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 […]
Space Shuttle Atlantis to New Home Ready to Roll Photo Credit: NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis Starts Its Early-Morning Trek Photo Credit: NASA Atlantis Rolls to Final Home Photo Credit: NASA Watching the Space Shuttle Go By Space shuttle workers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, watch as the space shuttle Atlantis is transported on a 10-mile journey to the Kennedy Visitor Complex Photo Credit: NASA Ariel View of Space Shuttle Atlantis Rolls to Its New Home Photo Credit: NASA Saying Goodbye Space shuttle team members carry a “We Made History Atlantis” banner as the spacecraft moves out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for its 10-mile trip to the Kennedy Visitor Complex where it will be put on public display. Photo Credit: NASA Atlantis Rolls to Final Home: Underside View Photo Credit: NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis’s New Home Ariel view of the Kennedy Space Center visitor complexPhoto Credit: NASA A Long Journey Photo Credit: NASA Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/11/02/shuttle-atlantis-new-home/
SpaceX’s "autonomous spaceport drone ship" measures 300 by 170 feet (91 by 52 meters) with its "wings" extended.Image: SpaceX SpaceX will attempt one of the boldest maneuvers in the history of rocketry early Tuesday morning (Jan. 6) during a supply mission to the International Space Station for NASA, and you can watch the attempt live online. The California-based private spaceflight company will try to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean, shortly after the booster launches SpaceX’s robotic Dragon cargo capsule from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 6:20 a.m. ET Tuesday. NASA officials have said there is a 60% chance of good launch weather for the planned launch. You can watch the SpaceX launch live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV, beginning at 5 a.m. EST (1000 GMT). “The odds of success are not great — perhaps 50% at best,” SpaceX representatives wrote of the platform landing in a mission update last month. “However, this test represents the first in a series of similar tests that will ultimately deliver a fully reusable Falcon 9 first stage.” SpaceX will offer its own launch webcast on the company’s website beginning at 6 a.m. ET). Developing a fully and rapidly reusable rocket is a key priority for SpaceX and its billionaire founder, Elon Musk, who has said that such technology could cut the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100. SpaceX has made strides toward this ambitious goal already. For example, the company successfully brought a Falcon 9 first stage down for a soft ocean splashdown twice last year — once in April and again in July. But Tuesday’s test will be much more challenging. The drone ship measures just 300 feet long by 170 feet wide (91 by 52 meters) with its “wings” extended, and the 14-story-tall Falcon 9’s leg span is about 70 feet (21 m), SpaceX representatives said. “During previous attempts, we could only expect a landing accuracy of within 10 km [6 miles],” they wrote in the update. “For this attempt, we’re targeting a landing accuracy of within 10 meters [33 feet].” Furthermore, although the drone ship will be equipped with position-stabilizing thrusters, it will not be anchored. Three separate engine burns will help get the rocket stage on course and slow its speed from 2,900 mph (4,600 km/h) down to 4.5 mph (7.2 km/h) at the time of touchdown. The landing legs will deploy during the final burn, company representatives said. SpaceX has also outfitted the Falcon 9 stage with four independently steerable “hypersonic grid fins,” which will be deployed upon atmospheric re-entry to aid in precision targeting. As bold as Tuesday’s test is, SpaceX has even more ambitious goals in mind for 2015. “Over the next year, SpaceX has at least a dozen launches planned, with a number of additional testing opportunities,” company representatives wrote. “Given what we know today, we believe it is quite likely that with one of those flights, we […]
10 Sci-Fi Films About Mars You Can Watch Online 1. Mars Attacks! If you’re in the mood for a bizarre but hilarious black comedy, Mars Attacks! from director Tim Burton should fit the bill perfectly. Based on a trading card series from the 1960s, this B-movie parody features an all-star cast including Jack Nicholson, Lukas Haas, Annette Bening, Jim Brown, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Glenn Close, Martin Short, Jack Black, Natalie Portman, Danny DeVito and Christina Applegate. Full of campy goodness, exploding landmarks, and Sylvia Sydney gleefully exclaiming “They blew up Congress!,” Mars Attacks! is definitely worth watching, and you can rent or buy it instantly on Amazon. 2. Total Recall One of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s many well-known roles is that of 21st-century construction worker Douglas Quaid, who discovers that everything he thinks he remembers about his life are all false memories that have been implanted in his brain. So of course (because this is Ah-nold we’re talking about), much violence and impressive stuntwork ensues, as Quaid travels to Mars to figure out who he is and why he has been living a false life. There’s a new remake of Total Recall coming out Aug. 3, so if you’d like to prepare by watching the original, you can see the trailer on YouTube and buy Total Recall to watch instantly on Amazon. 3. Red Planet With a stunningly low Rotten Tomatoes rating of just 14%, Red Planet isn’t exactly a marvel of modern cinema. It is, however, a mildly entertaining adventure movie about a group of scientists sent to try to colonize Mars as impending ecological disaster threatens Earth. The mission goes horribly awry, though, and becomes a fight for survival on the Red Planet. Amazon Prime members can watch Red Planet for free, and non-Prime members can rent or buy it instantly. 4. Ghosts of Mars Director John Carpenter is best known for science fiction horror movies, and Ghosts of Mars offers a lot of both. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer any of it in a particularly compelling package, as evidenced by a paltry 21% Rotten Tomatoes rating and a $14 million box office gross (on a movie with a $28 million budget). But if you’re intrigued by a mash-up of supernatural and science fiction, you might still want to check out this story of hapless Martian colonists attacked and possessed by the ghosts of the planet’s previous inhabitants, released when miners discovered and opened a mysterious doorway. Watch it on Netflix or Amazon streaming video. 5. Robinson Crusoe on Mars Batman star Adam West, a monkey in a space suit, and aliens using humans as slave workers — this movie has it all. And, according to the trailer, it’s “scientifically authentic!” While they might have exaggerated a bit on that last part, it’s still a fun sci-fi romp that takes the adventure story of Robinson Crusoe and sets it on the surface of Mars, where Commander Kit Draper struggles to survive in the planet’s harsh environment and emerge victorious […]
On Thursday, Mars’s Gale Crater was treated to a fantastic sight: a partial solar eclipse. An eclipse very similar to the kind we’re used to seeing from here on Earth, but with the sun blocked, in this case, by a different moon: Phobos, one of the two moons that orbit Mars. Fortunately for us, Curiosity was there to take a picture of Phobos’s transit. Also fortunately for us, as well, Curiosity took precautions to protect its vision as the transit took place. (As NBC’s Alan Boyle put it: “You wouldn’t want Curiosity to blow out its camera on Mars.”) So, to capture the image above, the rover’s Mastcam used a neutral density filter that protected Curiosity’s imaging system in the same way that can be seen from some point on Mars pretty much every day. And it will be only be a year before a transit can be seen again from the Gale Crater. But the relative commonality of the Martian eclipse doesn’t compromise its splendor. And Curiosity isn’t the first rover to capture that view. Below, via Bad Astronomy, is amazing video sent back by Opportunity in November 2010: the sun, eclipsed by one of Mars’s meandering moons. In Defense of Waze, Which Doesn’t Put Police in Danger Introducing the Supertweet Beware the Drone Laws The App Economy Is Now ‘Bigger Than Hollywood’ This article originally published at The Atlantic here Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/09/17/mars-solar-eclipse/
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 […]
Private spaceflight company SpaceX has been testing its Grasshopper rocket over the past few months, but it set a record last week with its latest launch in which it flew 2,440.94 feet in the air — the vehicle’s highest leap yet. Using a single camera hexacopter drone, SpaceX was able to get closer than ever to record the video above, which the company released Monday. As the rocket climbed gracefully into the air, the drone camera — which you can see in the right-hand corner of the frame — adjusted to capture the seemingly slow launch. Grasshopper soared in an almost-perfect straight line — quite different from its August launch, when it leapt sideways. The 10-story-high Grasshopper is one of SpaceX’s most outside-the-box experiments. Most rockets burn up when reentering Earth’s atmosphere, but Grasshopper is a reusable Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicle built to withstand these harsh conditions and return to the planet’s surface intact. Grasshopper holds the first-stage tank of the Falcon 9 rocket, which boosts SpaceX’s unmanned Dragon capsule to the International Space Station. BONUS: 10 Rare of Inside-Views of Spacesuits Inside the Spacesuit: 10 Rare Views of a NASA Icon Alan Bean Spacesuit Astronaut Alan Bean wore this A7-LB suit on the 1973 Skylab 3 mission. Bean logged 1,671 hours and 45 minutes in space, including more than 10 hours of EVA (extra vehicular activity). Image: Smithsonian Institution, Mark Avino Boot X-Ray An x-ray of an Apollo-era “overboot” shows the adjustment strap that allowed astronauts to tighten this boot over another shoe that was attached to the spacesuit. Image: Smithsonian Institution, Mark Avino Glove Astronauts wore special gloves during lunar excursions. Made with rubber and Neoprene interior bladders, gloves covered hands completely to the wrist and were attached to the arms of the spacesuit with aluminum rings. Image: Smithsonian Institution, Mark Avino Helmet X-Ray This 1964 A4-H “Universal” helmet was designed to fit on more than one suit. The x-ray reveals ball bearings in the neck ring that allowed the helmet to move right and left without restriction. Image: Smithsonian Institution, Mark Avino Phase I Apollo Helmet X-ray of a helmet that was developed for the Phase I Apollo program. Image: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Mark Avino Mark V Spacesuit The Mark V suit was relatively flexible and incorporated design elements that allowed for a fuller range of movement. Image: Smithsonian Institution, Mark Avino Apollo Spacesuit Overshoe X-ray of an extravehicular (EV) overshoe that was designed to be worn over the Apollo spacesuit boots while an astronaut was walking on the Moon. Image: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Mark Avino Alan Shepard’s Apollo 14 Spacesuit An x-ray of Alan Shepard’s Apollo 14 spacesuit allows curators and conservators to “see” inside space clothing — a task that had previously been done by peering through the neck or the wrist with a flashlight. Image: X-ray by Roland H. Cunningham and Mark Avino Freedom 7 Spacesuit Alan B. Shepard, one of the original “Mercury […]
Imagine knowing that your entire philosophy on life — all you ever worked for — was proven right. That’s what just happened to Andrei Linde, a physics professor at Stanford University, upon the discovery of proof of gravitational wave. “Tremors” of the Big Bang are the waves said to be the first definitive evidence of the theory that the universe is expanding. It’s also an integral part of a theory that Linde has been working on for 30 years — meaning his theories were not only right, but also a huge contributor to the future of space study. Chao-Lin Kuo, an assistant physics professor at Stanford who worked with a team on the new discovery, surprised Linde at his home with the news. Watch the heartwarming revelation above. BONUS: 30 Stunning Images of Space Stunning Photos of Space Enhanced Hubble Image of Comet ISON Image: Flickr, NASA HQ PHOTO Taken Under the “Wing” of the Small Magellanic Cloud Image: NASA, ESA, CXC and the University of Potsdam, JPL-Caltech, and STScI Merging Clusters in 30 Doradus Image: NASA, ESA, and E. Sabbi (ESA/STScI) Hubble Snaps a Splendid Planetary Nebula Image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Hubble’s Festive View of a Grand Star-Forming Region Image: NASA, ESA, F. Paresce (INAF-IASF, Bologna, Italy) Sun Emits a Mid-Level Flare Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Synthesized View of Earth showing the Arctic, Europe and Asia Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video The Star-Studded Center of the Milky Way Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Hubble Sees the Remains of a Star Gone Supernova Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video NASA Hubble Sees Sparring Antennae Galaxies Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Horsehead Nebula Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Hubble Sees Hidden Treasure in Large Magellanic Cloud Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Hubble reveals heart of Lagoon Nebula Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Hubble Captures Cosmic Ice Sculptures Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Starburst Cluster Shows Celestial Fireworks Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video A Galactic Spectacle Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Supernova Remnant W49B Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Hubble Snaps Messier 66 of the Leo Triplet Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Hubble Catches Jupiter’s Largest Moon Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Hubble Sees ‘Island Universe’ in the Coma Cluster Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Dying Star Shrouded by a Blanket of Hailstones Forms the Bug Nebula Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Crab Nebula Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Jupiter’s Red Spot Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Saturn’s Rings in Ultraviolet Light Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Hubble Sees a Star Set to Explode Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Cassiopeia A Supernova Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Cat’s Eye Nebula Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video Carina Nebula Detail Image: Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo […]
NASA‘s Chris Cassidy wanted to give fellow astronaut Luca Parmitano a warm welcome to the International Space Station last week, but a bottle of wine or a nice casserole wouldn’t cut it. Cassidy buzzed his head to match Parmitano’s signature clean-shaven look. (Hey, imitation is the best form of flattery.) However, even the most menial of tasks take on a whole new level in zero gravity. Cassidy couldn’t just pick up a standard razor — hair would be floating around the ISS for weeks. Instead, he used an electric hair trimmer and a vacuum. “I don’t think I’ve looked like this since Plebe Summer!” joked Cassidy, who has a reputation as a notorious prankster. When he arrived on board the ISS in March, he donned an over-the-top fake mustache for Commander Chris Hadfield. The fun didn’t stop with the video above. Once the nerds at Mission Control back on Earth heard about the space haircut, they jumped in on the joke with this “Wanted” poster in search of the missing hair. Images courtesy of NASA Read more: http://mashable.com/2013/06/04/nasa-astronaut-shaves-head/
