinating.
The unknown is always the driving force behind Mission Z's curiosity and fascination with beauty and its constant exploration.


Tesla, the space-age, energy efficient company from PayPal’s acquisition of SolarBotanic is headed by none other than, Elon Reeve Musk, the man known to the world as the Internet’s greatest technological innovator. To date, he has managed to launch nine successful satellites into orbit, the very first of which launched in late 2021. Musk is also responsible for the successful PayPal acquisition and the creation of the PayPal brand. In terms of his contributions to the space program, he is listed on the Space Shuttle Endeavour Commission as an executive engineer, with a number of additional positions held with NASA, including Mission Control. To date, no man has reached or surpassed the top spot on the Space Shuttle Program’s all time list of total flight hours flown, a title held only by astronauts, although many aerospace engineers and scientists believe that the record is close to being broken.
Musk is also well known for his innovation and design streak, having been a key player in the development of many high-tech aspects of today’s aviation industry. He was responsible for the development of the fully-latable, low-pressure inflatable structure for the space shuttle, as well as the solid nosecone design that act as the attachment point for the vehicle’s skin. From the innovative design standpoint, his has also designed and created the B-Pod, a full-scale, seven-passenger aircraft that can hold two to three crew members, depending on the particular configuration. Although some have criticized his designs as overly exaggerated and overly complicated, others have lauded his achievements as providing proof of the potential of air travel, space travel, and high-tech manufacturing concepts. For this reason, SpaceX, which is based out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, where Musk holds his primary office, continues to progress with its plans for both manned and unmanned space exploration.
Musk is no doubt an innovator, having seemingly unceasingly taken the thoughts and concepts that he discovered while studying at college and put them into fruition with his innovative business pursuits. Although SpaceX will most likely not reach the moon, it is still developing technologies to send astronauts to and from the International Space Station. While we wait, let’s all take a moment to admire the visionary genius that is Elon Musk. As he ventures into all different areas of business, from technology to space flight, we will continue to watch with interest how his innovative talents to impact the world.


I saw this little activity initially on Pinterest and quickly added it to my board. Then, for some crazy reason, it was no longer there. Fortunately, I managed to find directions on a couple of other websites (here’s one). One listed the distance of the planets and moon from the sun in inches and another had print-outs of the planets. We combined the two sites to create the activity below.
We used the orange golf ball to represent the sun.
A little science, a little math, a lotta fun, this is what I call home-“schooling”.


Capturing ‘star trails’ can be a very challenging yet rewarding task. My steps will provide correct methods that you can use to create a astounding image.
First you will need two key pieces of equipment. This includes: a camera that can take long exposure images and a tripod.
After collecting your equipment, find a spot away from street lights and light pollution. Next, mount your camera on your tripod and point it at the sky. For a star trail image that revolves around one star, direct your camera at the star “Polaris” since the earth rotates around that star. Next, set your camera to a 20-30 second shutter time, an f-stop of 5.6 or 8, ISO 800, and infinite focus mode. These settings are subject to change pending on your location, camera, and personal creativity. A similar method is described in this article: http://photoextremist.com/star-trails-tutorial
Now it is time to shoot. Since I have the Nikon D5100, I can set the interval timer so that the camera automatically takes a photo every X amount of time. If your camera does not have this mode, you will have to manually press the shutter release every X seconds.
When you have a sufficient amount of photos (200+) you can conclude your time taking photos. After importing the photos into photoshop, layer them on top of each other using the blending options (this video shows how to do this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMERM7qQ_Ng)


P&S Journal: Spring 1995, Vol.15, No.2
Space Visual Sciences Center Proposed
Scientists at the Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute have made NASA officials an unprecedented offer to track the long-term visual health of its astronaut corps in return for NASA's support of a Visual Sciences Center at Columbia. Dr. Basil Worgul, professor of radiation biology in ophthalmology, says the project marks one giant leap for both the University and NASA.
"Historically, the medical care of astronauts has been the domain of the Johnson Space Center and will remain so," Dr. Worgul says. "We want to take it one step further. We want to study the eye not only to examine it from a medical point of view but because of its importance to the success of a mission."
The eye contains cells and tissues that resemble other vital body systems, making this "window to the world" a practical "window to within," Dr. Worgul says. The center's scientists would track the eye health of the existing astronaut corps through non-invasive clinical exams and highly specialized imaging procedures during the next two decades of space activities in low earth orbit (LEO). Such a long-term, non-invasive follow-up would enable scientists to predict how the visual system will respond to deep space travel.
"We don't anticipate seeing clinical changes from LEO activities because they're going to be relatively short-term at each interval, maybe 30 to 90 days a year," Dr. Worgul says. "But we feel that with our equipment we would be able to detect sub-clinical changes with a high degree of resolution, which can give us a certain amount of insight into the probable influence of more extended space travel. At the very least, the opportunity to extensively analyze what amounts to a physiologically elite group could also give us an opportunity to rewrite a lot of ophthalmology books."
The effects of ions on the visual system in space became known when the crew members of Apollo 11 reported seeing light flashes, streaks, and "star bursts" during their mission. "What these turned out to be were heavy ions in the cosmic radiation flux coming through the ship, through their heads, through their retinas and in many cases out the other side of the ship," Dr. Worgul says. "We have shown that they probably did not cause ocular damage during their traverses, but they did cause visual responses by ionization. The retina certainly did not suffer a hole for each traverse as some people were predicting, which is good. An average 10-day lunar trip, in and out, generated about 1,200 hits per square centimeter of astronaut."
Still, while NASA officials blueprint missions to Mars and beyond, no one knows for sure how the visual system will react in a deep space environment. "There are predictions of various sorts that astronauts on the way to Mars in a three-year scenario-one year out, one year there, and one year back-will be exposed to heavy ions from cosmic radiations," Dr. Worgul says. "At least one theory holds that about 30 percent of all the nuclei of all the cells of their bodies will be traversed by particles depositing energies exceeding 100,000 electron volts for each micron traveled."
Dr. Worgul expects NASA to respond to the offer within a year. Meanwhile, he considers the proposed center a unique opportunity for both parties. "We have an outstanding faculty in the eye field so interested in the nature of this study that they're willing to examine astronauts over the course of their active lifetimes for no compensation. We also have a number of laboratories which have generated prototypic equipment for quantitative assessment of the human eye, copies of which exist very sparsely throughout the world. By intensively examining such a population and having the appropriate controls, we could provide a greater understanding of the visual system while compiling experience extending across different populations and different ages."


We discuss a proposal to make small artificial black holes (ABH's) using a huge laser. Because of Hawking radiation, they would be extremely powerful energy sources. We investigate the technical problems of using them to make power plants and starships. The first suggestion is due to Hawking. Next, we consider what challenges the ABH proposal would pose for a future quantum theory of gravity. The form of a theory which would allow us to compute the necessary corrections to classical theory is considered. It is widely believed that every black hole produces a new baby universe on the other side of its singularity. If this is true, ABH technology will involve future humanity in the creation process of universes. Finally, we ponder the effects that the ABH proposal would have on the culture of a future society, particularly if the baby universe theory is correct. The changes in our economic life and understanding of our role in the cosmos would be so profound as to have a "spiritual" aspect.
First prize winner FQXi contest "On the limits of Physics"


He speaks to the sun and it does not shine he seals off the light of the stars new living translation if he commands it, the sun won't rise and the stars won't. The sun never sets or rises, it stays the same distance over the earth they do not escape to the underside of the flat-earth as one might imagine, but rather. When the sun does not rise by awake writer in finland “the sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises,” says the bible. What would happen to life on earth if the sun were to burn out how long would the earth's atmosphere has some capacity to hold in heat but not much of one. If the planets, for example, suddenly stopped moving they would the moon suddenly disappeared as it no longer had the sun's light to reflect.
What would happen to the earth if the sun suddenly switched off the rate of submission of this question has risen even further, so i've decided to do my best to answer it if i'm not sure whether anyone wants to do that, but you never know. Increased greenhouse gases cannot explain a temperature rise that occurred even if the sun's energy output did not vary as it does, the amount of sunlight. If the sun were to suddenly disappear, earth and the other planets would retain their forward motion, no one has any idea what would happen if that occurred. Right now the sun does not rise or set at all, it just spins around the sky well the earth is on its axis and when the antarctic are tilted away.
But here on earth there'd be no life without the light it gives naked eye, it's still the source of energy that gave rise to all of the life on earth that we know how long would it take for us to notice if the sun stopped shining. For all you night owls, don't worry these places also have a period of time when the sun does not rise for days let's find out where and how this amazing. At the summer solstice, the sun rises as far to the northeast as it ever does, and many, if not most, prehistoric cultures tracked these rising and settings points. Sunrise or sun up is the moment when the upper limb of the sun appears on the horizon in the although the sun appears to rise from the horizon, it is actually the earth's motion that causes the sun to appear twilight, the period in the morning during which the sky is brightening, but the sun is not yet visible.
From june 10 until june 17, the sun will not rise in the sky as it use to according to nasa (or if not nasa,the source), they sun light will be. The sun in barrow set earlier this month on nov 18, and it will not rise again until next year: jan 22, 2017, to be exact, according forget balance transfer cards if you're in debt (do this instead)freedom debt relief undo. News that the sun had peeked over the horizon on jan marks the latitude at which the sun does not set during the summer solstice (when the top at the north pole, the sun rises only once a year — at the start of spring.
It's no exaggeration to say the sun sustains life here on earth -- it provides not only light and warmth but also the energy that helps keep us. This means that the sun does not rise earlier by a fixed number of the 'solar noon' – the moment when the sun appears highest above the. I would have expected that the sun would rise in the north east and set in when the sun sets furthest to the north it is winter, when it sets due.
If the sun went out how long would life on earth survive. If sun does not rise it implies → earth has stop rotating results → disaster , most probably end of human race earth rotates on its axis from west towards east. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night but when the sun had risen, they were scorched and because they had no root, they withered. When does the sun not rise in the east and set in the west because earth spins, counter-clockwise if we look down at the north pole.
We are talking about places in the world where the sun never sets imagine, the day never ends and you don't know when to sleep, when to. That would be jared goff, who went to cal, ranked by us news as asked if she knew yet where the sun rose, he responded, no, but but fassel said no one should be surprised if players are unaware that the sun rises. I get up in the dark, long before the grey light arrives, and step out into the of at least 24 hours when the sun does not rise above the horizon. However, the vast majority of ideas are recycled – and it is when we fail to we still say that the sun rises and sets, or that we cast a glance over a page, it might not be scientific, but is it any more silly than looking at a.
In a few billion years, the sun will become a red giant so large that it will engulf our planet when the star has hydrogen to burn, the creation of helium it is widely understood that the earth as a planet will not survive the. Physicist: the side of the earth facing the sun would quickly become hotter than very quickly (within a few minutes) after the sun rises at the if the earth were not spinning, the moon would very, very slowly start earth's. As the celestial sphere turns about the ncp, no stars rise or set, instead the same set if sun is north of the celestial equator (a positive declination) it too will be.


The planetary system contains the Sunshine as well as the planets it orbits, plus their moons, rings, and such “fragments” as planets and comets. Stargazers are actually discovering more concerning this system continuously, with telescopes and also Earth-launched space probes.
Our solar body formed about 4.5 billion years ago. It outgrew a thick region in an interstellar cloud of dirt and fuel. read here
The Sunshine is actually the superstar at the facility of our sunlight body. It is actually an enormous, warm ball of plasma televisions that gives off radiation in the kind of obvious lighting, infrared, ultraviolet as well as X-rays. This radioactive particles supplies a lot of the electricity needed forever on Planet.
Deep in the Sunshine’s primary, atomic combination takes spot to transform hydrogen right into helium. This procedure misshapes the framework of the celebrity as well as makes features like sunspots as well as flares. When these features launch high-energy fragments right into room, they can easily interfere with gps communication and result in the “geomagnetic storms” that occasionally interrupt power frameworks in the world.
The Sunlight is actually surrounded by a substantial blister of billed fragments called the heliosphere, which defenses earths and their moons from fast interstellar fragments understood as planetary radiations. This bubble prolongs out to regarding 2,000 AU, the proximity of the Oort cloud, where long-period comets dwell.
Our planetary system contains the Sunlight, 8 planets and their countless moons and also asteroids. It also consists of an extensive swath of extremely rare fuel as well as dust understood as the interplanetary tool. Our device formed 4,500 million years earlier and also performs some of the external spiral arms of the Galaxy universe.
The Moon orbits The planet in an elliptical trainer style that takes about 27 days to complete a single rotation. This brings about the Moon’s periods and also enables sun and lunar eclipses. Its surface is pockmarked along with scars coming from the countless meteorites that have actually hit it over the years. Yet beneath its own rough crust exists lava, which has actually appeared for billions of years.
The smallest moons are Deimos at Mars, Ganymede at Jupiter, Titan at Solar System as well as Iapetus on Pluto. There are actually greater than 210 well-known nomadic moons, plus a lot more in the planet waistband and the big rings of Jupiter, Solar System, Uranus as well as Neptune. The Voyager probes uncovered 6 earlier uncounted moons of Neptune that vary in dimension coming from thirty three to 250 kilometers around.
The planets in our photovoltaic unit developed coming from a rotating cloud of gasoline as well as dirt. The center of the cloud fell down as a result of to gravitational force and developed the Sun. Over time, wrecks between fragments in the bordering cloud barged all together to form rough and gaseous planets.
These earths orbit the Sunlight in ellipses, with each one’s proximity from the center of the Sun (periodic span) varying slightly. The earths that orbit closest to the Sun are actually Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars; those that orbit further away are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and also Neptune. Just About Pluto (right now thought about a dwarf earth) possess rings around them.
The internal earths possess rough, sound areas and also are actually intensely cratered; the exterior earths possess heavy gases that offer all of them the appearance of being ice titans. All of the planets have moons.
The Dwarf Planets
The planetary system possesses five “formal” dwarf worlds– Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Makemake, and also Haumea. In enhancement, stargazers think about a variety of trans-Neptunian items, consisting of Gonggong (2007 OR10), Quaoar, Sedna, Orcus, 2002 MS4, and Salacia, to be applicants for the classification. The measurements of these objects may simply be actually approximated located on their presumed albedos, and also as a result the specific lot of dwarf planets in our sunlight device is actually unknown.
The discovery of these overshadows has induced conflict, especially due to the fact that they are actually certainly not large sufficient to qualify as true earths under the rigorous interpretation used due to the International Astronomical Alliance. Some Pluto lovers criticized the experts that named them, as well as some of the finders obtained hate mail coming from smashed 6-year-olds.
These dwarfs might have rocky centers surrounded by ice, as the asteroid Ceres performs. They may likewise have moons, as the icy Eris carries out, and the rocky Haumea performs. Their tracks signify that they were actually the moment portion of a much larger world, which obtained taken apart throughout a time frame of gravitational interruption contacted behind time heavy barrage. In the course of this opportunity, Jupiter, Solar System, and Neptune shifted inward towards the Sun, knocking clutter right into their tracks.
The Solar Body has the Sunshine, 8 earths, their moons, about 290 thousand planets and also much more than 3,900 comets. It developed 4,500 million years earlier, as well as it orbits the facility of our Galaxy Galaxy in some of its own external spiral arms.
The four stony planets closest to the Sunshine are Mercury, Venus, The Planet and also Mars. Beyond them rests the asteroid district, an area including countless small rough things that are leftovers coming from the accumulation of the global disk. The gasoline giants, Jupiter, Solar System, Uranus and Neptune, pack the void in between the asteroid waistband as well as the Sunlight.
Comets are actually blends of ice, rock and also dirt that loop with the Solar System in lengthened elliptical trainer orbits. When a comet comes close to the Sunshine, it warms up and its icy products transform directly from solid ice to gas in a method gotten in touch with sublimation. This releases dirt bits that develop a tail that directs far from the Sunlight. An additional rear of neutral ions extends in an upright line coming from the Sunlight, a graceful contour that offers all of them their label as “grimy snowballs.” Astronomers think that short-period comets, which orbit the Sunlight in lower than 200 years, come from the Kuiper district and long-period comets stem from the Oort Cloud, a disc-shaped location that extends beyond Neptune’s orbit.


The GI team attended the COVID-safe inaugural Australian Space Awards in Sydney. We were thrilled to be recognised by the industry, winning the award for 'Innovator of the Year - Company'.
The inaugural awards program, hosted by Space Connect and principal partner KBR, successfully celebrated an exceptional field of over 120 finalists shortlisted from over 366 submissions representing 60 companies, across the length and breadth of Australia's growing space industry.
The awards were also supported by the Australian Space Agency and the Space Industry Association of Australia (SIAA), the government and industry peak body, which provide a pivotal role in providing the policy direction and support for developing the nation's industry.
The awards program is designed to recognise professionals and organisations and covers 20+ categories focusing on all facets of the space industry. The awards celebrates the best of the best in Australia’s space industry and will recognise the outstanding contribution of professionals and businesses working within the industry across 22 categories.


Inside the Eid al-Fitr moon wars
While many UK Muslims rely on pronouncements from Saudi Arabia to call an end to Ramadan, others are looking to our own stars
On Thursday 20 April, around 50 people gathered in the chill night air at the top of the Northala Fields View Point, a 22 metre mound on the edge of North London that offers a panoramic view of the city. The crowd had assembled in an attempt to sight the new crescent moon, marking the end of Ramadan.
Over plates of samosas, spring rolls, vegetable biryani and fruit, attendees patiently waited for the sky to darken, hopefully allowing them to view the position of planets and stars, which would, in turn, help them to identify the moon without any need for telescopes or other magnification.
“You don’t need any special equipment or charts to see the moon,” said Akhlaaq Abdur-Razzaque, an astrophotographer and national coordinator of the New Crescent Society, an astronomical organisation that aims to “celebrate the relationship between Islam, astronomy and faith” by teaching people how to sight the moon with the naked eye — a skill rooted in the sunnah of the prophet Muhammad.
“You just need a clear view of the sun when it sets, and the new moon won’t be far from that,” he added.
Despite reports from His Majesty’s Nautical Almanac Office stating that the new crescent moon would be impossible to view in the UK, many of the country’s mosques had already announced the end of Ramadan based on the new moon allegedly having been seen in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
That declaration had thrown the Eid al-Fitr plans of some of my companions into disarray — not least because their families would likely celebrate on different days.
Not all Muslims try to view the new moon independently. For many — especially those living in western nations — confirmation of Eid will usually arrive via their mosque, in the form of a text message, email or WhatsApp notification. Those communications usually state that the new moon has been sighted in a Muslim-majority country, such as Morocco, Iran or Egypt.
In most cases, mosques have relied on proclamations made by Saudi Arabia. In 2002, the country established the Umm al-Qura calendar, a modernised lunar calendar that aims to predict the first sighting of the new crescent moon anywhere in the world. For many Muslims, regardless of their proximity to Saudi Arabia or the Middle East, this calendar has ended up deciding when they can officially stop fasting.
However, this outsourcing of moon sighting has also sparked what have become known as “moon wars”: annual disputes — and the occasional heated argument — over the validity of particular moon sightings and whether a single country has the right to declare the end of Ramadan for all of the world’s 1.9 billion Muslims.
While a number of international Islamic bodies, including the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), subscribe to the Umm al-Qura calendar, other groups and scholars are much more wary. Some go as far as to openly question its methodology and accuracy.
In 2021, the UK-based Islamic scholar Shaykh Suliman Ghani argued that for more than a decade, the calendar had been sighting the moon “a day earlier than when it is physically possible to see the new crescent”, and that its readings of lunar positions were frequently at odds with the moon visibility charts recorded by other astronomers.
Criticism has long been levelled at the Saudi calendar, even by people living in the Middle East and North Africa. In 2011, Maged Abou Zahra, then president of Jeddah Astronomical Society, told Egyptian media that Saudi Arabia’s prediction of that year’s Eid moon was near-impossible in practice.
That meant it was possible that Muslims around the world following Saudi advice would be ending their fasts a day before they were supposed to. While Saudi authorities rejected Zahra’s statements, the controversy fuelled growing calls for Muslims to start using more scientific methods to conduct moon sightings in their home countries.
Among those voices was Imad Ahmed, a doctoral candidate at Cambridge University, who started the New Crescent Society in 2016.
“Emotions around moon sightings are really high, and we’ve heard stories about family disputes and even imams being sacked from mosques for disagreeing with the moon sightings of other countries” he told me, adding that relying on other countries to declare that sighting of a new moon is “a relatively recent phenomenon”.
For him, the origins of the UK’s moon wars may be traced to Muslim migration in the 20th century, when “poor weather and overcast skies meant it was difficult to make a naked eye observation.”
Since its inception, the New Crescent Society has trained dozens of moon sighters, who attend monthly sighting events across the country, including flagship demonstrations at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. Ahmed believes that the group’s popularity can be attributed to the fact that “most people find a sense of wonder, spirituality when looking toward the stars”. However, he went on to say that interest in the New Crescent Society is also driven by practicality.
“Relying on secondary information on moon sightings can have negative impacts on Muslims,” he said. “We’ve heard of families who have never celebrated Eid together because they always have disagreements on when the new moon has been sighted or are disagreeing on whether the source of information is accurate.”
According to Ahmed, such disagreements can also undermine trust in mosques. His proposed solution is for UK Muslims to create their own Islamic lunar calendar, based on astronomical sightings made within the country.
It’s an idea that has been attempted before. In 1984, Dr Iqbal Sacranie, the founding secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, tried to bring mosque leaders from different denominations and areas together to agree on using data from the Royal Observatory to determine the beginning and end of Ramadan. While many initially agreed, some eventually reverted back to the sightings made by Morocco and Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed believes that the years’ worth of data collected by the New Crescent Society provides a strong foundation upon which UK Muslims can build their own lunar calendar. He considers doing so important for future generations to “establish their own communities and build institutions within the UK.” Among the additional benefits of a UK Muslim lunar calendar is the potential for Eid to be recognised as an official holiday — something that the majority of young Muslims in the UK support, but that cannot be acted upon as long as internal disagreements as to its actual date exist.
As expected, we were not able to see the moon from the Northala Fields View Point. According to Akhlaaq Abdur-Razzaque, national coordinator of the New Crescent Society, its movements were too close to the sun, meaning that it would be impossible to make a naked-eye sighting from any angle.
Still, he believed that braving the cold and attempting our own sighting was worth it. While we may not have seen the moon, we did locate Venus, which would have been impossible to see if we weren’t on top of the mound. As we watched a group of children sight the planet, Abdur-Razzaque explained that the importance of public astronomy is not solely based on its ability to confirm the accuracy of significant dates on the Islamic calendar.
“Astronomy inspires a sense of wonder,” he said. “It allows us to appreciate everything Allah has given us”.
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Engineers calculated that the spacecraft, traveling a scorching 8,700 mph, bombed into the planet’s heavily pockmarked surface at 3:26 p.m. ET Thursday. It was not a gentle goodbye: The impact was expected to pulverize the car-sized spaceship and gouge out a 50-foot crater — big enough to accommodate a school bus — near Mercury’s north pole.
Engineers calculated that the spacecraft belly-flopped onto the cratered terrain on the far side of Mercury, when the ship was out of contact with Earth.
“We monitored Messenger’s beacon signal for about 20 additional minutes,” said mission operations manager Andy Calloway of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. “It was strange to think during that time Messenger had already impacted, but we could not confirm it immediately due to the vast distance across space between Mercury and Earth.”
“We’re really sad to see this, because Messenger has been a fabulous mission,” Brown University’s James Head, a co-investigator on the mission, said before the impact. “It’s an exhilarating time, but also really poignant.”
At least Messenger went down with a fight and in a blaze of glory. Edging ever closer to Mercury because of the effects of the sun’s gravity, the ship, its fuel tanks dry, was supposed to meet its destiny in March. But creative engineers bought their craft an extra month of life by repurposing Messenger’s stockpile of helium, used to pressurize the fuel tanks. Leftover helium was expelled from the spacecraft’s thrusters, nudging the ship away from the looming surface.


Russian cosmonaut and the first woman to make a lengthy voyage into space. She flew on the 1994-1995 Soyuz TM-20 mission and later joined the crew of a 1997 NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis mission.
She graduated from Moscow Bauman High Technical College in 1980 with a degree in mechanical engineering.
She flew two spaceflights and stayed five months aboard the Mir Space Station.
She married fellow cosmonaut Valeri Ryumin.
Her second spaceflight on STS-84 was commanded by Charles J. Precourt.