September

The Dark Side Of The Moon

Have you ever seen the dark side of the moon, that is to say, the side always facing away from the Earth? Of course, I mean a photo taken by a probe or spacecraft. The one you see here was taken by Apollo 16. The first photos of the region were taken by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 in 1959 but the astronauts of Apollo 8 were the first humans to directly observe the far side.

Most people don't know this, but in reality, there is no dark side. Both sides experience two weeks of sunlight followed by two weeks of darkness. The reason for this is that the moon is now in a state known as, tidal lock. The Earth's tidal forces have slowed down the Moon's rotation to the point where the same side is always facing the Earth and the effect of which is easy to see from the two images.

Because the moon does not rotate the surface features are vastly different with many more craters on the dark side.

All photos courtesy of NASA

The last photo shows some of the names of craters.

Randy

"I'm not saying it was Rocket Babe...

"...But it was Rocket Babe..."

We love Giorgio Tsoukalos! Catch him and the aliens on History Channel!"

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Above you see a rare photo of Dave Miller, appropriately dressed in black as owner of the clandestine black ops organization known as Sirius Rocketry! What does he do in his spare time? He reads Rocket Babe, what else?

That's a nice looking Cestris Fighter he's holding too! Get yours from https://www.siriusrocketry.com

Verna Starr Cestris Fighter!

Above you see our favorite Sirius kit, the Cestris. The kit is intended to fly on a single engine but it was easily modified to a 3 engine cluster complete with Verna Starr fighter decals, also available from Sirius.

Randy

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America’s Dune Buggy

Americans love their cars, so it's only natural that our astronauts would take one with them to the moon. Of course the idea was to extend their range for exploration and to make the most of the time they were there but most of us know it was also another way to leave America's mark on the moon.

If you ever see a video of the buggy in operation you'll see the tires slinging dust.

The Lunar Roving Vehicle, or LRV, was designed to transport two astronauts and their equipment faster, farther and safer.

Apollo missions 15-17 all left a moon buggy when they returned home, so if you ever manage to land yourself near one of those three Apollo landing sights you have a car waiting on you and they're low mileage too. They were only used once and were left in near excellent condition although, a little dusty but be sure and take 2 new 32 volt Delco batteries with you. The rest should still be in pretty good shape.

The idea, for a lunar rover actually came from von Braun himself; in 1952! It took almost another 20 years to get a car on the moon and it had to be electric but by god, 3 of them are there!

The first rover was used during the Apollo 15 mission on July 31, 1971. With a top speed of 11 mph the Astros were able to greatly increase their range.

The color camera mounted on the rover could be operated remotely by Mission Control and this ability allowed NASA to position the LRV and its camera so as watch live, the ascent stage of Apollo 17 lifting off.

The moment in time all astronaut's and their families held their breath. With all that had to happen to get them there and all they did before this instant in time, everything comes down to ascent stage ignition. Otherwise, there are 2 guys who are literally, between a bag of rocks, and a hard place.

YouTube is loaded with video from all kinds of NASA missions but of all the videos I have ever watched, the video of the ascent module of Apollo 17 blasting off is my all time favorite.

The descent stage of the lander, which also served as the launch pad for the ascent module, appears to have taken a beating from the ascent stage liftoff and remains, a lonely sentinel of the Apollo 17 landing site.

As someone who grew up during the Space Race and who saw it all from 1962 forward, I can only hope my grand kids get to see American men and women return to the moon and go beyond. We've had that ability for 50 years but our politicians lack the backbone/testicles and VISION needed, to move us forward. They are more concerned with paying for votes than paying for new discoveries.

Randy

"Come to the dark side... of the moon!"