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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">F\u003c/span>or astronomers, collectors and lunar enthusiasts in general, moon rocks, it seems, still rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fifty years ago this month, Apollo 11 astronauts bagged and brought home the first specimens from the lunar surface: rocks, soil, and even dust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' citation='Kimberly Ennico Smith, NASA']‘Lunar samples are more valuable than the crown jewels.’[/pullquote]This week at Christie’s auction house in New York, buyers are \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/-n_nCVON1KCxE7PGtGL3i5?domain=onlineonly.christies.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bidding on lunar meteorites\u003c/a> — small chunks of the moon that landed on Earth without the aid of NASA. Some are likely to sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In a related auction of moon memorabilia, a Christie’s auctioneer was apparently so impressed that a strap had picked up some lunar dust on an Apollo mission, that she declined to sell it, passing on the top bid of $38,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists’ fascination is undiminished as well. Over the years, curators at the Johnson Space Center in Houston have provided more than 50,000 samples (many of them tiny, fragmentary bits) to scientists for study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Locked Up for Posterity\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>he six Apollo missions that made it to the moon brought back about \u003ca href=\"https://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/index.cfm#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">845 pounds\u003c/a> of rocks, soil, and core samples, but much of it has been locked up in a NASA vault ever since their return, waiting for better analysis techniques to evolve. This fall, NASA will open some of those up for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945269\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1950px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1945269\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: moon rock from Apollo 17\" width=\"1950\" height=\"1560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg.jpg 1950w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg-768x614.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg-1200x960.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg-1920x1536.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1950px) 100vw, 1950px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A lunar rock sample from Apollo 17, one of six manned NASA missions that brought back lunar specimens. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m definitely very excited about it,” says Richard Walroth, a scientist on one of nine teams that will get first crack at the newly unveiled moon matter. “It’s just almost surreal in a way, the thought that I get to work on samples that were brought back from the moon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’ll be looking at the samples’ chemical properties, as part of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/untouched-apollo-moon-rocks-to-be-studied-at-nasa-ames\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">team\u003c/a> at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View. His work could shed more light on the origins of the moon and Earth, since both bodies likely share a common geologic history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From a scientific perspective,” he explains, “we want to know how old the Earth is, we want to know how long ago did life arise on the Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, the story line that scientists have advanced is that the moon is essentially shrapnel — a clump of debris flung from when a space object the size of Mars \u003ca href=\"https://www.space.com/36661-late-heavy-bombardment.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">collided \u003c/a>with Earth in its early stages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That impact would have completely sterilized the Earth,” says Walroth. “So at a minimum, it would provide an absolute oldest age for life to have arisen on the Earth, because there’s no way that life would have survived that dramatic of an impact.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMcbgNPayY0&w=560&h=315]\u003cstrong>Orange is the New Gray\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">W\u003c/span>hen Apollo 17 left the pad in December of 1972, it had something new on board: a geologist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harrison “Jack” Schmitt would become the first (and only) astronaut-scientist to walk on the moon. And he was barely able to contain his excitement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oh my golly! Unbelievable,” he blurted out over the radio during his moonwalk.”I never thought I’d do geology this way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During his outing, he narrated various features of the topography and rocks he encountered until, there amid the grey lunar landscape: not green cheese, but one of the more startling discoveries from Apollo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hey!,” Schmitt famously shouted to his fellow moonwalker, Gene Cernan. “There is orange soil! It is all over — orange!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That “orange soil” turned out to be tiny beads of volcanic glass, from a volcanic eruption maybe 4 billion years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945350\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1945350\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215-800x637.jpeg\" alt=\"Lunar module pilot astronaut Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt, the first, and only, only astronaut-scientist to walk on the moon.\" width=\"800\" height=\"637\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215-800x637.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215-160x127.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215-768x611.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215-1020x812.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215-1200x955.jpeg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215-1920x1528.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215.jpeg 1974w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lunar module pilot astronaut Harrison ‘Jack’ Schmitt, the first, and only, only astronaut-scientist to walk on the moon. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Those samples have turned out to be some of the most important samples that we collected,” recalls Francis McCubbin, an astromaterials curator and one the keepers of NASA’s lunar sample collection. He says those glass beads helped unlock secrets into our collective past, and affirmed the foresight that someone at NASA had to wait for analytical tools to advance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Especially with more recent studies, within the last 10 years,” says McCubbin, “they’ve been one of the key samples for understanding the history of water on the moon and the fact that the moon had any water at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a fairly recent revelation…and lunar samples from Apollo helped provide some of the first clues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Crown Jewels\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">“L\u003c/span>unar samples are more valuable than the crown jewels,” declares Kimberly Ennico Smith, a NASA astrophysicist who has been studying the moon from Earth for decades. As payload scientist on a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/ames/LCROSS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">milestone lunar probe\u003c/a> in 2008, she helped explode the myth that the moon is bone-dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we look at the moon,” she says, “the moon becomes an opportunity to learn a lot more about our early Earth, because the early stages of the solar system, the early years of the solar system are recorded on the moon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Confirmation of water on the moon could also be a key to making the moon a way station for missions to more distant targets, such as Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the big challenges in launching anything into space is getting above the earth’s gravity well,” Ennico Smith explains. “If you’re able to build your infrastructure in space or from the surface of, say, the moon, which is nearby, a few days journey, and which has less gravity than the earth, and you’re able to make things in space that can sustain that infrastructure, it’s all about that type of exploration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the 2200 samples in NASA’s collection will stay locked up awaiting further advances in technology. McCubbin says that 80% of the mass of the Apollo collection remains stored in a pristine condition, “so the collection will be able to sustain intense scientific study for generations to come.” Still, the prospect of gathering fresh samples, either robotically or by hand, has scientists salivating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jack Schmitt threw down the gauntlet to keep collecting lunar samples back in 1972.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the next generation ought to accept this as a challenge,” he told Cernan while Mission Control listened in. “Let’s see ‘em leave footsteps like these some day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The science is not over,” says Ennico Smith. “It’s far from over. There’s this exciting opportunity today looking at samples that were taken 45, 50 years ago, and then the future samples that will help us answer open questions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those fresh footprints that Schmitt envisioned might appear sooner rather than later. NASA’s under heavy pressure to get boots back on the moon by 2024. And Ennico Smith isn’t content with more analysis of the lunar samples we already have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This new resurgence in actually getting more samples from the moon is going to once again change the way we think about the moon,” she says, “and how we use the moon, and also understand our place in the solar system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This week at Christie’s auction house in New York, buyers are \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/-n_nCVON1KCxE7PGtGL3i5?domain=onlineonly.christies.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bidding on lunar meteorites\u003c/a> — small chunks of the moon that landed on Earth without the aid of NASA. Some are likely to sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In a related auction of moon memorabilia, a Christie’s auctioneer was apparently so impressed that a strap had picked up some lunar dust on an Apollo mission, that she declined to sell it, passing on the top bid of $38,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists’ fascination is undiminished as well. Over the years, curators at the Johnson Space Center in Houston have provided more than 50,000 samples (many of them tiny, fragmentary bits) to scientists for study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Locked Up for Posterity\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>he six Apollo missions that made it to the moon brought back about \u003ca href=\"https://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/index.cfm#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">845 pounds\u003c/a> of rocks, soil, and core samples, but much of it has been locked up in a NASA vault ever since their return, waiting for better analysis techniques to evolve. This fall, NASA will open some of those up for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945269\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1950px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1945269\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: moon rock from Apollo 17\" width=\"1950\" height=\"1560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg.jpg 1950w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg-768x614.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg-1200x960.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S75-34419-lg-1920x1536.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1950px) 100vw, 1950px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A lunar rock sample from Apollo 17, one of six manned NASA missions that brought back lunar specimens. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m definitely very excited about it,” says Richard Walroth, a scientist on one of nine teams that will get first crack at the newly unveiled moon matter. “It’s just almost surreal in a way, the thought that I get to work on samples that were brought back from the moon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’ll be looking at the samples’ chemical properties, as part of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/untouched-apollo-moon-rocks-to-be-studied-at-nasa-ames\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">team\u003c/a> at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View. His work could shed more light on the origins of the moon and Earth, since both bodies likely share a common geologic history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From a scientific perspective,” he explains, “we want to know how old the Earth is, we want to know how long ago did life arise on the Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, the story line that scientists have advanced is that the moon is essentially shrapnel — a clump of debris flung from when a space object the size of Mars \u003ca href=\"https://www.space.com/36661-late-heavy-bombardment.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">collided \u003c/a>with Earth in its early stages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That impact would have completely sterilized the Earth,” says Walroth. “So at a minimum, it would provide an absolute oldest age for life to have arisen on the Earth, because there’s no way that life would have survived that dramatic of an impact.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/eMcbgNPayY0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/eMcbgNPayY0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Orange is the New Gray\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">W\u003c/span>hen Apollo 17 left the pad in December of 1972, it had something new on board: a geologist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harrison “Jack” Schmitt would become the first (and only) astronaut-scientist to walk on the moon. And he was barely able to contain his excitement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oh my golly! Unbelievable,” he blurted out over the radio during his moonwalk.”I never thought I’d do geology this way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During his outing, he narrated various features of the topography and rocks he encountered until, there amid the grey lunar landscape: not green cheese, but one of the more startling discoveries from Apollo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hey!,” Schmitt famously shouted to his fellow moonwalker, Gene Cernan. “There is orange soil! It is all over — orange!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That “orange soil” turned out to be tiny beads of volcanic glass, from a volcanic eruption maybe 4 billion years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945350\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1945350\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215-800x637.jpeg\" alt=\"Lunar module pilot astronaut Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt, the first, and only, only astronaut-scientist to walk on the moon.\" width=\"800\" height=\"637\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215-800x637.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215-160x127.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215-768x611.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215-1020x812.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215-1200x955.jpeg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215-1920x1528.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as17-143-21941-e1563583509215.jpeg 1974w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lunar module pilot astronaut Harrison ‘Jack’ Schmitt, the first, and only, only astronaut-scientist to walk on the moon. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Those samples have turned out to be some of the most important samples that we collected,” recalls Francis McCubbin, an astromaterials curator and one the keepers of NASA’s lunar sample collection. He says those glass beads helped unlock secrets into our collective past, and affirmed the foresight that someone at NASA had to wait for analytical tools to advance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Especially with more recent studies, within the last 10 years,” says McCubbin, “they’ve been one of the key samples for understanding the history of water on the moon and the fact that the moon had any water at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a fairly recent revelation…and lunar samples from Apollo helped provide some of the first clues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Crown Jewels\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">“L\u003c/span>unar samples are more valuable than the crown jewels,” declares Kimberly Ennico Smith, a NASA astrophysicist who has been studying the moon from Earth for decades. As payload scientist on a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/ames/LCROSS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">milestone lunar probe\u003c/a> in 2008, she helped explode the myth that the moon is bone-dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we look at the moon,” she says, “the moon becomes an opportunity to learn a lot more about our early Earth, because the early stages of the solar system, the early years of the solar system are recorded on the moon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Confirmation of water on the moon could also be a key to making the moon a way station for missions to more distant targets, such as Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the big challenges in launching anything into space is getting above the earth’s gravity well,” Ennico Smith explains. “If you’re able to build your infrastructure in space or from the surface of, say, the moon, which is nearby, a few days journey, and which has less gravity than the earth, and you’re able to make things in space that can sustain that infrastructure, it’s all about that type of exploration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the 2200 samples in NASA’s collection will stay locked up awaiting further advances in technology. McCubbin says that 80% of the mass of the Apollo collection remains stored in a pristine condition, “so the collection will be able to sustain intense scientific study for generations to come.” Still, the prospect of gathering fresh samples, either robotically or by hand, has scientists salivating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jack Schmitt threw down the gauntlet to keep collecting lunar samples back in 1972.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the next generation ought to accept this as a challenge,” he told Cernan while Mission Control listened in. “Let’s see ‘em leave footsteps like these some day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The science is not over,” says Ennico Smith. “It’s far from over. There’s this exciting opportunity today looking at samples that were taken 45, 50 years ago, and then the future samples that will help us answer open questions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those fresh footprints that Schmitt envisioned might appear sooner rather than later. NASA’s under heavy pressure to get boots back on the moon by 2024. And Ennico Smith isn’t content with more analysis of the lunar samples we already have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This new resurgence in actually getting more samples from the moon is going to once again change the way we think about the moon,” she says, “and how we use the moon, and also understand our place in the solar system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Are you growing weary of Apollo 11 anniversary posts yet? Wait! Here are nine websites you really want to check out because they’re — we mean it — astronomically good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=127:56:00\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apollo 11 in Realtime\u003c/a> – Using entirely historical footage timed to the Ground Elapsed Time (clock begins one second before liftoff), this site plays the moon landing as it happened 50 years ago.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.apollopresskits.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apollo 11 Press Kits\u003c/a> – Downloadable and full of beautiful photographs and information that wasn’t in NASA news releases.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a11/a11trans.html\">Apollo Transcripts\u003c/a> – Detailed transcripts of recorded conversations aboard Apollo 11 and between the Apollo 11 crew and Houston Mission Control. For the true space nerd.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:_Apollo_11\">Kerbal Space Program How-To\u003c/a> – A detailed tutorial on how to recreate Apollo 11 in the popular flight simulation game, Kerbal Space Program. Instructions include notes on how to build the ship, get into orbit, and nail the landing.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0ADCA6F9DFADA36D\">Apollo Reporting Montage\u003c/a> – To see how the moon landing was reported on live TV, here’s a playlist of CBS’ coverage of the Apollo 11 mission from 50 years ago.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://3d.si.edu/apollo11cm_media/boxes/play-cm-2016-09-26/cm-interior.html\">VR-ish Tour of Apollo 11\u003c/a> – Discover the Smithsonian’s 3D model of the Apollo 11 Command Module.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/413105/Apollo%20Press%20Kits/Stouffer's.pdf\">Stouffer’s Astronaut Menus\u003c/a> – Short ribs, potatoes au gratin and green salads — Stouffer’s prepared the astronauts’ meals during Apollo 11, as this fascinating (and food-stained) document attests.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0015ZP2AC/ref=nosim/0sil8\">Original Astronaut Space Pen\u003c/a> – Marvel at (and purchase, if you wish) the Fisher space pen model that astronauts carried with them to the moon. Hermetically sealed! Pressurized with nitrogen gas!\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html\">Apollo 11 Revisited\u003c/a> – NASA’s official narrative of the Apollo 11 mission, including exclusive video, audio, and content for kids.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Are you growing weary of Apollo 11 anniversary posts yet? Wait! Here are nine websites you really want to check out because they’re — we mean it — astronomically good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=127:56:00\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apollo 11 in Realtime\u003c/a> – Using entirely historical footage timed to the Ground Elapsed Time (clock begins one second before liftoff), this site plays the moon landing as it happened 50 years ago.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.apollopresskits.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apollo 11 Press Kits\u003c/a> – Downloadable and full of beautiful photographs and information that wasn’t in NASA news releases.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a11/a11trans.html\">Apollo Transcripts\u003c/a> – Detailed transcripts of recorded conversations aboard Apollo 11 and between the Apollo 11 crew and Houston Mission Control. For the true space nerd.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:_Apollo_11\">Kerbal Space Program How-To\u003c/a> – A detailed tutorial on how to recreate Apollo 11 in the popular flight simulation game, Kerbal Space Program. Instructions include notes on how to build the ship, get into orbit, and nail the landing.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0ADCA6F9DFADA36D\">Apollo Reporting Montage\u003c/a> – To see how the moon landing was reported on live TV, here’s a playlist of CBS’ coverage of the Apollo 11 mission from 50 years ago.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://3d.si.edu/apollo11cm_media/boxes/play-cm-2016-09-26/cm-interior.html\">VR-ish Tour of Apollo 11\u003c/a> – Discover the Smithsonian’s 3D model of the Apollo 11 Command Module.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/413105/Apollo%20Press%20Kits/Stouffer's.pdf\">Stouffer’s Astronaut Menus\u003c/a> – Short ribs, potatoes au gratin and green salads — Stouffer’s prepared the astronauts’ meals during Apollo 11, as this fascinating (and food-stained) document attests.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0015ZP2AC/ref=nosim/0sil8\">Original Astronaut Space Pen\u003c/a> – Marvel at (and purchase, if you wish) the Fisher space pen model that astronauts carried with them to the moon. Hermetically sealed! Pressurized with nitrogen gas!\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html\">Apollo 11 Revisited\u003c/a> – NASA’s official narrative of the Apollo 11 mission, including exclusive video, audio, and content for kids.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "How the Bay Area Helped Apollo 11 Get Home Safely",
"headTitle": "How the Bay Area Helped Apollo 11 Get Home Safely | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>In the hit parade of NASA locations on Earth, there’s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Mission Control in Houston, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, nestled right in the Bay Area’s backyard is an innovation powerhouse: NASA Ames Research Center, without which space exploration as it looks today would not exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote citation='Mike Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut']‘This trip of ours to the moon may have looked, to you, simple or easy. I’d like to assure you that has not been the case.’[/pullquote]Ames researchers brought the world near-magical coatings and shields to protect humans and machines from the fiery inferno of re-entry. And its researchers had the insight that the best spacecraft wasn’t a pointy, sleek vehicle with wide wings cutting through the air. It was an almost humorously dumpy, vaguely pear-shaped vehicle. But this pear keeps people alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA Ames scientists and the equipment they invented out of imagination, engineering, and research helped get astronauts to and from the moon 50 years ago, and today they’re doing it again, as NASA sets its sights on our lunar neighbor once again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Returning Home\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Apollo 11 fell toward Earth, cruising at more than 5,000 feet per second, astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins received news updates via Mission Control in Houston: The first super highway in South Korea would be named ‘Apollo Highway’ to commemorate their trip. And a newborn baby girl in Tennessee had been named ‘Module’ (as in ‘Lunar Module’).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Nixon was on his way to meet them and cities along the West Coast – from Vancouver to San Francisco – would be turning on their porch lights at night to create a luminous welcome mat under their flight path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most dangerous phases of their journey lay ahead of them: re-entering the atmosphere. If the angle of entry was too shallow, they would bounce off the atmosphere like a rock skipping on a lake. If the angle was too steep, the force of impact could injure or kill them. As the Command Module screamed through the atmosphere, the temperature on the outside surface would climb to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945232\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1945232 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/ARC-1957-A-23438_medium-800x1020.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1020\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/ARC-1957-A-23438_medium-800x1020.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/ARC-1957-A-23438_medium-160x204.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/ARC-1957-A-23438_medium-768x979.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/ARC-1957-A-23438_medium-941x1200.jpg 941w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/ARC-1957-A-23438_medium.jpg 1004w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">H. Julian ‘Harvey’ Allen in front of a blunt body model mounted in a wind tunnel at Ames for testing. The ‘blunt body’ concept is one of the clearest contributions scientists at NASA Ames Research Center made to the Apollo program. \u003ccite>(NASA Ames)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The ‘Blunt Body Concept’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That pear-shaped blunt body was the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/there-and-back-again\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">brainchild of “Harvey” Julian Allen\u003c/a>, who joined Ames in 1940 when it was known as Ames Aeronautical Laboratory. (NASA was founded in 1958.) He developed it while working on the re-entry problem for long-range ballistic missiles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allen had the insight that a craft entering the atmosphere at very high speeds, needed to be blunt, rather than sharp or complex. This is so that a shock layer, a section of compressed air that travels in front of the craft, is thick. The thick layer minimizes the heating on the craft, encouraging heat to flow around, and helps the craft slow down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was at Ames in the 1960s that Allen and his colleague Dean Chapman were able “to really prove that the blunt body concept would be the best way to build a re-entry body like Apollo,” says longtime Ames employee and Apollo-era veteran Howard Goldstein. “It was adopted all over the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This shape is now a staple of spaceflight, and one of Ames’ crowning innovations. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Orion spacecraft\u003c/a>, designed to send humans deep into space to an asteroid or even to Mars, will fly with this shape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Protective Cloak \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/ames/faces-of-apollo/howard-goldstein/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Howard Goldstein\u003c/a>’s specialty is heat shields – cloaks built to protect the soft bodies of astronauts from the terrors of re-entry\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> Goldstein started at Ames in 1967, and officially retired in 2000, but stuck around consulting and still has an office there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I came into the space industry just having a degree in chemical engineering,” said Goldstein, “and never expected that I would end up helping to design spacecraft and come up with heat shield materials that would be used on spacecraft that the whole world would watch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945237\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1945237\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S69-41985_medium-800x526.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"526\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S69-41985_medium-800x526.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S69-41985_medium-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S69-41985_medium-768x505.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S69-41985_medium-1020x671.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S69-41985_medium-1200x789.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S69-41985_medium.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Apollo 11 spacecraft Command Module is loaded for shipment to the North American Rockwell Corporation at Downey, California, after its release from post-flight quarantine in August 1969. Note the darkened coloring on the bottom of the module caused by extreme heat of Earth reentry. \u003ccite>(Johnson Space Center/NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the early days of the space missions, NASA relied on commercially built materials for heat shields. Generally, the companies manufacturing the materials were cagey about what the materials were made of and how they were manufactured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They gave us materials to test, but they did not tell us exactly what these materials were,” says Goldstein, adding that this made it hard to interpret the results of tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So we decided to make some of our own materials, and then we could understand better why they performed the way they did. And pretty soon, we were making materials that were comparable or better than what the contractors were providing to us. And that’s really how we got into the heat shield material business.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, heat shield technologies developed at Ames are used all over the world, including by commercial companies like SpaceX.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>To the Moon and On to Mars\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, the Trump administration announced \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/07/15/741281881/50-years-after-apollo-11-moon-landing-nasa-sets-its-sights-on-mars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">plans \u003c/a>to return people to the moon by 2024 – four years earlier than the previous plan. To meet that timeline NASA will need extra funding, something Congress has not yet approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945240\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 509px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1945240\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/RS35927_NASA_008-sfi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"509\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/RS35927_NASA_008-sfi.jpg 509w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/RS35927_NASA_008-sfi-160x113.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Engineer Robin Beck holds a sample material designed at NASA Ames for heat shields. Beck is responsible for thermal protection for the Mars 2020 mission. \u003ccite>(Lindsey Moore/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>NASA also has ambitions to send astronauts to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-orion-flight-test-and-the-journey-to-mars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mars in the 2030s. \u003c/a>Robin Beck is an aerospace engineer who’s working on how to get missions to Mars and back. When bring astronauts back from a Mars mission they’ll travel a lot faster than the Apollo crews, which means they need more help in slowing down. And the spacecraft will get hotter on re-entry so they need more advanced heat shields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And we have new ideas that are amazing for ways to fly bigger heat shields,” says Beck. “How do we get more drag?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One design they’re working on looks like a sort of expandable umbrella, made of flexible woven carbon. This design, known as \u003ca href=\"https://gameon.nasa.gov/projects-2/archived-projects-2/adaptable-deployable-entry-and-placement-technology-adept-edl/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ADEPT\u003c/a> could make it possible to land heavier loads. The shield flew on its first\u003ca href=\"https://gameon.nasa.gov/2018/09/19/nasa-tests-space-tech-on-up-aerospace-rocket/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> test flight\u003c/a> last September and will fly on future test flights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Changing the World\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Astronauts get all the glory. Escape Earth’s gravity and instantly you receive hero status. To be sure, the men and women who go through astronaut training are extraordinarily dedicated and brave. But theirs is not the whole story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In their final\u003ca href=\"https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap11fj/25day8-reentry-stowage.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> televised address\u003c/a> from Apollo 11, delivered as they were returning to Earth, the astronauts took the time to thank everyone who had got them there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmH8p0f8tBM\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This trip of ours to the Moon may have looked, to you, simple or easy. I’d like to assure you that has not been the case,” said Mike Collins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He praised the Saturn V rocket that had put them into space, the Command Module and its computer with its 38,000-word vocabulary, the Service Module, and the parachutes which would be deployed during their descent to Earth to slow them down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have always had confidence that all this equipment will work, and work properly, and we continue to have confidence that it will do so for the remainder of the flight. All this is possible only through the blood, sweat and tears of a number of people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA estimates it took more than 400,000 engineers, scientists and technicians to accomplish the moon landings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Howard Goldstein says during his long career, one of the things that made Ames special was the freedom and innovation it fostered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I came into the space industry just having a degree in chemical engineering,” says Goldstein, “and never expected that I would end up helping to design spacecraft, and come up with heat shield materials that would be used on spacecraft that the whole world would watch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you are involved in the space program, he says, “you are involved with things that change the world. It’s really been an extraordinary life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The moonwalk 50 years ago made two men, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, very famous. But it took hundreds of thousands of engineers, scientists and technicians to get them there. We take a look at how the Bay Area's NASA research center helped drive the moonshot.",
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"description": "The moonwalk 50 years ago made two men, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, very famous. But it took hundreds of thousands of engineers, scientists and technicians to get them there. We take a look at how the Bay Area's NASA research center helped drive the moonshot.",
"title": "How the Bay Area Helped Apollo 11 Get Home Safely | KQED",
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"headline": "How the Bay Area Helped Apollo 11 Get Home Safely",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In the hit parade of NASA locations on Earth, there’s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Mission Control in Houston, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, nestled right in the Bay Area’s backyard is an innovation powerhouse: NASA Ames Research Center, without which space exploration as it looks today would not exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘This trip of ours to the moon may have looked, to you, simple or easy. I’d like to assure you that has not been the case.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Ames researchers brought the world near-magical coatings and shields to protect humans and machines from the fiery inferno of re-entry. And its researchers had the insight that the best spacecraft wasn’t a pointy, sleek vehicle with wide wings cutting through the air. It was an almost humorously dumpy, vaguely pear-shaped vehicle. But this pear keeps people alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA Ames scientists and the equipment they invented out of imagination, engineering, and research helped get astronauts to and from the moon 50 years ago, and today they’re doing it again, as NASA sets its sights on our lunar neighbor once again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Returning Home\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Apollo 11 fell toward Earth, cruising at more than 5,000 feet per second, astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins received news updates via Mission Control in Houston: The first super highway in South Korea would be named ‘Apollo Highway’ to commemorate their trip. And a newborn baby girl in Tennessee had been named ‘Module’ (as in ‘Lunar Module’).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Nixon was on his way to meet them and cities along the West Coast – from Vancouver to San Francisco – would be turning on their porch lights at night to create a luminous welcome mat under their flight path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most dangerous phases of their journey lay ahead of them: re-entering the atmosphere. If the angle of entry was too shallow, they would bounce off the atmosphere like a rock skipping on a lake. If the angle was too steep, the force of impact could injure or kill them. As the Command Module screamed through the atmosphere, the temperature on the outside surface would climb to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945232\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1945232 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/ARC-1957-A-23438_medium-800x1020.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1020\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/ARC-1957-A-23438_medium-800x1020.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/ARC-1957-A-23438_medium-160x204.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/ARC-1957-A-23438_medium-768x979.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/ARC-1957-A-23438_medium-941x1200.jpg 941w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/ARC-1957-A-23438_medium.jpg 1004w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">H. Julian ‘Harvey’ Allen in front of a blunt body model mounted in a wind tunnel at Ames for testing. The ‘blunt body’ concept is one of the clearest contributions scientists at NASA Ames Research Center made to the Apollo program. \u003ccite>(NASA Ames)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The ‘Blunt Body Concept’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That pear-shaped blunt body was the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/there-and-back-again\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">brainchild of “Harvey” Julian Allen\u003c/a>, who joined Ames in 1940 when it was known as Ames Aeronautical Laboratory. (NASA was founded in 1958.) He developed it while working on the re-entry problem for long-range ballistic missiles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allen had the insight that a craft entering the atmosphere at very high speeds, needed to be blunt, rather than sharp or complex. This is so that a shock layer, a section of compressed air that travels in front of the craft, is thick. The thick layer minimizes the heating on the craft, encouraging heat to flow around, and helps the craft slow down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was at Ames in the 1960s that Allen and his colleague Dean Chapman were able “to really prove that the blunt body concept would be the best way to build a re-entry body like Apollo,” says longtime Ames employee and Apollo-era veteran Howard Goldstein. “It was adopted all over the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This shape is now a staple of spaceflight, and one of Ames’ crowning innovations. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Orion spacecraft\u003c/a>, designed to send humans deep into space to an asteroid or even to Mars, will fly with this shape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Protective Cloak \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/ames/faces-of-apollo/howard-goldstein/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Howard Goldstein\u003c/a>’s specialty is heat shields – cloaks built to protect the soft bodies of astronauts from the terrors of re-entry\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> Goldstein started at Ames in 1967, and officially retired in 2000, but stuck around consulting and still has an office there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I came into the space industry just having a degree in chemical engineering,” said Goldstein, “and never expected that I would end up helping to design spacecraft and come up with heat shield materials that would be used on spacecraft that the whole world would watch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945237\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1945237\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S69-41985_medium-800x526.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"526\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S69-41985_medium-800x526.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S69-41985_medium-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S69-41985_medium-768x505.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S69-41985_medium-1020x671.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S69-41985_medium-1200x789.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/S69-41985_medium.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Apollo 11 spacecraft Command Module is loaded for shipment to the North American Rockwell Corporation at Downey, California, after its release from post-flight quarantine in August 1969. Note the darkened coloring on the bottom of the module caused by extreme heat of Earth reentry. \u003ccite>(Johnson Space Center/NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the early days of the space missions, NASA relied on commercially built materials for heat shields. Generally, the companies manufacturing the materials were cagey about what the materials were made of and how they were manufactured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They gave us materials to test, but they did not tell us exactly what these materials were,” says Goldstein, adding that this made it hard to interpret the results of tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So we decided to make some of our own materials, and then we could understand better why they performed the way they did. And pretty soon, we were making materials that were comparable or better than what the contractors were providing to us. And that’s really how we got into the heat shield material business.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, heat shield technologies developed at Ames are used all over the world, including by commercial companies like SpaceX.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>To the Moon and On to Mars\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, the Trump administration announced \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/07/15/741281881/50-years-after-apollo-11-moon-landing-nasa-sets-its-sights-on-mars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">plans \u003c/a>to return people to the moon by 2024 – four years earlier than the previous plan. To meet that timeline NASA will need extra funding, something Congress has not yet approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1945240\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 509px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1945240\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/RS35927_NASA_008-sfi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"509\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/RS35927_NASA_008-sfi.jpg 509w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/RS35927_NASA_008-sfi-160x113.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Engineer Robin Beck holds a sample material designed at NASA Ames for heat shields. Beck is responsible for thermal protection for the Mars 2020 mission. \u003ccite>(Lindsey Moore/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>NASA also has ambitions to send astronauts to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-orion-flight-test-and-the-journey-to-mars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mars in the 2030s. \u003c/a>Robin Beck is an aerospace engineer who’s working on how to get missions to Mars and back. When bring astronauts back from a Mars mission they’ll travel a lot faster than the Apollo crews, which means they need more help in slowing down. And the spacecraft will get hotter on re-entry so they need more advanced heat shields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And we have new ideas that are amazing for ways to fly bigger heat shields,” says Beck. “How do we get more drag?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One design they’re working on looks like a sort of expandable umbrella, made of flexible woven carbon. This design, known as \u003ca href=\"https://gameon.nasa.gov/projects-2/archived-projects-2/adaptable-deployable-entry-and-placement-technology-adept-edl/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ADEPT\u003c/a> could make it possible to land heavier loads. The shield flew on its first\u003ca href=\"https://gameon.nasa.gov/2018/09/19/nasa-tests-space-tech-on-up-aerospace-rocket/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> test flight\u003c/a> last September and will fly on future test flights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Changing the World\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Astronauts get all the glory. Escape Earth’s gravity and instantly you receive hero status. To be sure, the men and women who go through astronaut training are extraordinarily dedicated and brave. But theirs is not the whole story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In their final\u003ca href=\"https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap11fj/25day8-reentry-stowage.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> televised address\u003c/a> from Apollo 11, delivered as they were returning to Earth, the astronauts took the time to thank everyone who had got them there.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/qmH8p0f8tBM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/qmH8p0f8tBM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“This trip of ours to the Moon may have looked, to you, simple or easy. I’d like to assure you that has not been the case,” said Mike Collins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He praised the Saturn V rocket that had put them into space, the Command Module and its computer with its 38,000-word vocabulary, the Service Module, and the parachutes which would be deployed during their descent to Earth to slow them down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have always had confidence that all this equipment will work, and work properly, and we continue to have confidence that it will do so for the remainder of the flight. All this is possible only through the blood, sweat and tears of a number of people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA estimates it took more than 400,000 engineers, scientists and technicians to accomplish the moon landings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Howard Goldstein says during his long career, one of the things that made Ames special was the freedom and innovation it fostered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I came into the space industry just having a degree in chemical engineering,” says Goldstein, “and never expected that I would end up helping to design spacecraft, and come up with heat shield materials that would be used on spacecraft that the whole world would watch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you are involved in the space program, he says, “you are involved with things that change the world. It’s really been an extraordinary life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "How We Made It to the Moon With Less Powerful Computers Than You Carry In Your Pocket",
"headTitle": "How We Made It to the Moon With Less Powerful Computers Than You Carry In Your Pocket | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Today, the basic physics of getting to the moon and back seem disarmingly simple. Apply the force of rocket thrust to oppose the force of Earth’s gravity, using it to lift off the ground. Apply further rocket thrust to propel your spacecraft toward the moon, then coast the rest of the way. Finally, use rockets to counter the moon’s gravity to control your downward speed and make a soft landing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apollo missions\u003c/a> that made the round-trip voyage between 1969 and 1972 represented an unprecedented challenge for engineers of the day, who managed to deliver 12 astronauts to the surface of the moon and bring them back to Earth employing technology that today seems astonishingly primitive. Looking back at those events from our privileged high-tech perspective can prompt feelings of awe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944803\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944803\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/armstrong-footprint-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Neil Armstrong's footprint in the lunar soil, Apollo 11.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/armstrong-footprint.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/armstrong-footprint-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/armstrong-footprint-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neil Armstrong’s footprint in the lunar soil, Apollo 11. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Apollo Flights Were Triumphs for Their Time\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consider the details of the primitive technological tools and complicated orbital mathematics that allowed us to navigate those simple laws of nature to get there and back again. If you were alive during the Apollo missions, you remember what things were like. Black-and-white tube televisions took minutes to warm up. Households shared a landline telephone. Even simple pocket calculators were yet to be invented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Computers were more a creation of science fiction than something most regular folks had ever seen in person. They were barely beginning to evolve toward today’s miniature digital miracles — they employed transistors, electronic resistors, capacitors, and other basic components that were either wired together on circuit boards, or (at best) early versions of printed circuit technology — a far cry from the printed microchip devices we are dependent on today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In comparison, the smartphone in your pocket crunches numbers a hundred million times faster than the best computers of the Apollo age and can store billions of times more data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944978\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944978\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/P6220704_DSKY-800x835.png\" alt=\"The main display and keyboard for the Apollo 13 navigation computer.\" width=\"800\" height=\"835\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/P6220704_DSKY-800x835.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/P6220704_DSKY-160x167.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/P6220704_DSKY-768x802.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/P6220704_DSKY-1020x1065.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/P6220704_DSKY-1150x1200.png 1150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/P6220704_DSKY.png 1845w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The main display and keyboard for the Apollo 13 navigation computer. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Rocket technology grew up out of post-World War II military applications, as well as the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Rockets were simple tubes of solid fuel ignited like Roman candles, or single-use tanks of liquid fuel poured into combustion chambers and set alight. Today, the SpaceX Corporation has developed reusable rockets that return to Earth and land softly after lifting their payloads skyward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Deep Into the Unknown\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having never sent a human farther into space than low Earth orbit, the road to the moon was unpaved by human experience. NASA sent out a few preliminary robotic probes between 1962 and 1968 — the Rangers and Surveyors — to get an idea of what lay ahead for the Apollo astronauts. But many questions and \u003ca href=\"https://www.space.com/26593-apollo-11-moon-landing-scariest-moments.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">unknown dangers\u003c/a> remained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For starters, the surface of the moon was itself a largely unknown environment. Might there be a dusty lunar version of quicksand in some locations into which an Apollo lander or astronaut might sink, such as envisioned by Arthur C. Clarke in his novel “A Fall of Moondust”? Would the ground be stable and solid or collapse into hidden caverns below?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though prior robotic landers had set down safely, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nevillepublicmuseum.org/the-neville-blog/the-moon-a-dangerous-place\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">no one knew\u003c/a> how varied the lunar landscape would be at any given Apollo landing site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another real concern at the time: space viruses and bacteria. No one was sure whether microscopic lunar critters would hitch a ride on the returning astronauts. So cautious were NASA directors and scientists about potential threats from space and the moon, the crew of the first three landing missions (Apollos 11 through 14) were quarantined in isolation for three weeks after returning to Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944801\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944801\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/vanallen-radiation-belts3-800x629.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram representing the zones of electrically charged particles trapped within Earth's magnetic field, called the Van Allen Radiation Belts.\" width=\"800\" height=\"629\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/vanallen-radiation-belts3-800x629.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/vanallen-radiation-belts3-160x126.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/vanallen-radiation-belts3-768x603.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/vanallen-radiation-belts3.jpg 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram representing the zones of electrically charged particles trapped within Earth’s magnetic field, called the Van Allen Radiation Belts. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Virgin space travel gave NASA plenty of other headaches. For starters, NASA gave serious attention to the swaths of high-energy radiation that surround Earth, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.popsci.com/blog-network/vintage-space/apollo-rocketed-through-van-allen-belts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Van Allen Radiation Belts\u003c/a>. Discovered by James Van Allen in the 1950s, these zones of potentially dangerous radiation are formed by electrons and protons trapped within Earth’s magnetic field. To minimize the risk to moon-bound astronauts, NASA aimed the Apollo 11 spacecraft to pass through the danger zone as quickly as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar radiation also concerned scientists. The dangers of radiation bursts from the sun, including solar flares and coronal mass ejections, were not as well understood in the 1960s as they are today. Once bursts of X-rays and high-energy solar particles venture outside the protection of Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, they can inflict damage on astronauts and electronic equipment. Even today, crews aboard the International Space Station are sometimes instructed by Mission Control to take shelter in the portion of the ISS with the thickest radiation shields during powerful solar eruptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, all three years of the Apollo moon flights took place during a “solar minimum,” a period when the sun is relatively quiet and exhibits few dangerous eruptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944802\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944802\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/solarmax-micrometeoroidamage-5-800x614.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"614\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/solarmax-micrometeoroidamage-5-800x614.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/solarmax-micrometeoroidamage-5-160x123.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/solarmax-micrometeoroidamage-5-768x590.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/solarmax-micrometeoroidamage-5-1020x783.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/solarmax-micrometeoroidamage-5.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Electron micrograph image of a hole pictured in the surface of the Solar Max robotic satellite by a micrometeoroid. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Finally, astronauts had dangerous space rocks to contend with. Even a pebble-sized rock flying at several miles per second can punch a hole in the thin-walled hull of a spacecraft, causing equipment damage or a leak of precious cabin air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Preventing a minuscule, super-fast “micrometeoroid” from hitting a spacecraft is practically impossible since there is no way to see it coming, or to move out of its way quickly enough even if you could. So Apollo astronauts were equipped with spacesuits that could save their lives even if cabin air pressure was compromised. If depressurization was not catastrophic, they might have time to don that protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond this precaution, NASA relied heavily on the vastness of space and the sparseness of space debris to protect their missions’ intrepid crews. It still does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite enormous advancements in computer, material and propulsion technology, returning to the moon today won’t be done with a snap of the fingers. We still have to contend with the physics of gravity and rocket thrust, the radiation dangers in space, and a lethal physical environment held tenuously at bay by the thin walls of a spacecraft and a few swaddling layers of spacesuit material. But at least we know something about the challenges along the way, thanks to the early experiences of the Apollo astronauts, engineers, and scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Today, the basic physics of getting to the moon and back seem disarmingly simple. Apply the force of rocket thrust to oppose the force of Earth’s gravity, using it to lift off the ground. Apply further rocket thrust to propel your spacecraft toward the moon, then coast the rest of the way. Finally, use rockets to counter the moon’s gravity to control your downward speed and make a soft landing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apollo missions\u003c/a> that made the round-trip voyage between 1969 and 1972 represented an unprecedented challenge for engineers of the day, who managed to deliver 12 astronauts to the surface of the moon and bring them back to Earth employing technology that today seems astonishingly primitive. Looking back at those events from our privileged high-tech perspective can prompt feelings of awe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944803\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944803\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/armstrong-footprint-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Neil Armstrong's footprint in the lunar soil, Apollo 11.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/armstrong-footprint.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/armstrong-footprint-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/armstrong-footprint-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neil Armstrong’s footprint in the lunar soil, Apollo 11. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Apollo Flights Were Triumphs for Their Time\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consider the details of the primitive technological tools and complicated orbital mathematics that allowed us to navigate those simple laws of nature to get there and back again. If you were alive during the Apollo missions, you remember what things were like. Black-and-white tube televisions took minutes to warm up. Households shared a landline telephone. Even simple pocket calculators were yet to be invented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Computers were more a creation of science fiction than something most regular folks had ever seen in person. They were barely beginning to evolve toward today’s miniature digital miracles — they employed transistors, electronic resistors, capacitors, and other basic components that were either wired together on circuit boards, or (at best) early versions of printed circuit technology — a far cry from the printed microchip devices we are dependent on today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In comparison, the smartphone in your pocket crunches numbers a hundred million times faster than the best computers of the Apollo age and can store billions of times more data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944978\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944978\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/P6220704_DSKY-800x835.png\" alt=\"The main display and keyboard for the Apollo 13 navigation computer.\" width=\"800\" height=\"835\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/P6220704_DSKY-800x835.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/P6220704_DSKY-160x167.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/P6220704_DSKY-768x802.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/P6220704_DSKY-1020x1065.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/P6220704_DSKY-1150x1200.png 1150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/P6220704_DSKY.png 1845w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The main display and keyboard for the Apollo 13 navigation computer. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Rocket technology grew up out of post-World War II military applications, as well as the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Rockets were simple tubes of solid fuel ignited like Roman candles, or single-use tanks of liquid fuel poured into combustion chambers and set alight. Today, the SpaceX Corporation has developed reusable rockets that return to Earth and land softly after lifting their payloads skyward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Deep Into the Unknown\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having never sent a human farther into space than low Earth orbit, the road to the moon was unpaved by human experience. NASA sent out a few preliminary robotic probes between 1962 and 1968 — the Rangers and Surveyors — to get an idea of what lay ahead for the Apollo astronauts. But many questions and \u003ca href=\"https://www.space.com/26593-apollo-11-moon-landing-scariest-moments.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">unknown dangers\u003c/a> remained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For starters, the surface of the moon was itself a largely unknown environment. Might there be a dusty lunar version of quicksand in some locations into which an Apollo lander or astronaut might sink, such as envisioned by Arthur C. Clarke in his novel “A Fall of Moondust”? Would the ground be stable and solid or collapse into hidden caverns below?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though prior robotic landers had set down safely, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nevillepublicmuseum.org/the-neville-blog/the-moon-a-dangerous-place\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">no one knew\u003c/a> how varied the lunar landscape would be at any given Apollo landing site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another real concern at the time: space viruses and bacteria. No one was sure whether microscopic lunar critters would hitch a ride on the returning astronauts. So cautious were NASA directors and scientists about potential threats from space and the moon, the crew of the first three landing missions (Apollos 11 through 14) were quarantined in isolation for three weeks after returning to Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944801\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944801\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/vanallen-radiation-belts3-800x629.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram representing the zones of electrically charged particles trapped within Earth's magnetic field, called the Van Allen Radiation Belts.\" width=\"800\" height=\"629\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/vanallen-radiation-belts3-800x629.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/vanallen-radiation-belts3-160x126.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/vanallen-radiation-belts3-768x603.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/vanallen-radiation-belts3.jpg 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram representing the zones of electrically charged particles trapped within Earth’s magnetic field, called the Van Allen Radiation Belts. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Virgin space travel gave NASA plenty of other headaches. For starters, NASA gave serious attention to the swaths of high-energy radiation that surround Earth, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.popsci.com/blog-network/vintage-space/apollo-rocketed-through-van-allen-belts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Van Allen Radiation Belts\u003c/a>. Discovered by James Van Allen in the 1950s, these zones of potentially dangerous radiation are formed by electrons and protons trapped within Earth’s magnetic field. To minimize the risk to moon-bound astronauts, NASA aimed the Apollo 11 spacecraft to pass through the danger zone as quickly as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar radiation also concerned scientists. The dangers of radiation bursts from the sun, including solar flares and coronal mass ejections, were not as well understood in the 1960s as they are today. Once bursts of X-rays and high-energy solar particles venture outside the protection of Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, they can inflict damage on astronauts and electronic equipment. Even today, crews aboard the International Space Station are sometimes instructed by Mission Control to take shelter in the portion of the ISS with the thickest radiation shields during powerful solar eruptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, all three years of the Apollo moon flights took place during a “solar minimum,” a period when the sun is relatively quiet and exhibits few dangerous eruptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944802\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944802\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/solarmax-micrometeoroidamage-5-800x614.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"614\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/solarmax-micrometeoroidamage-5-800x614.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/solarmax-micrometeoroidamage-5-160x123.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/solarmax-micrometeoroidamage-5-768x590.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/solarmax-micrometeoroidamage-5-1020x783.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/solarmax-micrometeoroidamage-5.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Electron micrograph image of a hole pictured in the surface of the Solar Max robotic satellite by a micrometeoroid. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Finally, astronauts had dangerous space rocks to contend with. Even a pebble-sized rock flying at several miles per second can punch a hole in the thin-walled hull of a spacecraft, causing equipment damage or a leak of precious cabin air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Preventing a minuscule, super-fast “micrometeoroid” from hitting a spacecraft is practically impossible since there is no way to see it coming, or to move out of its way quickly enough even if you could. So Apollo astronauts were equipped with spacesuits that could save their lives even if cabin air pressure was compromised. If depressurization was not catastrophic, they might have time to don that protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond this precaution, NASA relied heavily on the vastness of space and the sparseness of space debris to protect their missions’ intrepid crews. It still does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite enormous advancements in computer, material and propulsion technology, returning to the moon today won’t be done with a snap of the fingers. We still have to contend with the physics of gravity and rocket thrust, the radiation dangers in space, and a lethal physical environment held tenuously at bay by the thin walls of a spacecraft and a few swaddling layers of spacesuit material. But at least we know something about the challenges along the way, thanks to the early experiences of the Apollo astronauts, engineers, and scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "What's Left for Us to Do on the Moon, Anyway? Plenty, It Turns Out",
"headTitle": "What’s Left for Us to Do on the Moon, Anyway? Plenty, It Turns Out | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The moon is a dusty, airless rock that we last set foot on in 1972. What’s left there for us?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plenty, it would seem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s been so much talk in the past decade about sending humans to Mars that one may have wondered if we would ever walk on the moon again. After all, Mars is bigger, and unlike the moon, it has an atmosphere and vast reservoirs of water ice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it turns out that we have room in our imaginations, and our pocketbooks, for more than one obsession in our solar system. Not only is NASA sending robotic spacecraft to explore the moon, the agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-12-new-lunar-science-technology-investigations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">just announced\u003c/a> 12 upcoming lunar science and technology investigations. The U.S. also plans to send astronauts back to the moon in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other countries are also extremely keen on learning about our natural satellite. In January, China deployed a rover to the far side of the moon, a first. Within the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_the_Moon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">last 15 years\u003c/a>, India, Israel and Japan have also sent landers, probes and other devices to land on, crash into, or fly by the moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All these recent missions and future plans attest to enormous continued interest in the moon, as an object of scientific curiosity we’re still trying to understand more fully. It is also, like Mars, an accessible proving ground where we can develop the knowledge and experience to send people to more distant worlds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Humans and the Moon: A Love Story\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the beginning of humanity’s romance with the cosmos, the moon has occupied a sweetheart position in our aspirations to explore. It is by far our most easily reached destination in the universe, only 240,000 miles away. It’s close enough for us to see details of its surface features with the smallest telescopes, and even with our eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944677\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944677\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of the moon's limb looking toward Copernicus crater, captured with a hand-held camera from the window of the Apollo 12 lunar landing module. \" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12-1200x1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12-1920x1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picture of the moon’s limb looking toward Copernicus crater, captured with a hand-held camera from the window of the Apollo 12 lunar landing module. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the 1600s, Galileo squinted through his small telescope at the moon and saw its craters, mountains and wide flat plains, and Shakespeare wrote about “Th’inconstant moon / That monthly changes in her circled orb.” The moon has always been a tantalizing, shadowy source of mystery, familiar yet unknown territory to be explored.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag=\"moonanniversary\"]From the very earliest era of telescopic observations, scientists studying the moon and its multitude of impact craters have used it as a window into our solar system’s past. The fact that the moon has no erosive atmosphere, and has been largely geologically inactive for almost 4 billion years, means that the scars of past events like collisions and volcanic activity are preserved on its surface. Scientists can literally read the history of the moon’s development and the conditions in our solar system from far back into its youth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, chemical analysis of rock samples brought back by the Apollo missions tells us that Earth and the moon have a common origin, as described by the \u003ca href=\"https://sservi.nasa.gov/?question=the-giant-impact-hypothesis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Giant Impact Hypothesis\u003c/a>. According to this moon-formation idea, over 4 billion years ago, Earth was struck by another planet about the size of Mars. The impact blasted a large amount of rock into space that eventually coalesced into the moon. This makes the moon even more personal to us Earth-dwellers, more like an extension of Mother Earth than an alien, extraterrestrial world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Forwarding Address: Moon City\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last crewed lunar landing was Apollo 17, in 1972. Mars missions may take up the bulk of the headlines today, but we’ve never stopped looking to the moon as a future home base on which to build a more enduring installation, or colony, or some future lunar city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the U.S., the European Space Agency, Russia and China are actively working toward establishing a permanent lunar base.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944679\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944679\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/403330main_cabeus_lg-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"View looking toward the north rim of Cabeus Crater from the southwest, near the moon's south pole. NASA's LCROSS impactor vehicle struck the moon directly below the bottom center of this picture. \" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/403330main_cabeus_lg-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/403330main_cabeus_lg-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/403330main_cabeus_lg-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/403330main_cabeus_lg-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/403330main_cabeus_lg-1200x1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/403330main_cabeus_lg.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">View looking toward the north rim of Cabeus Crater from the southwest, near the moon’s south pole. NASA’s LCROSS impactor vehicle struck the moon directly below the bottom center of this picture. \u003ccite>(NASA/Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The U.S. moon effort got a big boost when the George W. Bush administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/bush_vision.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">called for\u003c/a> the development of a new human-crewed spacecraft for traveling beyond low-Earth orbit, and a return of humans to the moon with the goal of “living and working there for increasingly extended periods of time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Obama administration committed to increase NASA’s funding to complete a heavy-lift launch vehicle that will be vital to human missions and predicted a human-crewed mission to Mars by the mid 2030s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has put the moon back on the table for human flights, and NASA has scheduled the first Orion spacecraft for a quick around-the-moon-and-back trip in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe a whole moon city is yet some time away, but setting up a base on the moon for astronauts to live and work is widely seen as an idea with some traction and practical applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone agrees with the goal of a moon-base for humanity. Buzz Aldrin, the second man ever to walk on the moon, famously believes that mankind’s future lies on Mars. In 2009, he wrote an \u003ca href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/15/AR2009071502940.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">editorial in the Washington Post\u003c/a>. “A race to the moon is a dead end. While the lunar surface can be used to develop advanced technologies, it is a poor location for homesteading,” he declared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fueling a Mission to Mars\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These initiatives for returning to and working on the moon are part of a larger plan to prepare ourselves for a much more challenging journey to Mars. Harnessing the moon’s material resources to build, fuel and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars/getting-there\">launch a Mars mission\u003c/a> would come with some major advantages. The moon’s surface gravity is one-sixth as strong as Earth’s, and there is no atmosphere to push through when launching. Both factors reduce the need for fuel, lowering the weight and cost of the spacecraft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944678\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944678\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"Artist concept of NASA's LCROSS spacecraft (foreground) preceded in its course to crash into the moon's south pole by an impactor vehicle (the Centaur rocket that propelled it to the moon). The impactor blasted up a plume of dust in which LCROSS identified water molecules, confirming the hypothesis that some shadowed polar craters harbor water ice. \" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1-1200x1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist concept of NASA’s LCROSS spacecraft (foreground) preceded in its course to crash into the moon’s south pole by an impactor vehicle (the Centaur rocket that propelled it to the moon). The impactor blasted up a plume of dust in which LCROSS identified water molecules, confirming the hypothesis that some shadowed polar craters harbor water ice. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It turns out that the moon is not a dusty, airless rock after all. Finding water on the moon in 2009 was a huge revelation, and a useful one. NASA turned up \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/prelim_water_results.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">evidence of polar water\u003c/a> when the impactor vehicle of its LCROSS mission was deliberately smashed into the moon’s south pole, blasting out a plume of soil in the process. The LCROSS spacecraft detected water in that plume, minutes before it, too, collided with the moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These ancient deposits of water ice on perma-shadowed crater floors could represent a water supply for thirsty lunar astronauts, if it can be made into drinkable form. It could also supply oxygen for breathing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the moon has some other inherent qualities that pose a challenge to potential human colonists living there for months at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944672\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944672\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/SouthPoleIllumMap_400dpi-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"An "illumination map" of the terrain immediately surrounding the moon's south pole. An illumination map is a composite of many images taken at different times, in this case two-hour intervals, over the course of a full lunar day (about a month). The brightest areas on the map receive sunlight for most if not all of the lunar day, while black reveals deep crater floors and other niches that never receive direct sunlight. It is in these wells of darkness that we can find water ice, protected from sunlight. \" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/SouthPoleIllumMap_400dpi.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/SouthPoleIllumMap_400dpi-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/SouthPoleIllumMap_400dpi-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An “illumination map” of the terrain immediately surrounding the moon’s south pole. An illumination map is a composite of many images taken at different times, in this case two-hour intervals, over the course of a full lunar day (about a month). The brightest areas on the map receive sunlight for most if not all of the lunar day, while black reveals deep crater floors and other niches that never receive direct sunlight. It is in these wells of darkness that we can find water ice, protected from sunlight. \u003ccite>(NASA/Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One is generating power to run all of a base’s systems, including life support. The easiest way to produce electricity — the way that most current space missions, human or robotic, do — is with solar panels, converting the light of the sun into useful electricity. Most places on the moon, however, experience nights that are two weeks long, a long time to be in the dark and running on stored battery power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like the water resource problem, the moon’s polar regions may offer a practical solution. The peaks of some polar mountains and crater rims enjoy practically around-the-clock sunlight. Placing solar panels at these polar heights would provide almost uninterrupted solar energy, something that is impossible even on the surface of the Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moon dust is also something that astronauts will need to manage. When the Apollo astronauts walked around on the moon, their spacesuits collected a lot of dust, which was unavoidably tracked back inside the lunar landing module. Dust on the moon is very gritty and sticks to practically everything. Unlike dust and sand on Earth, which are weathered down by wind and water into smooth, round grains, moon dust has sharp edges and points. Without the effects of erosion to smooth them out, moon dust tends to act like tiny bits of broken glass. Without strict dust management, future lunar inhabitants may suffer severe health problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we continue to scrutinize minute details on the moon’s surface through our ongoing missions, new surprises are sure to come to light. The moon has never failed us in this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>For more on the space race, watch ‘Chasing the Moon’ — a new, three-part series premiering this week on KQED 9 at 9 PM.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Apollo moon landing, the world is looking forward to a return to the moon. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The moon is a dusty, airless rock that we last set foot on in 1972. What’s left there for us?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plenty, it would seem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s been so much talk in the past decade about sending humans to Mars that one may have wondered if we would ever walk on the moon again. After all, Mars is bigger, and unlike the moon, it has an atmosphere and vast reservoirs of water ice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it turns out that we have room in our imaginations, and our pocketbooks, for more than one obsession in our solar system. Not only is NASA sending robotic spacecraft to explore the moon, the agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-12-new-lunar-science-technology-investigations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">just announced\u003c/a> 12 upcoming lunar science and technology investigations. The U.S. also plans to send astronauts back to the moon in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other countries are also extremely keen on learning about our natural satellite. In January, China deployed a rover to the far side of the moon, a first. Within the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_the_Moon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">last 15 years\u003c/a>, India, Israel and Japan have also sent landers, probes and other devices to land on, crash into, or fly by the moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All these recent missions and future plans attest to enormous continued interest in the moon, as an object of scientific curiosity we’re still trying to understand more fully. It is also, like Mars, an accessible proving ground where we can develop the knowledge and experience to send people to more distant worlds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Humans and the Moon: A Love Story\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the beginning of humanity’s romance with the cosmos, the moon has occupied a sweetheart position in our aspirations to explore. It is by far our most easily reached destination in the universe, only 240,000 miles away. It’s close enough for us to see details of its surface features with the smallest telescopes, and even with our eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944677\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944677\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of the moon's limb looking toward Copernicus crater, captured with a hand-held camera from the window of the Apollo 12 lunar landing module. \" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12-1200x1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12-1920x1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/AS12-47-6876-apollo-12.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picture of the moon’s limb looking toward Copernicus crater, captured with a hand-held camera from the window of the Apollo 12 lunar landing module. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the 1600s, Galileo squinted through his small telescope at the moon and saw its craters, mountains and wide flat plains, and Shakespeare wrote about “Th’inconstant moon / That monthly changes in her circled orb.” The moon has always been a tantalizing, shadowy source of mystery, familiar yet unknown territory to be explored.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>From the very earliest era of telescopic observations, scientists studying the moon and its multitude of impact craters have used it as a window into our solar system’s past. The fact that the moon has no erosive atmosphere, and has been largely geologically inactive for almost 4 billion years, means that the scars of past events like collisions and volcanic activity are preserved on its surface. Scientists can literally read the history of the moon’s development and the conditions in our solar system from far back into its youth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, chemical analysis of rock samples brought back by the Apollo missions tells us that Earth and the moon have a common origin, as described by the \u003ca href=\"https://sservi.nasa.gov/?question=the-giant-impact-hypothesis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Giant Impact Hypothesis\u003c/a>. According to this moon-formation idea, over 4 billion years ago, Earth was struck by another planet about the size of Mars. The impact blasted a large amount of rock into space that eventually coalesced into the moon. This makes the moon even more personal to us Earth-dwellers, more like an extension of Mother Earth than an alien, extraterrestrial world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Forwarding Address: Moon City\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last crewed lunar landing was Apollo 17, in 1972. Mars missions may take up the bulk of the headlines today, but we’ve never stopped looking to the moon as a future home base on which to build a more enduring installation, or colony, or some future lunar city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the U.S., the European Space Agency, Russia and China are actively working toward establishing a permanent lunar base.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944679\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944679\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/403330main_cabeus_lg-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"View looking toward the north rim of Cabeus Crater from the southwest, near the moon's south pole. NASA's LCROSS impactor vehicle struck the moon directly below the bottom center of this picture. \" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/403330main_cabeus_lg-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/403330main_cabeus_lg-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/403330main_cabeus_lg-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/403330main_cabeus_lg-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/403330main_cabeus_lg-1200x1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/403330main_cabeus_lg.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">View looking toward the north rim of Cabeus Crater from the southwest, near the moon’s south pole. NASA’s LCROSS impactor vehicle struck the moon directly below the bottom center of this picture. \u003ccite>(NASA/Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The U.S. moon effort got a big boost when the George W. Bush administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/bush_vision.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">called for\u003c/a> the development of a new human-crewed spacecraft for traveling beyond low-Earth orbit, and a return of humans to the moon with the goal of “living and working there for increasingly extended periods of time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Obama administration committed to increase NASA’s funding to complete a heavy-lift launch vehicle that will be vital to human missions and predicted a human-crewed mission to Mars by the mid 2030s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has put the moon back on the table for human flights, and NASA has scheduled the first Orion spacecraft for a quick around-the-moon-and-back trip in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe a whole moon city is yet some time away, but setting up a base on the moon for astronauts to live and work is widely seen as an idea with some traction and practical applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone agrees with the goal of a moon-base for humanity. Buzz Aldrin, the second man ever to walk on the moon, famously believes that mankind’s future lies on Mars. In 2009, he wrote an \u003ca href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/15/AR2009071502940.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">editorial in the Washington Post\u003c/a>. “A race to the moon is a dead end. While the lunar surface can be used to develop advanced technologies, it is a poor location for homesteading,” he declared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fueling a Mission to Mars\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These initiatives for returning to and working on the moon are part of a larger plan to prepare ourselves for a much more challenging journey to Mars. Harnessing the moon’s material resources to build, fuel and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars/getting-there\">launch a Mars mission\u003c/a> would come with some major advantages. The moon’s surface gravity is one-sixth as strong as Earth’s, and there is no atmosphere to push through when launching. Both factors reduce the need for fuel, lowering the weight and cost of the spacecraft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944678\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944678\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"Artist concept of NASA's LCROSS spacecraft (foreground) preceded in its course to crash into the moon's south pole by an impactor vehicle (the Centaur rocket that propelled it to the moon). The impactor blasted up a plume of dust in which LCROSS identified water molecules, confirming the hypothesis that some shadowed polar craters harbor water ice. \" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1-1200x1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/lcross1.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist concept of NASA’s LCROSS spacecraft (foreground) preceded in its course to crash into the moon’s south pole by an impactor vehicle (the Centaur rocket that propelled it to the moon). The impactor blasted up a plume of dust in which LCROSS identified water molecules, confirming the hypothesis that some shadowed polar craters harbor water ice. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It turns out that the moon is not a dusty, airless rock after all. Finding water on the moon in 2009 was a huge revelation, and a useful one. NASA turned up \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/prelim_water_results.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">evidence of polar water\u003c/a> when the impactor vehicle of its LCROSS mission was deliberately smashed into the moon’s south pole, blasting out a plume of soil in the process. The LCROSS spacecraft detected water in that plume, minutes before it, too, collided with the moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These ancient deposits of water ice on perma-shadowed crater floors could represent a water supply for thirsty lunar astronauts, if it can be made into drinkable form. It could also supply oxygen for breathing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the moon has some other inherent qualities that pose a challenge to potential human colonists living there for months at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944672\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944672\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/SouthPoleIllumMap_400dpi-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"An "illumination map" of the terrain immediately surrounding the moon's south pole. An illumination map is a composite of many images taken at different times, in this case two-hour intervals, over the course of a full lunar day (about a month). The brightest areas on the map receive sunlight for most if not all of the lunar day, while black reveals deep crater floors and other niches that never receive direct sunlight. It is in these wells of darkness that we can find water ice, protected from sunlight. \" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/SouthPoleIllumMap_400dpi.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/SouthPoleIllumMap_400dpi-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/SouthPoleIllumMap_400dpi-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An “illumination map” of the terrain immediately surrounding the moon’s south pole. An illumination map is a composite of many images taken at different times, in this case two-hour intervals, over the course of a full lunar day (about a month). The brightest areas on the map receive sunlight for most if not all of the lunar day, while black reveals deep crater floors and other niches that never receive direct sunlight. It is in these wells of darkness that we can find water ice, protected from sunlight. \u003ccite>(NASA/Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One is generating power to run all of a base’s systems, including life support. The easiest way to produce electricity — the way that most current space missions, human or robotic, do — is with solar panels, converting the light of the sun into useful electricity. Most places on the moon, however, experience nights that are two weeks long, a long time to be in the dark and running on stored battery power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like the water resource problem, the moon’s polar regions may offer a practical solution. The peaks of some polar mountains and crater rims enjoy practically around-the-clock sunlight. Placing solar panels at these polar heights would provide almost uninterrupted solar energy, something that is impossible even on the surface of the Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moon dust is also something that astronauts will need to manage. When the Apollo astronauts walked around on the moon, their spacesuits collected a lot of dust, which was unavoidably tracked back inside the lunar landing module. Dust on the moon is very gritty and sticks to practically everything. Unlike dust and sand on Earth, which are weathered down by wind and water into smooth, round grains, moon dust has sharp edges and points. Without the effects of erosion to smooth them out, moon dust tends to act like tiny bits of broken glass. Without strict dust management, future lunar inhabitants may suffer severe health problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we continue to scrutinize minute details on the moon’s surface through our ongoing missions, new surprises are sure to come to light. The moon has never failed us in this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>For more on the space race, watch ‘Chasing the Moon’ — a new, three-part series premiering this week on KQED 9 at 9 PM.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "A Moment of Silence, Then a Lot of Fast Typing: Legendary Reporter Remembers the Moon Walk",
"headTitle": "A Moment of Silence, Then a Lot of Fast Typing: Legendary Reporter Remembers the Moon Walk | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"p1\">It’s true David Perlman is 100 years old, an impressive age for any human being.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But that’s not the most distinguishing thing about the man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">I met him eight years ago in the media room at a science conference. Even among the accomplished wordsmiths of the international press corps, he was a legend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">During a recent visit to his San Francisco home, I renewed our acquaintance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“What’s all this about?” he asks me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\"]‘I remember there was a moment of silence when the two guys climbed out of the spacecraft and actually set foot on the moon. And we typed our stories as fast as we could.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, 50 years ago, he was at Mission Control in Houston when men walked on the moon. What was it like?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Perlman was covering arguably the most momentous event in human history for the San Francisco Chronicle, where he \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/David-Perlman-Journalist-and-colleague-11730357.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">retired\u003c/a> as science editor two year ago. He’d worked for the paper since 1940, when he’d landed a job as copy boy. In 2014, Perlman \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1866788/at-98-legendary-science-writer-david-perlman-takes-early-retirement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told\u003c/a> KQED’s Craig Miller he caught the journalism bug after seeing the 1931 film “The Front Page.” The film described newspaper reporters as \u003cspan class=\"s2\">“seedy, catatonic Paul Reveres, full of strange oaths and a touch of childhood,” Perlman said. \u003c/span>“I wanted to be like that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Since then, he’s lived through the dawn of the atomic, space and computer ages. He still recalls details of stories he reported 40 years ago better than many of us can remember the events of last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Craig Miller described Perlman’s \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/David-Perlman-Moon-Landing.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">corner cubicle\u003c/a> at the Chronicle as resembling “an archaeological dig.” But his home is quite tidy, though he is still surrounded by books, magazines and newspapers. Perlman stays on top of the news cycle even though he no longer has a hand in shaping it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944640\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944640\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as11-40-5903_medium-800x781.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"781\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as11-40-5903_medium-800x781.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as11-40-5903_medium-160x156.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as11-40-5903_medium-768x749.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as11-40-5903_medium-1020x995.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as11-40-5903_medium-1200x1171.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as11-40-5903_medium.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, walks on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">For some time, Perlman says, he was the only Chronicle reporter covering science. In the summer of 1969, he was reporting on a medical conference in New York when\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>the police raided a gay bar in Greenwich Village called the Stonewall Inn, an incident that sparked the modern gay rights movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">He switched gears and filed his story, then hopped on a plane to Houston. But he hadn’t booked a hotel, so the managing editor of The Washington Post let him stay in one of the rooms it had reserved for its own reporters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“So at least I had a place to sleep,” Perlman says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">In Houston, he worked alongside a hundred or so reporters from around the country. Normally an unimpressed bunch, the press corps were for those few days electrified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“At that time it was one of the most thrilling episodes any reporter could have expected in his life,” Perlman says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Within the enormous press area, in a building across a highway from the control room, reporters watched the action on large screens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag=\"moonanniversary\"]“I remember there was a moment of silence when the two guys climbed out of the spacecraft and actually set foot on the moon,” Perlman said. “And we typed our stories as fast as we could.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Larger media, such as the The New York Times and the Post, had sections of the room to themselves, set up like minibureaus. They also had the luxury of teletype machines, devices that could send text over a phone line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“Reporters like me, all by ourselves, had a desk and that was all,” Perlman says. “But the desk had a typewriter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Western Union clerks walked up and down the aisles. Perlman typed a few paragraphs at a time, put his newspaper’s name at the top, and filed his story in sections by telegraph.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">On July 21, 1969, the Chronicle ran Perlman’s front-page \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/chronicle_vault/article/Chronicle-Covers-The-moon-landing-the-biggest-8379277.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article\u003c/a> on the scientific observations that were already pouring in. Perlman’s lead reads:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Two men and a spaceship began to re-write the science of the solar system last night. Within minutes of their landing on the moon, in an exploration televised for all the earth to watch, they found unexpected rocks, collected uncontaminated nuclear particles frim the sun and examined craters of curious shapes and sizes. The rocks may well prove the existence of volcanic activity. Perhaps eons ago, perhaps very recently.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Subsequent missions have confirmed the moon’s\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>history of volcanic activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">How long did it take to file this story about such a momentous event?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“A hell of a short time. I dunno, 20 minutes? You know, deadlines are deadlines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">And what was it like to be part of a day humans will probably still pay homage to in a thousand years, assuming we’re around? At the time, Perlman didn’t think that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“I guess that’s because there wasn’t a lot of poetry in me,” he says. “I was covering a damn story! The important thing was to meet a deadline. Not to think about the implications in mankind’s quest for knowledge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">After the moon landing, he wrote about virtually every planetary mission and discovery humans have made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“It’s only much later that I’ve had a chance to stop and think, golly I was really part of a period of exploration that isn’t going to happen again until we go beyond the solar system and look at what is out there beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“It’s only when people like you ask me a question that I stop and think a little poetically maybe about being part of human exploration of the unknown.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Fifty years ago, two men walked on the moon, and the San Francisco Chronicle sent science writer David Perlman to Mission Control in Houston to cover it.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"p1\">It’s true David Perlman is 100 years old, an impressive age for any human being.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But that’s not the most distinguishing thing about the man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">I met him eight years ago in the media room at a science conference. Even among the accomplished wordsmiths of the international press corps, he was a legend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">During a recent visit to his San Francisco home, I renewed our acquaintance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“What’s all this about?” he asks me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I remember there was a moment of silence when the two guys climbed out of the spacecraft and actually set foot on the moon. And we typed our stories as fast as we could.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, 50 years ago, he was at Mission Control in Houston when men walked on the moon. What was it like?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Perlman was covering arguably the most momentous event in human history for the San Francisco Chronicle, where he \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/David-Perlman-Journalist-and-colleague-11730357.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">retired\u003c/a> as science editor two year ago. He’d worked for the paper since 1940, when he’d landed a job as copy boy. In 2014, Perlman \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1866788/at-98-legendary-science-writer-david-perlman-takes-early-retirement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told\u003c/a> KQED’s Craig Miller he caught the journalism bug after seeing the 1931 film “The Front Page.” The film described newspaper reporters as \u003cspan class=\"s2\">“seedy, catatonic Paul Reveres, full of strange oaths and a touch of childhood,” Perlman said. \u003c/span>“I wanted to be like that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Since then, he’s lived through the dawn of the atomic, space and computer ages. He still recalls details of stories he reported 40 years ago better than many of us can remember the events of last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Craig Miller described Perlman’s \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/David-Perlman-Moon-Landing.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">corner cubicle\u003c/a> at the Chronicle as resembling “an archaeological dig.” But his home is quite tidy, though he is still surrounded by books, magazines and newspapers. Perlman stays on top of the news cycle even though he no longer has a hand in shaping it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1944640\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1944640\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as11-40-5903_medium-800x781.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"781\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as11-40-5903_medium-800x781.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as11-40-5903_medium-160x156.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as11-40-5903_medium-768x749.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as11-40-5903_medium-1020x995.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as11-40-5903_medium-1200x1171.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/as11-40-5903_medium.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, walks on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">For some time, Perlman says, he was the only Chronicle reporter covering science. In the summer of 1969, he was reporting on a medical conference in New York when\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>the police raided a gay bar in Greenwich Village called the Stonewall Inn, an incident that sparked the modern gay rights movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">He switched gears and filed his story, then hopped on a plane to Houston. But he hadn’t booked a hotel, so the managing editor of The Washington Post let him stay in one of the rooms it had reserved for its own reporters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“So at least I had a place to sleep,” Perlman says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">In Houston, he worked alongside a hundred or so reporters from around the country. Normally an unimpressed bunch, the press corps were for those few days electrified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“At that time it was one of the most thrilling episodes any reporter could have expected in his life,” Perlman says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Within the enormous press area, in a building across a highway from the control room, reporters watched the action on large screens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I remember there was a moment of silence when the two guys climbed out of the spacecraft and actually set foot on the moon,” Perlman said. “And we typed our stories as fast as we could.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Larger media, such as the The New York Times and the Post, had sections of the room to themselves, set up like minibureaus. They also had the luxury of teletype machines, devices that could send text over a phone line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“Reporters like me, all by ourselves, had a desk and that was all,” Perlman says. “But the desk had a typewriter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Western Union clerks walked up and down the aisles. Perlman typed a few paragraphs at a time, put his newspaper’s name at the top, and filed his story in sections by telegraph.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">On July 21, 1969, the Chronicle ran Perlman’s front-page \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/chronicle_vault/article/Chronicle-Covers-The-moon-landing-the-biggest-8379277.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article\u003c/a> on the scientific observations that were already pouring in. Perlman’s lead reads:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Two men and a spaceship began to re-write the science of the solar system last night. Within minutes of their landing on the moon, in an exploration televised for all the earth to watch, they found unexpected rocks, collected uncontaminated nuclear particles frim the sun and examined craters of curious shapes and sizes. The rocks may well prove the existence of volcanic activity. Perhaps eons ago, perhaps very recently.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Subsequent missions have confirmed the moon’s\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>history of volcanic activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">How long did it take to file this story about such a momentous event?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“A hell of a short time. I dunno, 20 minutes? You know, deadlines are deadlines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">And what was it like to be part of a day humans will probably still pay homage to in a thousand years, assuming we’re around? At the time, Perlman didn’t think that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“I guess that’s because there wasn’t a lot of poetry in me,” he says. “I was covering a damn story! The important thing was to meet a deadline. Not to think about the implications in mankind’s quest for knowledge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">After the moon landing, he wrote about virtually every planetary mission and discovery humans have made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“It’s only much later that I’ve had a chance to stop and think, golly I was really part of a period of exploration that isn’t going to happen again until we go beyond the solar system and look at what is out there beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“It’s only when people like you ask me a question that I stop and think a little poetically maybe about being part of human exploration of the unknown.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a1gsB_aoT0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting at 1:00 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, some lucky spectators in parts of Chile and Argentina will get a chance to watch a total solar eclipse. It’s a rare event where the moon entirely obscures the\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1914425/eclipse-scientists-probe-the-mysteries-of-the-suns-atmosphere\">disc of the sun\u003c/a> (known as totality), leaving a glowing celestial crown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not in South America for the total solar eclipse? No worries, you can still watch it via the Exploratorium’s feed, right above. The museum will pick up a live stream from the telescope at Cerro Tololo Observatory in Chile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://players.brightcove.net/979328832001/NJgjituzjl_default/index.html?videoId=6046723165001\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Locals can also attend the solar eclipse event \u003ca href=\"https://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calendar/total-solar-eclipse-live-chile\">in person\u003c/a> at the Exploratorium, with commentary in English and Spanish. There’s an \u003ca href=\"https://www.exploratorium.edu/explore/apps/total-solar-eclipse-app\">eclipse app\u003c/a>, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1914768/live-blog-the-great-american-solar-eclipse\">The Great American Eclipse of 2017 \u003c/a> was the last event that granted Americans (in certain parts of the country) a chance to witness a total solar eclipse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"//players.brightcove.net/979328832001/NJgjituzjl_default/index.html?videoId=6046723196001\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3 class=\"edTag\">What is a total solar eclipse?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1745905\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 375px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1745905\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/06/Eclipse_V04B_170620.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"375\" height=\"668\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/06/Eclipse_V04B_170620.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/06/Eclipse_V04B_170620-160x285.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/06/Eclipse_V04B_170620-240x428.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eclipses are possible thanks to a happy coincidence: The Sun is 400 times the diameter of the moon, while also being 400 times farther away from Earth. To us, both the moon and the Sun appear to be the same size allowing the moon to block light from the sun during solar eclipses.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon moves directly between the sun and Earth, preventing the sun’s light from reaching the planet. When the three celestial bodies line up, the moon casts a shadow on a narrow band of the earth’s surface, with a ring of light around the moon. The sky becomes dark, simulating the night sky. You can watch a simulated total solar eclipse in this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1914538/watch-see-a-total-solar-eclipse-in-this-stunning-animation\">animated view\u003c/a> from space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "The Best Health and Science Books to Dip Into This Summer",
"headTitle": "The Best Health and Science Books to Dip Into This Summer | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"big-cap-wrap\">\u003cspan class=\"big-cap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/span>he first day of summer has arrived, and so has STAT’s annual book list of great reads in health, science, and medicine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read on for recommendations from CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna and CDC Director Robert Redfield. Plus, STAT readers from Boston to Ireland to Australia share their picks, in addition to our staff. Enjoy!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Notable Figures\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805071806/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0805071806&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=7bf123ab6184f5cac33d58beddbb56f6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Scientific Conversations: Interviews on Science from The New York Times”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Claudia Dreifus\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nThis is an awesome collection of 38 interviews, published originally in the Science Times section of the New York Times, that captures the wonder and excitement of scientific discovery. As an outstanding journalist and a relative outsider to science, Dreifus elicits from her subjects the passion, frustration, inspiration and, ultimately, the joy of doing science. Her writing reminds me of the work of John McPhee: deep and expansive with a sense of fun. A great read!\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Jennifer Doudna, professor and HHMI Investigator, UC Berkeley; director, Innovative Genomics Institute of UC Berkeley/UCSF/Gladstone Institutes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006122796X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=006122796X&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=7cfcc6b0801cc1e4c567331d7f105411\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Vaccinated: One Man’s Quest to Defeat the World’s Deadliest Diseases”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Paul A. Offit\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nPhysicians, parents, and public health professionals seeking credible, timely information about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines will find those answers in Dr. Offit’s “Vaccinated.” He writes a compelling narrative, sharing the underlying science and historical context behind the vaccine regimen recommended today. This fact-based retrospective dispels myths and underscores the importance of immunization for children and adults alike. Readers will have a better understanding of the science-based reasoning to embrace vaccination for themselves, their families, and their communities.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520229134/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0520229134&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=f6872536969b6885c29cba642778c5ca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Paul Farmer\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nThis book highlights so well the very inception of the Bill and Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute itself and our mission to develop treatments and preventive agents for diseases burdening the world’s poorest people. Tenderly, Farmer tells the stories of those who suffer, offering their complex circumstances in the face of overwhelming data. The Partners in Health co-founder challenges those determined to care for the most vulnerable to challenge the status quo. Although written 20 years ago, the stories ring truer than ever. Inequities in health have only become magnified and are now manifest in our own backyard. Although sobering, it is also inspiring and may make the reader leap to other resources such as “The Age of Living Machines” by Susan Hockfield, who posits that convergence across scientific disciplines led to the current technological capabilities. Can these not be leveraged with know-how and fortitude to meaningfully address inequities in health?\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Dr. Penny Heaton, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1845291557/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1845291557&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=424b9e11f98c4fb76b3a018ce157005a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“A Brief History of Medicine: from Hippocrates to Gene Therapy”\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cem>By Paul Strathern\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>Among the many histories of medicine, Paul Strathern’s narrative stands out for its lively prose and colorful portraits of figures who broke with dogma and proved new paradigms. Even the expert reader will find much that is novel and nuanced, not only in stories about prominent characters like Galen and Harvey, but less well known individuals like the Venerable Bede, an English monk who revived Greek and Roman knowledge during the Dark Ages, and Al-Razi, an Islamic scholar who challenged Aristotle’s prevailing notions with experimental data and showed that pediatric disorders need not be viewed as untreatable and hopeless. Each chapter offers a rich tableau depicting advances in medical thinking based on astute observation and rigorous induction. Strathern brilliantly succeeds in both educating and entertaining his reader, a perfect blend for a summer treat.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Dr. Jerome Groopman, New Yorker staff writer and author; Recanati Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345804570/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0345804570&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=137ae7f66e5eee834172c881aa8f1b7a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—and Us”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Richard Prum\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nWhether you agree with Prum or not, his case for renewed attention to Darwin’s theory of sexual selection — that considerations of beauty, and not just functional adaptation, shape evolution — is eye-opening. The book also reminds us that politics (in this case, 19th-century disapproval of Darwin’s views on female mate choice) can influence what we are taught about science. Even if you are skeptical, Prum will make you think twice about the natural world, and will definitely change how you look at ducks.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Ron Klain, President Obama’s Ebola czar during the West African outbreak\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062338781/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062338781&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=a08377a6dbaebf506ffcb6efb996c457\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Katherine Eban\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>In her fierce and fearless book, “Bottle of Lies,” the investigative journalist Katherine Eban takes us on a journey through the loosely regulated and often corrupt manufacture of generic drugs. Weaving together the story of a terrified but determined whistleblower from India, shady drug producers from China, and a notably timid FDA, Eban’s compelling book should serve as cautionary tale and a wake-up call for consumers, manufacturers, and physicians — “should” being the operative word.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Deborah Blum, author of “The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century” and director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>STAT Readers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735224153/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0735224153&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=e88ba9aa97ec231e13dcca5e20cbc7bf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Michael Pollan\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nWith cannabis medicine now getting the attention it deserves, Michael Pollan has done a tremendous job at digging into the history of psychedelic use, both recreationally and in therapy, together with his own observations as a new psychedelic experimenter at the age of 60. All in all, a comprehensive history of the topic, together with interviews from key psychedelic researchers, and a call for serious researchers to think twice about hasty judgments surrounding this interesting compound.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Jon Calder, Belfast, Northern Ireland\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006289627X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=006289627X&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=ea6fc765acd3cc5ad1ccd85342cb04ae\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Kris Newby\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n“Bitten” is a riveting narrative that digs into the origins of the Lyme disease epidemic. It connects many dots with compelling evidence and page-turning storytelling that point to the likelihood that a bio-weaponized tick program gone awry could have contributed to the more virulent forms of tick-borne illnesses that have been wreaking havoc on unwitting people for the past five decades. Doctors are not well-trained on tick-borne illness, diagnostics are inadequate, and there are no career tracks in the field other than a few courageous pioneers. Biotech is largely on the sidelines. Yet millions of people are being disabled. Perhaps this book will help stir some action. After all, we all are just one bite away from a nightmare illness.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Nancy Dougherty, Boston\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544114515/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0544114515&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=4f6ff933051d07a5d66bb8d7906db1a2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Gregory Berns\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nFabulous book for anyone interested in the realities of research. Getting MRI data on dogs to confirm the similarities in where dogs and human brains respond to stimuli sounds like a good idea. Getting permission to get the dogs into the places where there are MRIs, getting the dogs used to the MRI, selecting real-life animals, and the implications for the experimental conclusions is very different from what usually shows up in methods and results.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Joanna Haas, Boston\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316418080/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0316418080&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=ab87c536d62f16a84be8997dbe897c72\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“The Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Steffanie Strathdee and Thomas Patterson\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>Riveting account of a scientist trying to save her husband through a combination of sheer will, determination, and cutting-edge science. It’s an amazing blend of mystery, thriller, and microbiology.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Mallory Johnson, Berkeley, Calif.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671510576/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0671510576&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=cb77504e40e1a9467241ae7547ca194a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“The Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company’s Quest for the Perfect Drug”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Barry Werth\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n“Billion Dollar Molecule” is a thrilling story about the development of a now powerful pharmaceutical company, its revolutionary approach in structure-based drug development, and how closely it came to failing along the way. At a time when people doubt the justifications of pricing for pharmaceutical drugs, peeking at the risks involved in development and the arduous journeys of the scientists involved through this story could add nuance to the conversation.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Eric Kishel, Buffalo, N.Y.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0190916834/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0190916834&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=4c465b27e88b48c0879f78555b17f6ef\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Well: What We Need to Talk About When We Talk About Health”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Sandro Galea\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n“Well” moves beyond talk of health disparities as simply numbers and statistics, dissecting the factors that influence health and well-being. This is an excellent read for health professionals or anyone interested in better understanding all the variables that impact our decisions and behaviors, like power, politics, and luck.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Jamie Klufts, Boston\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312430000/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0312430000&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=35421e550159f565498198501246b2c1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Atul Gawande\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nYears after reading it, the message and themes of this book still resonate with me. One for everyone involved in health.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Eliza Metcalfe, Melbourne, Australia \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/154164414X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=154164414X&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=9df8ac5f5bb7af175e206e2ce490fcfb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Richard Harris\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n“Rigor Mortis” delves into data reproducibility and scientific rigor in biomedical research. Using deft anecdotes and commentary, Harris explores how sociocultural forces and perverse incentives in funding mechanisms can conspire to create a dirge of confidence in the research process. Anyone interested in learning about how flawed science undermines medicine should pick up this book for a relatively quick and incisive read.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Kyle Penrod, Providence, R.I.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316051632/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0316051632&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=102a5090c27ba3b32e74ee3014fa30fc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Sam Kean\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nThis book is an entertaining and amazing look at the history of the periodic table and the discovery of the elements. Kean writes in a narrative fashion that gripped me from the very first page. This book is a must for lovers of science, history, and science history.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Katie Reeves, Augusta, Ga.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>STAT Reporters\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1608192075/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1608192075&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=7aa079684701270fecebca869fe0c79e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Nick Reding\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nThe 2016 election sparked a national obsession with reporting from “flyover country” — a hasty attempt from the national media to remember the forgotten swathes of land between the coasts. But some of the resulting coverage was so full of caricatures it seemed like just another version of flying over. Stumbling across “Methland” in the public library provided a strong antidote to those datelines without depth. Nick Reding’s portraits of small-town Iowans who are cooking, using, or working against meth are so deeply reported that you feel as if you’ve met these people in the flesh. The details are striking — kids mixing “crank” in soda bottles as they tootle around on their bikes, a dealer investing in car selling and horse racing as fronts for her drug empire — but the book also has an impressive sweep: It chronicles rural economies overtaken by agricultural behemoths, towns left behind by everyone with the means to leave, and public health and existential crises ensnaring the people who remain.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Eric Boodman, reporter\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568585810/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1568585810&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=c7392af7e5427afc8fbd10e2f028fc99\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women’s Pain”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Abby Norman\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nAny woman whose pain has been dismissed as being “part of what it means to be a woman” will highly relate to this book. “Ask Me About My Uterus” is the story of Abby Norman, whose long and frustrating journey of finding out what was causing her excruciating pain, unexplainable weight loss, and a host of other symptoms meant she had to drop out of college her freshman year. Norman describes how relationships and hobbies all fell by the wayside as the constant pain kept her at home. Only after she got a job at a hospital and spent hours educating herself did Norman finally get a diagnosis of endometriosis. The book weaves together Norman’s own story as well as research and evidence to indicate how medicine continues to ignore women’s pain. I learned a lot of things, but how to be more assertive when I visit with a physician is at the top of the list!\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Shraddha Chakradhar, reporter and Morning Rounds writer\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DP6MSJG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07DP6MSJG&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=169853d1a860b739e89a5805d07eee17\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of us Can Learn From the Strange Science of Recovery”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Christie Aschwanden\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nLike many who live life with a daily dose of sweat, I’m always on the lookout for the best ways to recover from exercise and get myself back out the door. In her new book, science journalist and athlete Christie Aschwanden deftly unravels the complex web of science, pseudoscience, and downright bogus claims in the world of exercise recovery. She takes the reader into infrared saunas, ice baths, and float spas and tests techniques I’d never heard of (meditation headbands are a thing?) meant to help athletes bounce back from their hard efforts.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Brittany Flaherty, news intern\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812997417/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0812997417&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=3df4e39b8793e8725667e7c8b16161f3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Lake Success”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Gary Shteyngart\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n“Lake Success” is the story of Barry Cohen, a superlatively successful hedge fund manager whose enviable Manhattan life comes hideously unglued after he makes an ill-advised bet on what is clearly a stand-in for Valeant Pharmaceuticals. What ensues is a never sanguine, always empathetic, reliably funny portrait of a fabulously wealthy person who seems to have forgotten the concept of failure. It’s also a fascinating character study for those of us biotech schnooks who looked at alleged insider traders like Mathew Martoma and wondered how on earth they thought they’d get away with it all. Plus there’s fancy watches, generational angst, and a meditation on the creeping financialization of everything that promises to bring about a new Gilded Age. You know, beach stuff.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Damian Garde, national biotech reporter\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1524732710/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1524732710&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=f0f49695f97eea1f87af0be2c561a5fe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Dani Shapiro\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nWherever she speaks during her book tour for “Inheritance,” memoirist Dani Shapiro is approached by people who, like her, discovered through a DNA spit test that their biological father is not who they thought he was, and that their family history is a lot more twisted than they realized. Indeed, when I heard her in Boston, a man stood up during the Q&A and announced he’d learned he was the product of a sperm donor who turned out to be a fertility doctor who’d fathered dozens of children. Shapiro’s book is a very personal story, but clearly one that resonates broadly in our DNA-obsessed age.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Gideon Gil, managing editor\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501168681/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1501168681&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=22c75b403593e8a3a77e635029a3d63f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought The American Ideal West”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By David McCullough\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nA great way to gain perspective on the impact of modern medicine is to consider life before it arrived. McCullough’s account of the pioneers who settled America’s Northwest Territory — an area that includes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin — offers a window into the ruggedness required of both doctors and patients who stared down deadly illnesses in the unbroken wilderness with few defenses. Episodic disease outbreaks swept across the frontier like wildfire, often decimating settlements and taking the lives of multiple children in the same family. As a father living in present-day Ohio, it is hard to imagine the panic this must have instilled, and the resolve required to push forward despite the heart-wrenching costs. But this book has given me fresh insight and a few reasons to reconsider my own grievances in the relative utopia we’ve carved out of the Wild West.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Casey Ross, national technology correspondent\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812982525/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0812982525&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=ca6e6c07db5238906a40e5ea31a25d71\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Luke Dittrich\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nThe book weaves the neuroscience legend of Henry Molaison with author Luke Dittrich’s own family dramas. After Dittrich’s grandfather operated on Molaison’s brain in an effort to treat his debilitating epilepsy, he wasn’t able to form any short-term memories. For decades after the surgery, researchers worked with Molaison to better understand how human memory works. Patient H.M.’s story is interesting enough. But when the story is mentioned, the surgeon is usually a minor player. This time, Dittrich brings his grandfather to life — and uses his family’s own history to explore some of the darker chapters in neuroscience history.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Kate Sheridan, reporter\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525552960/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0525552960&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=0abcda54b107dd77066adae0db4d637f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Darius The Great is Not Okay”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Adib Khorram\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nAdib Khorram’s debut novel is about many things: identity, immigration, family, friendship. It’s also about living with clinical depression as a teen, and being a teen with a parent who has depression. Khorram is able to give readers a window into living with mental illness without making it the sole focus of the characters or their stories. And while it’s technically a young adult book, I’d recommend it to adults of all ages.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Megan Thielking, reporter\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2019/05/01/from-protegee-to-whistleblower-a-former-theranos-scientist-says-elizabeth-holmes-should-come-forward-and-apologize/\">story\u003c/a> was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/\">STAT\u003c/a>, an online publication of Boston Globe Media that covers health, medicine, and scientific discovery.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A collection of the best science books for summer produced by the health and medicine news site STAT.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"big-cap-wrap\">\u003cspan class=\"big-cap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/span>he first day of summer has arrived, and so has STAT’s annual book list of great reads in health, science, and medicine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read on for recommendations from CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna and CDC Director Robert Redfield. Plus, STAT readers from Boston to Ireland to Australia share their picks, in addition to our staff. Enjoy!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Notable Figures\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805071806/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0805071806&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=7bf123ab6184f5cac33d58beddbb56f6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Scientific Conversations: Interviews on Science from The New York Times”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Claudia Dreifus\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nThis is an awesome collection of 38 interviews, published originally in the Science Times section of the New York Times, that captures the wonder and excitement of scientific discovery. As an outstanding journalist and a relative outsider to science, Dreifus elicits from her subjects the passion, frustration, inspiration and, ultimately, the joy of doing science. Her writing reminds me of the work of John McPhee: deep and expansive with a sense of fun. A great read!\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Jennifer Doudna, professor and HHMI Investigator, UC Berkeley; director, Innovative Genomics Institute of UC Berkeley/UCSF/Gladstone Institutes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006122796X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=006122796X&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=7cfcc6b0801cc1e4c567331d7f105411\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Vaccinated: One Man’s Quest to Defeat the World’s Deadliest Diseases”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Paul A. Offit\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nPhysicians, parents, and public health professionals seeking credible, timely information about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines will find those answers in Dr. Offit’s “Vaccinated.” He writes a compelling narrative, sharing the underlying science and historical context behind the vaccine regimen recommended today. This fact-based retrospective dispels myths and underscores the importance of immunization for children and adults alike. Readers will have a better understanding of the science-based reasoning to embrace vaccination for themselves, their families, and their communities.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520229134/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0520229134&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=f6872536969b6885c29cba642778c5ca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Paul Farmer\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nThis book highlights so well the very inception of the Bill and Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute itself and our mission to develop treatments and preventive agents for diseases burdening the world’s poorest people. Tenderly, Farmer tells the stories of those who suffer, offering their complex circumstances in the face of overwhelming data. The Partners in Health co-founder challenges those determined to care for the most vulnerable to challenge the status quo. Although written 20 years ago, the stories ring truer than ever. Inequities in health have only become magnified and are now manifest in our own backyard. Although sobering, it is also inspiring and may make the reader leap to other resources such as “The Age of Living Machines” by Susan Hockfield, who posits that convergence across scientific disciplines led to the current technological capabilities. Can these not be leveraged with know-how and fortitude to meaningfully address inequities in health?\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Dr. Penny Heaton, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1845291557/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1845291557&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=424b9e11f98c4fb76b3a018ce157005a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“A Brief History of Medicine: from Hippocrates to Gene Therapy”\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cem>By Paul Strathern\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>Among the many histories of medicine, Paul Strathern’s narrative stands out for its lively prose and colorful portraits of figures who broke with dogma and proved new paradigms. Even the expert reader will find much that is novel and nuanced, not only in stories about prominent characters like Galen and Harvey, but less well known individuals like the Venerable Bede, an English monk who revived Greek and Roman knowledge during the Dark Ages, and Al-Razi, an Islamic scholar who challenged Aristotle’s prevailing notions with experimental data and showed that pediatric disorders need not be viewed as untreatable and hopeless. Each chapter offers a rich tableau depicting advances in medical thinking based on astute observation and rigorous induction. Strathern brilliantly succeeds in both educating and entertaining his reader, a perfect blend for a summer treat.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Dr. Jerome Groopman, New Yorker staff writer and author; Recanati Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345804570/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0345804570&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=137ae7f66e5eee834172c881aa8f1b7a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—and Us”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Richard Prum\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nWhether you agree with Prum or not, his case for renewed attention to Darwin’s theory of sexual selection — that considerations of beauty, and not just functional adaptation, shape evolution — is eye-opening. The book also reminds us that politics (in this case, 19th-century disapproval of Darwin’s views on female mate choice) can influence what we are taught about science. Even if you are skeptical, Prum will make you think twice about the natural world, and will definitely change how you look at ducks.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Ron Klain, President Obama’s Ebola czar during the West African outbreak\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062338781/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062338781&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=a08377a6dbaebf506ffcb6efb996c457\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Katherine Eban\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>In her fierce and fearless book, “Bottle of Lies,” the investigative journalist Katherine Eban takes us on a journey through the loosely regulated and often corrupt manufacture of generic drugs. Weaving together the story of a terrified but determined whistleblower from India, shady drug producers from China, and a notably timid FDA, Eban’s compelling book should serve as cautionary tale and a wake-up call for consumers, manufacturers, and physicians — “should” being the operative word.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Deborah Blum, author of “The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century” and director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>STAT Readers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735224153/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0735224153&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=e88ba9aa97ec231e13dcca5e20cbc7bf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Michael Pollan\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nWith cannabis medicine now getting the attention it deserves, Michael Pollan has done a tremendous job at digging into the history of psychedelic use, both recreationally and in therapy, together with his own observations as a new psychedelic experimenter at the age of 60. All in all, a comprehensive history of the topic, together with interviews from key psychedelic researchers, and a call for serious researchers to think twice about hasty judgments surrounding this interesting compound.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Jon Calder, Belfast, Northern Ireland\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006289627X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=006289627X&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=ea6fc765acd3cc5ad1ccd85342cb04ae\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Kris Newby\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n“Bitten” is a riveting narrative that digs into the origins of the Lyme disease epidemic. It connects many dots with compelling evidence and page-turning storytelling that point to the likelihood that a bio-weaponized tick program gone awry could have contributed to the more virulent forms of tick-borne illnesses that have been wreaking havoc on unwitting people for the past five decades. Doctors are not well-trained on tick-borne illness, diagnostics are inadequate, and there are no career tracks in the field other than a few courageous pioneers. Biotech is largely on the sidelines. Yet millions of people are being disabled. Perhaps this book will help stir some action. After all, we all are just one bite away from a nightmare illness.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Nancy Dougherty, Boston\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544114515/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0544114515&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=4f6ff933051d07a5d66bb8d7906db1a2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Gregory Berns\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nFabulous book for anyone interested in the realities of research. Getting MRI data on dogs to confirm the similarities in where dogs and human brains respond to stimuli sounds like a good idea. Getting permission to get the dogs into the places where there are MRIs, getting the dogs used to the MRI, selecting real-life animals, and the implications for the experimental conclusions is very different from what usually shows up in methods and results.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Joanna Haas, Boston\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316418080/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0316418080&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=ab87c536d62f16a84be8997dbe897c72\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“The Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Steffanie Strathdee and Thomas Patterson\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>Riveting account of a scientist trying to save her husband through a combination of sheer will, determination, and cutting-edge science. It’s an amazing blend of mystery, thriller, and microbiology.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Mallory Johnson, Berkeley, Calif.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671510576/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0671510576&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=cb77504e40e1a9467241ae7547ca194a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“The Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company’s Quest for the Perfect Drug”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Barry Werth\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n“Billion Dollar Molecule” is a thrilling story about the development of a now powerful pharmaceutical company, its revolutionary approach in structure-based drug development, and how closely it came to failing along the way. At a time when people doubt the justifications of pricing for pharmaceutical drugs, peeking at the risks involved in development and the arduous journeys of the scientists involved through this story could add nuance to the conversation.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Eric Kishel, Buffalo, N.Y.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0190916834/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0190916834&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=4c465b27e88b48c0879f78555b17f6ef\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Well: What We Need to Talk About When We Talk About Health”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Sandro Galea\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n“Well” moves beyond talk of health disparities as simply numbers and statistics, dissecting the factors that influence health and well-being. This is an excellent read for health professionals or anyone interested in better understanding all the variables that impact our decisions and behaviors, like power, politics, and luck.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Jamie Klufts, Boston\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312430000/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0312430000&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=35421e550159f565498198501246b2c1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Atul Gawande\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nYears after reading it, the message and themes of this book still resonate with me. One for everyone involved in health.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Eliza Metcalfe, Melbourne, Australia \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/154164414X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=154164414X&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=9df8ac5f5bb7af175e206e2ce490fcfb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Richard Harris\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n“Rigor Mortis” delves into data reproducibility and scientific rigor in biomedical research. Using deft anecdotes and commentary, Harris explores how sociocultural forces and perverse incentives in funding mechanisms can conspire to create a dirge of confidence in the research process. Anyone interested in learning about how flawed science undermines medicine should pick up this book for a relatively quick and incisive read.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Kyle Penrod, Providence, R.I.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316051632/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0316051632&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=102a5090c27ba3b32e74ee3014fa30fc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Sam Kean\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nThis book is an entertaining and amazing look at the history of the periodic table and the discovery of the elements. Kean writes in a narrative fashion that gripped me from the very first page. This book is a must for lovers of science, history, and science history.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Katie Reeves, Augusta, Ga.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>STAT Reporters\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1608192075/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1608192075&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=7aa079684701270fecebca869fe0c79e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Nick Reding\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nThe 2016 election sparked a national obsession with reporting from “flyover country” — a hasty attempt from the national media to remember the forgotten swathes of land between the coasts. But some of the resulting coverage was so full of caricatures it seemed like just another version of flying over. Stumbling across “Methland” in the public library provided a strong antidote to those datelines without depth. Nick Reding’s portraits of small-town Iowans who are cooking, using, or working against meth are so deeply reported that you feel as if you’ve met these people in the flesh. The details are striking — kids mixing “crank” in soda bottles as they tootle around on their bikes, a dealer investing in car selling and horse racing as fronts for her drug empire — but the book also has an impressive sweep: It chronicles rural economies overtaken by agricultural behemoths, towns left behind by everyone with the means to leave, and public health and existential crises ensnaring the people who remain.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Eric Boodman, reporter\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568585810/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1568585810&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=c7392af7e5427afc8fbd10e2f028fc99\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women’s Pain”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Abby Norman\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nAny woman whose pain has been dismissed as being “part of what it means to be a woman” will highly relate to this book. “Ask Me About My Uterus” is the story of Abby Norman, whose long and frustrating journey of finding out what was causing her excruciating pain, unexplainable weight loss, and a host of other symptoms meant she had to drop out of college her freshman year. Norman describes how relationships and hobbies all fell by the wayside as the constant pain kept her at home. Only after she got a job at a hospital and spent hours educating herself did Norman finally get a diagnosis of endometriosis. The book weaves together Norman’s own story as well as research and evidence to indicate how medicine continues to ignore women’s pain. I learned a lot of things, but how to be more assertive when I visit with a physician is at the top of the list!\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Shraddha Chakradhar, reporter and Morning Rounds writer\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DP6MSJG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07DP6MSJG&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=169853d1a860b739e89a5805d07eee17\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of us Can Learn From the Strange Science of Recovery”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Christie Aschwanden\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nLike many who live life with a daily dose of sweat, I’m always on the lookout for the best ways to recover from exercise and get myself back out the door. In her new book, science journalist and athlete Christie Aschwanden deftly unravels the complex web of science, pseudoscience, and downright bogus claims in the world of exercise recovery. She takes the reader into infrared saunas, ice baths, and float spas and tests techniques I’d never heard of (meditation headbands are a thing?) meant to help athletes bounce back from their hard efforts.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Brittany Flaherty, news intern\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812997417/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0812997417&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=3df4e39b8793e8725667e7c8b16161f3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Lake Success”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Gary Shteyngart\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n“Lake Success” is the story of Barry Cohen, a superlatively successful hedge fund manager whose enviable Manhattan life comes hideously unglued after he makes an ill-advised bet on what is clearly a stand-in for Valeant Pharmaceuticals. What ensues is a never sanguine, always empathetic, reliably funny portrait of a fabulously wealthy person who seems to have forgotten the concept of failure. It’s also a fascinating character study for those of us biotech schnooks who looked at alleged insider traders like Mathew Martoma and wondered how on earth they thought they’d get away with it all. Plus there’s fancy watches, generational angst, and a meditation on the creeping financialization of everything that promises to bring about a new Gilded Age. You know, beach stuff.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Damian Garde, national biotech reporter\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1524732710/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1524732710&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=f0f49695f97eea1f87af0be2c561a5fe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Dani Shapiro\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nWherever she speaks during her book tour for “Inheritance,” memoirist Dani Shapiro is approached by people who, like her, discovered through a DNA spit test that their biological father is not who they thought he was, and that their family history is a lot more twisted than they realized. Indeed, when I heard her in Boston, a man stood up during the Q&A and announced he’d learned he was the product of a sperm donor who turned out to be a fertility doctor who’d fathered dozens of children. Shapiro’s book is a very personal story, but clearly one that resonates broadly in our DNA-obsessed age.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Gideon Gil, managing editor\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501168681/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1501168681&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=22c75b403593e8a3a77e635029a3d63f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought The American Ideal West”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By David McCullough\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nA great way to gain perspective on the impact of modern medicine is to consider life before it arrived. McCullough’s account of the pioneers who settled America’s Northwest Territory — an area that includes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin — offers a window into the ruggedness required of both doctors and patients who stared down deadly illnesses in the unbroken wilderness with few defenses. Episodic disease outbreaks swept across the frontier like wildfire, often decimating settlements and taking the lives of multiple children in the same family. As a father living in present-day Ohio, it is hard to imagine the panic this must have instilled, and the resolve required to push forward despite the heart-wrenching costs. But this book has given me fresh insight and a few reasons to reconsider my own grievances in the relative utopia we’ve carved out of the Wild West.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Casey Ross, national technology correspondent\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812982525/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0812982525&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=ca6e6c07db5238906a40e5ea31a25d71\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Luke Dittrich\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nThe book weaves the neuroscience legend of Henry Molaison with author Luke Dittrich’s own family dramas. After Dittrich’s grandfather operated on Molaison’s brain in an effort to treat his debilitating epilepsy, he wasn’t able to form any short-term memories. For decades after the surgery, researchers worked with Molaison to better understand how human memory works. Patient H.M.’s story is interesting enough. But when the story is mentioned, the surgeon is usually a minor player. This time, Dittrich brings his grandfather to life — and uses his family’s own history to explore some of the darker chapters in neuroscience history.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Kate Sheridan, reporter\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525552960/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0525552960&linkCode=as2&tag=stat03d-20&linkId=0abcda54b107dd77066adae0db4d637f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>“Darius The Great is Not Okay”\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>By Adib Khorram\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nAdib Khorram’s debut novel is about many things: identity, immigration, family, friendship. It’s also about living with clinical depression as a teen, and being a teen with a parent who has depression. Khorram is able to give readers a window into living with mental illness without making it the sole focus of the characters or their stories. And while it’s technically a young adult book, I’d recommend it to adults of all ages.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>— Megan Thielking, reporter\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>When you hear the phrase space telescope, you probably think of NASA’s venerable \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html\">Hubble\u003c/a>, which has brought us decades of unique and breathtaking images of the most distant reaches of space, cosmic discoveries of universe-shaking magnitude, and a nice gallery of stunning computer wallpaper selections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quietly working in tandem, NASA’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/\">Spitzer Space Telescope\u003c/a> has been making equally compelling cosmic discoveries through observations of the infrared light emitted by celestial objects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you haven’t heard about it, now may be a good time to take a look at its work. After over 15 years on the job, Spitzer is scheduled to retire next January, passing the torch to the next generation of eyes in the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>About Spitzer\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/mission/32-The-Mission\">Spitzer\u003c/a> was launched in 2003 on a Delta II rocket and placed into an Earth-trailing solar orbit, following behind the Earth at an ever-growing distance instead of orbiting around it like Hubble does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With each year of operation, Spitzer has moved over 9 million miles farther away. Today, though it still shares the same orbit around the sun with Earth, it is over 160 million miles from home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943675\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943675\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing the location of the Spitzer Space Telescope as it has grown steadily farther from Earth over the 15 years since its launch. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing the location of the Spitzer Space Telescope as it has grown steadily farther from Earth over the 15 years since its launch. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Keeping Earth at a distance has advantages for an infrared telescope like Spitzer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For one, Spitzer’s sensitive observations are not interfered with by Earth’s heat glow. Spitzer’s forte is sensing faint infrared emissions from distant celestial objects, so being located near an enormous glowing heat-ball like Earth would be like trying to see a landscape against the blinding glare of the sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With its \u003ca href=\"http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/mission/36-Technology\">0.85-meter telescope and three infrared instruments\u003c/a>, Spitzer helps us appreciate what we can learn about the universe by observing the heat radiation emitted by celestial objects, as opposed to their visible light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Spitzer’s Greatest Hits\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spitzer’s list of accomplishments is long, but here are a few highlights of discoveries made possible by this space-based\u003cstrong>,\u003c/strong> infrared-only telescope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Exoplanet Discoveries\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeing the Light: In 2005 scientists using Spitzer announced the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=757\">first detection of light from an extrasolar planet \u003c/a>— a planet orbiting another star. Before this, exoplanets were detected indirectly, by the pull of their gravity on a star or their blocking of starlight. Visible light reflected by exoplanets is very faint compared to their stars, but Spitzer spotted two hot gas giant planets — dubbed “hot Jupiters” — orbiting so close to their stars that they glow brightly with infrared light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943678\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943678\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/hot-jupiter-nasa-esa-g.bacon-stsci-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/hot-jupiter-nasa-esa-g.bacon-stsci-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/hot-jupiter-nasa-esa-g.bacon-stsci-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/hot-jupiter-nasa-esa-g.bacon-stsci-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/hot-jupiter-nasa-esa-g.bacon-stsci-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/hot-jupiter-nasa-esa-g.bacon-stsci-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/hot-jupiter-nasa-esa-g.bacon-stsci.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist concept of a “hot Jupiter”: a gas giant exoplanet that orbits very close to its star. \u003ccite>(NASA/ESA/StSci/G. Bacon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Catching a Whiff of Hot Jupiters: In 2007 Spitzer’s infrared spectrometer was used to make the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=1297\">first identification of chemicals\u003c/a> in the atmosphere of an exoplanet — two different exoplanets, a pair of gas giants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First Extrasolar Weather Report: In 2009, Spitzer produced the first \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2007-055\">“weather map” of an extrasolar planet\u003c/a>. A heat-map of the gas giant exoplanet HD 189733b revealed variations in temperature across its surface, as well as conditions for extreme atmosphere winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Most Earth-sized Exoplanets Orbiting a Star: Spitzer revealed a whopping \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7052\">seven Earth-sized exoplanets\u003c/a> orbiting the same tiny star, TRAPPIST-1, only 40 light years away. Though we don’t yet know much more about them than their sizes and distances from their star, we know that three of them orbit within the system’s “habitable zone,” where it is possible for liquid water to exist on their surfaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Most Distant Exoplanet: While most exoplanets have been found orbiting stars within about a thousand light years of Earth (our local neighborhood in the Milky Way galaxy), Spitzer helped detect an \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4550\">exoplanet 13,000 light years away\u003c/a>. The detection was made by a technique called “gravitational lensing,” where the exoplanet’s gravity bends and distorts the light of a more distant star.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Biggest, Farthest Black Holes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spitzer detected two of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=2520\">most distant supermassive black holes\u003c/a> ever discovered, at the cores of a pair of young active galaxies located near the edge of the observable universe. These active galaxies, or quasars, are so far away that it took the light that Spitzer captured 13 billion years to reach us, showing us these objects as they were in the very early universe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943686\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943686\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5-800x577.jpg\" alt=\"Infrared map of the core of the Milky Way galaxy, captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Images like this were used to create a complete infrared mosaic of the Milky Way, composed of more than 2 million images. \" width=\"800\" height=\"577\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5-800x577.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5-768x554.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5-1020x736.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5-1200x865.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5-1920x1385.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Infrared map of the core of the Milky Way galaxy, captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Images like this were used to create a complete infrared mosaic of the Milky Way, composed of more than 2 million images. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Map of the Hidden Reaches of the Milky Way\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the greater Milky Way galaxy is hidden from our eyes and telescopes by great clouds of interstellar dust. Infrared light, however, can penetrate clouds of dust that visible light cannot, affording Spitzer a view of objects and structures otherwise obscured, such as “baby” stars still enshrouded in the cocoons of gas and dust they were born from. Over two million infrared images captured by Spitzer were assembled in 2013 into the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4085\">most extensive map of the Milky Way galaxy\u003c/a> every created.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Early Retirement?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for almost 30 years — so why is Spitzer being \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7424\">retired after only half that time\u003c/a>? The answer, in part, is that Spitzer is losing its cool, so to speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To function as a detector of distant infrared radiation, Spitzer’s sensitive instruments must be kept at very cold temperatures — close to absolute zero, in fact; almost -460 Fahrenheit. This is so the instrument’s own heat emissions won’t interfere with the detection of the faint infrared signals from distant celestial objects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine if you tried to find your way around a dark room with a spotlight shining in your eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Liquid helium was used to supercool Spitzer’s infrared detectors — however the helium supply was depleted in 2009. Since then Spitzer has operated without cryogenic cooling, relying only on the passive cooling of its “sun shade” and its distance from Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two of Spitzer’s shorter wavelength instruments, however, can still be used, and in fact have made some of Spitzer’s more pivotal discoveries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Passing of the Torch\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Spitzer Space Telescope gets ready for its final shutdown, and the much older Hubble faces an eventual end of mission and de-orbiting sometime in the next decade or so, the successor to the great space telescope dynasty will be the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/\">James Webb Space Telescope\u003c/a>, a much larger, solar-orbiting observatory geared to observe the universe at infrared wavelengths of light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, as one era of unique cosmic perspective ends, another begins.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When you hear the phrase space telescope, you probably think of NASA’s venerable \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html\">Hubble\u003c/a>, which has brought us decades of unique and breathtaking images of the most distant reaches of space, cosmic discoveries of universe-shaking magnitude, and a nice gallery of stunning computer wallpaper selections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quietly working in tandem, NASA’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/\">Spitzer Space Telescope\u003c/a> has been making equally compelling cosmic discoveries through observations of the infrared light emitted by celestial objects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you haven’t heard about it, now may be a good time to take a look at its work. After over 15 years on the job, Spitzer is scheduled to retire next January, passing the torch to the next generation of eyes in the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>About Spitzer\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/mission/32-The-Mission\">Spitzer\u003c/a> was launched in 2003 on a Delta II rocket and placed into an Earth-trailing solar orbit, following behind the Earth at an ever-growing distance instead of orbiting around it like Hubble does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With each year of operation, Spitzer has moved over 9 million miles farther away. Today, though it still shares the same orbit around the sun with Earth, it is over 160 million miles from home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943675\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943675\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing the location of the Spitzer Space Telescope as it has grown steadily farther from Earth over the 15 years since its launch. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzers-orbit2.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing the location of the Spitzer Space Telescope as it has grown steadily farther from Earth over the 15 years since its launch. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Keeping Earth at a distance has advantages for an infrared telescope like Spitzer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For one, Spitzer’s sensitive observations are not interfered with by Earth’s heat glow. Spitzer’s forte is sensing faint infrared emissions from distant celestial objects, so being located near an enormous glowing heat-ball like Earth would be like trying to see a landscape against the blinding glare of the sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With its \u003ca href=\"http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/mission/36-Technology\">0.85-meter telescope and three infrared instruments\u003c/a>, Spitzer helps us appreciate what we can learn about the universe by observing the heat radiation emitted by celestial objects, as opposed to their visible light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Spitzer’s Greatest Hits\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spitzer’s list of accomplishments is long, but here are a few highlights of discoveries made possible by this space-based\u003cstrong>,\u003c/strong> infrared-only telescope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Exoplanet Discoveries\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeing the Light: In 2005 scientists using Spitzer announced the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=757\">first detection of light from an extrasolar planet \u003c/a>— a planet orbiting another star. Before this, exoplanets were detected indirectly, by the pull of their gravity on a star or their blocking of starlight. Visible light reflected by exoplanets is very faint compared to their stars, but Spitzer spotted two hot gas giant planets — dubbed “hot Jupiters” — orbiting so close to their stars that they glow brightly with infrared light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943678\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943678\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/hot-jupiter-nasa-esa-g.bacon-stsci-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/hot-jupiter-nasa-esa-g.bacon-stsci-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/hot-jupiter-nasa-esa-g.bacon-stsci-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/hot-jupiter-nasa-esa-g.bacon-stsci-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/hot-jupiter-nasa-esa-g.bacon-stsci-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/hot-jupiter-nasa-esa-g.bacon-stsci-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/hot-jupiter-nasa-esa-g.bacon-stsci.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist concept of a “hot Jupiter”: a gas giant exoplanet that orbits very close to its star. \u003ccite>(NASA/ESA/StSci/G. Bacon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Catching a Whiff of Hot Jupiters: In 2007 Spitzer’s infrared spectrometer was used to make the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=1297\">first identification of chemicals\u003c/a> in the atmosphere of an exoplanet — two different exoplanets, a pair of gas giants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First Extrasolar Weather Report: In 2009, Spitzer produced the first \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2007-055\">“weather map” of an extrasolar planet\u003c/a>. A heat-map of the gas giant exoplanet HD 189733b revealed variations in temperature across its surface, as well as conditions for extreme atmosphere winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Most Earth-sized Exoplanets Orbiting a Star: Spitzer revealed a whopping \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7052\">seven Earth-sized exoplanets\u003c/a> orbiting the same tiny star, TRAPPIST-1, only 40 light years away. Though we don’t yet know much more about them than their sizes and distances from their star, we know that three of them orbit within the system’s “habitable zone,” where it is possible for liquid water to exist on their surfaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Most Distant Exoplanet: While most exoplanets have been found orbiting stars within about a thousand light years of Earth (our local neighborhood in the Milky Way galaxy), Spitzer helped detect an \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4550\">exoplanet 13,000 light years away\u003c/a>. The detection was made by a technique called “gravitational lensing,” where the exoplanet’s gravity bends and distorts the light of a more distant star.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Biggest, Farthest Black Holes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spitzer detected two of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=2520\">most distant supermassive black holes\u003c/a> ever discovered, at the cores of a pair of young active galaxies located near the edge of the observable universe. These active galaxies, or quasars, are so far away that it took the light that Spitzer captured 13 billion years to reach us, showing us these objects as they were in the very early universe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943686\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943686\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5-800x577.jpg\" alt=\"Infrared map of the core of the Milky Way galaxy, captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Images like this were used to create a complete infrared mosaic of the Milky Way, composed of more than 2 million images. \" width=\"800\" height=\"577\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5-800x577.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5-768x554.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5-1020x736.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5-1200x865.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5-1920x1385.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/spitzer-milkywaycore5.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Infrared map of the core of the Milky Way galaxy, captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Images like this were used to create a complete infrared mosaic of the Milky Way, composed of more than 2 million images. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Map of the Hidden Reaches of the Milky Way\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the greater Milky Way galaxy is hidden from our eyes and telescopes by great clouds of interstellar dust. Infrared light, however, can penetrate clouds of dust that visible light cannot, affording Spitzer a view of objects and structures otherwise obscured, such as “baby” stars still enshrouded in the cocoons of gas and dust they were born from. Over two million infrared images captured by Spitzer were assembled in 2013 into the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4085\">most extensive map of the Milky Way galaxy\u003c/a> every created.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Early Retirement?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for almost 30 years — so why is Spitzer being \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7424\">retired after only half that time\u003c/a>? The answer, in part, is that Spitzer is losing its cool, so to speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To function as a detector of distant infrared radiation, Spitzer’s sensitive instruments must be kept at very cold temperatures — close to absolute zero, in fact; almost -460 Fahrenheit. This is so the instrument’s own heat emissions won’t interfere with the detection of the faint infrared signals from distant celestial objects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine if you tried to find your way around a dark room with a spotlight shining in your eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Liquid helium was used to supercool Spitzer’s infrared detectors — however the helium supply was depleted in 2009. Since then Spitzer has operated without cryogenic cooling, relying only on the passive cooling of its “sun shade” and its distance from Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two of Spitzer’s shorter wavelength instruments, however, can still be used, and in fact have made some of Spitzer’s more pivotal discoveries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Passing of the Torch\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Spitzer Space Telescope gets ready for its final shutdown, and the much older Hubble faces an eventual end of mission and de-orbiting sometime in the next decade or so, the successor to the great space telescope dynasty will be the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/\">James Webb Space Telescope\u003c/a>, a much larger, solar-orbiting observatory geared to observe the universe at infrared wavelengths of light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, as one era of unique cosmic perspective ends, another begins.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Mars 2020 Spacecraft Shaken, Stirred and Chilled in Tests of Space Worthiness",
"headTitle": "Mars 2020 Spacecraft Shaken, Stirred and Chilled in Tests of Space Worthiness | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>NASA can make the exploration of Mars look easy. Generations of robotic spacecraft sent to orbit, land upon, and rove about the Martian surface seem to do their jobs courageously without even working up a sweat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But behind the scenes of the flashy news headlines of exploration successes, NASA scientists and engineers sweat plenty, bleed a bit at times, and even shed tears on occasion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mission currently on deck in the sweat shop of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/\">Mars 2020 Rover\u003c/a>, the next robot that will set wheels on the dusty Martian landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943021\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 688px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1943021 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/688px-260184-JezeroCrater-Delta-Full.jpg\" alt=\"Color-enhanced image of Jezero Delta, a portion of Jezero Crater, the chosen landing destination for the Mars 2020 rover. The color enhancements indicate varying mineral content, with green showing water-formed clay deposits. Image created from measurements by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. \" width=\"688\" height=\"552\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/688px-260184-JezeroCrater-Delta-Full.jpg 688w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/688px-260184-JezeroCrater-Delta-Full-160x128.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 688px) 100vw, 688px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Color-enhanced image of Jezero Delta, a portion of Jezero Crater, the chosen landing destination for the Mars 2020 rover. The color enhancements indicate varying mineral content, with green showing water-formed clay deposits. Image created from measurements by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL/JHU-APL/MSSS/Brown University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Shake and Bake Trials\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is a monumental feat to hurl a robot millions of miles through the cold, radiation-blasted vacuum of space and safely navigate through an alien atmosphere to land on hard rock and abrasive, wind-blown soil. It is only accomplished after months and years of planning, testing, retesting and ultimately crossing fingers in hope of success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To lessen the risk of even a minor problem ending a mission prematurely — an electrical connector shaking loose, a bolt popping out, or a tiny but disastrous fuel leak — all space-bound equipment is subjected to rigorous testing, “trials of pain” designed to simulate the brutal conditions to be endured on the actual mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, scarcely a year from its scheduled launch, NASA’s Mars 2020 was put through such trials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First were the vibration tests — a sort of \u003cem>trial by very loud noise\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A duplicate stand-in of the Mars 2020 rover was placed within the aeroshell cocoon the real one will ride in all the way into Mars’ atmosphere, assembled in the same \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/spacecraft/\">configuration it will be for launch in July 2020\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This spacecraft “stack” was placed in a large chamber and blasted with over 150 decibels of random noise to simulate the vibrations of launch, the moment in any mission when spacecraft components are most likely to shake loose and come apart. Sound at the 150 decibels level is about what you’d experience standing 80 feet from a large jet engine at take-off — loud enough to rupture your eardrums.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Mars 2020 test stack passed the tests, letting mission engineers worry a bit less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943016\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1943016 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/22491_PIA23263-D2019_0426_G2775web-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"Engineers get the Mars 2020 rover (duplicate stand-in) and its aeroshell enclosure ready for thermal and vacuum testing in JPL's Space Simulator Facility. \" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/22491_PIA23263-D2019_0426_G2775web-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/22491_PIA23263-D2019_0426_G2775web-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/22491_PIA23263-D2019_0426_G2775web-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/22491_PIA23263-D2019_0426_G2775web-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/22491_PIA23263-D2019_0426_G2775web.jpg 1365w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Engineers get the Mars 2020 rover (duplicate stand-in) and its aeroshell enclosure ready for thermal and vacuum testing in JPL’s Space Simulator Facility. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Next, the spacecraft was \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8441/nasas-mars-2020-gets-a-dose-of-space-here-on-earth/\">placed in the 85-foot-tall Space Simulator Facility\u003c/a>, a chamber that has tested robot hardiness as far back as the early 1960s with the Mariner missions, and many since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chamber simulates the harsh environment of space, which the spacecraft will have to endure over seven months of cruising between Earth and Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After pumping the air out of the chamber to near vacuum, liquid nitrogen super-chilled its walls to -200 degrees F, a temperature cold enough to freeze a person solid in seconds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, as a finishing touch, powerful xenon lamps bathed the spacecraft in simulated sunlight, approximating the raw solar radiation the equipment will need to survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trial concluded successfully after a full eight days, assuring engineers that the spacecraft is as ready as it will ever be for the perils ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rehearsing a Mars Landing Here on Earth\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most intense, nail-biting, nerve-wracking part of the entire journey to Mars is not the thunderous rocket launch, or the seven months of interplanetary cruising to follow, but the brief moment of atmospheric \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/timeline/edl/\">entry, descent, and landing\u003c/a> (EDL), which has earned the title “Seven Minutes of Terror” from NASA operators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With so many things that could go wrong during EDL—a parachute failing to deploy, a rocket failing to fire, or a terminal crash-landing in unexpectedly rugged terrain—every iota of advanced disaster prevention that can be imagined is planned out and tested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Accordingly, NASA has made use of the arguably most Mars-like landscapes on Earth, Death Valley National Park, to \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7411\">test Mars 2020’s special Lander Vision System\u003c/a>. The LVS will guide Mars 2020 to a safe landing spot on the floor of its ultimate destination, \u003ca href=\"https://www.universetoday.com/140590/its-decided-the-mars-2020-rover-will-land-in-jezero-crater/\">Jezero Crater\u003c/a>, in February 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943017\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943017\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/PIA23265-16-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"NASA testing the Mars 2020 mission's Landing Vision System on the nose of an Airbus helicopter in Death Valley National Park. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/PIA23265-16-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/PIA23265-16-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/PIA23265-16-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/PIA23265-16-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/PIA23265-16-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/PIA23265-16.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA testing the Mars 2020 mission’s Landing Vision System on the nose of an Airbus helicopter in Death Valley National Park. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>NASA mounted an engineering duplicate of the LVS on the nose of a helicopter and flew it through a series of maneuvers over the rugged mountainous desert terrain in Death Valley. During the flights the LVS collected and analyzed imagery of the surface below, testing its ability to identify landing hazards and safe havens on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943020\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1943020 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/CngB2X1VIAAa-wn-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Mars 2020 will be the first mission with the ability to assess a prospective landing site in real-time and, if necessary, divert to an alternate, safer site. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/CngB2X1VIAAa-wn-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/CngB2X1VIAAa-wn-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/CngB2X1VIAAa-wn-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/CngB2X1VIAAa-wn-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/CngB2X1VIAAa-wn.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mars 2020 will be the first mission with the ability to assess a prospective landing site in real-time and, if necessary, divert to an alternate, safer site. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mars 2020 will be the first-ever robotic landing mission with the ability to \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/timeline/entry-descent-landing/\">retarget its precise landing site on the fly\u003c/a>, based on real-time terrain imaging data — something that past missions left somewhat to chance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Practice Makes Perfect?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exploration of other worlds in our solar system has never been easy. If you think that exploring Mars is a cakewalk, consider that of the \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/log/\">45 Mars missions attempted since 1960\u003c/a>, only 22 have been successful (or partially successful).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the unsuccessful attempts didn’t even get as far as Earth orbit, some experienced a failure during their interplanetary voyage, and some ended up crashing spectacularly upon arrival.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA has taken all the precautions it can to ensure a safe trip for Mars 2020. Engineers have tested everything that can be tested, imagined and planned for most things that can go wrong, and will continue to do so up to the day of launch in July 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, all that will be left to do is to cross fingers and hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>NASA can make the exploration of Mars look easy. Generations of robotic spacecraft sent to orbit, land upon, and rove about the Martian surface seem to do their jobs courageously without even working up a sweat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But behind the scenes of the flashy news headlines of exploration successes, NASA scientists and engineers sweat plenty, bleed a bit at times, and even shed tears on occasion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mission currently on deck in the sweat shop of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/\">Mars 2020 Rover\u003c/a>, the next robot that will set wheels on the dusty Martian landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943021\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 688px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1943021 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/688px-260184-JezeroCrater-Delta-Full.jpg\" alt=\"Color-enhanced image of Jezero Delta, a portion of Jezero Crater, the chosen landing destination for the Mars 2020 rover. The color enhancements indicate varying mineral content, with green showing water-formed clay deposits. Image created from measurements by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. \" width=\"688\" height=\"552\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/688px-260184-JezeroCrater-Delta-Full.jpg 688w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/688px-260184-JezeroCrater-Delta-Full-160x128.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 688px) 100vw, 688px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Color-enhanced image of Jezero Delta, a portion of Jezero Crater, the chosen landing destination for the Mars 2020 rover. The color enhancements indicate varying mineral content, with green showing water-formed clay deposits. Image created from measurements by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL/JHU-APL/MSSS/Brown University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Shake and Bake Trials\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is a monumental feat to hurl a robot millions of miles through the cold, radiation-blasted vacuum of space and safely navigate through an alien atmosphere to land on hard rock and abrasive, wind-blown soil. It is only accomplished after months and years of planning, testing, retesting and ultimately crossing fingers in hope of success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To lessen the risk of even a minor problem ending a mission prematurely — an electrical connector shaking loose, a bolt popping out, or a tiny but disastrous fuel leak — all space-bound equipment is subjected to rigorous testing, “trials of pain” designed to simulate the brutal conditions to be endured on the actual mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, scarcely a year from its scheduled launch, NASA’s Mars 2020 was put through such trials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First were the vibration tests — a sort of \u003cem>trial by very loud noise\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A duplicate stand-in of the Mars 2020 rover was placed within the aeroshell cocoon the real one will ride in all the way into Mars’ atmosphere, assembled in the same \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/spacecraft/\">configuration it will be for launch in July 2020\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This spacecraft “stack” was placed in a large chamber and blasted with over 150 decibels of random noise to simulate the vibrations of launch, the moment in any mission when spacecraft components are most likely to shake loose and come apart. Sound at the 150 decibels level is about what you’d experience standing 80 feet from a large jet engine at take-off — loud enough to rupture your eardrums.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Mars 2020 test stack passed the tests, letting mission engineers worry a bit less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943016\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1943016 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/22491_PIA23263-D2019_0426_G2775web-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"Engineers get the Mars 2020 rover (duplicate stand-in) and its aeroshell enclosure ready for thermal and vacuum testing in JPL's Space Simulator Facility. \" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/22491_PIA23263-D2019_0426_G2775web-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/22491_PIA23263-D2019_0426_G2775web-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/22491_PIA23263-D2019_0426_G2775web-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/22491_PIA23263-D2019_0426_G2775web-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/22491_PIA23263-D2019_0426_G2775web.jpg 1365w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Engineers get the Mars 2020 rover (duplicate stand-in) and its aeroshell enclosure ready for thermal and vacuum testing in JPL’s Space Simulator Facility. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Next, the spacecraft was \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8441/nasas-mars-2020-gets-a-dose-of-space-here-on-earth/\">placed in the 85-foot-tall Space Simulator Facility\u003c/a>, a chamber that has tested robot hardiness as far back as the early 1960s with the Mariner missions, and many since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chamber simulates the harsh environment of space, which the spacecraft will have to endure over seven months of cruising between Earth and Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After pumping the air out of the chamber to near vacuum, liquid nitrogen super-chilled its walls to -200 degrees F, a temperature cold enough to freeze a person solid in seconds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, as a finishing touch, powerful xenon lamps bathed the spacecraft in simulated sunlight, approximating the raw solar radiation the equipment will need to survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trial concluded successfully after a full eight days, assuring engineers that the spacecraft is as ready as it will ever be for the perils ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rehearsing a Mars Landing Here on Earth\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most intense, nail-biting, nerve-wracking part of the entire journey to Mars is not the thunderous rocket launch, or the seven months of interplanetary cruising to follow, but the brief moment of atmospheric \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/timeline/edl/\">entry, descent, and landing\u003c/a> (EDL), which has earned the title “Seven Minutes of Terror” from NASA operators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With so many things that could go wrong during EDL—a parachute failing to deploy, a rocket failing to fire, or a terminal crash-landing in unexpectedly rugged terrain—every iota of advanced disaster prevention that can be imagined is planned out and tested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Accordingly, NASA has made use of the arguably most Mars-like landscapes on Earth, Death Valley National Park, to \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7411\">test Mars 2020’s special Lander Vision System\u003c/a>. The LVS will guide Mars 2020 to a safe landing spot on the floor of its ultimate destination, \u003ca href=\"https://www.universetoday.com/140590/its-decided-the-mars-2020-rover-will-land-in-jezero-crater/\">Jezero Crater\u003c/a>, in February 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943017\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943017\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/PIA23265-16-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"NASA testing the Mars 2020 mission's Landing Vision System on the nose of an Airbus helicopter in Death Valley National Park. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/PIA23265-16-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/PIA23265-16-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/PIA23265-16-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/PIA23265-16-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/PIA23265-16-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/PIA23265-16.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA testing the Mars 2020 mission’s Landing Vision System on the nose of an Airbus helicopter in Death Valley National Park. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>NASA mounted an engineering duplicate of the LVS on the nose of a helicopter and flew it through a series of maneuvers over the rugged mountainous desert terrain in Death Valley. During the flights the LVS collected and analyzed imagery of the surface below, testing its ability to identify landing hazards and safe havens on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943020\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1943020 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/CngB2X1VIAAa-wn-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Mars 2020 will be the first mission with the ability to assess a prospective landing site in real-time and, if necessary, divert to an alternate, safer site. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/CngB2X1VIAAa-wn-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/CngB2X1VIAAa-wn-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/CngB2X1VIAAa-wn-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/CngB2X1VIAAa-wn-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/CngB2X1VIAAa-wn.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mars 2020 will be the first mission with the ability to assess a prospective landing site in real-time and, if necessary, divert to an alternate, safer site. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mars 2020 will be the first-ever robotic landing mission with the ability to \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/timeline/entry-descent-landing/\">retarget its precise landing site on the fly\u003c/a>, based on real-time terrain imaging data — something that past missions left somewhat to chance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Practice Makes Perfect?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exploration of other worlds in our solar system has never been easy. If you think that exploring Mars is a cakewalk, consider that of the \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/log/\">45 Mars missions attempted since 1960\u003c/a>, only 22 have been successful (or partially successful).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the unsuccessful attempts didn’t even get as far as Earth orbit, some experienced a failure during their interplanetary voyage, and some ended up crashing spectacularly upon arrival.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA has taken all the precautions it can to ensure a safe trip for Mars 2020. Engineers have tested everything that can be tested, imagined and planned for most things that can go wrong, and will continue to do so up to the day of launch in July 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, all that will be left to do is to cross fingers and hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Mars' High Flying Camera Reveals Planet in Exquisite Detail",
"headTitle": "Mars’ High Flying Camera Reveals Planet in Exquisite Detail | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>We have come a long way in our understanding of the planet Mars in the last few decades, and even the past several years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once visible only as a reddish spark in the night sky, when all that humans had to behold it with were bare eyes, Mars became more intriguing after the invention of the telescope 400 years ago. Mysterious surface markings and seasonal changes in color on Mars’ surface tantalized human scientific curiosity, and we had to know more.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003ca href=\"https://futurism.com/the-best-of-mros-hirise-images-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Best of MRO’s HiRISE Images \u003cem>(Futurism.com)\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Since we began sending robotic orbiters and, later, landers our understanding of our neighbor planet has skyrocketed to new heights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But no single mission has revealed so much of Mars’ surface in such astounding fine detail, revealed its dynamic geologic and meteorological processes with such exquisite finesse, and laid groundwork for so many other missions, as NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/\">Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MRO\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month NASA marks MRO’s tremendous achievements by celebrating its 60,000th orbit since arriving at Mars in 2006. In that time, the high-tech orbiter has brought us many discoveries and — if the past is a guide to the future — will bring many more\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003cem>\u003cb>.\u003c/b>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To date, MRO has captured over 378,000 high-resolution images of the Martian surface, returned over 360 terabits of scientific data to Earth, scouted out or mapped landing sites for seven missions, tracked the descent of three of them, and relayed one terabit of data from multiple surface missions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No two ways about it, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-mro-completes-60000-trips-around-mars\">MRO is a high-flying achiever.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Biggest Camera in Deep Space\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Loaded with a suite of scientific instruments, one of MRO’s most crowd-pleasing achievements is the fantastic set of hundreds of thousands of \u003ca href=\"https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/multimedia/images/\">images of Mars’ surface\u003c/a> captured with its \u003ca href=\"https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/mission/instruments/hirise/\">HiRISE\u003c/a> (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera. With a half-meter wide aperture, HiRISE is the largest camera ever sent into deep space, beyond the Earth-Moon system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1942081\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1942081\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056-800x500.jpg\" alt=\"Sand dunes that have formed by constant wind action moving in the same direction. Features like this help scientists map prevailing wind conditions on Mars' surface. \" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056-1200x750.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056-1920x1200.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sand dunes that have formed by constant wind action moving in the same direction. Features like this help scientists map prevailing wind conditions on Mars’ surface. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Capable of spotting objects not much larger than a beach ball from 190 miles up, and retargeting any location as often as every two weeks, HiRISE has revealed details of Mars that can only be surpassed by a lander or rover’s on-the-ground point of view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, MRO has a high-ground advantage over its surface-based cousins: from its polar orbit that winds around the globe, MRO has a sweeping view of the entire planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1942077\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1942077\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064-800x500.jpg\" alt=\"Tracks left behind by dust devils crossing a flat frosty plain in Mars' southern polar region.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064-1200x750.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064-1920x1200.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tracks left behind by dust devils crossing a flat frosty plain in Mars’ southern polar region. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Because MRO can capture images of the same regions repeatedly, it offers a sort of \u003ca href=\"https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/archive/PIA23238.gif\">time-lapse perspective\u003c/a> that reveals changes in Mars’ surface and atmosphere. This ability, more than for any other mission, has shown us that Mars is a highly dynamic planet, with seasonal cycles of \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA23238\">carbon dioxide\u003c/a> and water ice formation and decline, \u003ca href=\"https://www.uahirise.org/ESP_058960_1800\">landslides\u003c/a>, windstorms and dust devil activity, \u003ca href=\"https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21267\">meteorite impacts\u003c/a>, cloud formation and atmospheric circulation, and much more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Red-Planet Relay\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MRO is the best communications point, to date, on the Red Planet — one that can serve both space robots and any human explorers alike\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> You may recall how important orbital satellites were to ground operations on the film, “The Martian.” It was through repeated orbital surveillance, that mission control knew astronaut Mark Watney was still alive after his crew mates left him for dead. Then, when he managed to hot-wire the derelict Pathfinder lander, his attempts at communication with Earth were facilitated by orbital relaying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okay, so there hasn’t been any human drama like that in reality — yet — but MRO has already had a fine career as an orbital surveillance and communications relay station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1942079\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/pia19114_esp_039280_1755-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/pia19114_esp_039280_1755-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/pia19114_esp_039280_1755-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/pia19114_esp_039280_1755-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/pia19114_esp_039280_1755-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/pia19114_esp_039280_1755-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/pia19114_esp_039280_1755.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rovers like \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/video/mars-in-a-minute-phoning-home-communicating-from-mars/\">Curiosity can communicate directly with Earth\u003c/a>, via the giant radio receivers of \u003ca href=\"https://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/\">NASA’s Deep Space Network\u003c/a>, but when it comes to porting large amounts of scientific images and other data, using orbiters like MRO as go-betweens has some powerful advantages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At close range — from surface to orbit — radio signals are stronger and the data bandwidth greater. Curiosity can upload to MRO a large amount of data relatively quickly. Then, MRO can send the batch to Earth through its large, high-gain antenna. And since MRO has a direct line of sight with Earth most of the time, there is far less interruption in communication than for surface robots, which spend half of each day blocked from Earth by Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Robot Spotting\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because MRO’s HiRISE surveillance covers the entire surface of Mars, and can spot objects as small as a card table, it has been a wonderful tool not only for \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia15980.html\">tracking spacecraft\u003c/a> as they make their descent toward landing, but for \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro-20061204.html\">locating them\u003c/a> and providing \u003ca href=\"http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/mars/ctx-curiosity.html\">context imagery\u003c/a> and data of the areas around their landing sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1942078\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 727px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1942078\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/petals-3dc7d250ef3ea6426b4049043f8a57f39a784003-s800-c85.jpg\" alt=\"A "selfie" taken by NASA's Pathfinder lander, which carried the first successful rover mission to Mars' surface--Sojourner--in 1997. Though this early mission did not have the orbital support of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the now derelict lander has been spotted by MRO's HiRISE camera since.\" width=\"727\" height=\"545\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/petals-3dc7d250ef3ea6426b4049043f8a57f39a784003-s800-c85.jpg 727w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/petals-3dc7d250ef3ea6426b4049043f8a57f39a784003-s800-c85-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 727px) 100vw, 727px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A “selfie” taken by NASA’s Pathfinder lander, which carried the first successful rover mission to Mars’ surface \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over time, MRO has spotted Vikings 1 and 2, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro-20070111.html\">Pathfinder\u003c/a>, the rovers Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity, the Phoenix lander near Mars’ north pole, the new Insight lander, and even the ill-fated European Beagle 2, with which contact was lost during landing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of greater importance to landing missions is the job that puts the R into MRO: Reconnaissance. Landing a robot on Mars is tricky, especially for larger and more complicated vehicles like Curiosity, and the upcoming Mars 2020 rover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, getting detailed pictures and other measurements of the terrain and surface conditions of prospective landing sites gives mission planners the vital information they need to choose where to land, and then to plan the final landing maneuvers with as much safety as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MRO has scouted and mapped the sites for seven landing missions, including pre-landing reconnaissance and post-landing surveillance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Job Security For a Robot\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With plenty of geologic and meteorological action continually taking place on Mars, and future missions to scout out possible landing sites for, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter should remain on the NASA payroll for years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "This month NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter completed its 60,000th orbit of Mars.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>We have come a long way in our understanding of the planet Mars in the last few decades, and even the past several years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once visible only as a reddish spark in the night sky, when all that humans had to behold it with were bare eyes, Mars became more intriguing after the invention of the telescope 400 years ago. Mysterious surface markings and seasonal changes in color on Mars’ surface tantalized human scientific curiosity, and we had to know more.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003ca href=\"https://futurism.com/the-best-of-mros-hirise-images-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Best of MRO’s HiRISE Images \u003cem>(Futurism.com)\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Since we began sending robotic orbiters and, later, landers our understanding of our neighbor planet has skyrocketed to new heights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But no single mission has revealed so much of Mars’ surface in such astounding fine detail, revealed its dynamic geologic and meteorological processes with such exquisite finesse, and laid groundwork for so many other missions, as NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/\">Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MRO\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month NASA marks MRO’s tremendous achievements by celebrating its 60,000th orbit since arriving at Mars in 2006. In that time, the high-tech orbiter has brought us many discoveries and — if the past is a guide to the future — will bring many more\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003cem>\u003cb>.\u003c/b>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To date, MRO has captured over 378,000 high-resolution images of the Martian surface, returned over 360 terabits of scientific data to Earth, scouted out or mapped landing sites for seven missions, tracked the descent of three of them, and relayed one terabit of data from multiple surface missions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No two ways about it, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-mro-completes-60000-trips-around-mars\">MRO is a high-flying achiever.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Biggest Camera in Deep Space\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Loaded with a suite of scientific instruments, one of MRO’s most crowd-pleasing achievements is the fantastic set of hundreds of thousands of \u003ca href=\"https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/multimedia/images/\">images of Mars’ surface\u003c/a> captured with its \u003ca href=\"https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/mission/instruments/hirise/\">HiRISE\u003c/a> (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera. With a half-meter wide aperture, HiRISE is the largest camera ever sent into deep space, beyond the Earth-Moon system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1942081\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1942081\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056-800x500.jpg\" alt=\"Sand dunes that have formed by constant wind action moving in the same direction. Features like this help scientists map prevailing wind conditions on Mars' surface. \" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056-1200x750.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056-1920x1200.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22285_PIA23056.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sand dunes that have formed by constant wind action moving in the same direction. Features like this help scientists map prevailing wind conditions on Mars’ surface. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Capable of spotting objects not much larger than a beach ball from 190 miles up, and retargeting any location as often as every two weeks, HiRISE has revealed details of Mars that can only be surpassed by a lander or rover’s on-the-ground point of view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, MRO has a high-ground advantage over its surface-based cousins: from its polar orbit that winds around the globe, MRO has a sweeping view of the entire planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1942077\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1942077\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064-800x500.jpg\" alt=\"Tracks left behind by dust devils crossing a flat frosty plain in Mars' southern polar region.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064-1200x750.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064-1920x1200.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/22315_PIA23064.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tracks left behind by dust devils crossing a flat frosty plain in Mars’ southern polar region. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Because MRO can capture images of the same regions repeatedly, it offers a sort of \u003ca href=\"https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/archive/PIA23238.gif\">time-lapse perspective\u003c/a> that reveals changes in Mars’ surface and atmosphere. This ability, more than for any other mission, has shown us that Mars is a highly dynamic planet, with seasonal cycles of \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA23238\">carbon dioxide\u003c/a> and water ice formation and decline, \u003ca href=\"https://www.uahirise.org/ESP_058960_1800\">landslides\u003c/a>, windstorms and dust devil activity, \u003ca href=\"https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21267\">meteorite impacts\u003c/a>, cloud formation and atmospheric circulation, and much more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Red-Planet Relay\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MRO is the best communications point, to date, on the Red Planet — one that can serve both space robots and any human explorers alike\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> You may recall how important orbital satellites were to ground operations on the film, “The Martian.” It was through repeated orbital surveillance, that mission control knew astronaut Mark Watney was still alive after his crew mates left him for dead. Then, when he managed to hot-wire the derelict Pathfinder lander, his attempts at communication with Earth were facilitated by orbital relaying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okay, so there hasn’t been any human drama like that in reality — yet — but MRO has already had a fine career as an orbital surveillance and communications relay station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1942079\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/pia19114_esp_039280_1755-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/pia19114_esp_039280_1755-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/pia19114_esp_039280_1755-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/pia19114_esp_039280_1755-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/pia19114_esp_039280_1755-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/pia19114_esp_039280_1755-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/pia19114_esp_039280_1755.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rovers like \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/video/mars-in-a-minute-phoning-home-communicating-from-mars/\">Curiosity can communicate directly with Earth\u003c/a>, via the giant radio receivers of \u003ca href=\"https://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/\">NASA’s Deep Space Network\u003c/a>, but when it comes to porting large amounts of scientific images and other data, using orbiters like MRO as go-betweens has some powerful advantages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At close range — from surface to orbit — radio signals are stronger and the data bandwidth greater. Curiosity can upload to MRO a large amount of data relatively quickly. Then, MRO can send the batch to Earth through its large, high-gain antenna. And since MRO has a direct line of sight with Earth most of the time, there is far less interruption in communication than for surface robots, which spend half of each day blocked from Earth by Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Robot Spotting\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because MRO’s HiRISE surveillance covers the entire surface of Mars, and can spot objects as small as a card table, it has been a wonderful tool not only for \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia15980.html\">tracking spacecraft\u003c/a> as they make their descent toward landing, but for \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro-20061204.html\">locating them\u003c/a> and providing \u003ca href=\"http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/mars/ctx-curiosity.html\">context imagery\u003c/a> and data of the areas around their landing sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1942078\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 727px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1942078\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/petals-3dc7d250ef3ea6426b4049043f8a57f39a784003-s800-c85.jpg\" alt=\"A "selfie" taken by NASA's Pathfinder lander, which carried the first successful rover mission to Mars' surface--Sojourner--in 1997. Though this early mission did not have the orbital support of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the now derelict lander has been spotted by MRO's HiRISE camera since.\" width=\"727\" height=\"545\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/petals-3dc7d250ef3ea6426b4049043f8a57f39a784003-s800-c85.jpg 727w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/petals-3dc7d250ef3ea6426b4049043f8a57f39a784003-s800-c85-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 727px) 100vw, 727px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A “selfie” taken by NASA’s Pathfinder lander, which carried the first successful rover mission to Mars’ surface \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over time, MRO has spotted Vikings 1 and 2, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro-20070111.html\">Pathfinder\u003c/a>, the rovers Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity, the Phoenix lander near Mars’ north pole, the new Insight lander, and even the ill-fated European Beagle 2, with which contact was lost during landing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of greater importance to landing missions is the job that puts the R into MRO: Reconnaissance. Landing a robot on Mars is tricky, especially for larger and more complicated vehicles like Curiosity, and the upcoming Mars 2020 rover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, getting detailed pictures and other measurements of the terrain and surface conditions of prospective landing sites gives mission planners the vital information they need to choose where to land, and then to plan the final landing maneuvers with as much safety as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MRO has scouted and mapped the sites for seven landing missions, including pre-landing reconnaissance and post-landing surveillance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Job Security For a Robot\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With plenty of geologic and meteorological action continually taking place on Mars, and future missions to scout out possible landing sites for, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter should remain on the NASA payroll for years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "This Asteroid Won't Hit Earth, But It's Coming Pretty Dang Close",
"headTitle": "This Asteroid Won’t Hit Earth, But It’s Coming Pretty Dang Close | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Asteroids are out there, even if you can’t always see them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Want some naked-eye proof? It’s coming, in the form of a mountain of space rock named Apophis, for the Egyptian god of chaos; his task is to prevent the sun from rising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stretching three-and-a-half football fields long, Apophis will cruise within 19,000 miles of Earth—the closest this large an asteroid has come in recorded history. Apophis will swing inside our ring of geosynchronous satellites on April 13, 2029.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yes, that is a Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941472\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1941472\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-800x381.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing the trajectory of the asteroid Apophis when it swings within 19,000 miles of Earth on April 13, 2029. The blue dots represent artificial satellites orbiting the Earth, and the purple ring shows the orbit of the International Space Station. \" width=\"800\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-800x381.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-160x76.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-768x366.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029.jpg 998w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing the trajectory of the asteroid Apophis when it swings within 19,000 miles of Earth on April 13, 2029. The blue dots represent artificial satellites orbiting the Earth, and the purple ring shows the orbit of the International Space Station. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But don’t worry, NASA has it all figured. Any bad luck that may befall you on that day won’t come from Apophis—probably. An earlier worst-case prediction that gave a 2.7 percent chance of Apophis striking the Earth has since been downgraded to practically nil. Actually, that’s an upgrade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Apophis is a Sparkle in NASA’s Eye\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, NASA scientists \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/923/scientists-planning-now-for-asteroid-flyby-a-decade-away/\">look forward to Apophis’\u003c/a> near miss. Given a decade to prepare, NASA might even send a robotic probe to rendezvous with the rock. At minimum, it’s an incredible opportunity to make close-up observations of a large asteroid. Apophis is large enough, and will be close enough, to see with our bare eyes, so Earth-based optical and radio telescopes will have an unprecedented view of the spectacle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941471\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 376px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941471\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-discovery-image-credit-UHIA-376x400.jpg\" alt=\"The discovery photo of asteroid Apophis, June 19, 2004. \" width=\"376\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-discovery-image-credit-UHIA-376x400.jpg 376w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-discovery-image-credit-UHIA-376x400-160x170.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 376px) 100vw, 376px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The discovery photo of asteroid Apophis, June 19, 2004. \u003ccite>(UH/IA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the \u003ca href=\"http://pdc.iaaweb.org/\">2019 Planetary Defense Conference\u003c/a> held in Maryland this April, scientists brainstormed all the possible ways to take advantage of a flyby that others might see only as a narrowly averted disaster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA has used radio telescopes before to\u003ca href=\"http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2010/2462.html\"> produce rudimentary images\u003c/a> of some passing asteroids, though these were either smaller ones or much farther away. The last time any rock this size passed close to Earth was in 2001, the asteroid 2017 VW13. That one is estimated to have passed within 76,000 miles, a third of the distance to the moon. And, since it wasn’t discovered until 2017, no one even noticed it fly by!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>God of Chaos\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apophis is classified today as a “\u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/neo_groups.html\">Potentially Hazardous Asteroid\u003c/a>” (PHA). This means that it periodically crosses Earth’s orbital path, and is large enough to do some major damage if it were to hit us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Far from being an infrequent visitor from deep space as many comets are, coming around only every few decades or centuries, Apophis is a denizen of the inner solar system. Its 324-day orbit carries it from just outside Earth’s orbit at its farthest point from the sun, almost to the orbit of Venus at its closest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941470\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1941470\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-800x410.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing the orbits of the planets of the inner solar system, and the asteroid Apophis. \" width=\"800\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-800x410.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-160x82.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-768x394.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons.jpg 936w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing the orbits of the planets of the inner solar system, and the asteroid Apophis. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You might think that because Apophis crosses Earth’s orbit more than once each year, the chance of collision is an ever-present threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, most of the time when Apophis crosses our path, Earth is at a different point in its orbit. It’s only those times when our orbital positions sync up that there’s any chance of bumping into each other. Think of a carnival carousel and that brass ring you try to grab each time your horse passes by it. You only have a shot at getting that ring if it swings close when you pass—and even then there’s no guarantee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>April 13, 2029 is one of those match-ups, and scientists are keenly eyeing the brass ring of new discovery that will be briefly within their reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Are the Chances?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While small objects pass close to Earth on a routine basis, and even collide with us more often than you might think, most go unnoticed. Three quarters of them fall over open ocean, most of the rest over sparsely populated land. And those that don’t break up in the atmosphere have limited effects when they hit the water or the ground anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Larger, more dangerous rocks make appearances with far less frequency—and the bigger they are, the rarer the encounter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\">Notable impacts in recent history include the \u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/30jun_tunguska\">Tunguska\u003c/a> comet or meteorite impact in Siberia in 1908, and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/five-years-after-the-chelyabinsk-meteor-nasa-leads-efforts-in-planetary-defense\">Chelyabinsk\u003c/a> event in Russia in 2013. Both were smaller than Apophis, but were relatively large objects: between 200 and 600 feet across in the case of Tunguska, and about 66 feet for Chelyabinsk. They exploded in Earth’s atmosphere, producing significant effects on the ground below, though no known fatalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Larger collisions with greater regional and even global effects can be found in prehistoric times, such as the impact that formed \u003ca href=\"https://www.barringercrater.com/\">Barringer Crater\u003c/a> (aka “Meteor Crater”) in Arizona 50,000 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find a “dinosaur killer” impact event you’d have to look all the way back to, well, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Chicxulub/regional-effects/\">\u003cem>dinosaur killer\u003c/em> impact\u003c/a>, 66 million years ago. The asteroid that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/25256/dinosaur-extinction-new-research-favors-volcanism-as-cause\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contributed to ending\u003c/a> the dinosaurs’s long reign on Earth, which struck the northern end of the Yucatan Peninsula near Chicxulub, Mexico, was probably six miles across.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941473\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941473\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/536px-Yucatan_chix_crater.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram detailing the remnants of the Chixulub impact crater on the Yucatan Peninsula. Though now buried under jungle and ocean sediment, evidence of the crater can be found through radar imaging and mineral analysis of rock samples.\" width=\"536\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/536px-Yucatan_chix_crater.jpg 536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/536px-Yucatan_chix_crater-160x179.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 536px) 100vw, 536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram detailing the remnants of the Chicxulub impact crater on the Yucatan Peninsula. Though now buried under jungle and ocean sediment, evidence of the crater can be found through radar imaging and mineral analysis of rock samples. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/David Fuchs)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Defending Against Near Earth Objects\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, we aren’t completely in the dark about the dangers posed by \u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/\">Near-Earth Objects\u003c/a>. We’re also not completely helpless when it comes to defending our planet from them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years now, an \u003ca href=\"https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/mpc.html\">international coalition\u003c/a> of observers and researchers have collaborated to find, measure, and track \u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/\">Near-Earth Objects\u003c/a>. The data they collect are used to calculate the probability of a collision, and to predict the \u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/pd/cs/\">level of damage\u003c/a> in the event of a hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, a major asteroid impact with Earth is a matter of when, not if. But the good news is that none are predicted in the foreseeable future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current approach to \u003ca href=\"https://b612foundation.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">planetary defense\u003c/a> hinges on the idea that the further in advance we can predict an impact, the more time we have to do something about it. If we know it’s coming years before the fact, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/content/asteroid-grand-challenge/mitigate/gravity-tractor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tiny “nudge”\u003c/a> to the asteroid’s trajectory can make the difference between a catastrophic impact and a harmless near miss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What About Apophis’ Next Flyby?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The probability of Apophis hitting the Earth in 2029 has been practically ruled out. Its close passage through Earth’s gravitational field, though, will result in a change in its orbital path, so \u003ca href=\"https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/god-of-chaos-apophis-asteroid-strike-orbit-earth-danger-apophis-a8901781.html\">careful observations of the flyby\u003c/a> will yield more than scientific discovery, it will let us make more precise collision predictions for future encounters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As things stand now, Apophis will make another close encounter with Earth in 2036, but will come no closer than 14 million miles. Beyond that, the chance of it hitting us anytime between 2060 and 2105 is 1 in 110,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nothing I’m going to lose sleep over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Potentially Hazardous Asteroid called Apophis will narrowly miss Earth in 2029 -- so narrowly you'll be able to see it with your own eyes.",
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"title": "This Asteroid Won't Hit Earth, But It's Coming Pretty Dang Close | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Asteroids are out there, even if you can’t always see them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Want some naked-eye proof? It’s coming, in the form of a mountain of space rock named Apophis, for the Egyptian god of chaos; his task is to prevent the sun from rising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stretching three-and-a-half football fields long, Apophis will cruise within 19,000 miles of Earth—the closest this large an asteroid has come in recorded history. Apophis will swing inside our ring of geosynchronous satellites on April 13, 2029.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yes, that is a Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941472\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1941472\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-800x381.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing the trajectory of the asteroid Apophis when it swings within 19,000 miles of Earth on April 13, 2029. The blue dots represent artificial satellites orbiting the Earth, and the purple ring shows the orbit of the International Space Station. \" width=\"800\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-800x381.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-160x76.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029-768x366.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-trajectory-April-13_2029.jpg 998w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing the trajectory of the asteroid Apophis when it swings within 19,000 miles of Earth on April 13, 2029. The blue dots represent artificial satellites orbiting the Earth, and the purple ring shows the orbit of the International Space Station. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But don’t worry, NASA has it all figured. Any bad luck that may befall you on that day won’t come from Apophis—probably. An earlier worst-case prediction that gave a 2.7 percent chance of Apophis striking the Earth has since been downgraded to practically nil. Actually, that’s an upgrade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Apophis is a Sparkle in NASA’s Eye\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, NASA scientists \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/923/scientists-planning-now-for-asteroid-flyby-a-decade-away/\">look forward to Apophis’\u003c/a> near miss. Given a decade to prepare, NASA might even send a robotic probe to rendezvous with the rock. At minimum, it’s an incredible opportunity to make close-up observations of a large asteroid. Apophis is large enough, and will be close enough, to see with our bare eyes, so Earth-based optical and radio telescopes will have an unprecedented view of the spectacle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941471\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 376px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941471\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-discovery-image-credit-UHIA-376x400.jpg\" alt=\"The discovery photo of asteroid Apophis, June 19, 2004. \" width=\"376\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-discovery-image-credit-UHIA-376x400.jpg 376w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-discovery-image-credit-UHIA-376x400-160x170.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 376px) 100vw, 376px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The discovery photo of asteroid Apophis, June 19, 2004. \u003ccite>(UH/IA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the \u003ca href=\"http://pdc.iaaweb.org/\">2019 Planetary Defense Conference\u003c/a> held in Maryland this April, scientists brainstormed all the possible ways to take advantage of a flyby that others might see only as a narrowly averted disaster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA has used radio telescopes before to\u003ca href=\"http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2010/2462.html\"> produce rudimentary images\u003c/a> of some passing asteroids, though these were either smaller ones or much farther away. The last time any rock this size passed close to Earth was in 2001, the asteroid 2017 VW13. That one is estimated to have passed within 76,000 miles, a third of the distance to the moon. And, since it wasn’t discovered until 2017, no one even noticed it fly by!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>God of Chaos\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apophis is classified today as a “\u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/neo_groups.html\">Potentially Hazardous Asteroid\u003c/a>” (PHA). This means that it periodically crosses Earth’s orbital path, and is large enough to do some major damage if it were to hit us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Far from being an infrequent visitor from deep space as many comets are, coming around only every few decades or centuries, Apophis is a denizen of the inner solar system. Its 324-day orbit carries it from just outside Earth’s orbit at its farthest point from the sun, almost to the orbit of Venus at its closest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941470\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1941470\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-800x410.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing the orbits of the planets of the inner solar system, and the asteroid Apophis. \" width=\"800\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-800x410.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-160x82.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons-768x394.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Apophis-orbit-JPL-Horizons.jpg 936w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing the orbits of the planets of the inner solar system, and the asteroid Apophis. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You might think that because Apophis crosses Earth’s orbit more than once each year, the chance of collision is an ever-present threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, most of the time when Apophis crosses our path, Earth is at a different point in its orbit. It’s only those times when our orbital positions sync up that there’s any chance of bumping into each other. Think of a carnival carousel and that brass ring you try to grab each time your horse passes by it. You only have a shot at getting that ring if it swings close when you pass—and even then there’s no guarantee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>April 13, 2029 is one of those match-ups, and scientists are keenly eyeing the brass ring of new discovery that will be briefly within their reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Are the Chances?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While small objects pass close to Earth on a routine basis, and even collide with us more often than you might think, most go unnoticed. Three quarters of them fall over open ocean, most of the rest over sparsely populated land. And those that don’t break up in the atmosphere have limited effects when they hit the water or the ground anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Larger, more dangerous rocks make appearances with far less frequency—and the bigger they are, the rarer the encounter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\">Notable impacts in recent history include the \u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/30jun_tunguska\">Tunguska\u003c/a> comet or meteorite impact in Siberia in 1908, and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/five-years-after-the-chelyabinsk-meteor-nasa-leads-efforts-in-planetary-defense\">Chelyabinsk\u003c/a> event in Russia in 2013. Both were smaller than Apophis, but were relatively large objects: between 200 and 600 feet across in the case of Tunguska, and about 66 feet for Chelyabinsk. They exploded in Earth’s atmosphere, producing significant effects on the ground below, though no known fatalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Larger collisions with greater regional and even global effects can be found in prehistoric times, such as the impact that formed \u003ca href=\"https://www.barringercrater.com/\">Barringer Crater\u003c/a> (aka “Meteor Crater”) in Arizona 50,000 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find a “dinosaur killer” impact event you’d have to look all the way back to, well, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Chicxulub/regional-effects/\">\u003cem>dinosaur killer\u003c/em> impact\u003c/a>, 66 million years ago. The asteroid that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/25256/dinosaur-extinction-new-research-favors-volcanism-as-cause\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contributed to ending\u003c/a> the dinosaurs’s long reign on Earth, which struck the northern end of the Yucatan Peninsula near Chicxulub, Mexico, was probably six miles across.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941473\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941473\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/536px-Yucatan_chix_crater.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram detailing the remnants of the Chixulub impact crater on the Yucatan Peninsula. Though now buried under jungle and ocean sediment, evidence of the crater can be found through radar imaging and mineral analysis of rock samples.\" width=\"536\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/536px-Yucatan_chix_crater.jpg 536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/536px-Yucatan_chix_crater-160x179.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 536px) 100vw, 536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram detailing the remnants of the Chicxulub impact crater on the Yucatan Peninsula. Though now buried under jungle and ocean sediment, evidence of the crater can be found through radar imaging and mineral analysis of rock samples. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/David Fuchs)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Defending Against Near Earth Objects\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, we aren’t completely in the dark about the dangers posed by \u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/\">Near-Earth Objects\u003c/a>. We’re also not completely helpless when it comes to defending our planet from them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years now, an \u003ca href=\"https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/mpc.html\">international coalition\u003c/a> of observers and researchers have collaborated to find, measure, and track \u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/\">Near-Earth Objects\u003c/a>. The data they collect are used to calculate the probability of a collision, and to predict the \u003ca href=\"https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/pd/cs/\">level of damage\u003c/a> in the event of a hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, a major asteroid impact with Earth is a matter of when, not if. But the good news is that none are predicted in the foreseeable future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current approach to \u003ca href=\"https://b612foundation.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">planetary defense\u003c/a> hinges on the idea that the further in advance we can predict an impact, the more time we have to do something about it. If we know it’s coming years before the fact, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/content/asteroid-grand-challenge/mitigate/gravity-tractor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tiny “nudge”\u003c/a> to the asteroid’s trajectory can make the difference between a catastrophic impact and a harmless near miss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What About Apophis’ Next Flyby?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The probability of Apophis hitting the Earth in 2029 has been practically ruled out. Its close passage through Earth’s gravitational field, though, will result in a change in its orbital path, so \u003ca href=\"https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/god-of-chaos-apophis-asteroid-strike-orbit-earth-danger-apophis-a8901781.html\">careful observations of the flyby\u003c/a> will yield more than scientific discovery, it will let us make more precise collision predictions for future encounters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As things stand now, Apophis will make another close encounter with Earth in 2036, but will come no closer than 14 million miles. Beyond that, the chance of it hitting us anytime between 2060 and 2105 is 1 in 110,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nothing I’m going to lose sleep over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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