Category Archives: Space

Going back to the moon

Smarter Every Day: How NASA Trained Lunar Lander Pilots. (YouTube, 23min)

“We’re going back to the moon, and we’re going to need to train Astronauts how to land. This video is the result of trying to understand that control problem better. In the next video of this series, I’ll show you footage from an actual NASA Lunar Lander software test I participated in many years ago.”

The video includes an interview with C. Wayne Ottinger, NASA Apollo LLRV Project Engineer.

OK GO: Upside down & Inside Out

I posted about this music video twice before, but the links have since broken. Here’s an update:

OK Go: Upside Down & Inside Out music video (YouTube, 3:21min)

Background material, all YouTube links:

Source: OK GO Videos and OK GO YouTube Channel.

“Marzine has gone to the Moon, Travel sickness hasn’t”

Pharmama: Pharmazie auf dem Mond. “Gelegentlich findet man in Kundenretouren von Alt-Medikamenten wirkliche Schätze. Dieses hier zum Beispiel: Marzine war ein Mittel gegen Übelkeit, das ich auch noch kannte. Es ging 2008 – damals habe ich angefangen zu bloggen – in der Schweiz ausser Handel. Es enthält Cyclizin, ist ein altes Antihistaminikum (erste Klasse) und wirkt antiallergisch, antiemetisch (gegen Übelkeit) und beruhigend. Cyclicin gehörte zu den ersten Antihistaminika und wurde von der NASA beim Mondflug als Mittel gegen Übelkeit verwendet. Dabei macht es anscheinend weniger müde als andere Antihistaminika, weshalb es von der WHO 2011 auf die Liste der unentbehrlichen Medikamente für Kinder aufgenommen wurde.”

Space is big.

“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.“ Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Harry Evett: Universe Size Comparison 3D (YouTube, 5:07min)

morn1415: Star Size Comparison 2. (YouTube, the interesting part is between 0:41 and 5:53min; the whole video is 6:50min.)

morn1415: Star Size Comparison 3 (Vortex V1). (YouTube, 8:16min)

morn1415: Real Images from the Solar System! (YouTube, 11:22min)

“Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me.”

NPR Science: 50 Years Ago, Americans Made The 2nd Moon Landing… Why Doesn’t Anyone Remember?

“Fifty years ago, astronaut Pete Conrad stepped out of the lunar module onto the surface of the moon.

His first words were: “Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me.”

Conrad, who stood at just 5 feet 6 inches tall, was only the third human to set foot on the lunar surface. He did it on November 19, 1969, just four months after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first lunar landing. However, unlike Armstrong and Aldrin, Conrad and fellow astronaut Alan Bean are not household names.”