Today India launched its first moon mission. The lunar orbiter named Chandrayaan-1, which is Sanskrit for “Moon Craft” was launched from the Sriharikota space center in southern India. Chandrayaan-1 will join the Japanese lunar orbiter Kaguya launched in October 2007 and the Chinese orbiter Chang’e-1.
Kevin Knuth
Albany NY
Posted under Uncategorized
This post was written by drknuth on October 21, 2008
Google announced yesterday that they are joining with the X Prize Foundation to sponsor the Google Lunar X Prize which offers $30 Million to the first two privately-funded teams that successfully lands and roves a robotic explorer the lunar surface. This prize, which is the largest private prize ever, is aimed at creating a global private space race that involves the public in space exploration.
The recent Ansari X Prize was awarded to Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites who succeeded in launching the first manned reusable private spacecraft into space. These prizes are motivated by the early prizes in aviation that led to Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic only 80 years ago.
So start aiming at the Moon!
Kevin Knuth
Albany NY
Posted under Entrepreneurship, Exploration, Fun, Intelligent Systems, Inventions, Research, Robotics, Space, Technology, Uncategorized
This post was written by drknuth on September 14, 2007
As I mentioned in my previous post, I was fortunate to be able to attend the Premier Showing of the documentary “In the Shadow of the Moon” and the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. I had no idea what to expect, although the brochure mentioned joining the filmmakers and the astronauts. It was unclear to me if they were referring to astronauts from the Shuttle missions, or if there would be astronauts from Apollo.
I went with Deniz Gencaga, and he spotted Buzz Aldrin almost immediately on arrival. Accompanying Dr. Aldrin were Alan Bean (Apollo 12), Charlie Duke (Apollo 16), Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14), and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17). We were fortunate to get to meet and speak to each of these gentlemen… 5 out of 12 of the only humans to ever set foot on an alien world.
There was always a crowd surrounding Buzz Aldrin (picture above), and we didn’t spend a lot of time with him. We did end up walking behind him down the hall of the Planetarium on the way to the theater. I was impressed to see that Buzz was slowing down to take time to look at the fantastic photos of Mars, and Jupiter along the way. I love to see people truly interested in discovering new things, and it was great to see that even a man who walked on the Moon is moved by photos of the surface of Mars. I thought that he probably appreciates these images in a way that I never can.
We spend quite a bit of time talking to Alan Bean, who was extremely friendly. I thanked each of these gentlemen for the inspiration they gave me when I was young, and Alan asked what I did. I told him about my time as a Research Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, and that I am today a physics professor at the University at Albany—still doing NASA-funded research. I found out that he is an artist, and has a website with paintings of various moments and events, real and imagined, on the Moon. These paintings are excellent and I urge you to take a look.
Harrison Schmitt and his wife Teresa were extremely kind to us. We spent some time talking with Harrison, and I told him about our research to look for organic molecules in space. Teresa then asked if we had a camera and if we would like a picture taken with Harrison. I had brought my camera, but didn’t want to impose on these people who I was honored to meet. I excitedly agreed. Below is the photo Teresa Schmitt took of Deniz and me.
Thank you!!!
I tried to find Harrison Schmitt later, since I wanted to ask what the Valley of Taurus Littrow looked like. This is an extremely deep valley, but I can never quite make it out its depth and scale on the Apollo images. Unfortunately, I did not find him.
We spent some time listening to Charlie Duke give an interview. He told a story about the only moment that he was actually afraid during the mission. Apollo 16 flew in 1972 during the summer olympics. Charlie decided that he would try for the high jump record, and he jumped high off the lunar surface. However, he fell backwards, and at that moment he feared (rightfully so) that this jump would end up killing him. Fortunately it didn’t!
Last, we met Edgar Mitchell. However, he had realized that he had lost his wife. We couldn’t help him with that, so we said goodbye and wished him luck.
It was a fantastic experience, and I was extremely pleased to see that after all these years of attention, these gentlemen were as friendly and as open as ever. I would again like to thank them all for their efforts, sacrifice, bravery and most of all the inspiration that they gave a generation of boys and girls.
It is too bad that the children of today do not have heroes of this magnitude to look up to. It has been so long since we have had true heroes, that it seems we have forgotten what being a hero means and have replaced the concept of Hero with that of Celebrity. Sad.
I did have one funny moment where I was looking for someone to take a photo of Deniz and me in front of a mural depicting the lunar landscape. I saw a man walking along with his son, and I started to ask him to take a photo of us. All I said was “Excus…” when I realized that I recognized him. I paused to consider, and then I realized that it was Stephen Colbert! I never did ask him, although now I wish I’d had.
Kevin Knuth
Albany NY
Posted under Astronomy, Exploration, Space
This post was written by drknuth on September 6, 2007
I had the great fortune last night to attend the premiere showing of the new documentary “In the Shadow of the Moon“. This film won Best Documentary Award at the Sundance Film Fetsival, and I must say that it was truly inspirational! It is a fantastic film that documents the Apollo missions to the Moon by interweaving footage from the Apollo missions with recent interviews with the astronauts who flew in those missions. To hear them recount their experiences was utterly fascinating, and to be privvy to their insights and thoughts on the mission after almost forty years is invaluable. The Apollo Program was an heroic act of almost unfathomable importance, and unfortunately we are perhaps still too close to the event to truly appreciate the effort, innovation, brilliance, foresight, bravery, and sacrifice of those individuals involved.
I felt that the star of the show was Michael Collins. On camera he is extremely charismatic and personable, and his intelligence and wit are both refreshing. If I could choose one astronaut to accompany me to the Moon, it would be Michael Collins. I believe that it was Michael Collins who noted that during their world travels to celebrate their accomplishment, people all over the world would declare “We did it!”. This is a unity that is unprecidented, despite the fact (as Michael Collins notes) that it was ephemeral. I marvel at how science and exploration can unite humanity in ways in which no other human endeavors can.
I had not realized that the astronauts played major roles in the design of their spacecraft. This is in stark contrast to the way NASA operates today where contractors are paid to design the spacecraft and equipment.
In addition, at Mission Control in Houston, only astronauts were allowed to talk to the astronauts. For instance, Charlie Duke (Apollo 16 Lunar Module Pilot) served as capcom during the historic Apollo 11 mission.
I was amused by the fact that Buzz Aldrin’s obsession with rendezvous led to his being nicknamed Dr. Rendezvous. It was, in fact, his Ph.D. research in orbital dynamics and rendezvous that made these missions possible. I was also impressed by his statement that once you have walked on the Moon, you will forever be a man who walked on the Moon. This is an enormous image to live up to, and these men have had to spend their entire lives continuing to live up to this image.
I highly recommend seeing this film.
Kevin Knuth
Albany NY
Posted under Astronomy, Exploration, Space
This post was written by drknuth on September 6, 2007
