Loren Grush at The Verge:
This weekend, the Moon will provide a big, bloody show for those looking up into the night sky. A total lunar eclipse — sometimes referred to as a blood moon due to the Moon’s dark red glow — is scheduled to begin at 10:11PM ET on Sunday.
But this eclipse is particularly special, because it’s happening on a night when the Moon will also be a supermoon. That’s when a full moon occurs on the same night of the Moon’s perigee, or the time when the Moon is closest to Earth.
Remember that Kickstarter the other day to reprint 1975’s NASA Graphics Standards Manual? It’s been funded, but if you want to get your hands on the content now, NASA has released the book as a PDF.
If you’re looking for more NASA logo history, the agency has also published Emblems of Exploration:
This publication concentrates on the rich and interesting history of the conception and implementation of the world-famous NACA and NASA seals and insignias that have been displayed for decades on aeronautics and space research vehicles and facilities, as well as those proudly worn by flight research pilots, astronauts, and the dedicated employees of these two world-class organizations.
I’ve linked to the NASA Graphics Standards Manual before, but now there’s a Kickstarter project to re-print it. I would love to have this on my bookshelf, so I backed it already. I sure hope the team behind this can meet their goal.
Some tests are way cooler than others.
Michael Bierut:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Design Program is a modernist vision for an optimistic future. The logo (often referred to as the “worm”) evokes qualities of unity, technical precision, scientific capabilities and uniqueness. Reduced to its simplest form; the one width, continuous-stroke letters are as contemporary today as when the logo was first introduced by Richard Danne (Design Director) and Bruce Blackburn (Designer) at Danne & Blackburn, New York, NY) more than 37 years ago. How then, in 1992, after 19 years, did such an emblematic design program for a future-oriented Federal Agency be dropped for it’s previous (now current) Insignia (the “meatball”)? What follows is a heartfelt personal account from Mr. Danne on the obstacles and achievements of one of the century’s most important and widely published design programs.
Over the past six months or so, I’ve been writing, talking and thinking a lot more about space and how we get there.
That’s led — somewhat inevitably — to a new podcast on Relay FM. We’ve named it Liftoff.
Here’s the fancy description my cohost Jason Snell came up with:
Liftoff is a fortnightly podcast about space, the universe, and everything. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand the latest developments as explained by enthusiastic space fans Stephen Hackett and Jason Snell.
Today, astronauts on the International Space Station sampled space-grown lettuce:
The red lettuce eaten Monday – accompanied by a dash of vinaigrette dressing – was grown in a specialized canister aboard the International Space Station during recent weeks and had sprouted from seeds that were glued into place on Earth. Astronauts placed the seeds and their pouches in a system that provided the water and light needed to make the plants grow. Half of the landmark crop was eaten while the other half will be returned to researchers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for closer study.
Ashwin Vasavada, project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory mission:
It’s a summer of milestones for Mars Exploration. Fifty years ago, Mariner 4 became the first spacecraft to take close-up pictures of Mars. Thirty-nine years ago, the Viking 1 Lander became the first spacecraft to successfully land on the Red Planet. And now, Curiosity celebrates 3 years on Mars – operating well over a thousand Martian days.
In three years, the 1-ton rover has made some significant findings, including encouraging information about radiation levels on the Martian surface, the presence of methane, and — of course — water on the Red planet.
Mika McKinnon:
Apollo 15 was the first lunar landing mission to use a rover, allowing astronauts Jim Irwin and Dave Scott to explore farther from their landing site while still having time to conduct scientific research. Al Worden stayed in orbit, photographing a quarter of the moon’s surface during his three solitary days in a spacecraft in July 30 to August 2, 1971.
The lunar rover is one crazy peice of hardware.
Earlier this afternoon, Jason Snell and I sat down to talk about New Horizon’s Pluto discoveries, a newly-discovered Earth-like planet and why space is back in the news.
Huge news from the Kepler mission:
NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another “Earth.”
The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone – the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet – of a G2-type star, like our sun. The confirmation of Kepler-452b brings the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030.
Last month, Space X’s CRS-7 exploded after take-off. I was 4 miles from the launchpad that morning, but there wasn’t much news that day as to what had failed on the Falcon 9 rocket. Today, there’s more news. Here’s Loren Grush’s at The Verge:
The SpaceX explosion on June 28th was caused by a failed strut in the rocket’s upper stage liquid oxygen tank, SpaceX chief executive officer Elon Musk said today. The strut was one of several hundred used to hold together the helium pressure vessels in the tank, which help to pressurize and maintain the buoyancy of the rocket. According to Musk, the strut was designed to handle 10,000 pounds of force, but failed at just 2,000 pounds of force.