Eclipses On Other Planets [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.

ISS Astronauts Will Try To Bake Bread In Orbit

According to New Scientist –

Astronauts could soon be waking up to the smell of freshly baked bread. A new dough mixture and oven specially designed for use on the International Space Station will be tested during a mission next year.

It’s an ambitious goal. Bread is a staple food on Earth but can be life-threatening in space. The first and last people to enjoy bread in space were the two astronauts on NASA’s 1965 Gemini 3 mission, who shared a corned beef sandwich one of them had smuggled on board. The crumbs flew everywhere in the microgravity and could have got into their eyes or into the electrical panels, where they could have started a fire. Bread has been banned ever since – tortilla wraps are the accepted alternative.

Continue reading HERE.

In 1959, Russia Placed Tiny Metal Plaques On The Moon

According to mental_floss –

Ten years before Americans set foot on the moon, the USSR intentionally crashed their Luna 2 probe into the lunar surface. It was the first human object to reach the moon. It also provided a simple but important scientific finding: the moon has no magnetic field. This crash-slash-success happened on September 13, 1959.

Beyond that science mission, Luna 2 carried a political payload. Inside the probe was a ball made up of pentagonal Soviet pennants, each a little steel plate engraved with “USSR January 1959” (the former two words rendered in Cyrillic script) and the USSR Coat of Arms. The ball had an explosive charge inside, which went off upon landing. This, in theory, allowed the pennants to break apart and litter the moon’s surface around Mare Imbrium (the landing site). When Khrushchev visited the US, he gave Eisenhower some replica pennants.

Continue reading and watch a video HERE.

These Are The 1st. Detailed Photos Of Saturn’s Tiny Moon Pan

From TheVerge –

This little moonlet is thought to be about 20 miles wide, and it’s located in a 200-mile-wide gap in Saturn’s rings known as the Encke Gap. In fact, Pan is known as a shepherd moon, meaning it moves ring particles around during its orbit and actually keeps the Encke Gap “open.” That bulge around the moon is thought to be material from Saturn’s rings that Pan has collected during its trip around the planet.

Continue Reading HERE.

LunarClock.org Gives The Time And Date On The Moon

LunarClock.org have devised a clock and calendar for the moon. Apparently, this was necessary because of the moon’s rotation and length of day is different than the Earth’s (or something like that). Anyway, the site’s FAQ gives some explanation.

1. What is the Lunar Calendar and why do I need one?

The Lunar Calendar is designed to be used by colonists of the Moon, and it differs from the one we use here on Earth. Unless you live on the Moon, you don’t really need one, but you can support the idea anyway. Who, knows? Perhaps you will live on the Moon in the future, or your children might. You can read the details on how this calendar works.

Visit LunarClock.org and check current lunar time.

Wanderers – a short film by Erik Wernquist