National Astronaut Day

I learned something today. 

 

It’s National Astronaut Day - in recognition of United States first manned space flight. Who knew?

 

Mercury-Redstone 3, or Freedom 7, was the first United States human spaceflight, on May 5, 1961, piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard. It was the first crewed flight of Project Mercury. The project had the ultimate objective of putting an astronaut into orbit around the Earth and return him safely.

 

As a space/astronomy geek even more than six and a half decades ago I was allowed to miss school that morning so I could watch the launch and recovery on television.

 

I still remember it. Better than what I had to eat yesterday…..

Big Blue Marble

image credit - NASA

Having launched on December 7, was this view of the earth as seen by Apollo 17 crew - astronauts Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and scientist-astronaut Harrison Schmitt - traveling toward the moon. 

This translunar coast photograph extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the Antarctica South polar ice cap.  This is the first time the Apollo trajectory made it possible to photograph the South polar ice cap.  

Take note of the heavy cloud cover in the Southern Hemisphere.  Almost the entire coastline of Africa is clearly visible.  The Arabian Peninsula can be seen at the Northeastern edge of Africa.  The large island off the coast of Africa is the Malagasy Republic.  The mainland of Asia is on the horizon toward the Northeast.

On this day in history, December 11, 1972, Apollo 17 became the last manned moon mission.  Two astronauts landed the lunar module Challenger, in a location called the Taurus-Littrow Valley spending three days collecting samples from the lunar surface.

image credit - NASA

Commander Eugene Cernan was the last person to set foot on the lunar surface as he followed lunar module pilot Harrison Schmitt, back onto their space craft to prepare to depart the lunar surface.

Meanwhile, command module pilot Ronald Evans had to hang out orbiting the moon as he awaited the return of his crew mates.

Apollo 17 successfully returned to earth; splashing-down on December 19.

It has been 52 years since humans last explored the lunar surface..... 

The Right Stuff

Sixty years ago my folks allowed me to stay home from school so I could watch live television coverage of Alan Shepard riding a Redstone rocket in his Freedom 7 Mercury space capsule to become the first American in space. 

It was May 5, 1961

That was the beginning of a long and enduring love affair with America's space program - manned and unmanned.  

 

This country’s accomplishments in space travel continue to grab me. 

 

This short video is some good stuff.  It continues to be The Right Stuff

 

Official NASA video of Perseverance Rover’s Descent and Touchdown on Mars.......

 

Thanksgiving on the ISS

Astronauts Alex Gerst of ESA and Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA send their best wishes of a happy Thanksgiving!

On the International Space Station, the crew - including Sergey Prokopyev - will share a holiday meal of turkey, stuffing, candied yams and spicy pound cake and call home to speak with loved ones on Earth. 

The meal was prepared in Houston, where scientists assemble the food and then dehydrate, radiate or thermostabilize (similar to canning) it to prevent it from spoiling, 
 
Packaged in individual vacuum-sealed bags, which are carried into orbit and kept safe in a locker until Thanksgiving. The food is prepared on the ISS by adding hot water or putting it in a small warming oven. 

 

Growing Your Own Air Purifier

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has researched options for filtering and converting carbon dioxide to oxygen in the air in its space stations.  Plants can be a contributor.

Studies concluded that certain plant species were more effective than others. If you are an average homeowner NASA suggests that a minimum of one plant per every hundred square feet of home or office space is a good start.  

And in case you need a recommendation here are the 17 plants that can help you can breathe a little bit easier – including our giant bamboo fern...

click on image to enlarge

Earth Rise

click to enlarge

This NASA high resolution image was taken by the the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

 This image was composed from a series of images taken Oct. 12, when LRO was about 83 miles (134 kilometers) above the moon's farside crater Compton. Capturing an image of the Earth and moon with LRO's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) instrument is a complicated task. First the spacecraft must be rolled to the side (in this case 67 degrees), then the spacecraft slews with the direction of travel to maximize the width of the lunar horizon in LROC's Narrow Angle Camera image. All this takes place while LRO is traveling faster than 3,580 miles per hour (over 1,600 meters per second) relative to the lunar surface below the spacecraft!

You can learn more about it here.
 

Fire!

Been paying attention to the wildfires in Arizona and New Mexico?


The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite acquired this image of the fires on June 16, 2011 at 18:00 UTC (2:00 p.m. EDT). Active fire areas appear as red dots, and smoke is blowing to the northeast.

NASA

Here is some time-lapse imagery from NASA’s Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on the Terra spacecraft of the the Wallow and Horseshoe 2 Fires burning in Arizona mid-morning (local time) on June 7, 2011.

511,118 acres burned so far witth no end in sight.