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Scott Carpenter

Scott Carpenter

Malcolm Scott Carpenter (born May 1, 1925) was one of the original seven astronauts selected in 1959 for Project Mercury. Created by the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Project Mercury was the United States' answer to the Soviet Union's space program. This rivalry eventually became the space race — a contest between the two superpowers to land the first men on the moon and return them safely to earth. Carpenter was the second American to orbit the earth and the fourth American in space, following Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, and John Glenn. Born in Boulder, Colorado, Carpenter moved to New York City with his parents (Marion Scott Carpenter and Florence [née Noxon] Carpenter) for the first two years of his life. (His father had been awarded a postdoctoral research post at Columbia University.) In the summer of 1927, young Carpenter returned to Boulder with his mother, then ill with tuberculosis. There he was raised by his maternal grandparents in the family home at the corner of Aurora Avenue and Seventh Street. He lived in Boulder until his graduation from Boulder High School in the class of 1943. Upon graduation, he was accepted into the U.S. Navy's aviation cadet program (V12a), where he served until the end of World War II. He returned to Boulder in November 1945 to study aeronautical engineering at the University Of Colorado. At the end on his senior year, he missed the final examination in heat transfer, leaving him one requirement short of a degree. After his single Mercury flight, the University granted him the degree on grounds that, "His subsequent training as an Astronaut has more than made up for the deficiency in the subject of heat transfer." (See Carpenter's account in his biography, For Spacious Skies, p. 97.) On the eve of the Korean war, Carpenter was recruited by the USN's Direct Procurement Program (DPP), and reported to Pensacola Naval Air Station (N.A.S.) in the fall of 1949 for Pre-flight and Primary flight training. He earned his wings on April 19, 1951, in Corpus Christi, Texas. During his first tour of duty, on his first deployment, Carpenter flew Lockheed P2V Neptunes for Patrol Squadron Six on reconnaissance and ASW (anti-submarine warfare) missions during the Korean War. Forward-based in Adak, Carpenter then flew surveillance missions along the Soviet Russian and Chinese coasts during his second deployment; promoted to PPC (patrol plane commander) for his third deployment, Lt. (j.g.) Carpenter was based with his squadron in Guam. Carpenter was then appointed to the Navy Test Pilot School, class 13, at Patuxent River N.A.S. in 1954. He continued at Patuxent until 1957, working as a test pilot in the Electronics Test Division; his next tour of duty was spent in Monterey, Calif., at the Navy Line School. In 1958, Carpenter was named Air Intelligence Officer for the USS Hornet. USS Hornet After being chosen for Project Mercury in 1959, Carpenter served as backup pilot for John Glenn, who flew the first U.S. orbital mission aboard Friendship 7; when Deke Slayton was withdrawn on medical grounds from Project Mercury's second manned orbital flight, Carpenter was assigned to replace him. He flew into space on May 24, 1962, atop the Mercury-Atlas 7 rocket for a three-orbit science mission that lasted nearly five hours. His Aurora 7 spacecraft attained a maximum altitude of 164 miles and an orbital velocity of 17,532 miles per hour. Working through a jammed flight plan and five onboard experiments, Carpenter helped among other things to identify the mysterious 'fire fly' particles of frozen liquid around the craft, first observed by John Glenn. Carpenter was the first American astronaut to eat solid food in space. A balky control stick, redesigned for later Mercury missions, meant that fuel consumption was a problem throughout his flight. A malfunctioning automatic control system, at retrofire, forced Carpenter to manually control his reentry; a misalignment in yaw and decelerating thrusters (another malfunction) resulted in a 250-mile overshoot. Carpenter was located in his life raft, safe and in good health, forty minutes after splashdown, and recovered by the USS Intrepid. Just who was to blame for the overshoot is a matter of dispute. On the one hand, Chris Kraft, leader of the team of flight controllers at the Cape, argues in a hard-hitting memoir (Flight: My Life in Mission Control, 2002) that Carpenter was to blame. Kraft's position is taken up with less enthusiasm by others in the flight controller community (see, for example, Gene Kranz). Yet at the time, the mission was considered a resounding success, in large part because the flight of Aurora 7 confirmed that backup systems—human pilots—could succeed when automatic systems fail.[http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4201/ch13-9.htm]] Others note that fuel consumption and other aspects of the vehicle operation were as much, if not more, the responsibility of the ground controllers, that hardware malfunctions went unidentified, and that organizational tensions between the astronaut office and the flight controller office—tensions that NASA did not resolve until the later Gemini and Apollo programs—may account for much of the criticism of Carpenter's performance during his flight. Carpenter responds at length and in detail to the criticism of his spaceflight in his 2003 autobiography. In July 1964, in Bermuda, Carpenter sustained a grounding injury from a motorbike accident while on leave from NASA to train for the Navy's Sealab project; he never flew in space again. In 1965, for Sealab II, he spent 28 days living on the ocean floor off the coast of California. He returned to work at NASA as Executive Assistant to the Director of the Manned Spaceflight Center, then returned to the Navy's Deep Submergence Systems Project in 1967, based in Bethesda, Maryland, as a Director of Aquanaut Operations for Sealab III. Carpenter retired from the Navy in 1969, after which he founded Sear Sciences, Inc., a corporation for developing programs for utilizing ocean resources and improving environmental health. In 1962, Scott Carpenter Park in Boulder, Colorado, was named in his honor.

Books

- For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronaut," ISBN 0151004676 or the revised paperback edition ISBN 0451211057 - Carpenter's biography, co-written with his daughter; describes his childhood, his experiences as a naval aviator, a Mercury astronaut, including an account of what went wrong, and right, on the flight of Aurora 7.
External links

- [http://www11.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/carpenter-ms.html NASA Biography] Carpenter,Scott Carpenter,Scott Carpenter,Scott Carpenter,Scott

1925
1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar).
Events

January-May

- January 3 - Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.
- January 5 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first female governor in the United States.
- January 27–February 1 - The 1925 serum run to Nome, or the "Great Race of Mercy", relays diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled across the U.S. territory of Alaska to combat an epidemic
- February 21 - The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
- March 4 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to have his inauguration broadcasted on radio.
- March 6 - Pionerskaya Pravda, one of the oldest children's newspapers in Europe, is founded
- March 13 - Scopes Trial: A law in Tennessee prohibits the teaching of evolution.
- March 18 - The Tri-State Tornado raked through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana and killed 695 people.
- March 31 - WOWO radio station in Ft. Wayne, Indiana begins broadcasting.
- May 5 - Scopes Trial: Dayton, Tennessee, biology teacher John Scopes is arrested for teaching Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution.
- May 25 - Scopes Trial: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.
- May 25 - The National Forensics League is founded.
- May 29 - Last communication from the British explorer Percy Fawcett, a telegram to his wife, before he disappears in the Amazon
June-September

- June 1 - Percy and Florence Arrowsmith were married. Celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary June 1, 2005 - Percy is now 105, and wife Florence is 100. Guinness_Book_of_Records said the pair held records for the longest marriage for a living couple and the oldest aggregate age of a married couple
- June 6 - The Chrysler Corporation is founded by Walter Percy Chrysler.
- June 13 - Charles Francis Jenkins achieves the first synchronized transmission of pictures and sound, using 48 lines, and a mechanical system. A 10-minute film of a miniature windmill in motion is sent across 5 miles from Anacostia to Washington, DC. The images were viewed by representatives of the Bureau of Standards, the U.S. Navy, the Commerce Department, and others. Jenkins called this "the first public demonstration of radiovision".
- July 10 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins with John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law.
- July 18 - Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.
- July 21 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.
- September 3 - US dirigible Shenandoah breaks up en route to Scottfield, St. Louis - 14 crewmen dead
October-December

- October - Major money forgery and fraud of Alves Reis exposed in Portugal
- October 30 - John Logie Baird creates Britain's first television transmitter.
- November 28 - Country-variety show Grand Ole Opry makes its radio debut on station WSM (it would later become the longest-running live music show).
Unknown dates

- Thompson submachine gun sells for $175 in the Sears mail order catalog.
- Vladimir Zworykin takes out the first patent for colour television.
- Introduction of London's first double decker buses.
- The Royal Tweed Bridge in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, is completed.
- The National Football League adds five teams: New York Giants, Detroit Panthers, Providence Steam Roller, a new Canton Bulldogs team, and Pottsville Maroons
Births

January-April

- January 6 - John De Lorean, American car maker (d. 2005)
- January 7 - Gerald Durrell, British naturalist, zookeeper, author, and television presenter (d. 1995)
- January 11 - Grant Tinker, American television executive
- January 25 - Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (d. 1995)
- January 26 - Paul Newman, American actor
- January 30 - Dorothy Malone, American actress
- February 8 - Jack Lemmon, American actor and film director (d. 2001)
- February 17 - Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor (d. 2003)
- February 17 - Hal Holbrook, American actor
- February 18 - George Kennedy, American actor
- February 20 - Robert Altman, American film director
- February 21 - Sam Peckinpah, American director (d. 1984)
- February 27 - Samuel Dash, American Congressional counsel (d. 2004)
- March 12 - Leo Esaki, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 23 - David Watkin, British cinematographer
- March 26 - Pierre Boulez, French composer
- April 14 - Gene Ammons, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1974)
- April 14 - Rod Steiger, American actor (d. 2002)
- April 25 - Kay E. Kuter, American actor (d. 2003)
May-July

- May 2 - Yogi Berra, baseball player
- May 19 - Pol Pot, Cambodian Khmer Rouge leader (d. 1998)
- May 19 - Malcolm X, American civil rights activist (d. 1965)
- May 22 - James King, American tenor (d. 2005)
- May 23 - Joshua Lederberg, American molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- May 25 - Jeanne Crain, American actress (d. 2003)
- June 3 - Tony Curtis, American actor
- June 8 - Barbara Bush, First Lady of the United States
- June 14 - Pierre Salinger, John F. Kennedy's White House Press Secretary (d. 2004)
- July 1 - Farley Granger, American actor
- July 6 - Merv Griffin, American game show developer and host
- July 6 - Bill Haley, American musician (Bill Haley and the Comets) (d. 1981)
- July 10 - Mahathir bin Mohamad, fourth Prime Minister of Maylasia
- July 28 - Baruch S. Blumberg, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
August-September

- August 3 - Dom Um Romão, Brazilian jazz drummer
- August 7 - M. S. Swaminathan, Indian scientist
- August 8 - Alija Izetbegović, President of Bosnia-Herzegovina (d. 2003)
- August 12 - Norris McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 2004)
- August 12 - Ross McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 1975)
- August 21 - Maurice Pialat, French actor and director (d. 2003)
- August 27 - Nat Lofthouse, English footballer
- August 28 - Donald O'Connor, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 2003)
- August 30 - Laurent de Brunhoff, French writer and illustrator
- September 8 - Peter Sellers, English comedian and actor (d. 1980)
- September 10 - Boris Alexandrovich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (d. 1996)
- September 24 - Autar Singh Paintal, Indian medical scientist (d. 2004)
- September 28 - Arnold Stang, American actor
October-December

- October 13 - Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- October 16 - Angela Lansbury, American actress
- October 23 - Johnny Carson, American comedian and television host (d. 2005)
- October 24 - Luciano Berio, Italian composer (d. 2003)
- October 24 - Al Feldstein, American artist and comic book creator
- October 27 - Albert Medwin, American inventor
- October 31 - John Anthony Pople, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
- November 11 - Jonathan Winters, American actor and comedian
- November 18 - Gene Mauch, baseball manager (d. 2005)
- November 20 - Robert Kennedy, American politician and Attorney General of the United States (d. 1968)
- November 24 - William F. Buckley, Jr., American author and commentator. Founder of National Review Magazine
- November 24 - Simon van der Meer, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- November 26 - Eugene Istomin, American pianist (d. 2003)
- November 27 - John Maddox, Welsh science writer
- December 1 - Martin Rodbell, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1998)
- December 3 - Kim Daejung, President of South Korea, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- December 8 - Sammy Davis Jr., American singer, dancer, musician, and actor (d. 1990)
- December 11 - Paul Greengard, American neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- December 13 - Dick Van Dyke, American actor
- December 14 - Gloria Malgarini, American actress, spokesperson
Unknown

- Charles Mangin, French general (b. 1866)
- William H. Gates, Sr., American attorney, father of Bill Gates
- Gildo Massó, Puerto Rican housebuilder.
Deaths

- January 4 - Nellie Cashman, Irish-born actress (b. 1845)
- January 8 - George Bellows, American artist (b. 1882)
- January 14 - Camille Decoppet, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1852)
- January 31 - George Washington Cable, American writer (b. 1844)
- February 2 - Jaap Eden, Dutch speed skater (b. 1873)
- February 3 - Oliver Heaviside, English mathematician (b. 1850)
- February 4 - Robert Koldewey, German architect and archaeologist (b. 1855)
- February 10 - Aristide Bruant, French singer and nightclub owner (b. 1851)
- February 18 - James Lane Allen, American writer (b. 1849)
- February 24 - Hjalmar Branting, Prime Minister of Sweden, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1860)
- February 25 - Louis Feuillade, French silent film director (b. 1873)
- February 28 - Friedrich Ebert, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1871)
- March 2 - Luigj Gurakuqi, Albanian freedom fighter (assassinated) (b. 1879)
- March 4 - John Ward, baseball player (b. 1860)
- March 7 - Georgy Evgenyevich Lvov, Prime Minister of Russia (b. 1861)
- March 12 - Sun Yat-sen, Chinese revolutionary (b. 1866)
- March 14 - Walter Camp, American football coach (b. 1859)
- March 20 - George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, Viceroy of India (b. 1859)
- March 25 - Tikhon of Moscow, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (b. 1865)
- March 28 - Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson, British general (b. 1864)
- April 14 - John Singer Sargent, American artist (b. 1856)
- April 15 - Fritz Haarmann, German serial killer (b. 1879)
- April 19 - John Walter Smith, American politician (b. 1845)
- April 22 - André Caplet, French composer and conductor (b. 1878)
- April 23 - Rupert Brooke, English poet (b. 1887)
- May 2 - Johann Palisa, Austrian astronomer (b. 1848)
- May 2 - Antun Branko Simic, Croatian poet (b. 1898)
- May 10 - William Massey, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b.1856)
- May 12 - Amy Lowell, American poet (b. 1874)
- May 14 - H. Rider Haggard, English writer (b. 1856)
- May 20 - Elias M. Ammons, Governor of Colorado (b. 1860)
- May 22 - John French, 1st Earl of Ypres, British World War I field marshal (b. 1852)
- June 1 - Thomas R. Marshall, Vice President of the United States (b. 1854)
- June 2 - James Ellsworth, American mine owner and banker (b. 1849)
- June 16 - Emmett Hardy, American jazz cornetist (b. 1903)
- June 18 - Robert M. La Follette, Sr., American politician (b. 1855)
- June 29 - Christian Michelsen, Prime Minister of Norway (b. 1857)
- July 1 - Erik Satie, French composer (b. 1866)
- July 26 - Antonio Ascari, Italian race car driver (b. 1888)
- July 26 - William Jennings Bryan, American lawyer and politician (b. 1860)
- July 26 - Gottlob Frege, German mathematician and philosopher (b. 1848)
- August 17 - Ioan Slavici, Romanian writer (b. 1848)
- August 25 - Franz Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf, Austrian field marshal (b. 1852)
- September 7 - René Viviani, Prime Minister of France (b. 1863)
- September 16 - Alexander Alexandrovich Friedman, Russian mathematician (b. 1888)
- September 29 - Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1851)
- October 7 - Christy Mathewson, baseball player (b. 1880)
- October 31 - Mikhail Frunze, Russian Bolshevik leader (b. 1885)
- October 31 - Max Linder, French silent film actor (b. 1883)
- November 20 - Alexandra of Denmark, queen of Edward VII of the United Kingdom (b. 1844)
- November 25 - Vajiravudh, King of Siam (b. 1880)
- December 5 - Wladyslaw Reymont, Polish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1867)
- December 9 - Pablo Iglesias, co-founder of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (b. 1850)
- December 15 - Battling Siki, Senegalese boxer (b. 1897)
- December 19 - Jose Ignacio Quinton, Puerto Rican composer and pianist (b. 1881)
- December 21 - Jules Méline, Prime Minister of France (b. 1838)
- December 22 - Alice Heine, American wife of Albert I of Monaco (b. 1858)
- December 25 - Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst (b. 1877)
- December 27 - Sergei Yesenin, Russian poet (b. 1895)
Nobel Prizes

- Physics - James Franck and Gustav Ludwig Hertz
- Chemistry - Richard Adolf Zsigmondy
- Physiology or Medicine - not awarded
- Literature - George Bernard Shaw
- Peace - Austen Chamberlain and Charles Gates Dawes
- ko:1925년 ms:1925 ja:1925年 simple:1925 th:พ.ศ. 2468

Project Mercury

Project Mercury was the United States first successful manned spaceflight program. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a man in orbit around the Earth. Early planning and research was carried out by NACA, while the program was officially carried out by the newly created NASA. The name Mercury comes from the Roman god (it is also the name of the innermost planet of the solar system). The Mercury program cost $1.5 billion in 1994 dollars. See NASA Budget.

Spacecraft

__NOTOC__ Mercury spacecraft (also called a capsule or space capsule) were very small one-man vehicles; it was said that the Mercury spacecraft were not ridden, they were worn. Only 1.7 cubic meters in volume, the Mercury capsule was barely big enough to include its pilot. Inside were 120 controls: 55 electrical switches, 30 fuses and 35 mechanical levers. The spacecraft was designed by Max Faget and NASA's Space Task Group. During the launch phase of the mission, the Mercury spacecraft and astronaut were protected from launch vehicle failures by the Launch Escape System. The LES consisted of a solid fuel, 52,000 lbf (231 kN) thrust rocket mounted on a tower above the spacecraft. In the event of a launch abort, the LES fired for 1 second, pulling the Mercury spacecraft away from a defective launch vehicle. The spacecraft would then descend on its parachute recovery system. After booster engine cutoff (BECO), the LES was no longer needed and was separated from the spacecraft by a solid fuel, 800 lbf (3.6 kN) thrust jettison rocket, that fired for 1.5 seconds. To separate the Mercury spacecraft from the launch vehicle, the spacecraft fired three small solid fuel, 400 lbf (1.8 kN) thrust rockets for 1 second. These rockets are called the Posigrade rockets. The spacecraft had only attitude control thrusters. After orbit insertion and before retrofire they could not change their orbit. The spacecraft had three sets of control jets for each axis (yaw, pitch and roll), supplied from two separate fuel tanks. An automatic set of high and low powered jets and a set of manual jets, fueled from either the automatic tank or the manual tank. The pilot could use any one of the three thruster systems and fuel them from either of the two fuel tanks to provide spacecraft attitude control. The Mercury spacecraft were designed to be totally controllable from the ground in the event that the space environment impaired the pilot's ability to function. The spacecraft had three solid fuel, 1000 lbf (4.5 kN) thrust retrorockets that fired for 10 seconds each. One was sufficient to return the spacecraft to earth if the other two failed. The first retro was fired, five seconds later the second was fired (while the first was still firing). Five seconds after that, the third retro fires (while the second retro is still firing). This is called ripple firing. There was a small metal flap at the nose of the spacecraft called the "spoiler". If the spacecraft started to reenter nose first (another stable reentry attitude for the capsule), airflow over the "spoiler" would flip the spacecraft around to the proper, heatshield first reentry attitude. Suborbital Mercury capsules encountered lower reentry temperatures and used beryllium heat-sink heat shields. Orbital missions encountered much higher atmospheric friction and temperatures during reentry and used ablative shields. NASA ordered 20 production spacecraft, numbered 1 through 20, from McDonnell Aircraft Company, St. Louis, Missouri. Five of the twenty spacecraft were not flown. They were, Spacecraft #10, 12, 15, 17, and 19. Two unmanned spacecraft were destroyed during flights. They were Spacecraft #3 and #4. Spacecraft #11 sank and was recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after 38 years. Some spacecraft were modified after initial production (refurbished after launch abort, modified for longer missions, etc) and received a letter designation after their number, examples 2B, 15B. Some spacecraft were modified twice, example, spacecraft 15 became 15A and then 15B. A number of boilerplate spacecraft (mockup/prototype/replica spacecraft, made from non-flight materials or lacking production spacecraft systems and/or hardware) were also made by NASA and McDonnell Aircraft and used in numerous tests, including launches.

Boosters

ablative The Mercury program used three boosters: Little Joe, Redstone, and Atlas. Little Joe was used to test the escape tower and abort procedures. Redstone was used for suborbital flights, and Atlas for orbital ones. Starting in October, 1958, Jupiter missiles were also considered as suborbital launch vehicles for the Mercury program, but were cut from the program in July, 1959 due to budget constraints. The Atlas boosters required extra strengthening in order to handle the increased weight of the Mercury capsules beyond that of the nuclear warheads they were designed to carry. Little Joe was a solid-propellant booster designed specially for the Mercury program. The Titan missile was also considered for use for later Mercury missions, however the Mercury program was terminated before these missions were flown. The Titan was used for the Gemini program which followed Mercury

Astronauts

Gemini program The first Americans to venture into space were drawn from a group of 110 military pilots chosen for their flight test experience and because they met certain physical requirements. Seven of those 110 became astronauts in April 1959. Six of the seven flew Mercury missions (Deke Slayton was removed from flight status due to a heart condition). Beginning with Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 flight, the astronauts named their own spacecraft, and all added 7 to the name to acknowledge the teamwork of their fellow astronauts Mercury had seven prime astronauts, all former military test pilots, known as the Mercury 7. NASA announced the selection of these astronauts on April 9, 1959.
- M. Scott Carpenter (1925-)
- L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. (1927-2004)
- John H. Glenn. Jr. (1921-)
(first American to orbit the earth)
- Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom (1926-1967)
- Walter M. Schirra, Jr. (1923-)
- Alan B. Shepard, Jr. (1923-1998)
(first American in space)
- Donald K. "Deke" Slayton (1924-1993)
(grounded in 1962 due to irregular heartbeat, reinstated in 1972 and later flew on Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975)

Flights

The program included 20 robotic launches. Not all of these were intended to reach space and not all were successful in completing their objectives. The fifth flight in 1959 launched a monkey named Sam (a rhesus monkey named after the Air Force School of Aviation Medicine) into space. Other non-human space-farers were Miss Sam (a rhesus monkey), Ham and Enos, both chimpanzees. The Mercury program used the following launch vehicles:
- Little Joe - Suborbital, robotic, and primate flights. Launch escape system tests
- Redstone - Suborbital robotic, primate and piloted orbital flights.
- Atlas - Suborbital robotic, robotic, primate, and piloted orbital flights.

Robotic

- Mercury-Jupiter - Cancelled in July, 1959 - Proposed suborbital launch vehicle for Mercury. Not flown.
- Little Joe 1 - August 21, 1959 - test of launch escape system during flight
- Big Joe 1 - September 9, 1959 - test of heat shield and Atlas / spacecraft interface
- Little Joe 6 - October 4, 1959 - Test of capsule aerodynamics and integrity
- Little Joe 1A - November 4, 1959 - test of launch escape system during flight
- Little Joe 2 - December 4, 1959 - carried Sam the monkey to 85 kilometres in altitude
- Little Joe 1B - January 21, 1960 - carried Miss Sam the monkey to 9.3 statute miles (15 kilometres) in altitude
- Beach Abort - May 9, 1960 - test of the Off-The-Pad abort system
- Mercury-Atlas 1 - July 29, 1960 - first flight of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster
- Little Joe 5 - November 8, 1960 - first flight of a production Mercury spacecraft
- Mercury-Redstone 1 - November 21, 1960 - Launched 4 inches (100 mm). Settled back on pad due to electrical malfunction
- Mercury-Redstone 1A - December 19, 1960 - first flight of Mercury spacecraft and Redstone booster
- Mercury-Redstone 2 - January 31, 1961 - carried Ham the Chimpanzee on suborbital flight
- Mercury-Atlas 2 - February 21, 1961 - test of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster
- Little Joe 5A - March 18, 1961 - test of the launch escape system during the most severe conditions of a launch
- Mercury-Redstone BD - March 24, 1961 - Redstone Booster Development - test flight
- Mercury-Atlas 3 - April 25, 1961 - test of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster
- Little Joe 5B - April 28, 1961 - test of the launch escape system during the most severe conditions of a launch
- Mercury-Atlas 4 - September 13, 1961 - test of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster
- Mercury-Scout 1 - November 1, 1961 - test of Mercury tracking network
- Mercury-Atlas 5 - November 29, 1961 - carried Enos the Chimpanzee on a two orbit flight

Primate flights

- Little Joe 2 - December 4, 1959 - carried Sam the monkey to 85 kilometres in altitude
- Little Joe 1B - January 21, 1960 - carried Miss Sam the monkey to 9.3 statute miles (15 kilometres) in altitude
- Mercury-Redstone 2 - January 31, 1961 - carried Ham the Chimpanzee on suborbital flight
- Mercury-Atlas 5 - November 29, 1961 - carried Enos the Chimpanzee on a two orbit flight

Piloted

Suborbital

- Mercury-Redstone 3 (Freedom 7) - 5 May 1961 - Alan Shepard
- Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7) - 21 July 1961 - Gus Grissom

Orbital

- Mercury Atlas 6 (Friendship 7) - 20 February 1962 - John Glenn
- Mercury-Atlas 7 (Aurora 7) - 24 May 1962 - Scott Carpenter (replaced Deke Slayton)
- Mercury-Atlas 8 (Sigma 7) - 3 October 1962 - Wally Schirra
- Mercury-Atlas 9 (Faith 7) - 15 May 1963 - Gordon Cooper
- Mercury-Atlas 10 (Freedom 7-II) - October 1963 - Cancelled June 13, 1963 1963 1963

Piloted Mercury launches

1963

Mercury Flight insignias

Flight patches are available to the public that purport to be patches from various Mercury missions. In reality, these patches were designed long after the Mercury program ended by private entrepreneurs. When genuine flight patches were created by crews in the Gemini program, this caused a public demand for Mercury flight patches, which was filled by these private entrepreneurs. The only patches the Mercury astronauts wore were the NASA logo and a name tag. Each manned Mercury spacecraft, however, was decorated with a flight insignia. These are the genuine Mercury flight insignias. They were approved by the Mercury astronauts and painted on their spacecraft. Each flight insignia is illustrated in the photo above.

Follow-on programs

Miscellaneous

The Mercury astronauts trained, in part, at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia, under Flight Surgeon William K. Douglas and Keith G. Lindell (COL, USAF). Several bridges throughout the city bear the name of the Mercury astronauts, and the main route in the city is named Mercury Boulevard, honoring the Mercury program. The names of five of the Mercury astronauts are also commemorated in the popular 1960s TV show Thunderbirds. In the series, Jeff Tracy, the founder of the fictional International Rescue organisation, is a millionaire ex-astronaut who has named his five sons -- Scott, Virgil, Alan, John and Gordon -- after the real-life Mercury astronauts.

External links

- [http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/history/mercury/mercury.htm The Mercury Project (Kennedy Space Center)]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4001/contents.htm Project Mercury A Chronology (Prepared by James M. Grimwood)]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4003/cover.htm Space Medicine In Project Mercury By Mae Mills Link]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/diagrams/mercury.html Project Mercury Drawings and Technical Diagrams]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/diagrams/diagrams.htm Technical Diagrams and Drawings]
- [http://www.geocities.com/atlas_missile/mercury.htm Mercury-Atlas Diagrams]
- [http://projectmercury5.moonport.org Project Mercury Simulator for the PC (Orbiter)]
- [http://youarego.com Project Mercury Simulator for the Mac]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670028606_1967028606.pdf The Mercury Redstone Project (PDF) December 1964]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740076527_1974076527.pdf Project Mercury familiarization manual (PDF) November 1961]
- [http://www.ibiblio.org/mscorbit/document.html Various PDFs of historical Mercury documents including familiarization manuals.] Category:Manned spacecraft Category:Human spaceflight programmes
- ja:マーキュリー計画

Soviet Russia

Soviet Russia can refer to one of several things: States:
- Bolshevist Russia, an informal term referring to the Bolshevik side in the Russian Civil War, or the Soviet Russian government before the establishment of the Soviet Union.
- Russian SFSR (Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic), the Soviet Russian state officially founded in 1918, some months after the October Revolution of 1917. The RSFSR's boundaries were fluid until the end of the Civil War, when it became a founding republic of the Soviet Union.
- Soviet Union (USSR), informally, but inaccurately Other:
- Soviet Russia (newspaper), in the Soviet Union.
- Soviet Russia (publisher), in the Soviet Union.
- "In Soviet Russia..." can also be an allusion to a type of joke popularized by Yakov Smirnoff

Moon

:For other moons in the solar system see natural satellite. For the astrological meaning of the Moon, see Solar system in astrology. For other uses see Moon (disambiguation). The Moon is the planet Earth's only natural satellite. It has no formal name other than "The Moon", although it is occasionally called Luna (Latin for moon), or Selene, to distinguish it from the generic "moon" (natural satellites of other planets are also called moons). Its symbol is a crescent (Unicode: ☾). The terms lunar, selene/seleno-, and cynthion (from the Lunar deities Selene and Cynthia) refer to the Moon (aposelene, selenocentric, pericynthion, etc.). The average distance from the Moon to the Earth is 384,403 kilometers (238,857 miles). The Moon's diameter is 3,476 kilometers (2,160 miles). The first manmade object to land on the Moon was Luna 2 in 1959, the first photographs of the otherwise occluded far side of the Moon were made by Luna 3 that same year, and the first people to land on the Moon came aboard Apollo 11 in 1969.

The two sides

The far side is sometimes called the "dark side". In this case "dark" means "unknown and hidden" and not "lacking light" as percieved by the name; in fact the far side receives (on average) as much sunlight as the near side, but at opposite times. Spacecraft are cut off from direct radio communication with the Earth when on the far side of the Moon. One distinguishing feature of the far side is its almost complete lack of maria (singular: mare), which are the dark albedo features.

Orbit

The Moon makes a complete orbit about once every 28 days. Each hour the Moon moves relative to the stars by an amount roughly equal to its angular diameter, or by about 0.5°. The Moon differs from most satellites of other planets in that its orbit is close to the plane of the ecliptic and not in the Earth's equatorial plane. Several ways to consider a complete orbit are detailed in the table below, but the two most familiar are: the sidereal month being the time it takes to make a complete orbit with respect to the stars, about 27.3 days; and the synodic month being the time it takes to reach the same phase, about 29.5 days. These differ because in the meantime the Earth and Moon have both orbited some distance around the Sun. The gravitational attraction that the Moon exerts on Earth is the cause of tides in the sea. The tidal flow period, but not the phase, is synchronized to the Moon's orbit around Earth. The tidal bulges on Earth, caused by the Moon's gravity, are carried ahead of the apparent position of the Moon by the Earth's rotation, in part because of the friction of the water as it slides over the ocean bottom and into or out of bays and estuaries. As a result, some of the Earth's rotational momentum is gradually being transferred to the Moon's orbital momentum, resulting in the Moon slowly receding from Earth at the rate of approximately 38 mm per year. At the same time the Earth's rotation is gradually slowing, the Earth's day thus lengthens by about 15 µs every year. A more detailed discussion follows in the section titled Earth & Moon. The Moon is in synchronous rotation, meaning that it keeps the same face turned to the Earth at all times. This synchronous rotation is only true on average because the Moon's orbit has definite eccentricity. When the Moon is at its perigee, its rotation is slower than its orbital motion, and this allows us to see up to an extra eight degrees of longitude of its East (right) side. Conversely, when the Moon reaches its apogee, its rotation is faster than its orbital motion and reveals another eight degrees of longitude of its West (left) side. This is called longitudinal libration. Because the lunar orbit is also inclined to the Earth's equator, the Moon seems to oscillate up and down (as a person's head does when nodding) as it moves in celestial latitude (declination). This is called latitudinal libration and reveals the Moon's polar zones over about seven degrees of latitude. Finally, because the Moon is only at about 60 Earth radii distance, an observer at the equator who observes the Moon throughout the night moves by an Earth diameter sideways. This is diurnal libration and reveals about one degree's worth of lunar longitude. Earth and Moon orbit about their barycenter, or common center of mass, which lies about 4700 km from Earth's center (about 3/4 of the way to the surface). Since the barycenter is located below the Earth's surface, Earth's motion is more commonly described as a "wobble". When viewed from Earth's North pole, Earth and Moon rotate counter-clockwise about their axes; the Moon orbits Earth counter-clockwise and Earth orbits the Sun counter-clockwise. It may seem curious that the inclination of the lunar orbit and the tilt of the Moon's axis of rotation are listed as varying considerably. One must be reminded here that the orbital inclination is measured with respect to the primary's equatorial plane (in this case the Earth's), and that the axis of rotation's tilt is measured with respect to the normal to the satellite's orbital plane (the Moon's). For most planetary satellites, but not for the Moon, these conventions model physical reality and the values are therefore stable. The plane of the lunar orbit maintains an inclination of 5.145 396° with respect to the ecliptic (the orbital plane of the Earth), and the lunar axis of rotation maintains an inclination of 1.5424° with respect to the normal to that same plane. The lunar orbital plane precesses quickly (i.e. its intersection with the ecliptic rotates clockwise), in 6793.5 days (18.5996 years), mostly because of the gravitational perturbation induced by the Sun. During that period, the lunar orbital plane thus sees its inclination with respect to the Earth's equator (itself inclined 23.45° to the ecliptic) vary between 23.45° + 5.15° = 28.60° and 23.45° - 5.15° = 18.30°. Simultaneously, the axis of lunar rotation sees its tilt with respect to the Moon's orbital plane vary between 5.15° + 1.54° = 6.69° and 5.15° - 1.54° = 3.60°. Note that the Earth's tilt reacts to this process and itself varies by 0.002 56° on either side of its mean value; this is called nutation. The points where the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic are called the "lunar nodes": the North (or ascending) node is where the Moon crosses to the North of the ecliptic; the South (or descending) node where it crosses to the South. Solar eclipses occur when a node coincides with the new Moon; lunar eclipses when a node coincides with the full Moon.

Earth & Moon

The tides on Earth are generated by the Moon's gravitation (see tide and tidal force for a more detailed discussion). There are two tidal bulges, one in the direction of the Moon, and one in the opposite direction (figure 1). The buildup of these bulges and their movement around the earth causes an energy loss due to friction. The energy loss decreases the rotational energy of the Earth. Since the Earth spins faster than the Moon moves around it, the tidal bulges are dragged along with the Earth's surface faster than the Moon moves, and move "in front of the Moon" (figure 2). Because of this, the Earth's gravitational pull on the Moon has a component in the Moon's "forward" direction with respect to its orbit. This component of the gravitational forces between the two bodies acts like a torque on the Earth's rotation, and transfers angular momentum and rotational energy from the Earth's spin to the Moon's orbital movement. angular momentum Because the Moon is accelerated in forward direction, it moves to a higher orbit. As a result, the distance between the Earth and Moon increases, and the Earth's spin slows down (figure 3). Measurements reveal that the Moon's distance to the Earth increases by 38 mm per year (lunar laser ranging experiments with laser reflectors are used to determine this). Atomic clocks also show that the Earth's day lengthens by about 15 µs every year. However, the formation of tidal bulges on Earth is irregular and not directly related to the frictional energy loss which accompanies the tides. For example, continents on Earth may cause an increase in frictional energy losses and hamper the buildup of tidal bulges (figure 4). The energy loss of the Earth's spin (loss of rotational energy of the Earth) is related to both the energy transfer to the Moon, which depends on the geometry of the mass distributions on Earth (causing a gravity component which pulls the Moon forward), and also to frictional losses, which depends on the properties of the material moving around within tides. The transfer of angular momentum to the Moon's orbit, in contrast, depends only on the geometry of the mass distribution. In general, the angular momentum transferred to the Moon will not correspond to an equivalent energy transfer. There will be a surplus or a deficit in the transfer of angular momentum to the Moon, compared to the energy transfer (figure 5). Since both angular momentum and energy are conserved, there must be a mechanism on earth to store a surplus or a deficit of angular momentum. Candidates for this mechanism are the Earth's magnetic field and internal material currents of the Earth (figure 6). The lunar surface is also subjected to tides from earth, and rises and falls by around 10 cm over 27 days. The lunar tides comprise a mobile component, due to the Sun, and a selenographically fixed one, due to Earth (the Moon keeps the same face turned to the Earth, but not to the Sun). The vertical motion of the Earth-induced component comes entirely from the Moon's orbital eccentricity; if the Moon's orbit were perfectly circular, there would be solar tides only. The magnitude of the Moon's tides corresponds to a Love number of 0.0266, and supports the idea of a partially melted zone around its core. Moonquake waves lose energy below 1000 km depth, and this may also show that the deep material is at least partially melted. The Earth’s Love number is 0.3, corresponding to a movement of 0.5 metres per day; for Venus the Love number is also 0.3. (Source: Patrick Moore, The Data Book of Astronomy - June 2003 Updates)

Origin and history

magnetic field The inclination of the Moon's orbit makes it implausible that the Moon formed along with the Earth or was captured later; its origin is the subject of some scientific debate. Early speculation proposed that the Moon broke off from the Earth's crust due to centrifugal force, leaving an ocean basin (presumed to be the Pacific) behind as a scar. This concept requires too great an initial spin of the Earth. Others speculated the Moon formed elsewhere and was captured into its orbit. Two of the other theories include the coformation or condensation theory and the impact theory, which speculates that the Moon formed from the debris that resulted from a collision between the early Earth and a planetesimal. The Coformation or Condensation hypothesis posits that the Earth and the Moon formed together at about the same time from the primordial accretion disk, the Moon forming from material surrounding the coalescing proto-Earth, similar to the way the planets formed around the Sun. Some suggest that this hypothesis fails to adequately explain the depletion of iron in the Moon. Recently, the Giant Impact theory has been considered a more viable scientific theory for the moon's origin than the coformation or condensation theory. The Giant Impact theory holds that the Moon formed from the ejecta resulting from a collision between a semi-molten Earth and a planet-like object the size of Mars, which has been referred to as Theia. The geological epochs of the Moon are defined based on the dating of various significant impact events in the Moon's history. Analysis of craters and Moon rocks show that there was a late heavy bombardment by asteroids around the period 4000 to 3800 million years ago. Tidal forces deformed the once molten Moon into an ellipsoid, with the major axis pointed towards Earth.

Physical characteristics

Composition

More than 4.5 billion years ago, the surface of the Moon was a liquid magma ocean. Scientists think that one component of lunar rocks, KREEP (K-potassium, Rare Earth Elements, and P-phosphorus), represents the last chemical remnant of that magma ocean. KREEP is actually a composite of what scientists term "incompatible elements": those which cannot fit into a crystal structure and thus were left behind, floating to the surface of the magma. For researchers, KREEP is a convenient tracer, useful for reporting the story of the volcanic history of the lunar crust and chronicling the frequency of impacts by comets and other celestial bodies. The lunar crust is composed of a variety of primary elements, including uranium, thorium, potassium, oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, titanium, calcium, aluminium and hydrogen. When bombarded by cosmic rays, each element bounces back into space its own radiation, in the form of gamma rays. Some elements, such as uranium, thorium and potassium, are radioactive and emit gamma rays on their own. However, regardless of what causes them, gamma rays for each element are all different from one another — each produces a unique spectral "signature", detectable by a spectrometer. A complete global mapping of the Moon for the abundance of these elements has never been performed. However, some spacecraft have done so for portions of the Moon; Galileo did so when it flew by the Moon in 1992. [http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00131] The overall composition of the Moon is believed to be similar to that of the Earth other than a depletion of volatile elements and of iron.

Selenography

1992 photo.]] When observed with earth based telescopes, the moon can be seen to have some 30,000 craters having a diameter of at least 1 kilometers, but close up observation from lunar orbit reveals a multitude of ever smaller craters. Most are hundreds of millions or billions of years old; the lack of atmosphere or weather or recent geological processes ensures that most of them remain permanently preserved. In the lunar terrae, it is indeed impossible to add a crater of any size without obliterating another; this is termed saturation. The largest crater on the Moon, and indeed the largest known crater within the solar system, forms the South Pole-Aitken basin. This crater is located on the far side, near the south pole, and is some 2,240 km in diameter, and 13 km in depth. The dark and relatively featureless lunar plains are called maria, Latin for seas, since they were believed by ancient astronomers to be water-filled seas. They are actually vast ancient basaltic lava flows that filled the basins of large impact craters. The lighter-colored highlands are called terrae. Maria are found almost exclusively on the Lunar nearside, with the Lunar farside having only a few scattered patches. Scientists think that this asymmetry of lunar features was caused by the synchronization between the Moon's rotation and orbit about the Earth. This synchronization exposes the far side of the Moon to more asteroid and meteor impacts than the near, thereby allowing the maria on the near side to remain relatively undisturbed for many hundreds of millennia. Blanketed atop the Moon's crust is a dusty outer rock layer called regolith. Both the crust and regolith are unevenly distributed over the entire Moon. The crust ranges from 60 km (38 mi) on the near side to 100 km (63 mi) on the far side. The regolith varies from 3 to 5 m (10 to 16 ft) in the maria to 10 to 20 m (33 to 66 ft) in the highlands. In 2004, a team led by Dr. Ben Bussey of Johns Hopkins University using images taken by the Clementine mission determined that four mountainous regions on the rim of the 73 km wide Peary crater at the Moon's north pole appeared to remain illuminated for the entire Lunar day. These unnamed "mountains of eternal light" are possible due to the Moon's extremely small axial tilt, which also gives rise to permanent shadow at the bottoms of many polar craters. No similar regions of eternal light exist at the less-mountainous south pole, although the rim of Shackleton crater is illuminated for 80% of the lunar day. Clementine's images were taken during the northern Lunar hemisphere's summer season, and it remains unknown whether these four mountains are shaded at any point during their local winter season.

Presence of water

Over time, comets and meteorites continuously bombard the Moon. Many of these objects are water-rich. Energy from sunlight splits much of this water into its constituent elements hydrogen and oxygen, both of which usually fly off into space immediately. However, it has been hypothesized that significant traces of water remain on the Moon, either on the surface, or embedded within the crust. The results of the Clementine mission suggested that small, frozen pockets of water ice (remnants of water-rich comet impacts) may be embedded unmelted in the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar crust. Although the pockets are thought to be small, the overall amount of water was suggested to be quite significant — 1 km³. Some water molecules, however, may have literally hopped along the surface and gotten trapped inside craters at the lunar poles. Due to the very slight "tilt" of the Moon's axis, only 1.5°, some of these deep craters never receive any light from the Sun — they are permanently shadowed. Clementine has mapped ([http://www.lpi.usra.edu/research/clemen/clemen.html]) craters at the lunar south pole ([http://www.lpi.usra.edu/research/clemen/2polar.gif]) which are shadowed in this way. It is in such craters that scientists expect to find frozen water if it is there at all. If found, water ice could be mined and then split into hydrogen and oxygen by solar panel-equipped electric power stations or a nuclear generator. The presence of usable quantities of water on the Moon would be an important factor in rendering lunar habitation cost-effective, since transporting water (or hydrogen and oxygen) from Earth would be prohibitively expensive. Clementine twisting the shadow due to the fact that cosmic rays are charged particles.]] The equatorial Moon rock collected by Apollo astronauts contained no traces of water. Neither the Lunar Prospector nor more recent surveys, such as those of the Smithsonian Institution, have found direct evidence of lunar water, ice, or water vapor. Lunar Prospector results, however, indicate the presence of hydrogen in the permanently shadowed regions, which could be in the form of water ice.

Magnetic field

Compared to that of Earth, the Moon has a very weak magnetic field. While some of the Moon's magnetism is thought to be intrinsic (such as a strip of the lunar crust called the Rima Sirsalis), collision with other celestial bodies might have imparted some of the Moon's magnetic properties. Indeed, a long-standing question in planetary science is whether an airless solar system body, such as the Moon, can obtain magnetism from impact processes such as comets and asteroids. Magnetic measurements can also supply information about the size and electrical conductivity of the lunar core — evidence that will help scientists better understand the Moon's origins. For instance, if the core contains more magnetic elements (such as iron) than Earth, then the impact theory loses some credibility (although there are alternate explanations for why the lunar core might contain less iron).

Atmosphere

The Moon has a relatively insignificant and tenuous atmosphere. One source of this atmosphere is outgassing — the release of gases, for instance radon, which originate deep within the Moon's interior. Another important source of gases is the solar wind, which is briefly captured by the Moon's gravity.

Eclipses

The angular diameters of the Moon and the Sun as seen from Earth overlap in their variation, so that both total and annular solar eclipses are possible. In a total eclipse, the Moon completely covers the disc of the Sun and the solar corona becomes visible to the naked eye. Since the distance between the Moon and the Earth is very slightly increasing over time, the angular diameter of the Moon is decreasing. This means that several million years ago the Moon always completely covered the Sun on solar eclipses so that no annular eclipses occurred. Likewise, in several million years the Moon will no longer cover the Sun completely and no total eclipses will occur. Eclipses happen only if Sun, Earth and Moon are lined up. Solar eclipses can only occur at new moon; lunar eclipses can only occur at full moon. See also Solar eclipse and Lunar Eclipse.

Observation of the Moon

Lunar Eclipse During the brightest full moons, the Moon can have an apparent magnitude of about −12.6. For comparison, the Sun has an apparent magnitude of −26.8. The Moon appears larger when close to the horizon. This is a purely psychological effect (see Moon illusion). The angular diameter of the Moon from Earth is about one half of one degree. Various lighter and darker colored areas (primarily maria) create the patterns seen by different cultures as the Man in the Moon, the rabbit and the buffalo, amongst others. Craters and mountain chains are also prominent lunar features. From any location on Earth, the highest altitude of the Moon on a day varies between the same limits as the Sun, and depends on season and lunar phase. For example, in winter the Moon is highest in the sky when it is full, and the full moon is highest in winter. The orientation of the Moon's crescent side also depends on the latitude of the observing site. Close to the equator an observer can see a boat Moon. [http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=393] Like the Sun, the Moon can also give rise to an optical effect known as a halo. For more information on how the Moon appears in Earth's sky, see Lunar phase.

Exploration of the Moon

Lunar phase prepares to descend towards the surface of the Moon. NASA photo.]] NASA standing next to boulder at Taurus-Littrow during third EVA (extravehicular activity). NASA photo.]] The first leap in Lunar observation was caused by the invention of the telescope. Especially Galileo Galilei made good use of this new instrument and observed mountains and craters on the Moon's surface. The Cold War-inspired space race between the Soviet Union and the United States of America led to an acceleration. What was the next big step is politically laden. In the US (and the West in general) the landing of the first humans on the moon in 1969 is seen as a culmination, indeed of the space race in general. But from a scientific point of view the first photographs of the until then unseen far side of the moon in 1959 constituted the second leap in Lunar observation. 1959 and Luna missions]] The first man-made object to reach the Moon was the unmanned Soviet probe Luna 2, which made a hard landing on September 14, 1959, at 21:02:24 Z. The far side of the Moon was first photographed on October 7, 1959 by the Soviet probe Luna 3. Luna 9 was the first probe to soft land on the Moon and transmit pictures from the Lunar surface on February 3, 1966. It was proven that a lunar lander would not sink into a thick layer of dust, as had been feared. The first artificial satellite of the Moon was the Soviet probe Luna 10 (launched March 31, 1966). The first robot lunar rover to land on the Moon was the Soviet vessel Lunokhod 1 on November 17 1970 as part of the Lunokhod program. On December 24, 1968 the crew of Apollo 8, Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders became the first human beings to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes (as opposed to seeing it on a photograph). Humans first landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. The first man to walk on the lunar surface was Neil Armstrong, commander of the American mission Apollo 11. The last man to stand on the Moon was Eugene Cernan, who as part of the mission Apollo 17 walked on the Moon in December 1972. See also: A full list of lunar astronauts. Moon samples have been brought back to Earth by three Luna missions (nrs. 16, 20, and 24) and the Apollo missions 11 through 17 (minus Apollo 13, which almost ended in a disaster). On January 14 2004, US President George W. Bush called for a plan to return manned missions to the Moon by 2020. NASA's [http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/cev.html plan] to accomplish that goal was announced on March 19 2005, and was promptly dubbed Apollo 2.0 by critics. The European Space Agency has plans to launch probes to explore the Moon in the near future, too. European spacecraft Smart 1 was launched September 27, 2003 and entered lunar orbit on November 15 2004. It will survey the lunar environment and create an X-ray map of the Moon. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2818551.stm] [http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=36091] The People's Republic of China has expressed ambitious plans for exploring the Moon and is investigating the prospect of lunar mining, specifically looking for the isotope Helium-3 for use as an energy source on Earth [http://space.com/missionlaunches/china_moon_030304.html]. Japan has two planned lunar missions, LUNAR-A and Selene; even a manned lunar base is planned by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA). India will also try an unmanned orbiting satellite, called Chandrayan. From the mid-1960's to the mid-1970's there were 65 moon landings (with 10 in 1971 alone), but after Luna 24 in 1976 it suddenly stopped. The Soviet Union started focusing on Venus and space stations and the US on Mars and beyond. In 1990 Japan visited the moon with the Hiten spacecraft, becoming the third country to orbit the moon. The spacecraft released the Hagormo probe into lunar orbit, but the transmitter failed rendering the mission scientifically useless.

Human understanding of the Moon

Myth and folk culture

The Moon as muse

The Moon has been the subject of many works of art and literature and the inspiration for countless others.

Astrology

Scientific understanding

A 5,000 year old rock carving at Knowth, Ireland may represent the Moon, which would be the earliest depiction discovered. In many prehistoric and ancient cultures, the Moon was thought to be a deity or other supernatural phenomenon. Among the first in the Western world to offer a scientific explanation for the Moon was the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras, who reasoned that the Sun and Moon were both giant spherical rocks, and that the latter reflected the light of the former. His atheistic view of the heavens was one cause for his imprisonment and eventual exile. By the Middle Ages, before the invention of the telescope, more and more people began to recognize the Moon as a sphere, though they believed that it was "perfectly smooth". sphere In 1609, Galileo Galilei drew one of the first telescopic drawings of the Moon in his book Sidereus Nuncius and noted that it was not smooth but had craters. Later in the 17th century, Giovanni Battista Riccioli and Francesco Maria Grimaldi drew a map of the Moon and gave many craters the names they still have today. Francesco Maria Grimaldi. Surprisingly, the Moon is actually brighter than the Sun at gamma ray wavelengths.]] On maps, the dark parts of the Moon's surface were called maria (singular mare) or "seas", and the light parts were called terrae or continents. The possibility that the Moon could contain vegetation and be inhabited by "selenites" was seriously considered by some major astronomers even into the first decades of the 19th century. In 1835, the Great Moon Hoax fooled some people into thinking that there were exotic animals living on the Moon. Almost at the same time however (during 1834–1836), Wilhelm Beer and Johann Heinrich Mädler were publishing their four-volume Mappa Selenographica and the book Der Mond in 1837, which firmly established the conclusion that the Moon has no bodies of water nor any appreciable atmosphere. There remained some controversy over whether features on the Moon could undergo changes. Some observers claimed that some small craters had appeared or disappeared, but in the 20th century it was determined that these claims were illusory, due to observing under different lighting conditions or due to the inadequacy of earlier drawings. It is however known that the phenomenon of outgassing occasionally occurs. During the Nazi era in Germany, the Welteislehre theory, which claimed the Moon was made of solid ice, was promoted by Nazi leaders. The far side of the Moon remained completely unknown until the Luna 3 probe was launched in 1959, and was extensively mapped by the Lunar Orbiter program in the 1960s. From the 1950s through the 1990s, NASA aerodynamicist Dean Chapman and others advanced the "lunar origin" theory of tektites. Chapman used complex orbital computer models and extensive wind tunnel tests to support the theory that the so-called Australasian tektites originated from the Rosse ejecta ray of the large crater Tycho on the Moon's nearside. Until the Rosse ray is sampled, a lunar origin for these tektites cannot be ruled out. In 1997 the asteroid 3753 Cruithne was found to have an unusual Earth-associated orbit, and has been dubbed by some to be a second "moon" of Earth. It is not considered a moon by astronomers, however, and its orbit is not stable in the long term.

Legal status

Though several flags of the United States have been symbolically planted on the moon, the U.S. government makes no claim to any part of the Moon's surface. The U.S. is party to the Outer Space Treaty, which places the Moon under the same jurisdiction as international waters (res communis). This treaty also restricts use of the Moon to peaceful purposes, explicitly banning weapons of mass destruction (including nuclear weapons) and military installations of any kind. A second treaty, the Moon Treaty, was proposed to restrict the exploitation of the Moon's resources by any single nation, but it has not been signed by any of the space-faring nations. Several individuals have made claims to the Moon in whole or in part, though none of these claims are generally considered credible (see Moon for sale).

Satellites

- Clementine mission - Observation and research satellite
- Smart 1 (or SMART-1) - a European Space Agency research satellite

Surface installations

Multiple scientific instruments were installed during the Apollo missions, some of them still function today. Among those were seismic detectors and reflecting mirrors for laser ranging. laser ranging laser ranging

References

- Ben Bussey and Paul Spudis, The Clementine Atlas of the Moon, Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN 0521815282.
- Patrick Moore, On the Moon, Sterling Publishing Co., 2001 edition, ISBN 0304354694.
- Paul D. Spudis, The Once and Future Moon, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996, ISBN 1-56098-634-4.

External links

Moon phases

- [http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/vphase.html US Naval Observatory: phase of the Moon for any date and time 1800-2199 A.D.]
- [http://www.moonphaseinfo.com/ Current Moon Phase]
- [http://www.bapuli.co.nr/moon.htm Display current moon phase as wallpaper in Windows]

Space missions

- [http://www.lpi.usra.edu/research/lunar_orbiter/ Digital Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Moon]
- [http://www.apolloarchive.com/apollo_archive.html The Project Apollo Archive]
- [http://www.cmf.nrl.navy.mil/clementine/clib/ Clementine Lunar Image Browser]

Scientific

- [http://www.solarviews.com/eng/moon.htm The Moon - by Rosanna and Calvin Hamilton]
- [http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/luna.html The Moon - by Bill Arnett]
- [http://www.inconstantmoon.com Inconstant Moon - by Kevin Clarke]
- [http://www.moonsociety.org The Moon Society (non-profit educational site)]
- [http://cps.earth.northwestern.edu/GHM/ Geologic History of the Moon by Don Wilhelms]
- [http://isthis4real.com/orbit.xml Can you put the moon into orbit? An interactive simulation - (Needs Firefox 1.5)]

Myth and folklore

- [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_337.html Do things get crazy when the moon is full? by Cecil Adams]
- [http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bluemoon1.html Once in a Blue Moon - What is a blue moon? by Ann-Marie Imbornoni]
- [http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/folklore/10667 The Moon In Folklore - by Virginia Marin]
- [http://www.laputanlogic.com/articles/2004/04/05-0001.html The Rabbit in the Moon - by John Hardy]

Others

- [http://webgis.wr.usgs.gov/the_moon.htm USGS Planetary GIS webserver - the Moon]
- [http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Scenes-Apo-Perigee.htm The Moon at Apogee and Perigee] (striking photographic comparison)
- [http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Scenes-Sounion-01.htm The Full Moon Rising: I] (striking photo - NOT a composite)
- [http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Scenes-Sounion-02.htm The Full Moon Rising: II] (striking photo - NOT a composite)
- [http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Scenes-Sounion-03.htm The Full Moon Rising: III] (striking photo - NOT a composite)
- [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_110.html Why does the Moon appear bigger near the horizon?] (from The Straight Dope)
- [http://www.badastronomy.com Bad Astronomy]: Dr. Philip Plait, an astronomy professor at Sonoma State University, California, runs this site to explain the many cases of incorrect astronomy (and physics) available to the public, including astrology and the Apollo moon landing hoax accusations.
- [http://www.lunarrepublic.com/atlas/index.shtml The Lunar Navigator: Interactive Maps Of The Moon] features free, interactive online access to maps of the Moon's surface
- [http://www.moonpeople.com A comprehensive guide to the Earth's Moon] (Includes a discussion forum)
- [http://www.traipse.com/earth_and_moon/index.html Distance from the Earth to the Moon, illustrated]
- [http://www.ibiblio.org//e-notes/VRML/Globe/Globe.htm 3D VRML Moon globe] zh-min-nan:Go̍eh-niû ko:달 ms:Bulan (satelit) ja:月 simple:Moon th:ดวงจันทร์

Boulder, Colorado

Boulder (, Mountain Time Zone) is a city located in Boulder County, Colorado, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 94,673. It is home to the University of Co

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Astronauts

Flights

Robotic

Primate flights

Piloted

Suborbital

Orbital

Piloted Mercury launches

Mercury Flight insignias

Follow-on programs

Miscellaneous

Further reading

See also

External links

Soviet Russia

See also

Moon

The two sides

Orbit

Earth & Moon

Origin and history

Physical characteristics

Composition

Selenography

Presence of water

Magnetic field

Atmosphere

Eclipses

Observation of the Moon

Exploration of the Moon

Human understanding of the Moon

Myth and folk culture

The Moon as muse

Astrology

Scientific understanding

Legal status

Satellites

Surface installations

See also

Lunar location listings

References

External links

Moon phases

Space missions

Scientific

Myth and folklore

Others

Boulder, Colorado