Nerdcore

Newscientist konstruiert ein alternatives Universum, in dem der amerikanische Kongress 1967 nicht die Mittel für ein erweitertes Mond-Programm der Nasa gestrichen hätte.

It’s July 2009, and in Johnson City, America’s permanent colony on the moon – named after Lyndon B. Johnson, the president who authorised it – they are celebrating the third generation of lunar Americans: the first child born to parents themselves born on the moon. With just 5000 inhabitants, “city” is perhaps too grandiose a term. Those who had anticipated a domed city of the kind that once graced science fiction comics had also been disappointed. That idea never stood up to the harsh lunar reality of cosmic rays and meteorite bombardment.

Apollo special: Welcome to Lunarville (via /.)

Der Onion veralbert Moon City: People Living On The Moon

NASA recently announced plans to construct a base on the moon’s south pole that will be completed by 2024. Here are some of the features its inhabitants will enjoy:

- Golden throne so tourists can have their pictures taken as the Moon King
- Neil Armstrong statue in front of Neil Armstrong wing of Neil Armstrong Recreation Center
- One toilet

Oobject hat 10 Raketen-Modelle: Top 10 Moon Rocket Models

The Saturn V rocket was something the size of a skyscraper could survive being thrown into orbit, undamaged. 40 years after the Saturn V powered trip to the moon, nothing as powerful exists today.

Years ago Airfix made a model of a Saturn V which I lusted after as a kid and Revell have now re-released their original 1:96 version and a 1:144 one which is the same size as the old Airfix. We tracked down the best Saturn V models that you can buy or have been built, culminating in auto repair man, Steve Eves’ completely insane home built 40 foot high, 1600 pound monster which he actually launched, in April.

BBC über den ersten Computer auf dem Mond: ‘Beatnik’ who put first men on Moon (via Make)

Fresh out of college, at the age of 23, maths graduate Don Eyles suddenly found himself at the centre of one of the most ambitious projects of the 20th Century – putting the first men on the Moon.

Working at the MIT laboratories, the self-described beatnik programmed the software for the computer in the lunar module, which was responsible for the astronauts’ safe descent onto the Moon’s surface.

Das Time Magazine hat ein sehr schönes Special inklusive einer fantastischen Sammlung ihrer Space Cover: The 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing

That future, as always, is uncertain, but as the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing arrives on July 20, the past remains familiar. Nine Apollo missions were launched moonward, and six of them landed. The cultural memories of these missions remain penny-bright — and the aging men who flew the ships retain a status that goes beyond iconic. Baseball players are icons; movie stars are icons. But those kinds of folks, we breed as we need. The lunar fraternity stopped taking members in 1972, when there were only 24 of them — and six have since died. History has produced far more American Presidents than it has lunar astronauts.

Moon Orbiter to Photograph Apollo 11 Landing Site

Low Budget Lunar Exploration: „This is an interesting Science Now segment from the PBS series Nova on doing unmanned lunar exploration on a low budget. It shows how a team working on the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) used every day items to create a payload experiment that would look for traces of water on the moon.“

“The Apollo 11 Conspiracy”: 6% of Americans Still Believe It Was Faked: „After a successful touchdown of Apollo 11 on 20th July 1969, the Pope asked for a color television to be installed in his summer residence, while West Germany announced they were calling the day of the landing ‘Apollo Day’ and schoolchildren in Bavaria were given the day off. Meanwhile some 40 years later some still think the landing was filmed on a Hollywood backlot.“

Und das beste zum Schluß: Die Mythbusters über die Mondlandungsverschwörung.

(Youtube Direktmoon)

Die NASA hat neue, restaurierte Videos von der Mondlandung online gestellt. Das da oben ist „one small step“, weitere sollen folgen, insgesamt werden 15 restaurierte Apollo 11-Videos geben. (Und ich finde irgendwie, die sehen gar nicht so viel besser aus, die restaurierten Fassungen. Wenn man das bei der Youtube-Qualität überhaupt sagen kann.)

The release will feature 15 key moments from Neil Armstrong’s and Buzz Aldrin’s historic moonwalk using what is believed to be the best available broadcast-format copies of the lunar excursion, some of which had been locked away for nearly 40 years. The initial video released Thursday is part of a comprehensive Apollo 11 moonwalk restoration project expected to be completed by the fall.

NASA Holds Briefing to Release Restored Apollo 11 Moonwalk Video , zwei weitere jetzt schon verfügbare Videos bei Boing Boing Gadgets: NASA’s new restored footage of the Apollo 11 moon landing, hier der Apollo 11-Twitterfeed.