Well, well. It looks like the Moon bombing went well as NASA just released a whole lot of data supporting the initial findings that there’s water on the Moon. Read NASA’s take and view a whole lot of line graphs I don’t understand at NASA.gov. Next up, moonQuest DSV.
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Just a few minutes ago at 7:13:19 AM EDT, NASA crashed a probe into the Moon at 5,600 MPH with the hope of finding water. BOOM!
NASA broadcasted the entire thing live on its TV station and online, but if you missed our previous post and just learned about the event, you probably didn’t catch it. However, the NASA geeks are currently analyzing the LCROSS data and will hopefully announces their findings at the 10 AM EDT scheduled press event. In the mean time, go tell your wackjob neighbor that the Moon is still in the same ol’ spot and there isn’t a conspiracy to mess with the tides. Crazies. Gotta love ‘em.
Be sure to set your alarm clock for around 6am this Friday, for at 6:15am NASA will, in the immortal words of Matt Drudge, “bomb the moon.” No, we’re not talking about some dumb Hollywood (redundancy alert!) scenario, but the most exciting part of the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) program: the lunar impact.
For only $22,500 you can own the robotic hand shown in the video above. That’s nothing for a piece of NASA history.
This impressive early prototype demands an important place within robotics history as the first motorized dexterous robotic hand. It represents one of the early steps towards making robots more anthropomorphic. The Omni-Hand was designed and built in the early 1990s by robot pioneer Mark Rosheim with funding from NASA contracts NAS8-37638 and NAS8-38417. Two prototypes were made. The first was a “test bed” whose features were then incorporated into this complete unit. Both had the same power and control system.
Apparently you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to help NASA. The space agency just posted a request for suggestions for future prize contests on their website, and anyone may submit an idea.
That was quick. NASA just released some data last week recorded by the LRO that indicated water might be present and suddenly an Indian probe actually found some. India’s first Moon probe , Chandrayaan-1, is equipped with sensors to detect the electromagnetic signature of water. Furthermore, these sensors cannot penetrate very deep and the data indicates that the water is actually on ore near the Moon’s surface. How exciting. NASA is expected to release more data later today at a press conference so be sure to check back for more info.
The LRO has already provided us with a lot of fascinating high-res photos of the Moon’s surface. But photos are just the start.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter also has more instruments aboard and one of them, the Diviner Lunar Radiometer developed and operated by the California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is sending back some wild info about the Moon’s surface temperature.
Microgravity researchers at NASA have used a superconducting magnet that generated a field powerful enough to levitate the water inside a mouse, effectively simulating weightlessness for the rodents, right here on earth! The first floating mouse didn’t seem very happy about the ordeal, so subsequent tests involved sedating the test mice. As should be expected, the doped up mice had a much better time floating around.
It’s laptops in space, people! What is there not to like?
It’s Friday. We know you really don’t want to work. How about some nerdy space pr0n? Read More
I don’t care what you say. Astronauts have balls of steel. They strap themselves onto a rocket, shit in a vacuum, and are risking death by space junk tonight. Read More
NASA already has major budget issues so it’s a damn good thing the agency didn’t turn to AT&T to provide the wireless data coverage for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Because AT&T charges $0.0195 per kilobyte over a 5GB cap, it would cost roughly $231,883 for the daily data transmission of the 461GB. That’s $83,709,763 per year assuming AT&T didn’t come up with some charge for interplanetary roaming. All joking aside, this Moon satellite has an impressive data transmitter.
Hopefully John Hodgman was correct in calling Obama the first nerd president. If not, humans might not reach the Moon anytime soon because we all know a jock wouldn’t fund a science project. The current target is 2020 and the development is already underway of the vehicles needed to get people there. But there is one small issue: Money. NASA needs lots of money.
Eventually man will go back to the Moon and will need a way to travel in style. Goodyear and NASA has just unveiled the tire that will help with that. The Apollo astronauts used basic lunar rovers to explore a small part of the Moon’s surface, but the current NASA plan is to sightsee a whole lot more. Because of the added distance, the original wire-type tire used in the 70’s will not work. The new tire developed by Goodyear is designed to hold much more weight and withstand the abuse of a multi-thousand kilometer journey.
Click through to see the tire in action.
This game is probably a lot more complex than your standard claw game, but it doesn’t look it. I’m sure it uses some fancy pants calibration and high-tech wizardry. Hell, it probably has more computing power than the actual Lunar Lander did way back in 1969. But you know what, as long as it entertains our kids while teaching them a bit of history, it doesn’t matter. It’s a hell of a lot better than winning some random stuffed animal.
Slate.com did a wonderful job creating this video that clearly demonstrates how the TV media would cover the Moon landing if it happened today. You know the routen. First they would cut to a panel of “experts” and then cut to live cams. And of course, there would be reaction from Twitter. The only thing left out is Glenn Beck crying.
This is about the best illustration of the Apollo 11 moon walk I have ever seen. It clearly shows the small amount of ground that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin covered during that first trip. Now how ’bout the map of the later missions when the guys went joy riding in a rover. I’m curious to see that to scale. [via PopSci]
What a great way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing by owning an $800 pen. The Fisher Space pen is of course legendary for it’s ability to write in space, but this one packs a little something special. The top of the pen features a bit of thermal insulation used on the Columbia Command Module that’s engraved with a picture of the Moon landing. That’s eff’n cool, but I don’t know if it’s $800 cool. If you think so, you better hurry up ’cause there is only going to be 1,000 available.
