How Long Were Apollo Missions?

NASA’s Apollo Program represented their attempt to place astronauts on the Moon. This massive undertaking involved numerous people – astronauts, mission controllers, engineers and scientists among them. On their journey to and from the Moon, astronauts used a Command Module. When landing, they took shelter in an inflatable lunar module which could accommodate two astronauts…

How Long Will it Take to Get a Spacecraft to Mars?

Scientists are still trying to gather answers about Mars. They wish to know whether the planet ever supported life and how its evolution might have progressed. Researchers must also understand what it will be like for future manned spacecraft to travel there, including weather forecasting and how to access safe drinking water sources. How long…

How Long Were Apollo Missions?

Apollo wasn’t always popular among the general public. Following Apollo 1’s tragic accident that claimed astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Roger Chaffee and Edward White’s lives, there was widespread public disbelief regarding both its cost and complexity of sending humans to space. NASA was ultimately successful in fulfilling their goal of landing humans on the Moon,…

The Long Martian Day

Mars is often considered Earth’s twin, sharing many similar qualities such as its long Martian days referred to as sols. Mars shares Earth’s axial tilt and spin period, giving rise to similar seasons like spring, summer, autumn and winter. However, its orbital eccentricity is larger. Daytime Mars is often referred to as Earth’s “Twin.” It…

How Long Does Mars’ Magnetic Field Last?

Even though Mars has lost much of its overall magnetic field, some areas still create unique atmospheric electrodynamic structures – magnetic loops and cusps which alter how ions leave its atmosphere. Sabine Stanley and her colleagues have developed an effective technique for artificially creating these structures. Their paper published in Science details how this can…