On further reflection, it was probably contamination after the return to Earth, but we still like the idea of mouth bacteria being just fine with two and half years on the Moon.
Brush your teeth, kids.
News Release: Round Trip
Tag: press release
News Release: Oldest Moon Rock
Size descriptions for popular media: either described in terms of fruit or of sporting goods.
Ballpark identification of a rock at 4.6 billion years old – approximately the age of the solar system – is pretty darn cool. Even if there’s nothing lemony about it.
News Release: Parasol-Popping
Parachutes, air bags, sky cranes: there are many options for attempting to (safely) land a probe on Mars, and some of them have even worked! Unclear at this time what became of this particular parasol plan.
Popping: interesting word choice for something that big, something intended to do the opposite of crashings and smashings.
As strange as this interplanetary toadstool looks, one can only hope it worked. Or looked spectacular when it didn’t.
News Release: Space Potato
“Potato” isn’t a shape, it’s a lack of shape.
News Release: Space Footwear
This raises a major question: do astronauts typically wear shoes? Or do they float about in socks? Or those pajamas with the feet? We understand that every gram counts when launching things into space, so what sort of footwear makes the cut?
The Converse look is a fine one, of course. And do we spy both laces and zip-up sides?
News Release: Space Frogs
We’re all relieved to hear that. While the American bullfrog enjoys a large natural range throughout eastern North America, and are celebrated jumpers, they are not typically encountered at heights above the earth that one would consider “in orbit.”
Whatever it’s like to think like a frog, we can safely assume that the rocket launch and orbital microgravity experiences were weird by any frog standards.
News Release: Balloon Survival
Science: if we can learn something from sending a 1,200 lb. payload over Saskatchewan via (a very large) balloon, by golly we’re going to try.
News Release: Buddy System
We’re not arguing here: contingency plans in a potentially dangerous situation are essential. One can reasonably assume that any and all tasks undertaken by astronauts while naut-ing in the astro are, if not inherently dangerous, at least dangerous-adjacent. And, as that time Tom Hanks almost died in space taught us, you can’t call 911 from space and expect them to do anything about it.
In case you were curious: the first 911 call was in Haleyville, Alabama in February, 1968. The Apollo 13 mission went sideways in April, 1970. Presumably any connection between the two would have to have been routed through CAPCOM anyway.
News Release: Satellites
April 14th, 1961: NASA publishes a list of satellites and space probes orbiting the Earth, Moon, and Sun, and it all fits on a single, ordinary, typed sheet of letter-sized paper. Twenty-six in all.
Just take a moment to marvel at that.
Now, of course, we (as in humans, not the physics shop) are still sending scads of objects into space, and NASA maintains the ARES Orbital Debris Program to keep track of all the crap up there.
Remember: wishing upon the burning reentry of space debris is just as good as on the remnants of comet dust!
News Release: Metric System
NASA makes an effort to switch over to the metric system. (For some things.) Because when your day-to-day job involves a lot of calculations and unit conversions, decimal-based order takes a lot of irritation out of doing ordinary stuff.
Of course, when you make the changeover from one system to another, it’s a challenge. Sometimes it’s necessary to use a few crutches before the comfort and ease settle in. (Note that this particular sheet predates the press release by the better part of a decade.)
Odd observations:
- It’s written out in plain English, rather than as a symbolic equation, like ” 1 km = 0.6214 mi. “
- There’s no 0 before the decimal point.
- The k for kilo is capitalized, and there’s a period after the m.
- But there’s no period at the end of the actual sentence.
- Love that old-school printed g.