Astro Blog

By Heather Cox Richardson.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh9-t8xqviM .

https://www.science.org/content/article/number-known-moonquakes-tripled-discovery-apollo-archive By  PAUL VOOSEN , Science Excerpt:  THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS— The Moon suddenly seems more alive. From 1969 to 1977, seismometers left on the lunar surface by the Apollo astronauts detected thousands of distinctive “moonquakes.” Now, half a century later, a new analysis has cut through the noise in the old data and nearly tripled the number of moonquakes, adding more than 22,000 new quakes to 13,000 previously identified ones.  The finding,  presented  last week here at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, shows “that the Moon may be more seismically and tectonically active today than we had thought,” says Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna, a geophysicist at the University of Arizona unaffiliated with the work, which is  in review  at the  Journal of Geophysical Research . “It is incredible that after 50 years we are still finding new surprises in the data.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/28/science/nasa-moon-rocket-launch.html By  Kenneth Chang , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...astronauts will not actually step on the moon for several years, and by that time, NASA will have spent about $100 billion.... “It’s a future where NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon,” Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, said during a news conference this month. “And on these increasingly complex missions, astronauts will live and work in deep space and will develop the science and technology to send the first humans to Mars.” ...Today’s program was named Artemis by NASA leaders during the Trump administration. In Greek mythology, Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo. ...NASA is also hoping to jump-start companies looking to set up a steady business of flying scientific instruments and other payloads to the moon, and to inspire students to enter science and engineering fields.… 

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Opening_a_50-year-old_Christmas_present_from_the_Moon By European Space Agency.  Excerpt: A pretty special gift unwrapping will soon take place – a piercing tool built by ESA will open a Moon soil container from Apollo 17 that has gone untouched for nearly 50 years. The opening will allow the extraction of precious lunar gases which may have been preserved in the sample.…

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/11/world/nasa-apollo-untouched-moon-samples/index.html Source:   By Ashley Strickland, CNN. Excerpt: After sitting untouched in storage for nearly 50 years, lunar samples collected during the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions will be studied for the first time, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Monday. ...NASA selected nine teams to study the moon samples and awarded a total of $8 million for their research. "By studying these precious lunar samples for the first time, a new generation of scientists will help advance our understanding of our lunar neighbor and prepare for the next era of exploration of the Moon and beyond," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, in a statement. ...The three samples from the final three Apollo missions have never been exposed to our atmosphere on Earth. Six of the nine teams will study the Apollo 17 sample, delivered to Earth in a vacuum-sealed drive tub...

Source:   Eric M. Jones and Ken Glover, NASA Excerpt: …the actual recording of events which took place during the Apollo Program flights. The twelve astronauts who landed and explored the Earth's closest neighbor were the only human beings ever to observe firsthand the surface of a body in our universe other than the Earth. … their personal comments and interpretations made during their exploration of the Moon are rare national treasures.…. http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/frame.html