Latest Moon Stories
Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, announced this past weekend that it is planning to send a manned mission to the moon by 2030, reports RIA Novosti. The space agency said that it will start off resuming its lunar activities by 2015 by using an unmanned space ship. Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin voiced back in January that the agency desired to set up a manned moon research base with European and U.S. partners. Popovkin said that there were plans to either set up a moon base, or...
WASHINGTON, April 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Research by NASA and international scientists concludes giant asteroids, similar or larger than the one believed to have killed the dinosaurs, hit Earth billions of years ago with more frequency than previously thought. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) To cause the dinosaur extinction, the killer asteroid that impacted Earth 65 million years ago would have been almost 6 miles (10 kilometers) in...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Moon Express, a Google Lunar X PRIZE contender, announced today that some of the world's leading planetary scientists have joined its Science Advisory Board (SAB) to assist the company in its plans to explore and ultimately mine the Moon for precious planetary resources. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120424/SF93286) (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110723/SF40417LOGO) Moon Express Chief Scientist and...
PITTSBURGH, April 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Astrobotic Technology today announced a NASA contract to determine whether its polar rover can deploy an ice-prospecting payload to the Moon. The ice could yield water, oxygen, methane and rocket propellant to dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration. "Astrobotic seeks the immense resources available on the Moon to both accelerate space exploration and improve life on Earth," said David Gump, president. "The lunar path is near...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Moon Express, a Google Lunar X PRIZE contender, announced today that it has successfully delivered a mission design package to NASA under its Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) Program, providing NASA continuing data on the development of the company's commercial lunar missions and plans to mine the Moon for precious planetary resources. The newest task order in the $10M ILDD contract called for Moon Express to provide...
[ Watch the Video ] Imagine yourself in orbit, your spacecraft flying backward with its small window facing down toward the surface of the moon. You peer out, scouring the ash-colored contours of the cratered landscape for traces of ancient volcanic activity. Around you, the silent, velvety blackness of space stretches out in every direction. The spacecraft rolls over, and you glimpse a sliver of intense light starting to climb over the rough horizon. It might be dawn, except that the...
A new chemical analysis of lunar material collected by Apollo astronauts in the 1970s conflicts with the widely held theory that a giant collision between Earth and a Mars-sized object gave birth to the moon 4.5 billion years ago. In the giant-collision scenario, computer simulations suggest that the moon had two parents: Earth and a hypothetical planetary body that scientists call “Theia.” But a comparative analysis of titanium from the moon, Earth and meteorites, published by Junjun...
Lawrence LeBlond for RedOrbit.com The Moon, Earth’s closest companion for more than 4 billion years, is the object of a new theory on how our planet’s own natural satellite was created, reports ScienceNOW. It is scientifically believed that Earth collided with a hypothetical Mars-sized planet called Theia early in its existence producing a disc of magma that orbited Earth and eventually amalgamated to form the Moon. Under this giant impact hypothesis, models show that the theory...
Space scientists from the University of New Hampshire and multi-institutional colleagues report they have quantified levels of radiation on the moon's surface from galactic cosmic ray (GCR) bombardment that over time causes chemical changes in water ice and can create complex carbon chains similar to those that help form the foundations of biological structures. In addition, the radiation process causes the lunar soil, or regolith, to darken over time, which is important in understanding the...
In honor of 1,000 days in orbit, the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) team at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Md. has released two new videos. One video takes viewers through the moon's evolutionary history, and reveals how it came to appear the way it does today. Another video gives viewers a guided tour of prominent locations on the moon's surface, compiled by the spacecraft's observations of the moon. "Evolution of the Moon" explains why the moon did not always...
Latest Moon Reference Libraries
Harrison Schmitt was a NASA astronaut, and is also an American geologist. He was born Harrison Hagan "Jack" Schmitt on July 3, 1935 in Santa Rita, New Mexico. After high school, he went to the California Institute of Technology and received a B.S. degree in science in 1957. He then went to Norway to study geology at the University of Oslo. In 1964, Schmitt earned a Ph.D. in geology from Harvard University. After receiving his doctorate, he worked at the U.S. Geological Survey's...
Edgar Mitchell was an American pilot, engineer, and astronaut. He was also the sixth person to have walked on the moon. He was born Edgar Dean Mitchell, D.Sc. on born September 17, 1930 in Hereford, Texas. During his childhood, he was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. He attended Carnegie Institute of Technology and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial management in 1952. The following year he joined the US Navy and trained...
James Irwin was an American astronaut, an engineer, and was the eighth person to walk on the moon. He was born James Benson Irwin on March 17, 1930 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He lived a fairly normal childhood and graduated from East High School in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1947. He went on to attend the United States Naval Academy and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1951. Following the Naval Academy, he attended the University of Michigan and earned a Master of Science in...
Robert Grant Aitken (December 31, 1864 "“ October 29, 1951) was an American inventor born in Jackson, CA. Aitken worked at the Lick Observatory in California where he systematically studied double stars, measuring their positions and calculating their orbits around one another. He methodically created a large catalog of such stars, which was published in 1932. It was entitled "˜New General Catalogue of Double Stars Within 120 degrees of the North Pole'. It contained orbit information...
Eclipse -- An eclipse occurs when an astronomical body such as a planet, or satellite gets between a source of light (e.g. the Sun) and another body. For instance, Jupiter eclipses its moons when it gets between them and the Sun. -- Lunar eclipses - are where the Earth obscures the Sun, from the Moon's point of view. The Moon moves through the shadow cast by the Earth. This can only happen at full moon. -- Solar eclipses - are where the Moon obscures the Sun, from the Earth's point of...
![Far-Side \"Halo\" blast](/media/gallery/sdo-solar-dynamics-observatory/thumbs/thumbs_farside_c3_halo.jpg "Far-Side \\"Halo\\" blast")
