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[mr ashley james] 10/12/2006 03:24

LOL!, As If!

[Abuse team] 10/12/2006 00:42

Post removed by ADVFN

[waldron] 05/12/2006 09:15

chuckle

prefer to believe there was a real moon landing.

don't confuse me with facts,i've made up my mind.

enjoy your week joe.

[mr ashley james] 26/10/2006 18:23

2006 Phases of the Moon
Universal Time (GMT)

NEW MOON FIRST QUARTER FULL MOON LAST QUARTER

D H M D H M D H M D H M

JAN 6 18 56 JAN 14 9 48 JAN 22 15 14

JAN 29 14 15 FEB 5 6 29 FEB 13 4 44 FEB 21 7 17

FEB 28 0 31 MAR 6 20 16 MAR 14 23 35 MAR 22 19 10

MAR 29 10 15 APR 5 12 01 APR 13 16 40 APR 21 3 28

APR 27 19 44 MAY 5 5 13 MAY 13 6 51 MAY 20 9 20

MAY 27 5 26 JUN 3 23 06 JUN 11 18 03 JUN 18 14 08

JUN 25 16 05 JUL 3 16 37 JUL 11 3 02 JUL 17 19 12

JUL 25 4 31 AUG 2 8 46 AUG 9 10 54 AUG 16 1 51

AUG 23 19 10 AUG 31 22 56 SEP 7 18 42 SEP 14 11 15

SEP 22 11 45 SEP 30 11 04 OCT 7 3 13 OCT 14 0 25

OCT 22 5 14 OCT 29 21 25 NOV 5 12 58 NOV 12 17 45

NOV 20 22 18 NOV 28 6 29 DEC 5 0 25 DEC 12 14 32

DEC 20 14 01 DEC 27 14 48

2006 Lunar Declination Cycle
© 2005 by Richard Nolle

LUNAR DECLINATION CYCLE:
2006 Lunar Maxima & Equator Crossings
copyright 2005 by Richard Nolle
all rights reserved
- [e-mail]
+--------------+-------------+-------+--------+
| DATE | GMT | EVENT | DECL |
+--------------+-------------+-------+--------+
| JAN 05, 2006 | 05:07:00 PM | EQS>N | - 0 00 |
| JAN 12, 2006 | 01:15:00 PM | NORTH | +28 24 |
| JAN 20, 2006 | 01:04:00 AM | EQN>S | + 0 00 |
| JAN 27, 2006 | 00:18:00 AM | SOUTH | -28 30 |
| FEB 02, 2006 | 00:21:00 AM | EQS>N | - 0 00 |
| FEB 08, 2006 | 06:19:00 PM | NORTH | +28 33 |
| FEB 16, 2006 | 06:48:00 AM | EQN>S | + 0 00 |
| FEB 23, 2006 | 09:43:00 AM | SOUTH | -28 39 |
| MAR 01, 2006 | 10:32:00 AM | EQS>N | - 0 00 |
| MAR 08, 2006 | 00:05:00 AM | NORTH | +28 41 |
| MAR 15, 2006 | 12:44:00 PM | EQN>S | + 0 00 |
| MAR 22, 2006 | 04:57:00 PM | SOUTH | -28 43 |
| MAR 28, 2006 | 09:44:00 PM | EQS>N | - 0 00 |
| APR 04, 2006 | 07:36:00 AM | NORTH | +28 43 |
| APR 11, 2006 | 07:19:00 PM | EQN>S | + 0 00 |
| APR 18, 2006 | 10:29:00 PM | SOUTH | -28 40 |
| APR 25, 2006 | 07:23:00 AM | EQS>N | - 0 00 |
| MAY 01, 2006 | 04:25:00 PM | NORTH | +28 37 |
| MAY 09, 2006 | 02:26:00 AM | EQN>S | + 0 00 |
| MAY 16, 2006 | 03:54:00 AM | SOUTH | -28 32 |
| MAY 22, 2006 | 02:11:00 PM | EQS>N | - 0 00 |
| MAY 29, 2006 | 01:10:00 AM | NORTH | +28 29 |
| JUN 05, 2006 | 09:39:00 AM | EQN>S | + 0 00 |
| JUN 12, 2006 | 10:35:00 AM | SOUTH | -28 27 |
| JUN 18, 2006 | 06:57:00 PM | EQS>N | - 0 00 |
| JUN 25, 2006 | 08:39:00 AM | NORTH | +28 27 |
| JUL 02, 2006 | 04:37:00 PM | EQN>S | + 0 00 |
| JUL 09, 2006 | 06:55:00 PM | SOUTH | -28 29 |
| JUL 15, 2006 | 11:56:00 PM | EQS>N | - 0 00 |
| JUL 22, 2006 | 02:34:00 PM | NORTH | +28 31 |
| JUL 29, 2006 | 11:10:00 PM | EQN>S | + 0 00 |
| AUG 06, 2006 | 04:18:00 AM | SOUTH | -28 36 |
| AUG 12, 2006 | 07:11:00 AM | EQS>N | - 0 00 |
| AUG 18, 2006 | 07:44:00 PM | NORTH | +28 39 |
| AUG 26, 2006 | 05:22:00 AM | EQN>S | + 0 00 |
| SEP 02, 2006 | 01:12:00 PM | SOUTH | -28 42 |
| SEP 08, 2006 | 05:06:00 PM | EQS>N | - 0 00 |
| SEP 15, 2006 | 01:26:00 AM | NORTH | +28 43 |
| SEP 22, 2006 | 11:27:00 AM | EQN>S | + 0 00 |
| SEP 29, 2006 | 08:35:00 PM | SOUTH | -28 43 |
| OCT 06, 2006 | 04:15:00 AM | EQS>N | - 0 00 |
| OCT 12, 2006 | 08:51:00 AM | NORTH | +28 41 |
| OCT 19, 2006 | 05:37:00 PM | EQN>S | + 0 00 |
| OCT 27, 2006 | 02:09:00 AM | SOUTH | -28 36 |
| NOV 02, 2006 | 02:15:00 PM | EQS>N | - 0 00 |
| NOV 08, 2006 | 06:00:00 PM | NORTH | +28 32 |
| NOV 16, 2006 | 00:03:00 AM | EQN>S | + 0 00 |
| NOV 23, 2006 | 07:17:00 AM | SOUTH | -28 26 |
| NOV 29, 2006 | 09:18:00 PM | EQS>N | - 0 00 |
| DEC 06, 2006 | 03:38:00 AM | NORTH | +28 24 |
| DEC 13, 2006 | 06:51:00 AM | EQN>S | + 0 00 |
| DEC 20, 2006 | 01:41:00 PM | SOUTH | -28 22 |
| DEC 27, 2006 | 01:57:00 AM | EQS>N | - 0 00 |
+--------------+-------------+-------+--------+

NOTES:
NORTH = MAXIMUM NORTH DECLINATION
SOUTH = MAXIMUM SOUTH DECLINATION
EQNEQN>S = CROSSING CELESTIAL EQUATOR FROM NORTH
EQSEQN>N = CROSSING CELESTIAL EQUATOR FROM SOUTH


2007 Phases of the Moon
Universal Time (GMT)

NEW MOON FIRST QUARTER FULL MOON LAST QUARTER

D H M D H M D H M D H M

JAN 3 13 57 JAN 11 12 45

JAN 19 4 01 JAN 25 23 01 FEB 2 5 45 FEB 10 9 51

FEB 17 16 14 FEB 24 7 56 MAR 3 23 17 MAR 12 3 54

MAR 19 2 43 MAR 25 18 16 APR 2 17 15 APR 10 18 04

APR 17 11 36 APR 24 6 35 MAY 2 10 09 MAY 10 4 27

MAY 16 19 27 MAY 23 21 02 JUN 1 1 04 JUN 8 11 43

JUN 15 3 13 JUN 22 13 15 JUN 30 13 49 JUL 7 16 54

JUL 14 12 04 JUL 22 6 29 JUL 30 0 48 AUG 5 21 20

AUG 12 23 02 AUG 20 23 54 AUG 28 10 35 SEP 4 2 32

SEP 11 12 44 SEP 19 16 48 SEP 26 19 45 OCT 3 10 06

OCT 11 5 01 OCT 19 8 33 OCT 26 4 52 NOV 1 21 18

NOV 9 23 03 NOV 17 22 33 NOV 24 14 30 DEC 1 12 44

DEC 9 17 40 DEC 17 10 17 DEC 24 1 16 DEC 31 7 51






2008 Phases of the Moon
Universal Time (GMT)

NEW MOON FIRST QUARTER FULL MOON LAST QUARTER

D H M D H M D H M D H M

JAN 8 11 37 JAN 15 19 46 JAN 22 13 35 JAN 30 5 03

FEB 7 3 44 FEB 14 3 33 FEB 21 3 30 FEB 29 2 18

MAR 7 17 14 MAR 14 10 46 MAR 21 18 40 MAR 29 21 47

APR 6 3 55 APR 12 18 32 APR 20 10 25 APR 28 14 12

MAY 5 12 18 MAY 12 3 47 MAY 20 2 11 MAY 28 2 57

JUN 3 19 23 JUN 10 15 04 JUN 18 17 30 JUN 26 12 10

JUL 3 2 19 JUL 10 4 35 JUL 18 7 59 JUL 25 18 42

AUG 1 10 13 AUG 8 20 20 AUG 16 21 16 AUG 23 23 50

AUG 30 19 58 SEP 7 14 04 SEP 15 9 13 SEP 22 5 04

SEP 29 8 12 OCT 7 9 04 OCT 14 20 02 OCT 21 11 55

OCT 28 23 14 NOV 6 4 03 NOV 13 6 17 NOV 19 21 31

NOV 27 16 55 DEC 5 21 26 DEC 12 16 37 DEC 19 10 29

DEC 27 12 22






2009 Phases of the Moon
Universal Time (GMT)

NEW MOON FIRST QUARTER FULL MOON LAST QUARTER

D H M D H M D H M D H M

JAN 4 11 56 JAN 11 3 27 JAN 18 2 46

JAN 26 7 55 FEB 2 23 13 FEB 9 14 49 FEB 16 21 37

FEB 25 1 35 MAR 4 7 46 MAR 11 2 38 MAR 18 17 47

MAR 26 16 06 APR 2 14 34 APR 9 14 56 APR 17 13 36

APR 25 3 23 MAY 1 20 44 MAY 9 4 01 MAY 17 7 26

MAY 24 12 11 MAY 31 3 22 JUN 7 18 12 JUN 15 22 15

JUN 22 19 35 JUN 29 11 28 JUL 7 9 21 JUL 15 9 53

JUL 22 2 35 JUL 28 22 00 AUG 6 0 55 AUG 13 18 55

AUG 20 10 02 AUG 27 11 42 SEP 4 16 03 SEP 12 2 16

SEP 18 18 44 SEP 26 4 50 OCT 4 6 10 OCT 11 8 56

OCT 18 5 33 OCT 26 0 42 NOV 2 19 14 NOV 9 15 56

NOV 16 19 14 NOV 24 21 39 DEC 2 7 30 DEC 9 0 13

DEC 16 12 02 DEC 24 17 36 DEC 31 19 13






2010 Phases of the Moon
Universal Time (GMT)

NEW MOON FIRST QUARTER FULL MOON LAST QUARTER

D H M D H M D H M D H M

JAN 7 10 39

JAN 15 7 11 JAN 23 10 53 JAN 30 6 18 FEB 5 23 48

FEB 14 2 51 FEB 22 0 42 FEB 28 16 38 MAR 7 15 42

MAR 15 21 01 MAR 23 11 00 MAR 30 2 25 APR 6 9 37

APR 14 12 29 APR 21 18 20 APR 28 12 18 MAY 6 4 15

MAY 14 1 04 MAY 20 23 43 MAY 27 23 07 JUN 4 22 13

JUN 12 11 15 JUN 19 4 29 JUN 26 11 30 JUL 4 14 35

JUL 11 19 40 JUL 18 10 11 JUL 26 1 37 AUG 3 4 59

AUG 10 3 08 AUG 16 18 14 AUG 24 17 05 SEP 1 17 22

SEP 8 10 30 SEP 15 5 50 SEP 23 9 17 OCT 1 3 52

OCT 7 18 44 OCT 14 21 27 OCT 23 1 36 OCT 30 12 46

NOV 6 4 52 NOV 13 16 39 NOV 21 17 27 NOV 28 20 36

DEC 5 17 36 DEC 13 13 59 DEC 21 8 13 DEC 28 4 18




New Moon -- the Moon is not illuminated by direct sunlight.

Waxing Crescent -- the visible Moon is partly but less than one-half illuminated by direct sunlight while the illuminated part is increasing.

First Quarter -- one-half of the Moon appears illuminated by direct sunlight while the illuminated part is increasing.

Waxing Gibbous -- the Moon is more than one-half but not fully illuminated by direct sunlight while the illuminated part is increasing.

Full Moon -- the visible Moon is fully illuminated by direct sunlight.

Waning Gibbous -- the Moon is less than fully but more than one-half illuminated by direct sunlight while the illuminated part is decreasing.

Last Quarter -- one-half of the Moon appears illuminated by direct sunlight while the illuminated part is decreasing.

Waning Crescent -- the Moon is partly but less than one-half illuminated by direct sunlight while the illuminated part is decreasing. NOTE: Following Waning Crescent is a New Moon, beginning a repetition of the complete phase cycle of 29.5 days average duration.

[grupo guitarlumber] 14/10/2006 08:49

why would they want to send a disney cartoon character to the Moon.

[joe moon] 14/10/2006 08:47

pluto next imo

[grupo guitarlumber] 14/10/2006 06:53

Last Updated: Friday, 13 October 2006, 11:13 GMT 12:13 UK

E-mail this to a friend Printable version

Swedes aim to put house on Moon

Sweden could become the "third country to occupy the Moon"
Charming cottage, secluded location, stunning panoramic views...
A Swedish artist has asked experts to help design one of Sweden's iconic little red cottages - but this one will stand on the Moon.

Mikael Genberg has recruited the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) to help plan the operation.

The little red houses are found across the Swedish countryside, but Mr Genberg says he wants this one to become "an international symbol".

He says if everything goes to plan, the house may appear on the Moon in 2011.

Mr Genberg has arranged a competition for students and companies to design a house that could be contained in a small, light package, that would open up once landed on the Moon's surface.

We know where the Americans want to land people in 2020... It would be nice if we had a house for them when they come

Mikael Genberg

"The house itself is supposed to be very small... the package will build itself up to a house," Mr Genberg told the BBC's Europe Today programme.

"It's going to be an unmanned landing - we hope it's going to land in 2011."

"It has to be very, very light, but so that it in some way hardens so that it stands for thousands of years when it's up there."

Practical use?

There were two main reasons for the project, he said.

"First we want to prove that the impossible is possible.

"But when we put this house on the Moon, which is a kind of Swedish endeavour right now, we want to make it an international symbol... it will represent the position of our own planet in the universe, like a fragile thing."

He hoped the house might have a practical use, too.

"We know where the Americans want to land people in 2020... It would be nice if we had a house for them when they come," he said.

The state-owned SSC has been happy to get involved in the project, which could cost 500m kroner (£36m).

"If we manage to do this Sweden will be the third country to occupy the moon", the SSC's Fredrik von Scheele told the Swedish newspaper The Local.

[waldron] 02/10/2006 15:50

Last Updated: Monday, 2 October 2006, 11:19 GMT 12:19 UK


Armstrong 'got Moon quote right'

The supposed mistake has dogged Armstrong for nearly four decades
For nearly 40 years Neil Armstrong has been accused of fluffing his lines during his first steps on the Moon.
On tapes of the Moon landings, he appears to drop the "a" from the famous quote: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

But new analysis of the tapes has proved Mr Armstrong right after all.

Computer programmer Peter Shann Ford used audio analysis software to show that the missing "a" was blotted out by transmission static.

Even Mr Armstrong has never made up his mind about whether he got the quote right.

"It doesn't sound like there was time for the word to be there," he told author James Hansen in his 2005 biography First Man.

I find the technology interesting and useful - I also find his conclusion persuasive

Neil Armstrong

"So I would hope that history would grant me leeway for dropping the syllable and understand that it was certainly intended, even if it wasn't said - although it might actually have been."

But an analysis of the audio files downloaded from Nasa's website using GoldWave, a $45 (£24) audio editing program, indicates that the word was spoken but not recorded by Mr Armstrong's microphone before being transmitted to the 500 million people watching the Apollo 11 mission.

Ford said that Mr Armstrong completed the whole phrase "one small step for a man" too quickly to pick up every syllable he said.

But the audio analysis was able to find the signature of the missing word, he said.

Technology backed

In a statement, Mr Armstrong supported the evidence presented.

"I have reviewed the data and Peter Ford's analysis of it, and I find the technology interesting and useful," he said.

"I also find his conclusion persuasive. Persuasive is the appropriate word."


More than half a billion people watched the moon landings live

Mr Armstrong says that he came up with the phrase in the hours between the touchdown of the lunar module and his first steps onto the moon's surface.

But without the missing "a", the meaning of the quote is lost. In effect, the line means: "That's one small step for mankind, one giant leap for mankind."

Former Nasa historian Roger Launius told the Houston Chronicle that he supported Ford's conclusions.

"It's nice to know that what he thought he said, he actually did say, and that because of the nature of the electronic and the communications systems of the time, it just did not get through."

[ariane] 02/9/2006 08:27

The Times September 02, 2006


Star wars between Russia, China and US
By Giles Whittell



WHEN the next US astronauts to head for the moon finally get there, they should be ready to dodge abandoned lunar buggies left by competing spacefarers. For a new space race is under way, and every major space agency except Europe's is taking part.
The Orion programme commissioned this week by Nasa from Lockheed is expected to put Americans back on the moon by 2019. But Russia hopes to send an unmanned vehicle there (for the first time in 30 years) in 2016. China has hinted at plans for a manned lunar mission the following year.



Not since the Cold War have the prospects for a broad-based resumption of human space exploration been this bright. But now, as then, the motives of those involved have less to do with science than national interest and prestige.

Michael Griffin, the Nasa administrator, has scheduled visits to both China and India this year. But he has little in technological terms to gain from either, and the US has shown its determination to deny China access to its own space technology by routinely refusing visas even to Chinese scientists hoping to visit international conferences in the US.

Zhang Qingwei, head of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said recently that he hoped his exchanges with Nasa would "become more reciprocal".

One of his Russian counterparts has described a "totally different situation" in his dealings with Nasa since President Bush announced his plan two years ago for astronauts to head back to the moon. Collaboration, he added, was "falling apart" as rival agencies seriously considered potential future economic exploitation of the moon's resources - once the preserve of science fiction.

And Europe's role? To supply the International Space Station with the Italian-built Columbus laboratory, and fly other supply missions. No Euronauts are scheduled to get close to the moon soon.

[ariane] 01/9/2006 10:52

Lockheed to build Nasa 'Moonship'

Orion will make its first flight no later than 2014
The Lockheed Martin Corporation will build the next US spaceship to take humans to the Moon.
Nasa has awarded a multi-billion-dollar contract to the group to develop the Orion vehicle, which will replace the space shuttle when it retires in 2010.

The agency is dropping the shuttle's winged, reusable design and is going back to the capsule-style ships that first carried Americans into orbit.

Lockheed Martin beat a joint bid from Northrop Grumman and Boeing.

The US space agency wants to fly the Orion vehicles no later than 2014. Initially, they will go to the International Space Station, but Nasa plans to send one to the Moon in 2020.

The capsules will launch atop one-time-use, "single stick" rockets, called Ares, that Nasa is developing.



Click to see plans for Moon travel
Two versions are on the drawing board: one to lift Orion and its up-to-six astronauts, the other to loft a service module and other equipment that would be needed to support a mission to the lunar surface.

The idea is that the components would be joined in Earth orbit before being despatched to the Moon.



Orion will ride atop a single five-segment solid rocket booster

Although reminiscent of the Apollo design, the 16.5ft-wide, 25-tonne Orion spacecraft will incorporate the latest advances in technology in computers, electronics, life support, propulsion and heat protection systems.
Nasa wants the new spacecraft to be versatile workhorses.

"Our intent is to keep the destination focusing the design but we are not excluding the possibility of using Orion for other things, such as de-orbiting the Hubble Space Telescope in the 2020s or making a trek to an asteroid," said Jeff Hanley, who manages the agency's Constellation Program.

The Lockheed Martin Corporation is the US's largest defence contractor. It also builds commercial and military satellites, and the Atlas series of rockets.


A Moon mission is planned for 2020
Its Orion team includes booster-rocket maker Orbital Sciences, Honeywell, United Space Alliance and Hamilton Sundstrand, which makes space suits, life support and power management systems.

The Nasa contract in its initial phase is worth $3.9bn. This covers the design, development, testing and evaluation of the new spacecraft. Further options could be worth up $3.5bn to Lockheed.

US space policy has shifted in the wake of the 2003 shuttle disaster. President George W Bush has called for a new vision that will take humans beyond low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station, to aim to go back to the Moon and on to Mars.

Russia and Europe, too, are looking to develop a new human space-transportation system.

They are currently engaged in a joint feasibility study that could eventually lead to a rocket and capsule programme that evolves the best aspects of their Soyuz and Ariane technologies.


Nasa has earmarked next Wednesday for the launch of the Atlantis shuttle to International Space Station. The mission has been on hold this past week because of stormy weather in Florida, the site of Nasa's Kennedy spaceport.


(1) The heavy-lift Ares 5 rocket blasts off from Earth carrying a lunar lander and a "departure stage"
(2) Several days later, astronauts launch on an Ares 1 rocket inside their Orion vehicle (CEV)
(3) The Orion docks with the lander and departure stage in Earth orbit and then heads to the Moon
(4) Having done its job of boosting the Orion and lunar lander on their way, the departure stage is jettisoned
(5) At the Moon, the astronauts leave their Orion and enter the lander for the trip to the lunar surface
(6) After exploring the lunar landscape for seven days, the crew blasts off in a portion of the lander
(7) In Moon orbit, they re-join the waiting robot-minded Orion and begin the journey back to Earth
(8) On the way, the service component of the Orion is jettisoned. This leaves just the crew capsule to enter the atmosphere
(9) A heatshield protects the capsule; parachutes bring it down on dry land, probably in California

[mitzis] 23/8/2006 15:02

Moon landing was a fake..

[ariane] 23/8/2006 14:03

Last Updated: Wednesday, 23 August 2006, 11:54 GMT 12:54 UK

Nasa names new spacecraft 'Orion'

The vehicle will make its first flight no later than 2014
The US space agency (Nasa) has named its new manned exploration craft Orion.
The vehicle is being developed to take human space explorers back to the Moon and potentially then on to Mars.

It is hoped the name Orion could eventually mean as much for manned space exploration as Apollo did in the 1960s and 1970s.

Its first manned flight - to the International Space Station - will take place no later than 2014 and its first flight to the Moon no later than 2020.

"One of the things we get into at Nasa is we run around and call things by technical names and acronyms," project manager Skip Hatfield said. "This allows us to have an identity that we can use."

One small slip for man

The name surfaced on a website last month, but Nasa was trying to keep it out of general circulation until 31 August, when it plans to select either Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman/Boeing to build the spacecraft that replaces the shuttle fleet.


The vehicle borrows from the Apollo era
US astronaut Jeff Williams, floating 354km (220 miles) above Earth at the ISS, was taping a message in advance for the space agency that was transmitted accidentally over space-to-ground radio.

"We've been calling it the crew exploration vehicle for several years, but today it has a name - Orion," he said.

Orion will be 5m (16.5ft) in diameter and have a mass of about 25 tonnes. Inside, it will have more than 2.5 times the volume of an Apollo capsule.

The spacecraft will return humans to the Moon to stay for long periods as a testing ground for the longer journey to Mars.

Reliable shape

The vehicle will be capable of transporting cargo and up to six crew members to and from the International Space Station. It can carry four astronauts for lunar missions. Later, it is expected to support crew transfers for Mars missions.

Orion borrows its shape from the Apollo capsules of the past, but Nasa says giant leaps have since been made in computer technology, electronics, life support, propulsion and heat protection systems.

Nasa considers the capsule's conical shape to be the safest and most reliable for re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, especially at the velocities required for a direct return form the Moon.

The crew exploration vehicle will replace the space shuttle programme after it comes out of service in 2010.

Earlier this summer, Nasa announced the names of the rockets that will propel into orbit the crew exploration vehicle and a cargo vehicle. These launchers will be called Ares I and Ares V respectively.


(1) A heavy-lift rocket blasts off from Earth carrying a lunar lander and a "departure stage"
(2) Several days later, astronauts launch on a separate rocket system with their Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV)
(3) The CEV docks with the lander and departure stage in Earth orbit and then heads to the Moon
(4) Having done its job of boosting the CEV and lunar lander on their way, the departure stage is jettisoned
(5) At the Moon, the astronauts leave their CEV and enter the lander for the trip to the lunar surface
(6) After exploring the lunar landscape for seven days, the crew blasts off in a portion of the lander
(7) In Moon orbit, they re-join the waiting robot-minded CEV and begin the journey back to Earth
(8) On the way, the service component of the CEV is jettisoned. This leaves just the crew capsule to enter the atmosphere
(9) A heatshield protects the capsule; parachutes bring it down on dry land, probably in California

[grupo guitarlumber] 10/8/2006 09:15

Unraveling the moon's mysteries
By Kenneth Chang The New York Times
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2006
The moon is slightly squashed, as if someone had held it at the poles between thumb and forefinger and squeezed, flattening it around its equatorial midsection. That is not surprising. The moon spins, and the outward centrifugal force should indeed have generated a bulge as the molten magma of a young moon cooled to solid rock eons ago.

But as far back as 1799, the mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace noticed that although the flattening was slight - the moon's girth, at 3,454 kilometers, or 2,159 miles, is about 4 kilometers greater than its pole-to-pole height - it was still greater than would be expected for its current rotation period of 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes and 11.5 seconds.

"The puzzle had been the moon was too flat," said Maria Zuber, a professor of geophysics and planetary sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Space probes of the 1960s and 1970s found a second deformity of the moon: It is slightly elongated along the moon- Earth axis. That is, if the moon were sliced in half along its equator, the cross-section would not be a circle, but more of an oblong shape, with one of the ends pointing toward Earth.

But no one could come up with a completely convincing explanation for the moon's current shape. Another mystery is why its near side, which always faces Earth, is so different in material and appearance from the far side. The moon's origin still holds some uncertainties, although many scientists believe that it formed out of the debris when a Mars-size object struck Earth 4.5 billion years ago.

"Quite a lot of the darned thing is still quite mysterious," said Kimmo Innanen, a professor of astronomy at York University in Toronto.

In the current issue of Science, Zuber, with Jack Wisdom and Ian Garrick-Bethell, says they have a possible answer to the problem of the moon's shape. Actually, they say they have several.

What Laplace did not know is that the moon is moving away from Earth and slowing down. Years of bouncing laser beams off mirrors left on the lunar surface by the Apollo astronauts show that each year the moon is another 3.8 centimeters farther from Earth.

The moon now orbits in what astronomers call a 1:1 resonance with Earth, its orbital period equal to its rotation time so that the same side of the moon always faces Earth.

Thus, in the past, the moon was much closer and took less time to orbit. With the 1:1 resonance, the moon spun faster as well, possibly explaining the bulge. But those calculations did not come with the correct answer for observed distortion along the moon-Earth axis.

One suggestion has been that the moon by chance cooled into this somewhat odd configuration. Other solid planets like Earth are not exactly in their predicted shape either.

The MIT scientists, however, say the observed distortions are larger than would be expected for chance.

Instead, they suggest that in the moon's early history, it traveled in an elliptical rather than a circular orbit and that it was in a 3:2 resonance, spinning three times for every two orbits.

It would have been in this resonance for only a few hundred million years at most, the scientists said, before its spin slowed further and fell into the current 1:1 resonance.

Their calculations show that such an orbit would provide the necessary forces to produce the moon's shape. "There's a 200-year-old problem, and we've got the first solution that works," Zuber said.

They also found that orbits with higher resonances, like two spins for every orbit, could produce the same lunar shape. "It's a bunch of families of solutions," Zuber said.

In an accompanying commentary in Science, Innanen described the proposed solution as "ingenious."

But Peter Goldreich, an emeritus professor of astrophysics and planetary physics at California Institute of Technology, said the MIT team did not explain how the moon was caught in the 3:2 resonance.

"That is a real weakness," he said.

Many of the mysteries depend on a better understanding of the moon's early history. Under the prevailing theory that the moon formed after something the size of Mars slammed into Earth, scientists believe that the moon initially orbited very close, perhaps only 26,000 kilometers from Earth (compared with roughly 380,000 kilometers today) before moving outward.

In the four decades since the Apollo moon landings, NASA has sent only one probe to the moon, the Lunar Prospector that orbited it in 1998 and 1999.

NASA's push to send astronauts back has led to robotic missions as well, including the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scheduled for launching in 2008. India, Japan and China are also planning robotic missions. And that, scientists say, could lead to a scientific renaissance in the study of the moon.

"Talk to me in five years," Zuber said.

[grupo guitarlumber] 09/8/2006 09:38

Full moon fear for Mayon volcano


By Sarah Toms
BBC News, Manila



Mayon is the most active volcano in the Philippines


Scientists in the Philippines have warned that Wednesday's full moon could spark a major eruption of the Mount Mayon volcano.

Experts say Mount Mayon, the most active volcano in the Philippines, could erupt at any time.

But the full moon's gravitational pull could trigger the eruption, they say.

A full moon coincided with at least three of Mayon's 47 eruptions, including the two most recent ones in 2000 and 2001.

The volcano has been spewing lava and flaming rocks the size of cars in a quiet but steady eruption since last month.

TIPPING POINT

Some scientists say gravitational pull of sun and moon can influence eruptions
Influence is greatest at full and new moon
Others say more research is needed



In pictures: Volcano alert




The nearest village is now less than 2km from a trail of molten lava streaming down the crater.

Nearly 40,000 people have been moved from an 8km danger zone around the volcano.

Soldiers are appealing to reluctant villagers to leave their homes and farms around a rumbling volcano.

But still some people have refused to leave their livestock and farms.

President Gloria Arroyo has urged residents not to flirt with danger, saying evacuation centres were prepared to offer basic needs and services.

She says she is confident though there will be no casualties if Mayon erupts.

The volcano has erupted around 50 times over the past 400 years. One of the worst was in 1993 when at least 75 people were killed.

[grupo guitarlumber] 09/8/2006 09:38

Full moon fear for Mayon volcano


By Sarah Toms
BBC News, Manila



Mayon is the most active volcano in the Philippines


Scientists in the Philippines have warned that Wednesday's full moon could spark a major eruption of the Mount Mayon volcano.

Experts say Mount Mayon, the most active volcano in the Philippines, could erupt at any time.

But the full moon's gravitational pull could trigger the eruption, they say.

A full moon coincided with at least three of Mayon's 47 eruptions, including the two most recent ones in 2000 and 2001.

The volcano has been spewing lava and flaming rocks the size of cars in a quiet but steady eruption since last month.

TIPPING POINT

Some scientists say gravitational pull of sun and moon can influence eruptions
Influence is greatest at full and new moon
Others say more research is needed



In pictures: Volcano alert




The nearest village is now less than 2km from a trail of molten lava streaming down the crater.

Nearly 40,000 people have been moved from an 8km danger zone around the volcano.

Soldiers are appealing to reluctant villagers to leave their homes and farms around a rumbling volcano.

But still some people have refused to leave their livestock and farms.

President Gloria Arroyo has urged residents not to flirt with danger, saying evacuation centres were prepared to offer basic needs and services.

She says she is confident though there will be no casualties if Mayon erupts.

The volcano has erupted around 50 times over the past 400 years. One of the worst was in 1993 when at least 75 people were killed.

[grupo guitarlumber] 08/8/2006 17:46

Proposed use for Moon: Storage locker for DNA
By Richard Morgan The New York Times
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2006
When the dust settles after World War III, or World War IX, humanity will still want to grow pineapples, rice, coffee and other crops. That is why in June on the island of Svalbard in the Norwegian Arctic, all five Scandinavian prime ministers met to break ground on a $4.8 million "doomsday vault" that will stockpile crop seeds in case of global catastrophe.

While it has the extra safety of Arctic temperatures, the seed bank is just the latest life-preservation plan to reach reality, joining genetic banks like the Frozen Ark, a British program that is storing DNA samples from endangered species like the scimitar-horned oryx, the Seychelles Frégate beetle and the British field cricket.

To a certain group preoccupied with doomsday, these projects are laudable but share a deep flaw: They are Earth- bound. A global catastrophe - like a collision with an asteroid or a nuclear winter - would have to be rather tame in order not to rattle the test tubes in the various ark-style labs around the world. What kind of feeble doomsday would leave London safe and sound?

Cue the Alliance to Rescue Civilization, or ARC, a group that advocates a backup for humanity by way of a station on the Moon replete with DNA samples of all life on Earth, as well as a compendium of all human knowledge - the ultimate detached garage for a race of packrats. It would be run by people who, through fertility treatments and frozen human eggs and sperm, could serve as a new Adam and Eve in addition to their role as a new Noah.

Far from the lunatic fringe, the leaders of the alliance have serious careers: Robert Shapiro, the group's founder, is a professor emeritus and senior research scientist in biochemistry at New York University; Ray Erikson runs an aerospace development firm in Boston and has been a NASA committee chairman; Steven Wolfe, as a congressional aide, drafted and helped pass the Space Settlement Act of 1988, which mandated that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration plan a shift from space exploration to space colonization, and was executive director of the Congressional Space Caucus; William Burrows, an author of several books on space, is the director of the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University.

Shapiro has written a number of books on the origins of life on Earth, as well as "Planetary Dreams: The Quest to Discover Life Beyond Earth," where he unveiled the civilization rescue project.

In 1999, the same year the book came out, Shapiro wrote an essay with Burrows for Ad Astra, an astronomy journal. There, they formally laid out their plan for the rescue alliance, beginning by warning that "the most enduring pictures to come back from the Apollo missions were not of astronauts cavorting on the Sea of Tranquillity, nor even of the lunar landscape itself."

"They were the haunting views of Earth, seen for the first time not as a boundless and resilient colossus of land and water," they continued, "but as a startlingly vulnerable lifeboat precariously plying a vast and dangerous sea: a 'blue marble' in a black void." A conversation shortly after the essay was published, Shapiro recalled, resounded with the earnest imagination of science fiction drama:

Shapiro: "We've got to use space to protect humanity!"

Burrows: "By God! Yes!"

The concept is not new, but there is some fresh momentum. Burrows's new book, "The Survival Imperative: Using Space to Protect Earth," is due out this month.

The mission of ARC has also attracted the support of Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon. "It takes a big reason to go to the Moon, because, frankly, it's a lousy place to be," Aldrin said by telephone. "But this is exactly the kind of planning as a human race we need to secure our future.

"But the ARC idea isn't ahead of its time because it's needed right now. It's a reasonable thing to do with our space technology, sending valuable stuff to a reliable off-site location. NASA is certainly not bending backwards to do it. It's the private people like ARC."

Born and raised within walking distance of the Bronx Zoo in New York - and he walked that distance often - Shapiro developed an early interest in biodiversity. He frets over the frailty of civilization and the planet, but he is not a pessimist. He compares the Moon- base idea to a safe-deposit box.

"It makes sense to protect the things you value," he said. "But we, as a civilization, we don't have anything like that." The trouble with doomsday, Shapiro argues, is that it is almost always rendered in popular culture as grandiose, though in reality, many minor incidents present substantial everyday threats.

In 1918, an influenza strain killed about 30 million people; a possible new bird flu strain spurs contemporary panic. In 2003, a tree fell on power lines outside Cleveland, resulting in a blackout for much of the Northeast. Doomsday can be understated.

"But I'm not here to predict doomsday; I'm here for sanity," Shapiro said. "When we've gained what we've gained, we should fight to keep it.

"And, worst-case scenario, if it's all for nothing, we'll have a nice museum."

[joe moon] 30/7/2006 09:09

23/8/06 is new moon..not 23/9