China Lands A Rover On The Moon’s Far Side

According to Cnet –

China’s Chang’e 4 spacecraft achieved the milestone at 10:26 a.m. on Jan. 3 in Beijing (6:26 p.m. PT on Jan. 2), with the country’s space agency landing its lunar probe in Von Karman crater on the moon’s mysterious far side.

Continue reading HERE.

50 Years Ago Man First Visited The Moon

From Scientific American –

At first Bill Anders thought it was no big deal. He and his Apollo 8 crewmates, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, were on their fourth orbit of the moon, passing over the far side, farther from home than any human beings had ever been, when they happened to see the Earth beginning to peek out over the lunar horizon. It was December 24, 1968.

Continue reading HERE.

China Plans to Launch an ‘Artificial Moon’ to Light Up the Night

According to Time.

Scientists are hoping to hang the man-made moon above the city of Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwestern Sichuan province, according to a report in Chinese state media. The imitation celestial body — essentially an illuminated satellite — will bear a reflective coating to cast sunlight back to Earth, where it will supplement streetlights at night.

Continue reading HERE.

Also, this video pokes holes in the idea.

Moon Setting Behind Teide Volcano [video]

Private Company Plans To Bring Moon Rocks Back To Earth In 3 Years

According to ArsTechnica –

After several years of secrecy, a company called Moon Express revealed the scope of its ambitions on Wednesday. And they are considerable. The privately held company released plans for a single, modular spacecraft that can be combined to form successfully larger and more capable vehicles. Ultimately the company plans to establish a lunar outpost in 2020 and set up commercial operations on the Moon. Perhaps most intriguingly, Moon Express says it is self-funded to begin bringing kilograms of lunar rocks back to Earth within about three years.

Continue reading HERE.

New 360° Panorama From The Moon

Experience the latest 360° view from the surface of the moon.

Chang’e 3 is a lunar exploration mission operated by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), incorporating a robotic lander and China’s first lunar rover. It was launched in December 2013 as part of the second phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program.

Go to 360° image HERE.

Loved One’s Ashes Can Be Placed On The Moon For $12,000

According to the ElysiumSpace site –

Early reservations for the Lunar Memorial service open at $9,950 for the first 50 participants, while later reservations will be offered at the regular rate of $11,950. Each Participant provides a symbolic portion of remains to be placed into a personalized capsule. The capsules will then be delivered to the lunar surface by Astrobotic’s Griffin lander as part of Astrobotic Mission One. The landing side is located in the northeast part of the Moon. It contains a pit that is a compelling exploration target for the mission.

I don’t know if it will actually happen, but there you go.

OMG – NASA’s Original Operator’s Manual For The Lunar Rover

 

NASA has a pdf of the original Lunar Roving Vehicle Operations Manual. It covers operation and maintenance of the vehicles that the Apollo astronauts drove on the moon. Very cool!

See the 200+ page pdf HERE.

Correction : THERE ARE NO BAGS OF PUKE ON THE MOON

From Slate.com –

Correction, Dec. 1, 2014: In addition to incorrectly stating that used emesis bags were left on the moon, this post also misidentified astronauts’ sleep periods on the moon as “naps.” The astronauts slept for periods up to eight hours. This post also misstated that a Slatecommenter said the emesis bags were empty. The commeter said the bags might be empty.

Read more about it HERE.

Rotating Moon From Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter [video]

Telescope To Be Planted On Moon in 2015

According to CBC –

A telescope that is set to launch to the moon in 2015 will allow the public to go on the Internet and view the Earth from the lunar surface. The privately funded telescope, known as the International Lunar Observatory precursor (ILO-X), was designed and built by Silicon Valley-based Moon Express Inc. “It’s citizen science on the moon and it’s really a new model of public participation,” Moon Express CEO Bob Richards told The Canadian Press on Tuesday. “This will be a small, but very high-performance telescope on the moon that the public and scientists or professionals and amateurs alike will have access to over the internet.”

Continue reading HERE

 

Neil Armstrong – A Short 1970 Interview on BBC [video]

Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, died today.