On July 20, 1969, astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during Apollo 11 extravehicular activity on the lunar surface.Image: NASA General Electric is taking a “small step” into sneaker design to commemorate the role — or rather, sole — it had in mankind’s first “giant leap” on the moon. Forty-five years to the day, hour and minute after Apollo 11 moonwalkers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first manned lunar landing at 4:18 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 20, GE will release for sale its new moon boot-inspired, limited edition sneakers, “The Missions.” The company, which is perhaps publicly better known for its consumer appliances and lighting products, provided in 1969 the silicone rubber that was used to create the now-iconic tread that lined the bottom of the Apollo moon boot. GE also produced the Lexan polycarbonate plastic used in forming the astronauts’ bubble helmets. “To celebrate the 45th anniversary of the original lunar landing and the sci-fi super materials that made it happen, GE and JackThreads decided to partner up to take that moon boot and create an updated, street-ready version so damn impressive, people will think whoever is wearing it might be from outer space,” men’s clothier JackThreads described on its website. The sneakers, which are strictly limited to just 100 pairs, are set to go on sale Sunday exclusively on JackThreads for $196.90 commemorating the year of the moon landing. The shoes will be sold on a first come, first served basis, with delivery expected in September. GE debuted “The Missions” on July 16, on the anniversary of Apollo 11’s launch atop a Saturn V rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, using the social network Snapchat. The company also invited Buzz Aldrin to use the photo messaging service to share stories of his voyage to the moon and showed him wearing a pair of the sneakers. The unisex “Missions,” which were designed with the help of luxury shoemaker Android Homme, feature an off-white and gray color scheme with a translucent, thermoplastic sole. The redesigned moon boots have components made from the same lightweight carbon fiber used for jet engine components, and they sport a hydrophobic coating similar to the materials that are used to prevent ice from forming on wind turbine blades. “We re-imagined our lunar kicks with next-gen materials pulled from the belly of bad ass jet engines … to not only commemorate GE’s contribution to space flight but also our shared excitement for future awesome things,” stated JackThreads. GE intends “The Missions” sneakers to draw attention to the advanced materials being developed in its labs today, Linda Boff, executive director of global brand marketing at GE, told Ad Age magazine. “By highlighting super materials like stabilized carbon fiber and hydrophobic coating in our limited-edition sneakers, it helps people relate to the power of these technologies,” she said. The Mission sneakers. Image: General Electric Aldrin […]
Going to the moon is a goal for almost every astronaut, and in the late 1960s, humans accomplished that goal for the first time. It was a monumental technological breakthrough. Many people thought that we would never do it, but in the heat of the Cold War, America made it to the moon. On our journeys since, some irregularities have occurred. Take these sounds, for example. Bizarre noises were heard on the dark side of the moon, and as you’ll hear in the video below, they were absolutely chilling. (via Unexplained Mysteries) If that doesn’t give you the willies, I don’t know what will. I have to hand it to those brave astronauts for going up there. Space travel is clearly creepy. Read more: http://www.viralnova.com/astronauts/
A mosaic made from raw images from Cassini, taken on December 21, 2010, shows a detailed look at the south pole of Enceladus. Image: NASA / JPL / SSI / J. Major Finding liquid water on a celestial body within the solar system is exciting. The only thing that is probably more exciting is finding an ocean full of it. Today such news comes via Cassini, which has made measurements that show that Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a hidden ocean beneath its icy surface. While orbiting Saturn in 2005, Cassini found jets of salty water spewing from the south polar region of Enceladus. According to Luciano Iess of Sapienza University of Rome, lead author of the new study published in Science, “The discovery of the jets was unexpected.” Geysers require liquid water, and we wouldn’t expect Enceladus to have any. It is too far from the Sun to absorb much energy and too small (just 500km in diameter) to have trapped enough internal energy to keep its core molten. The answer to how the water got there might lie in the details of the moon’s internal structure. Water beneath an icy crust The data to understand Enceladus’s internal structure came from by measuring changes in Cassini’s speed as it flew close to the moon. When passing the denser parts of the moon, it sped up by a few extra thousandths of a meter per second. That minute change was tracked through recordings of the radio signals Cassini was sending to NASA’s Deep Space Network station. In making such tiny measurements, scientists had to filter out other factors that could influence Cassini’s speed. These include pressure on the spacecraft from sunlight, the nudge from heat radiating from its nuclear-powered electrical generator, and the drag of the particles it strikes as it passes through the south polar plumes. Iess and his colleagues have produced a model of the internal structure of Enceladus using the measurements. They conclude that there is a core that is roughly 200km in diameter; above that lies a 10km-thick layer of liquid water, which is followed by 40km of ice crust. The water layer may extend all the way to the north pole, but its thickest part lies at the south pole. This diagram illustrates the possible interior of Saturn’s moon Enceladus based on a gravity investigation by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and NASA’s Deep Space Network, reported in April 2014. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech It is possible that Saturn’s powerful gravity is responsible for the liquid water under Enceladus’s surface. Its pull could heat up the interior through a process called tidal kneading, which involves the slow compression and expansion of the core as the moon rotates through Saturn’s gravity well. After the initial discovery of the plumes, Cassini’s minders put a lot of effort into determining Enceladus’s internal structure, but it still took nearly ten years to do so. This is because the time the spacecraft spends around Saturn is very valuable, and there are lots of other things […]
