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moon

CALL: The Once and Future Moon

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This will be an anthology of stories set on / dealing with the abiding influence of the Moon. You can take a literal or non-literal approach. The “Once” aspect will deal with how older cultures / earlier civilisations / people in history saw the Moon, considered and reflected upon the Moon. Think Verne, Wells, Godwin. Think mythology. Think the Sumerians. Think the Ancient Greeks. Think beliefs held by vanished cultures. These stories do not have to be factually, scientifically accurate; the Moon element could be seen as poetic, figurative, imaginative, etc. These stories will likely form one- third of the … Read more

SPACE: NASA’s Stunning Moon Photo Will Make You Swoon

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Moon - NASA

The moon is pretty enough here from Earth, but it’s even more stunning up close, as this new photograph from NASA reminds us. The image was captured on Nov. 3 by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling the moon since 2009. While the crater itself is not quite so young, it’s still pretty fresh — it formed less than 100 million years ago, the spacecraft’s camera team said. “Look closely at this crater. Some might say they see a hole in the ground,” representatives of Arizona State University, which runs the three cameras on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, … Read more

SPACE: A Moon Dust Economy

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lunar ceramics

How do you start a colony on the moon? Can you ship everything the colonists need from Earth? That’s how NASA handled brief excursions to the lunar surface in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but astronauts couldn’t haul that much with them — certainly not enough to sustain themselves over the long term. Technology has improved since then, but most plans for a sustainable lunar base assume that its residents will use local resources, rather than hauling everything from Earth. So that’s why the European Space Agency (ESA) created a whole bunch of fake moon dust (fake “regolith” in … Read more

SPACE: A Second Moon Could Soon Hang Over China

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moon - pixabay

Moonlit skies over the Chinese city of Chengdu may soon get a boost from a second moon. City officials recently announced plans to build an artificial moon, launching it to hang over Sichuan province’s capital city by 2020, Chinese news site People’s Daily Online (PDO) reported. The illuminated orb is intended to complement the light of Earth’s existing moon, and will be eight times brighter than the natural satellite, Wu Chunfeng, chairman of Chengdu Aerospace Science and Technology Microelectronics System Research Institute Co. Ltd. (CASC) — the primary contractor for the Chinese space program — told PDO. In fact, light … Read more

SPACE: There’s Ice on the Moon!

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Lunar Ice - NASA

Scientists have detected the first-ever evidence of frozen water on the moon, on the darkest and coldest parts of the lunar surface. While prior analysis of the moon hinted at some ice reserves, this is the first time that ice has been observed at the north and south poles ­— and the signs of water ice are “direct and definitive,” according to a new study. Researchers peered at suspected icy patches using an instrument called the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), which used the near-infrared spectrum to pinpoint the signature activity of ice molecules interacting with infrared light. This helped the … Read more

SPACE: Was There Life on the Moon?

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moon - NASA

Did life ever exist on the moon? Maybe! Have scientists found evidence of life on the moon? Definitely not. Why are we talking about this? A new paper was published online today (July 23) in the journal Astrobiology with a thrilling headline: “Was There An Early Habitability Window for Earth’s Moon?” Its associated press release had an even more exciting title: “Researcher sees possibility of moon life.” Wowza! This is genuinely cool stuff. But it’s important to understand what it’s really saying and what it’s not. The paper, written by a pair of astrobiologists from Birkbeck College in London and the Technical University of … Read more

SPACE: Did The Moon Once Have a Gooey, Cheesy Center?

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Moon - pixabay

The ancient moon may have had a gooey interior: A new study suggests that some 4 billion years ago, Earth’s beloved satellite harbored a secret subsurface ocean of magma. The churning of this molten ocean may have created a magnetic field similar to the one that protects Earth from charged space particles today. Measurements of moon rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts in the 1960s and 1970s prove that the moon once had a strong magnetic field above its surface, but how the satellite managed to sustain this field is a complete mystery. “We’re trying to understand what could … Read more

SPACE: Trash on the Moon

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moon - NASA

The moon has a lot of junk on it, including a gold olive branch, a flag kit, several lunar orbiters, and a hammer and a falcon feather — the components of a 1971 experiment used to demonstrate that objects fall at the same rate regardless of mass. There are dozens more pieces of lunar debris. But how much garbage, exactly, have humans left or sent to the moon? It’s challenging to say, but the trash on the moon likely weighs upward of 400,000 lbs. (181,000 kilograms) on Earth. This weight is taken from Wikipedia, but it sounds about right considering … Read more

SPACE: Was the Moon Formed by a Giant Doughnut?

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Doughnut Earth and Moon

Once upon a time, about 4.5 billion years ago, the Earth was an unformed doughnut of molten rock called a synestia — and the moon was hidden in the filling. That’s one possible explanation for the moon’s formation, anyway. And according to a new paper published today (Feb. 28) in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets, it may be the best explanation scientists have so far. “The new work explains features of the moon that are hard to resolve with current ideas,” study author Sarah Stewart, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Davis, … Read more

The Moon Will Soon Get 4G

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Moon - pixabay

A device weighing less than a bag of sugar is part of an out-of-this-world mission that will allow scientists to deliver 4G mobile coverage to the moon in 2019, according to news sources. If successful, this less than 2.2-lb. (1 kilogram) device, known as the Ultra Compact Network, will provide the moon with its first ever mobile phone network. The lunar network will support high-definition streaming of video and data between the moon and Earth, and is part of the Mission to the Moon, a project with the goal of landing the first privately paid for mission to the moon, … Read more