Techdirt. Stories filed under "moon"

Techdirt. Stories filed under "moon" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "moon"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 12 Nov 2012 17:00:00 PST DailyDirt: Space Race 2.0 Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100908/16190410942/dailydirt-space-race-20.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100908/16190410942/dailydirt-space-race-20.shtml

NASA is about to announce ambitious plans for manned space outposts on the moon and at a Lagrangian point. There are only a handful of Earth-moon Lagrangian points, so if NASA gets to the better ones first, the US will occupy some of the best space real estate. [url]

China is planning to land a probe on the moon sometime in 2013. China ultimately wants to have a manned mission to the moon, but it hasn't set a timeframe for that goal. [url]

If you want to keep score, the Soviets have landed spacecraft on two other planets (Venus and Mars), while the US has only landed equipment on Mars. But if we're counting quality, not quantity, then the US has gathered far more information on Mars than any other space program. [url]

NASA's Morpheus lander is designed to touch down on other planets, moons and even asteroids. Morpheus runs on methane and oxygen so that it could potentially re-fuel on extra-terrestrial bodies, and it could handle a variety of payloads such as robots, laboratories and even astronauts. [url]

Neil Armstrong's first words as he stepped on the moon were slightly misheard by everyone on Earth, and audio analysis of the recordings suggests that Armstrong didn't just mis-speak. "That's one small step for *A* man, one giant leap for mankind." [url]
In 2006, NASA realized that it had lost its original Apollo 11 moon landing videos, but fortunately, archived footage of the moonwalk was found in Australia in 2010. The tapes were restored and digitized -- and hopefully we won't lose them again when nobody remembers what MP4 is. [url]
President Nixon was prepared for an Apollo 11 disaster with a speech that he thankfully never read to the American public. The "moon disaster" speech is a creepy reminder that space exploration is an inherently risky venture... [url] [page2]

The menu for astronauts headed to Mars could include items like (vegan) pizza and fresh vegetables/fruits. The gravity on Mars should allow astronauts to chop vegetables and do some food prep that's a bit harder in a zero-gravity environment. [url]

Buzz Aldrin took a communion wafer and a vial of wine to the moon in 1969. Aldrin quietly read a few bible passages and consumed these items in the hours before he was scheduled to go for a walk on the moon's surface. [url]

A trip to Mars requires the shelf life of its food supplies to last about five years, but NASA's current astronaut menu only lasts a couple years. Lockheed Martin researchers are looking into a bunch of different (non-meat and non-dairy) menu options for a 2030-ish planned mission to the red planet. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100902/11373810878 Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Space Race Continues Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100803/10525410479/dailydirt-space-race-continues.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100803/10525410479/dailydirt-space-race-continues.shtml SpaceX shipped some supplies to the International Space Station, and it's on track to providing a rocket system for ferrying astronauts to the ISS as well. More and more commercial space ventures are competing with government space programs, and this new space race will hopefully continue and create even more inspiring space technologies over the next decade and beyond. Here are just a few other interesting developments along the way.

NASA and the FAA have reached a tentative agreement to provide better guidelines for regulating all kinds of space launches. Virgin Galactic has been granted a license, but it might be interesting to see if all those amateur weather balloons and sub-orbital rocket projects will run into any regulatory problems. [url]
Excalibur Almaz is a commercial space transportation company with roots in the former Soviet Union's military space program. For about $100 million, you can hitch a ride on one of these older (but very reliable!) Soviet-era spacecraft that have been extensively tested -- possibly all the way to the moon. [url]
Citizen scientists are putting together an ArduSat -- an open source satellite -- that could be included on a free launch via a NASA or ESA ride-along program. There ain't no such thing as a free launch? [url]
China has recently become the third nation to successfully dock a manned space capsule with another space vessel. Three people (including China's first female astronaut/taikonaut) on the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft joined up with the Tiangong 1 space module in orbit. [url]

Planetary Resources has been getting some buzz for its plans to mine nearby asteroids for precious metals and water. If gold was as abundant as aluminum, what would we do with it? [url]

Is it time to start studying up on space law now? Ownership of asteroids and the legalities of mining them could be a lucrative field someday! [url]

NASA and Astrobotic Technology are going to look for ice deposits and possible sources of useful materials on the moon. Silly, NASA, everyone knows the moon is made of cheese... [url]