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How the U.S. and Carl Sagan planned to nuke the moon
the late 1950s, the Untied States was losing the space race. The U.S.S.R. put the first satellite in orbit and successfully completed the first manned space flight. The U.S. needed something to prove it could compete with the Soviet superpower.
So it decided to nuke the moon.
Project A119, also titled “A Study of Lunar Research Flights,” was actually a plan to detonate a nuclear warhead on the lunar surface. The U.S. officials behind the plan hoped it would scare the Soviets and enthuse the American people. (AFP-Getty Images/Handout)
Deep-space station on the far side of the Moon could be NASA’s next big project: report
As part of NASA’s plan to send missions past low-Earth orbit, the U.S. agency is considering plans which would see a long-term manned space station on the far side of the moon. The station would be stationed at the “L2 gateway” or Lagrangian point 2 on the Moon’s dark side. The news came out of a report from Space.com, when the website contacted “insiders” from NASA. (APOLLO 16/NASA)
Venus, Jupiter, Moon set to light up the sky this weekend
After the moon, Venus and Jupiter are the brightest objects in the night sky. On February 25 and 26, the three get especially cozy at sunset, the planets converging with the crescent moon in a configuration NASA describes as “a slender heavenly triangle,” “so close that you can hide them together behind your outstretched palm.”
Gary Clement’s Week in Review for Jan. 22 to 28, 2012
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Gingrich promises permanent moon base ‘by the end of my second term’
Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is promising to colonize the moon.
Speaking in Florida, hit hard by the loss of a large number of space-affiliated jobs, Mr. Gingrich said Wednesday that if elected, “By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American.”
He said he believed such a project was possible with commercial and private efforts. According to USA Today, Mr. Gingrich said he had “a romantic belief it is really part of our destiny,” adding that the current state of the space program was a “tragedy.” (Photo: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
NASA probes enter lunar orbit, ready to map Moon’s gravity
Two robotic probes began orbiting the moon Sunday in preparation for an unprecedented mission to map the lunar interior.
NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, spacecraft wrapped up 2.6-million-mile journey to put themselves into lunar orbit on Saturday and Sunday.
Over the next two months, the probes’ 34-mile-high orbits will be adjusted to get them into optimal position to measure the pushes and pulls of the moon’s gravity, data that scientists can use to model what is inside the moon.
“Pop the bubbly and toast the moon,” NASA wrote on its Twitter feed after the first GRAIL spacecraft finished a 40-minute braking maneuver at 5 p.m. ET on New Year’s Eve. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout/Reuters)
What is the moon made of? NASA seeks to find out
Two robotic NASA probes are due to arrive at the moon this weekend to resolve a long-standing mystery of what is inside Earth’s natural satellite and how it got there.
The 303-kilogram craft of the U.S. space agency’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, mission have been flying to the moon since their joint launch in September. (Photo: Apollo 16/NASA)
GRAIL A is due to begin a 40-minute braking maneuver to put itself into orbit around the moon at 4:21 p.m. ET on Saturday, with GRAIL B following suit 25 hours later. Both are needed for the intricate gravity-mapping mission scheduled to begin in March.
Photos of the day
A Russian Soyuz TMA-21 space capsule carrying International Space Station (ISS) crew members U.S. astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev, descends in Kazakhstan, Sept. 16, 2011. (Sergei Ilnitsky/Reuters)
Photos: Total eclipse of the Moon — Skygazers with a clear view in North America and Europe were greeted with a celestial treat in the early morning hours Tuesday, as a unique total lunar eclipse transformed the Moon pink, coppery or even a blood red. (Photo: Jewel Samad/Reuters)
Photos: Total eclipse of the Moon — Skygazers with a clear view in North America and Europe were greeted with a celestial treat in the early morning hours Tuesday, as a unique total lunar eclipse transformed the Moon pink, coppery or even a blood red. (Photo: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images)
