Latest Moon Stories
[ View the Launch Video ] After multiple delays, including one earlier in the day, NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida shortly after 9 a.m. on Saturday morning. Initially, GRAIL had been scheduled to liftoff from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 17B on Thursday at 8:37 a.m. However, high winds forced a delay until Friday morning at 9:16 a.m. That scheduled launch would also be pushed...
Surveying experts of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have successfully developed methodologies for precise mapping of the Moon, after intensive analysis of the data captured by the Chinese lunar orbiter ChangE-1 and other lunar exploration missions. (PRWEB) September 09, 2011 Surveying experts of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have successfully developed methodologies for precise mapping of the Moon, after intensive analysis of the data captured by the Chinese...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Moon Express, a Google Lunar X PRIZE contender, announced today that it has established the "Moon Express Robotics Lab for Innovation" (MERLIN) and has hired a team of the nations' brightest engineering students who became international superstars through the FIRST Robotics Competition. MERLIN will develop robotic technology supporting the company's lunar exploration missions under the leadership of Marco Chacin, a graduate of the...
As early as Sept. 8th, NASA's GRAIL mission will blast off to uncover some of the mysteries beneath the surface of the Moon. That cratered gray exterior hides some tantalizing things – even, perhaps, a long-lost companion. If a paper published recently in the journal Nature* is right, two moons once graced our night skies. The proposition has not been proven, but has drawn widespread attention. "It's an intriguing idea," says David Smith, GRAIL's deputy principal investigator at...
BRISTOL, Pa., Sept. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As NASA's two GRAIL satellites circle the moon, mapping its gravitational field in detail for the first time, DUNMORE multi-layer insulation (MLI) materials will protect their sensitive internal systems from the temperature changes and radiation of open space. The nearly identical GRAIL satellites will circle the moon in parallel orbits. They will move closer together or farther apart as their instruments detect changes in the moon's gravitational...
NASA said on Tuesday that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has captured the sharpest images ever taken from space of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites. The space agency said the images show the twists and turns of the paths made when the astronauts explored the lunar surface. The tracks laid down by the lunar rover during the Apollo 17 site are clearly visible in the images. The images also show where the astronauts placed some of the scientific instruments that...
NASA will usher in another Moon mission on Thursday when it launches twin probes to measure gravity on Earth's closest cosmic neighbor. The robotic twins will create the most precise lunar gravity map ever, which scientists hope to use to determine what is beneath the surface of the Moon. Near-identical twins GRAIL A and GRAIL B are set to launch on Thursday aboard a small Delta II rocket. The two spacecraft will separate an hour after launch and will travel independently to...
GREENBELT, Md., Sept. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured the sharpest images ever taken from space of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites. Images show the twists and turns of the paths made when the astronauts explored the lunar surface. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) At the Apollo 17 site, the tracks laid down by the lunar rover are clearly visible, along with the last foot trails left on the moon. The...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Moon Express, a Google Lunar X PRIZE contender, announced today that it has successfully demonstrated a critical component of its lunar landing technology to NASA under its Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) Program contract. The Moon Express Mini-Radar System promises to radically reduce the cost and mass of the company's commercial lunar landing system. NASA has reviewed and accepted the Moon Express Mini-Radar data package,...
According to new research, the Earth's moon could be younger than previously thought.The theory for lunar formation says that a rock known as ferroan anorthosite (FAN) is the oldest of the Moon's crustal rocks, but scientists have had difficulty dating FAN samples. Researchers used newly refined techniques to determine the age of a sample of FAN from the lunar rock collection at the NASA Johnson Space Center. They analyzed isotopes of the elements lead and neodymium to place the FAN sample's...
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")
