Moon exploration has long been an exciting prospect, drawing the interest of various agencies and private companies alike – though their attempts often resulted in mixed outcomes. Surveyor 5 was equipped with a scoop designed to “weigh” lunar rocks, returning images that helped scientists map its surface composition. Mission controllers sent it crashing towards the…
Contrary to popular perception, this week’s lunar eclipse will not produce a blood moon; rather it will appear slightly reddish-tinged. Due to Earth’s atmosphere, which preferentially diffuses short wavelengths of sunlight while permitting longer ones through, making the moon appear orange or deep red in color. It’s a total lunar eclipse This week’s lunar eclipse,…
NASA was determined to duplicate Neil Armstrong’s achievement on Apollo 11, so the crew of Apollo 12 under Commander Pete Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Al Bean would make another giant step for humanity. On November 14th 1969, Apollo 12 took flight from Cape Kennedy on board a Saturn V rocket. Following two orbits, they…
Stepping on another planet was truly extraordinary; but how they got there was even more extraordinary. As Eagle entered lunar orbit, Armstrong fired the engine to initiate a powered descent toward its surface; however, after receiving a computer alarm message he began manually controlling his descent path in order to avoid landing in a rock-filled…
President Kennedy challenged NASA to land astronauts on the Moon by 1961; with help from Saturn rockets, Apollo made this goal come true. Apollo spacecraft were known as Command Module and Lunar Module and could hold three astronauts at once, disintegrating into two parts for lunar landings before returning to orbit. Apollo 11 The first…
Blood moons, or lunar total eclipses, take on a distinct red hue during total lunar eclipses. In 2014-2015’s lunar tetrad some speculated it could be seen as a portent for end times or signposting events to come. Blood Moons occur every full moon night at midnight (in-game). They trigger enemy horde waves to appear, while…
An eclipse will transform the moon into something truly terrifying: The Blood Moon. This dramatic color change occurs due to sunlight passing through our atmosphere, giving the lunar surface its characteristic reddish tint and turning the Moon red. This term gained momentum when people discussed a series of four lunar eclipses between 2014 and 2015…
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made use of their lunar module Eagle to launch off from the lunar surface and they released many items, such as their flag tube, TV camera and tools for collecting samples from moon rocks and dust. These objects were intended to crash onto the lunar surface and be left there,…
Landing on the moon occurs when a spacecraft touches down or enters orbit around its surface, such as Luna 2 did in 1966. Armstrong and Aldrin used Eagle to deploy instruments that collected rock and soil samples, took pictures and verified their equipment was working as intended. The astronauts also conducted engine tests for Eagle,…
