This visualization of Lee Lincoln scarp is created from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographs and elevation mapping. The scarp is a low ridge or step about 80 meters high and running north-south through the western end of the Taurus-Littrow valley, the site of the Apollo 17 Moon landing. The scarp marks the location of a relatively young, low-angle thrust fault. The land west of the fault was forced up and over the eastern side as the lunar crust contracted. In a May 2019 paper published in Nature Geoscience, Thomas Watters and his coauthors provide evidence that this fault and others like it are still active and producing moonquakes today.
Music by Killer Tracks: Smoke and Mirrors – Gresby Race Nash
Ernie Wright (USRA): Lead Visualizer
David Ladd (USRA): Producer
Tom Watters (Smithsonian/Air and Space): Scientist
Fifty years ago, Apollo 10 launched from Cape Kennedy on May 18, 1969. The Apollo 10 mission encompassed all aspects of an actual crewed lunar landing, except the landing. It was the first flight of a complete, crewed Apollo spacecraft to operate around the Moon.
The crew members were Commander Thomas Stafford, Command Module Pilot John Young and Lunar Module Pilot Eugene Cernan. Objectives included a scheduled eight-hour lunar orbit of the separated lunar module, or LM, and descent to about nine miles off the moon’s surface before ascending for rendezvous and docking with the command and service module, or CSM, in about a 70-mile circular lunar orbit. Pertinent data to be gathered in this landing rehearsal dealt with the lunar potential, or gravitational effect, to refine the Earth-based crewed spaceflight network tracking techniques, and to check out LM programmed trajectories and radar, and lunar flight control systems. Twelve television transmissions to Earth were planned. All mission objectives were achieved.
99942 Apophis (previously known by its provisional designation 2004 MN4) is a 370-meter diameter near-Earth asteroid that caused a brief period of concern in December 2004 because initial observations indicated a probability of up to 2.7% that it would hit Earth on April 13, 2029. Additional observations provided improved predictions that eliminated the possibility of an impact on Earth or the Moon in 2029. However, until 2006, a possibility remained that during the 2029 close encounter with Earth, Apophis would pass through a gravitational keyhole, a small region no more than about 0.5 mile wide, or 0.8 km that would set up a future impact exactly seven years later on April 13, 2036. This possibility kept it at Level 1 on the Torino impact hazard scale until August 2006, when the probability that Apophis would pass through the keyhole was determined to be very small and Apophis’ rating on the Torino scale was lowered to zero. By 2008, the keyhole had been determined to be less than 1 km wide. During the short time when it had been of greatest concern, Apophis set the record for highest rating on the Torino scale, reaching level 4 on December 27, 2004. In 2008, NASA reaffirmed the chance of Apophis impacting Earth in 2036 as being 1 in 45,000.
As of 2014, the diameter of Apophis is estimated to be approximately 370 metres (1,210 ft). Preliminary observations by Goldstone radar in January 2013 effectively ruled out the possibility of an Earth impact by Apophis in 2036. By May 6, 2013 (April 15, 2013 observation arc), the probability of an impact on April 13, 2036 had been eliminated. Using observations through February 26, 2014, the odds of an impact on April 12, 2068, as calculated by the JPL Sentry risk table are 1 in 150,000. As of February 2019, there were five asteroids with a more notable cumulative Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale than Apophis. On average, one asteroid the size of Apophis (370 metres) can be expected to impact Earth about every 80,000 years.
NASA’s Orion, Space Launch System (SLS), and Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) programs are continuing work on one of the most complex and sophisticated space systems ever built. Across America and in Europe, teams are developing and building the spacecraft, rocket, and infrastructure necessary to send humans to deep space destinations including the surface of the Moon and beyond.
Some major recent milestones include: Orion – Crew Module Uprighting System Test at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina; European Service Module Solar Array Expanded; Fit Check in the Super Guppy Aircraft; Ascent Abort-2 Launch Abort System Stacking and Integration at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida; Launch Abort System Attitude Control Motor Test in Elkton, Maryland. SLS – Liquid Oxygen Tank and Forward Skirt join at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Liquid Hydrogen Tank Structural Test Article Unload from Pegasus Barge at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; RS-25 Engine Testing at Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi; Core Stage-1 Engine Section and Boat Tail Completed and Mated at Michoud. EGS – at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center: Core Stage Intertank Umbilical Swing Testing; Launch Pad 39B Upgrades; Crawler Engine Maintenance.
The Blue Origin Blue Moon is a robotic space cargo carrier and lander for making cargo deliveries to the Moon. Designed and operated by Blue Origin for use on the Blue Moon mission aimed for 2024, Blue Moon derives from the vertical landing technology used in Blue Origin’s New Shepard sub-orbital rocket.
The lander is planned to be capable of delivering 4,500 kg (9,900 lb) to the surface of the Moon. The cargo vehicle could also be used to support NASA activities in cis-lunar space, or transport payloads of ice from Shackleton Crater to support space activities. The first projected mission for the craft would be a 2024 lunar south pole landing. It is proposed that a series of landings could be used to deliver the infrastructure for a Moon base.
Blue Origin began development work on the lander in 2016, publicly disclosed the project in 2017, and unveiled a mock up of the Blue Moon lander in May 2019.
The unpiloted SpaceX Dragon cargo craft arrived at the International Space Station May 6, two days after launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Expedition 59 Flight Engineers David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency and Nick Hague of NASA used the Canadian-built Canadarm2 robotic arm to capture Dragon before turning the operation over to robotic ground controllers who maneuvered Dragon for its installation to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module where it was bolted into place for a month-long stay. Dragon is delivering almost three tons of supplies and scientific experiments to the orbital outpost.
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