Tag: Apollo

What became of the flags Apollo astronauts left on the moon?

NeRD

55 years ago today, Apollo 11’s flag raising on the ancient lunar surface took all of 10 minutes during Neil Armstrong’s and Buzz Aldrin’s two-and-a-half hour moonwalking adventure in July 1969.  But that seminal event in vexillological history was not without a lot of debate, discussion and early worries that were run up the policy flagpole about “who owns the moon?” (Vexillology is the study of the history, symbolism and usage of flags.) Matthew Ward is a senior lecturer in history at the University of Dundee in Scotland. He notes…

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Navigating the Moon with Art

NeRD

NASA An artist uses an airbrush to recreate the lunar surface on one of the four models comprising the LOLA, or Lunar Orbit and Landing Approach, simulator in this November 12, 1964, photo. Project LOLA was a simulator built at Langley to study problems related to landing on the lunar surface. In “Spaceflight Revolution: NASA Langley Research Center From Sputnik to Apollo,” James Hansen wrote: “This simulator was designed to provide a pilot with a detailed visual encounter with the lunar surface; the machine consisted primarily of a cockpit, a…

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Overlooked Apollo data from the 1970s reveals huge record of ‘hidden’ moonquakes

NeRD

The moon is much more seismically active than we realized, a new study shows. A reanalysis of abandoned data from NASA’s Apollo missions has uncovered more than 22,000 previously unknown moonquakes — nearly tripling the total number of known seismic events on the moon.  Moonquakes are the lunar equivalent of earthquakes, caused by movement in the moon’s interior. Unlike earthquakes, these movements are caused by gradual temperature changes and meteorite impacts, rather than shifting tectonic plates (which the moon does not have, according to NASA). As a result, moonquakes are…

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Bulova adds limited edition meteorite dial to Apollo 15-inspired Lunar Pilot watch

NeRD

How do you enhance the connection that a watch shares with outer space beyond just evoking its history of having been flown to the moon? You replicate the look of the original, but replace its dial with a space rock. Bulova is celebrating its long history with NASA and the U.S. space program by releasing its new Meteorite Lunar Pilot timepiece. The $1,495 limited edition wristwatch, part of Bulova’s growing Archive Series, is the latest reproduction of a prototype chronograph that was secretly flown to the moon. In 1971, Bulova…

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