Mars as seen today from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

click image to see it in its original context at nasa.gov

So I'm not the only one to schedule a visit to Mars!

As I'm writing this, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is in its final approach to the Red Planet, where it will spend the next six months settling into a low orbit.

At 4:24 p.m. Eastern it will begin to fire its main thrusters for 27 minutes as it brakes its way into the atmosphere.

Live coverage begins at 3:30 Eastern and can be streamed online at NASA TV on the Web.

Be sure not to miss it!  I'll see you there!

from Psalm 147:

 3 He heals the brokenhearted
         And binds up their wounds.
 4 He counts the number of the stars;
         He calls them all by name.

 

 

This lunar landing was faked!  (And my enthusiastic son was the culprit!)

How can you tell?

I'll give you a hint:  it doesn't have anything to do with the obvious, but if you've downloaded my Apollo notebook pages, you have a good chance of figuring it out.

The answer is below, in a hard-to-read color.  To read it, highlight it with your mouse.

Have fun!

The astronaut with the flag is Alan Shepard from Apollo 14, but the Lunar Roving Vehicle in the foreground didn't come into use until the next mission!

from Job 31:

 4 Does He not see my ways,
      And count all my steps?

 5 “If I have walked with falsehood,
      Or if my foot has hastened to deceit,

 6 Let me be weighed on honest scales,
      That God may know my integrity.

 

 

click on image to view this animated .gif

in its original context on wikipedia.org

Just a few more comments:

It is a good exercise to locate the Apollo landing sites and lunar geological (selenographical) landmarks on a photo of the full moon. 

To take it another step further, it is a fun exercise to take a closer look at the landing sites themselves, place them within the lunar landscape, and to compare the features with the photos taken on the lunar surface.

To follow the steps taken by each Apollo mission, the Lunar and Planetary Institute can provide you with the traverses for Apollos 11, 12, and 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17.

Use these in conjunction with The Full Moon Atlas, and you have a great way to study the topography of the places where man has set his foot.  Test yourself against an unlabeled photo of the full moon like this one or this one.

from Psalm 18:

 35 You have also given me the shield of Your salvation;
         Your right hand has held me up,
         Your gentleness has made me great.
 36 You enlarged my path under me,
         So my feet did not slip.

We have splashdown!  As in the Apollo 15 mission, our chutes may not have properly deployed, but we have left lunar orbit have survived re-entry!

We're really just going to catch our breath before we're off to establish a settlement on Mars.  So we don't have much time to debrief, but here it goes:

As I mentioned earlier, I created some Apollo notebook pages.  Please feel free to use them and send the link to my blog to your friends.  Each of the six pages briefly summarizes a successful Apollo moon landing and includes places to mount a graphic of the official emblem, a picture of the primary crew, and a notable photo taken on the mission.  These .jpg files look great when they are photo-processed, but printing them at home works, too.

You will need to download:

• the Apollo Notebook Pages .pdf file (32 kb)
• Crew Photos #1 .jpg file (1.7 mb) [Apollos 14, 11, and 16, from top to bottom]
• Crew Photos #2 .jpg file (1.2 mb) [Apollos 15, 17, and 12, from top to bottom]
• Notable Photos #1 .jpg file (4.8 mb)  [Apollos 11 and 12, from top to bottom]
• Notable Photos #2 .jpg file (4.1 mb) [Apollos 14 and 15, from top to bottom]
• Notable Photos #3 .jpg file (4.1 mb) [Apollos 16 and 17, from top to bottom]
• Mission Emblems .jpg file (2.1 mb)

Additional resources:

• Lunar Landing Site Chart from NASA
• A more accessible, though smaller, database of Apollo photographs.  Scroll down for "Apollo Program".
• Interactive map of the moon with roll-over Java script labels

And the answers to the questions in my previous post:

Apollo 11:  Mr. Armstrong pulled on a lanyard to release a workbench/stowage area containing a black-and-white TV camera mounted in such a way so as to capture his descent down the ladder.  It should be noted that this image is quite poor, so the image we most often see is actually of Mr. Aldrin descending the ladder for his first time, and was taken by Mr. Armstrong already on the lunar surface.  Often we hear Mr. Armstrong's famous words while watching Mr. Aldrin's descent, and this creates some confusion.

Apollo 12:  The crew landed within range of the unmanned Surveyor III probe.  They retrieved materials from the craft, and later it was discovered that some contaminating bacteria from Earth had survived its 3-year stay on the moon.

Apollo 14:  The lunar module was named after Antares, a star whose position in the sky is said to be opposite that of Mars.  Ares is the Greek predecessor to Mars; both are associated with war and bloodshed, and the prefix "ant-" means "against".    I wonder if perhaps the LM was named to bring hope during the Cold War or to protest the war in Vietnam.

Apollo 15:  The Genesis Rock was the first and largest sample of anorthosite collected from the moon.  Anorthosites are coarse-grained crystalline rocks which had cooled not long after the Moon had formed.  Jim Irwin noticed the white rock glinting in the sun.  Imagine if the entire surface of the moon had not yet been scarred by craters and by that dark lava flows which form the mare.  How bright it might have appeared from Eden!

Apollo 16:  NASA chose Apollo 16's landing site to explore the highlands.  It was supposed that the highlands had been built up by volcanic action, but the rocks showed no signs of volcanics.  The Central Highlands had apparently been built up by impacts.

Apollo 17:  It really was orange soil that the crew found.  It turns out that the orange color was due to the presence of tiny spheres of volcanic glass that had cooled at a different rate than the surrounding soil's volcanic glass.  Green soil was discovered on the Apollo 15 mission, and the cause for the tint was the iron- and magnesium-rich glass.

from Psalm 136:

 1 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
         For His mercy endures forever.
 2 Oh, give thanks to the God of gods!
         For His mercy endures forever.
 3 Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!
         For His mercy endures forever:
         
 4 To Him who alone does great wonders,
         For His mercy endures forever;
 5 To Him who by wisdom made the heavens,
         For His mercy endures forever;
 6 To Him who laid out the earth above the waters,
         For His mercy endures forever;
 7 To Him who made great lights,
         For His mercy endures forever—
 8 The sun to rule by day,
         For His mercy endures forever;
 9 The moon and stars to rule by night,
         For His mercy endures forever.

From my daydream world as a young girl, I would hear my parents joke that I was "out to lunch."  My youthful inexperience, however, prevented me from comprehending this metaphor of taking a break from life.  I did understand what it was like to be "spaced out," so I what I actually heard was that I had been "out to launch."

And that's exactly where we've been this week.

We're taking our trip through Exploring Creation with Astronomy with a few more stops than even Jeannie Fulbright scheduled in.  Some day we'll return to Earth's orbit, but for now, we're basking in the solar wind on the moon.

The stories behind each of these Apollo missions are fascinating!  My interest here would never have been piqued if it weren't for the fact that Apollo 15's lunar module pilot, Jim Irwin, was a dedicated Christian and had written a picture book that we purchased from Vision Forum. 

But you see what happens when we put the story back into history: it gets interesting!

Do you know how NASA got a picture of Neil Armstrong descending the Eagle's ladder when he was the first person out?  Did you ever think about it (fake moon landing conspirators not included)?

Do you know which alien craft the crew of Apollo 12 encountered on the surface of the moon?

Do you think that Apollo 14's lunar module was named simply for a star, or do you think the political times inspired something deeper?

What was the Genesis Rock that Apollo 15's Jim Irwin found, and what do you suppose it instructs us about the original appearance of the moon?

How did NASA choose Apollo 16's landing site?

Did Schmitt of Apollo 17 really discover orange soil, or was it just sunlight reflecting off the Lunar Rover's gold foil onto the lunar surface?

To forumulate your answers, you can research it all at this amazing website, The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal.  There is so much to explore, including video clips and high-resolution images.

I hope to post a .pdf of the Apollo missions notebook pages and accompanying photos that I've created for this lunar EVA of ours.  I'll rendezvous with you then.

Psalm 121:

1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
         From whence comes my help?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
         Who made heaven and earth. 
         
3 He will not allow your foot to be moved;
         He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
         Shall neither slumber nor sleep. 
         
5 The LORD is your keeper;
         The LORD is your shade at your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
         Nor the moon by night. 
         
7 The LORD shall preserve you from all evil;
         He shall preserve your soul.
8 The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in
         From this time forth, and even forevermore.