NASA – Page 4 – Take off with Natarajan

” Jaw-dropping images of Earth from space in 2015″

December 31, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Astronauts on board the International Space Station beamed back some spectacular views of Earth this year.

The Earth Observations team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center selected the 15 best photographs, which we’ve republished here.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station took this image of Adele Island, off Australia’s north coast, on June 11, 2015. The tiny island is only 2.9 kilometres (2 miles) long.

This image shows landscapes of the arid Sahara and the dark green marshes of Lake Chad, which stand out in the foreground.

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is seen on the left in a photo taken in February.

The peaks of Colombia’s Santa Marta are so high that trees cannot grow. The highest peak has a permanent snow cap and is the only place where snow can be seen from the tropical beaches of the Caribbean coast.

Southern Scandinavia is illuminated under a full moon in this image, which also features a green aurora to the north and the Baltic Sea, seen as a black patch in the lower right of the photo.

The Paraná River, South America’s second-largest, pours brown muddy water into a wide estuary known as the River Plate.

The snow-covered Himalaya range is seen near the China–India border.

Laguna Colorada, a lake in the Bolivian Andes Mountains, lies at 4,300 metres (14,100 feet) above sea level. Algae in the water is responsible for the lake’s deep red-brown color.

Fish farms are seen on the coast of China’s northeast province of Liaoning.

This September image shows the winding border between Pakistan and India, one of the few places on Earth where an international boundary can be seen at night.

Brightly-coloured salt ponds are seen on the coast of Tunisia’s port city, Sfax.

Red-brown coastal lagoons are seen on this stretch of Western Australia’s coastline, in a photo taken on June 11.

This photo, taken on June 15, shows the northern tip of Massachusetts’ Cape Cod.

The Mekong River, Southeast Asia’s largest river, flows on the border between Thailand and Laos. Heavy monsoon rainfall at the end of July created a red-brown channel of floodwater.

A red sprite — a major electrical discharge thought to occur during large thunderstorms — is captured above the white light of an active thunderstorm high over Missouri or Illinois.

Source……..

Unusual Airport Runways Around the World….!!!

December 30, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

1. Gisborne
Airport, New Zealand

This North Island airport is one of the few in the
World that has a railway line running through its runway. Both the railway
And the airport are active, so let’s hope they are precise about their
Scheduling.

2. Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport, Saba Island

Blink and you might miss it. With only 400m in length, this Caribbean island has the shortest commercial

air strip on the planet. Obviously, this tiny runway is only suitable for small aircraft.

3. Courchevel Altiport, France

This airfield high in the French Alps is a convenient yet treacherous drop-off point for wealthy skiers

at the chi-chi Courchevel slopes. In fact, there are ski runs no far from the 1,762 ft (537 m) mountaintop

runway. Frequent fog, snow, ice and low clouds make it even more extreme. You’ll want to make sure your

small plane or helicopter pilot is well trained.

4. Don Mueang Airport, Thailand

There aren’t many airports in the world that have an 18 hole golf course right amongst the runways. Fore!

5. Tenzing-Hillary Airport, Nepal

If you’re planning on trekking to Mount Everest, chances are you’ll arrive via this small Nepalese airport

in Lukla. It has a short runway with a 9,334 feet (2900 meter) drop off the edge. Not for the faint of heart.

6. Agatti Aerodrome, Lakshadweep, India

This 4000 feet long island runway doesn’t leave much margin for error. A few more inches, and passengers

are going to be swimming sooner than they bargained for.

7. Barra International Airport, Scotland

Barra International Airport, on a remote northern island in Scotland, has the only beach runway for scheduled

flights in the world. At high tide, some of the runways are underwater..

8. Gibraltar International Airport

These are red lights you don’t want to run..

9. Gustaf III Airport, Saint-Barthélemy

This runway is so tiny, only planes with a maximum of 20 people can land here. That helps keep St. Barts

an exclusive upscale Caribbean haven for the rich and famous.

10. Kansai International Airport, Japan

With land at a premium in Japan, they decided to build this major airport on an artificial island offshore in

Osaka Bay. If its ocean setting doesn’t give you chills, its also regularly subjected to earthquakes, typhoons

and storm surges. Oh, and the island is also sinking. This airport’s construction and constant reinforcement

makes it the most expensive civil works project in modern history.

11. Madeira Airport, Portugal

The previous airport on this Portuguese archipelago was notoriously challenging due to its short runway

surrounded by high mountains and the ocean. So, they extended it with an impressive – yet frightening –

platform supported by 180 columns off the edge of the land.

12. Narsarsuaq Airport, Greenland

This runway is short and sweet whether you’re coming or going. It is considered one of the world’s most

challenging approaches.. Pilots have to fly up a fjord known for its turbulence and wind gusts.

13. Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport

A pair of grave makers are embedded into Runway 10 at this airport, in remembrance to the Dotson Family who

used to own the land. One of the graves dates back to 1857. The law states that next of kin need to authorize

the moving of family graves, and when they couldn’t be located, the airport engineers let them be.

14. Wellington Airport, New Zealand

This airport in New Zealand’s capital city has a short runway, so only smaller aircraft can land there.

It’s known for turbulent landings due to the channeling effect of the Cook Strait creating gusty winds.

15. Princess Juliana International Airport, Sint Maarten

This beachside airport on the Dutch side of Saint Martin is right across the street from Maho Beach. It is

known for its extremely low-altitude flyover landing approach, and tourists flock here to experience the rush

of the planes overhead. Definitely one of the craziest airport runways you got to see to believe.

16. Ice Camp Barneo, North Pole

This snowy strip not far from the North Pole is open for just 4 weeks per year. Built on a drifting ice

base, it’s a fully functional runway suitable for cargo planes like the Antonov AN-74. Perhaps Santa

Claus uses it too.

Curiosity’s 10 best images of Mars in 2015….

December 30, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

As of December, 2015, Curiosity has acquired over 292,000 images from Mars’ surface. Here are our picks for the top 10 images by the rover in 2015.

Strata rocks and dark sand in an area that has been named ‘Kimberley.’ The strata in the foreground dip towards the base of Mount Sharp, indicating flow of water toward a basin that existed before the larger bulk of the mountain formed. The images obtained by NASA’s Curiosity rover in October, 2015, led scientists conclude there were ancient lakes on this area. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Since its August 5-6, 2012 landing on Mars – an event known to space scientists as seven minutes of terror – NASA’s Curiosity rover has been studying the surface of Mars. Its job now is to determine whether the Gale Crater area, the area in which it landed, ever had the right conditions to support microbial life. As of December, 2015 – using its 17 cameras – Curiosity has acquired over 292,000 images from the surface of Mars. The images on this page are our picks of some of the best images captured by the rover in 2015.

Curiosity has seen a lot of layered rocks on the surface of Mars, like these amazing rocks captured in July, 2015.Read more about this image. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The rover mission’s official name is the Mars Science Laboratory. The rover itself is 9 feet (about 3 meters) long and 7 feet (about 2.7 meters) wide, and weighs about 2,000 pounds (900 kg).

It’s not Arizona or Utah … this is planet Mars as seen by Curiosity on September, 2015. This image shows regions that include a long ridge teeming with hematite, an iron oxide. Just beyond is an undulating plain rich in clay minerals. And just beyond that are a multitude of rounded buttes, all high in sulfate minerals. The changing mineralogy in these layers of Mount Sharp suggests a changing environment in early Mars, though all involve exposure to water billions of years ago. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Sunset on Mars. The Curiosity rover captured the sun setting on April 15, 2015 from the Gale Crater. The color has been calibrated and white-balanced to remove camera artifacts. The rover’s ‘Mastcam’ sees color very similarly to what human eyes see, although it is actually a little less sensitive to blue than people are. Dust in the Martian atmosphere has fine particles that permit blue light to penetrate the atmosphere more efficiently than longer-wavelength colors. That causes the blue colors in the mixed light coming from the sun to stay closer to sun’s part of the sky, compared to the wider scattering of yellow and red colors. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Two orbiters that were already studying Mars when Curiosity arrived. They are the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and Mars Odyssey. These two act as satellites, relaying pictures and data from the rover back to Earth.]

Diverse composition of mineral veins at the ‘Garden City’ site investigated by Curiosity suggests multiple episodes of groundwater activity. The prominent mineral veins vary in thickness and brightness, and include: 1) thin, dark-toned fracture filling material; 2) thick, dark-toned vein material in large fractures; 3) light-toned vein material, which was deposited last. Researchers used the Mastcam and other instruments on Curiosity in March and April 2015 to study the structure and composition of mineral veins at Garden City, for information about fluids that deposited minerals in fractured rock there. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Because color images use much more data or bandwidth to be transmitted to our planet, a lot of black and white images are sent to the orbiting spacecraft that occasionally passes over t

he rover’s location for a short time. However, some color images are eventually sent.

This is an area lining the northwestern edge of Mount Sharp. The scene combines multiple images taken with the Mast Camera on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on Sept. 25, 2015. Dunes are larger than wind-blown ripples of sand or dust that Curiosity and other rovers have visited previously. You can see the dark dunes by clicking again after opening this panorama. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Giant antennas at California (USA), Australia and Spain compose the Deep Space Network that receives pictures and data from the Mars spacecraft as well as from other interplanetary spacecraft.

A selfie on Mars. Curiosity extended its robotic arm and used the camera on the arm’s end to capture this self portrait on October 6, 2015. The image was taken at the ‘Big Sky’ site, where its drill collected the mission’s fifth taste of Mount Sharp. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

]

Dark rocks on route to mountains. Diverse terrain is visible on this image taken on Mount Sharp on April 10, 2015. The color has been approximately white-balanced to resemble how the scene would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Damage on the aluminum wheels is evident after 7 miles (11.3 km) on the odometer of the Curiosity rover. Mars’ terrain and diverse rocks led to more wheel damage than was expected. However scientists think the 20 inches (51 cm) wheels may permit the rover to continue its mission. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A Solar Eclipse from Mars. Curiosity captured Phobos, one of the two small martian moons passing in front of the Sun in July, 2015. Although Phobos is only about 14 miles (22.5 km) in diameter, it orbits Mars at just 6,000 km ( 3,728 miles) which is relatively close. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Where is Curiosity right now? The rover is located in an area of Mount Sharp that has been named Namib dune. The rover is analyzing the composition and grain size of a ripple.

Source….www.earthsky.org

Natarajan

Image of the Day…”Zinnia Flowers @ International Space Station…”

December 24, 2015December 24, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Zinnia Flowers Starting to Grow on the International Space Station

Zinnia flowers are starting to grow in the International Space Station's Veggie facility

Zinnia flowers are starting to grow in the International Space Station’s Veggie facility as part of the VEG-01 investigation. Veggie provides lighting and nutrient supply for plants in the form of a low-cost growth chamber and planting “pillows” to provide nutrients for the root system. These plants appear larger than their ground-based counterparts and scientists expect buds to form on the larger plants soon.

The Veggie facility supports a variety of plant species that can be cultivated for educational outreach, fresh food and even recreation for crew members on long-duration missions. Previously, the facility has grown lettuce — which was consumed by the crew earlier this year — and now investigators are attempting to grow Zinnia flowers. Understanding how flowering plants grow in microgravity can be applied to growing other edible flowering plants, such as tomatoes.

Image Credit: NASA

Image of the Day…” Blue Marble Earth Image …”

December 20, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently captured a unique view of Earth from the spacecraft’s vantage point in orbit around the moon.

“The image is simply stunning,” said Noah Petro, Deputy Project Scientist for LRO at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The image of the Earth evokes the famous ‘Blue Marble’ image taken by Astronaut Harrison Schmitt during Apollo 17, 43 years ago, which also showed Africa prominently in the picture.”

In this composite image we see Earth appear to rise over the lunar horizon from the viewpoint of the spacecraft, with the center of the Earth just off the coast of Liberia (at 4.04 degrees North, 12.44 degrees West). The large tan area in the upper right is the Sahara Desert, and just beyond is Saudi Arabia. The Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America are visible to the left. On the moon, we get a glimpse of the crater Compton, which is located just beyond the eastern limb of the moon, on the lunar farside.

LRO was launched on June 18, 2009, and has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the moon. LRO experiences 12 earthrises every day; however the spacecraft is almost always busy imaging the lunar surface so only rarely does an opportunity arise such that its camera instrument can capture a view of Earth. Occasionally LRO points off into space to acquire observations of the extremely thin lunar atmosphere and perform instrument calibration measurements. During these movements sometimes Earth (and other planets) pass through the camera’s field of view and dramatic images such as the one shown here are acquired.

This image was composed from a series of images taken Oct. 12, when LRO was about 83 miles (134 kilometers) above the moon’s farside crater Compton. Capturing an image of the Earth and moon with LRO’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) instrument is a complicated task. First the spacecraft must be rolled to the side (in this case 67 degrees), then the spacecraft slews with the direction of travel to maximize the width of the lunar horizon in LROC’s Narrow Angle Camera image. All this takes place while LRO is traveling faster than 3,580 miles per hour (over 1,600 meters per second) relative to the lunar surface below the spacecraft!

The high-resolution Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on LRO takes black-and-white images, while the lower resolution Wide Angle Camera (WAC) takes color images, so you might wonder how we got a high-resolution picture of the Earth in color. Since the spacecraft, Earth, and moon are all in motion, we had to do some special processing to create an image that represents the view of the Earth and moon at one particular time. The final Earth image contains both WAC and NAC information. WAC provides the color, and the NAC provides high-resolution detail.

“From the Earth, the daily moonrise and moonset are always inspiring moments,” said Mark Robinson of Arizona State University in Tempe, principal investigator for LROC. “However, lunar astronauts will see something very different: viewed from the lunar surface, the Earth never rises or sets. Since the moon is tidally locked, Earth is always in the same spot above the horizon, varying only a small amount with the slight wobble of the moon. The Earth may not move across the ‘sky’, but the view is not static. Future astronauts will see the continents rotate in and out of view and the ever-changing pattern of clouds will always catch one’s eye, at least on the nearside. The Earth is never visible from the farside; imagine a sky with no Earth or moon – what will farside explorers think with no Earth overhead?”

NASA’s first Earthrise image was taken with the Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft in 1966. Perhaps NASA’s most iconic Earthrise photo was taken by the crew of the Apollo 8 mission as the spacecraft entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve Dec. 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts — Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders — held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft. Said Lovell, “The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth.”

Source…….www.nasa.gov

Natarajan

Image of the Day….” Rare Sunset …”

December 17, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

A photo of rare sunset, only seen when the sun is low in the sky and likely a result of reflection by ice crystals.

Photo by Peter Lowenstein in Mutare, Zimbabwe.

On December 11, 2015, Zimbabwe was still experiencing an intense heatwave with almost clear skies and very little rain. While the sun was setting behind a lone small cumulus cloud, a diffuse duplicate appeared above it in a thin veil of more distant high cloud.

This spectacle lasted for just over a minute before the second sun faded away.

The photo was taken between using a hand-held Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 compact camera in intelligent auto mode.

I asked Jim Foster of the Earth Science Picture of the Day what might have caused this phenomenon. He worked as a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center for more than 37 years before retiring in 2014. He replied that a double sun is:

… only seen when the sun is low in the sky and likely a result of reflection by ice crystals.

The Earth Science Picture of the Day on Facebook also published this photo on December 14, 2015.

Bottom line: Apparently double sunset – likely due to reflection by ice crystals – seen in Zimbabwe on December 11, 2015.

Source…. Posted by Peter in Lowenstein http://www.earthsky.org

natarajan

These Are the 6 Singaporean Satellites Being Launched by ISRO Today…17 Dec 2015…

December 16, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

At 6:00 pm today, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch six Singaporean satellites from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

The satellites will be put into orbit by India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its thirty-second flight (PSLV-C29).

PSLV-C29 on the First Launch Pad with Vehicle Assembly Building in background

PSLV-C29 will launch the satellites into a 550 km circular orbit inclined at 15 degrees to the equator. They will be launched one after the other to avoid collision, and there will be a distance of about 20 kilometres between them. The satellites being launched include one primary satellite and five co-passenger satellites.

The commercial arm of ISRO, Antrix Corporation Limited, has provided launch services for 51 commercial satellites from 20 countries so far. The six satellites being launched today include the following –

TeLEOS-1:

TeLEOS-1 and Nanosats

This is the primary satellite weighing 400kg. It is the first Singapore commercial earth observation satellite and it is being launched for remote sensing applications. Designed and developed by Singapore Technologies Electronics, the mission life for this satellite is five years.

VELOX-CI:

Velox-CI and Kent Ridge-1

This is a micro satellite weighing 123kg. It will be used for research in tropical environmental monitoring using radio occultation techniques.

VELOX-II:

This satellite weight 13 kg and is a 6U-CubeSat technology demonstrator with three payloads – the communications, GPS experimental, and fault tolerant payload. A CubeSat is a type of small satellite used for space research.

Athenoxat-1:

PSLV-C29 Heat-shield closed with six satellites integrated to the Launch Vehicle

It is a technology demonstrator nano-satellite, designed and developed by Microspace Rapid Pvt. Ltd in Singapore.

Kent Ridge-1:

This is a micro satellite weighing 78 kg, and it has two primary payloads.

Galassia:

A 2U-Cubesat weighing 3.4 kg, this satellite has two payloads.

“The satellites will be able to produce information at a much higher frequency. This will surely be very important when you use it for disaster monitoring in the region like Southeast Asia,” Project Director of the Satellite Programme at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Professor Goh Cher Hiang, said.

The 59-hour countdown for the PSLV-C29/TeLEOS-1 Mission began at 7:00 am on December 14. This is the eleventh fight of PSLV in ‘core-alone’ configuration. In this configuration, the six strap-on boosters used by standard PSLV model is not used.

All pictures: isro.gov.in

Source….Tanaya Singh in http://www.the better india .com

Natarajan

NASA is accepting astronaut applications, and this quiz will tell you if you qualify….!

December 14, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

If you have a taste for adventure to go where few have gone before, then you might want to sign up to be a NASA astronaut.

On December 14, for the first time in four years, NASA began accepting applications.

“This next group of American space explorers will inspire the Mars generation to reach for new heights, and help us realize the goal of putting boot prints on the Red Planet,” NASA’s Charles Bolden said in a statement.

Do you have what it takes to be the next NASA astronaut? Take this quiz to see what you know:

1. How many NASA astronauts have there been throughout history?

NASA

A. 167

B. 252

C. 339

D. 588

Answer: C. 339

The first NASA astronaut candidates were selected in 1959 for Project Mercury.

Since then, tens of thousands have applied to NASA’s intense astronaut-training program, but only 339 people have been selected. The newest members of the team were announced in July:

1. US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Josh Cassada
2. US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Victor Glover
3. US Air Force Lt. Col. Tyler “Nick” Hague
4. Christina Hammock
5. US Marine Corps Maj. Nicole Mann
6. US Army Maj. Anne McClain
7. Jessica Meir
8. US Army Maj. Andrew Morgan

2. True or false: All applicants must have a bachelor’s degree to qualify.

A. True

B. False

Answer: A. True

Reuters

NASA has a number of basic qualification requirements, and the first is a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in at least one of the following fields: engineering, biological science, physical science, or mathematics.

3. Besides a bachelor’s, what else do candidates need?

Apple

A. At least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in a jet aircraft.

B. A doctoral degree in science, engineering, or math.

C. At least three years of teaching K-12 levels in science, engineering, or math.

D. One of the above.

Answer: D. One of the above.

After earning a bachelor’s in one of the four required fields, qualified applicants must complete at least three years of related professional experience. That can include studying an appropriate field in a graduate program, teaching K-12 levels in science, engineering, or math, or completing at least 1,000 hours of piloting a jet aircraft.

By these standards, astrophysicist and famed host of “StarTalk Radio” Neil deGrasse Tyson, who earned a doctorate in astrophysics from Columbia University in 1991, qualifies!

4. Which of the following must candidates have in order to pass NASA’s astronaut physical exam?

NASA

A. They are no older than 50.

B. They can run a marathon in under 4 hours.

C. They can hold their breath for at least 90 seconds without losing consciousness.

D. They’re between 62 and 75 inches tall.

Answer: D. Astronauts must all be between 62 and 75 inches tall.

NASA

Every astronaut must pass NASA’s three basic physical requirements, which are:

1. 20/20 vision in each eye (people can get PRK or LASIK surgery to correct their vision to meet the necessary requirements).

2. Blood pressure that does not exceed 140/90 in a sitting position.

3. A standing height of between 62 and 75 inches, or 5.1 and 6.25 feet.

Contrary to popular belief, there are no age limits on becoming a NASA astronaut, but most candidates selected in the past werebetween 26 and 46.

5. Say you’re one of the few candidates to be selected. Where do you go next for your NASA astronaut training?

A. Kennedy Space Center, near Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida.

B. Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

C. Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

D. Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Answer: B. Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Astronauts complete a two-year training program at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Part of the training requires that candidates become scuba-qualified and pass a swimming test to prep them for the underwater extravehicular activity training they perform at the nearby Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. This giant 6.2-million-gallon pool simulates microgravity environments to get astronauts ready for space walks.

6. True or False: All astronauts must have military experience.

A. True

B. False

Answer: B. False

Contrary to popular belief, you do not need military experience to become an astronaut. But a little experience certainly wouldn’t hurt your chances. As of the 2009 Astronaut Class, 61% of candidates NASA selects came from military service.

7. Which of the following is more important to NASA?

Thomson Reuters

A. US citizenship.

B. Piloting license.

Answer: A. US citizenship.

REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn

To qualify, applicants must be citizens of the US or have a valid US dual-citizenship.

When NASA was selecting candidates for its Mercury program in the late ’50s, it required piloting experience; but today that requirement is no longer in place. If you don’t have military experience and want to be a NASA astronaut, you might want to consider getting your pilot’s license. Many astronauts without a military background have one, according to USA Today.

8. When will NASA begin accepting its next round of astronaut applications?

A. Right now.

B. May 4, 2016.

C. July 4, 2016.

D. They’re always accepting applications.

Answer: A. Right now

NASA is accepting applications for consideration from December 14, 2015, through February 18, 2016. Civilians and military personnel can apply through the Office of Personnel Management’s USA Jobs site at usajobs.gov.

NASA expects to announce its selections by mid-2017.

Source….

Jessica Orwig in

http://www.businessinsider.com

Natarajan

Moon expense claims, MacGyver moments and other interesting Buzz Aldrin facts…

November 30, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Former NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin is pretty clear with about his thoughts on travel to Mars.

AMERICAN astronaut Buzz Aldrin is best remembered for being the second man to set foot onto the surface of the moon during NASA’s Apollo 11 mission.

However, there is much more to the famed astronaut than meets the eye.

Here are 10 facts about 85-year-old that might surprise you.

1. BORN TO WALK ON THE MOON

Buzz’s parents were Edwin Eugene Aldrin Sr and Marion Aldrin.

Nothing seems out of the ordinary here until you discover the mother of the man selected for the Apollo 11 mission was actually born Marion Moon.

So that means Buzz’s career choice was either destiny or a very big coincidence.

2. HIS OWN FIRST ON THE MOON

He may not have been the first man to set foot on the moon, but Buzz Aldrin does hold the dubious honour of being the first man to urinate there.

While making his way down the lander’s ladder, nature came calling and Buzz was forced to perform a lunar leak into a special bag in his space suit.

3. EXPENSE CLAIM

For many, being able to set foot on the moon would be a prestigious honour, but for Buzz it wasn’t enough.

Once returning to Earth, he submitted an expense claim for the Apollo 11 mission, which asked to be reimbursed $AU46.33.

The claim was very accurate in its depiction of “points of travel” with Buzz detailing his travels from Houston to Cape Kennedy to the moon to the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii and then back to Houston.

As the documents show “government meals and quarters” were provided throughout the July 1969 mission, Buzz did not place a claim for those.

However, he did claim for the use of a car for travel between airports on his way to the launch at Cape Kennedy.

The claim was paid by NASA.

4. COOL AS A CUCUMBER

After exploring the surface of the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their way back into the lander so they could start their return journey to Earth.

However, once inside, Buzz discovered a broken circuit breaker lying on the floor of the module.

Following a brief search, it was discovered the circuit breaker was from the ascent engine — a vital component required to lift the lander off the moon.

After phoning mission control for advice, the astronauts were to told they would have to wait overnight for a solution.

So with the possibility of an indefinite stay on the moon surface looming, Buzz did something strange.

He spread out on the floor of the landing module and went to sleep, obviously completely unfazed by the hiccup.

5. MOVE OVER MACGYVER

The following morning, Buzz was told getting the breaker pushed back in was the only solution to getting the lander back into space.

With the component being electrical and his fingers being too large to do the job, Buzz began searching for a tool to use.

The solution came in the form a felt-tipped pen he had in the shoulder pocket of his space suit.

After successfully pushing the circuit breaker in with his pen, the lander was ready for takeoff.

Even more impressive was the fact Buzz still has the very same pen sitting in his home.

6. CUSTOMS DECLARATION

If you think being on the first mission to the moon excludes you from filing those pesky customs declarations, you are sadly mistaken.

Upon returning to Earth, all of the astronauts on board Apollo completed and signed customs forms declaring they were brining “Moon rock and Moon Dust” back.

7. BECOMING BUZZ

Buzz Aldrin was born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr on January 20, 1930 in Montclair, New Jersey.

However, his family wasn’t all that keen on the name and ended up nicknaming him Buzz.

The nickname evolved from his younger sister who struggle to pronounce “brother” and would often say “buzzer”.

He legally changed his name in 1988.

8. FLYING HIGH

Long before he was an intergalactic traveller, Buzz had an interest in flying.

This saw him being a test pilot for US Navy and also serving a stint as a fighter pilot.

While on combat missions in Korea, Buzz earned the Distinguished Flying Cross medal for destroying two MIG’s and damaging another.

9. THOSE BLACK MARKS

There is iconic picture of Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon, but closer inspection shows there are two mysterious black marks on the front of his spacesuit.

These are the result of Buzz’s failed attempt to reboard the lander on the surface of the moon.

When trying to jump up to the lander, Buzz didn’t provide enough force and collected his shins on the button rung of a ladder.

Buzz Aldrin has a completely white suit, except for the marks on his shins.Source:News Corp Australia

10. ALL YOU NEED IS A PUNCH IN THE FACE

There are many conspiracy theories floating around questioning the legitimacy of the moon landing.

It is fine to speculate, just don’t approach Buzz Aldrin with your suspicions because if you call him a fraud, he might just punch you in the face.

Matthew Dunn news.com.au

Source….www.news.com.au

Natarajan

Image of the Day….A Brighter Moon…

November 18, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Although Dione (near) and Enceladus (far) are composed of nearly the same materials, Enceladus has a considerably higher reflectivity than Dione. As a result, it appears brighter against the dark night sky.

The surface of Enceladus (313 miles or 504 kilometers across) endures a constant rain of ice grains from its south polar jets. As a result, its surface is more like fresh, bright, snow than Dione’s (698 miles or 1123 kilometers across) older, weathered surface. As clean, fresh surfaces are left exposed in space, they slowly gather dust and radiation damage and darken in a process known as “space weathering.”

This view looks toward the leading hemisphere of Enceladus. North on Enceladus is up and rotated 1 degree to the right. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 8, 2015.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 52,000 miles (83,000 kilometers) from Dione. Image scale is 1,600 feet (500 meters) per pixel. The distance from Enceladus was 228,000 miles (364,000 kilometers) for an image scale of 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers) per pixel.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov or http://www.nasa.gov/cassini . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Source…….www.nasa.gov

Natarajan

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station took this image of Adele Island, off Australia’s north coast, on June 11, 2015. The tiny island is only 2.9 kilometres (2 miles) long.

This image shows landscapes of the arid Sahara and the dark green marshes of Lake Chad, which stand out in the foreground.

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is seen on the left in a photo taken in February.

The peaks of Colombia’s Santa Marta are so high that trees cannot grow. The highest peak has a permanent snow cap and is the only place where snow can be seen from the tropical beaches of the Caribbean coast.

Southern Scandinavia is illuminated under a full moon in this image, which also features a green aurora to the north and the Baltic Sea, seen as a black patch in the lower right of the photo.

The Paraná River, South America’s second-largest, pours brown muddy water into a wide estuary known as the River Plate.

The snow-covered Himalaya range is seen near the China–India border.

Laguna Colorada, a lake in the Bolivian Andes Mountains, lies at 4,300 metres (14,100 feet) above sea level. Algae in the water is responsible for the lake’s deep red-brown color.

Fish farms are seen on the coast of China’s northeast province of Liaoning.

This September image shows the winding border between Pakistan and India, one of the few places on Earth where an international boundary can be seen at night.

Brightly-coloured salt ponds are seen on the coast of Tunisia’s port city, Sfax.

Red-brown coastal lagoons are seen on this stretch of Western Australia’s coastline, in a photo taken on June 11.

This photo, taken on June 15, shows the northern tip of Massachusetts’ Cape Cod.

The Mekong River, Southeast Asia’s largest river, flows on the border between Thailand and Laos. Heavy monsoon rainfall at the end of July created a red-brown channel of floodwater.

A red sprite — a major electrical discharge thought to occur during large thunderstorms — is captured above the white light of an active thunderstorm high over Missouri or Illinois.

1. Gisborne Airport, New Zealand

This North Island airport is one of the few in the World that has a railway line running through its runway. Both the railway And the airport are active, so let’s hope they are precise about their Scheduling.

The satellites will be put into orbit by India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its thirty-second flight (PSLV-C29).

TeLEOS-1:

VELOX-CI:

VELOX-II:

Athenoxat-1:

Kent Ridge-1:

Galassia:

1. How many NASA astronauts have there been throughout history?

Answer: C. 339

2. True or false: All applicants must have a bachelor’s degree to qualify.

Answer: A. True

3. Besides a bachelor’s, what else do candidates need?

Answer: D. One of the above.

4. Which of the following must candidates have in order to pass NASA’s astronaut physical exam?

Answer: D. Astronauts must all be between 62 and 75 inches tall.

5. Say you’re one of the few candidates to be selected. Where do you go next for your NASA astronaut training?

Answer: B. Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

6. True or False: All astronauts must have military experience.

Answer: B. False

7. Which of the following is more important to NASA?

Answer: A. US citizenship.

8. When will NASA begin accepting its next round of astronaut applications?

Answer: A. Right now

1. Gisborne
Airport, New Zealand

This North Island airport is one of the few in the
World that has a railway line running through its runway. Both the railway
And the airport are active, so let’s hope they are precise about their
Scheduling.