Moon on Earth: August 23: 2017: Pila: Poland   Habitat Lunares Crew: Released 23:08:2017: 09:38. Image: Monica Alcazar-Duarte

 

||August 23: 2017 || ά. This crew of six is midway through a simulated expedition on the Moon, based at the new Habitat Lunares base in Poland. The only facility of its kind in Europe, this privately run habitat is a simulated lunar base set up in a former military airport in Pila in northwest Poland. The crew stays on the base for two weeks at a time, physically cut off from the external world. Lunares has no windows, is run on lunar time and its occupants can leave only by venturing into an adjoining hanger, which is filled with Moon-like basalt rocks for simulated Moonwalks.

This Lunar Expedition One is the second of four expeditions this year, lasting August 15-29. The mission is controlled from ESA’s technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, focusing on exploring changes to the crew’s biological clocks during their stay. It performs scheduling, communicates with the base and oversees lighting inside the habitat. “The analogue astronauts are completely cut off from external light sources. Instead, we control the base’s automated lighting systems.” explains Ms Agata Kolodziejczyk, Research Fellow in ESA’s Advanced Concepts Team, who led the establishment of the habitat as part of her research into ‘time architecture’ for future off-planet bases.

“I regard Lunares as an extremely valuable new chronobiological laboratory for Europe, with full bioethical committee agreements in place. We’ll be checking how the participants’ subjective time perception alters with the changes we induce. The habitat contains an LED light system providing a shifting combination of colours throughout the day, to mimic changes in sunlight. We’re extending the length of this artificial ‘day’ to put their circadian rhythms out of alignment and induce jet lag.

But we’re, also, testing new prototypes of ‘physiological lights’, that emit in the ultraviolet, which penetrates through the retina to the brain’s pineal gland, to see if this is sufficient to reset their body clocks.”

A survey of US Space Shuttle crews found that half depended on medication to go to sleep in orbit, while other space-dwellers have reported disrupted body clocks, a condition, that has been linked to various health problems. Redesigned lighting systems, that fit better with human physiology should result in happier, healthier astronauts, lighting aboard the International Space Station has recently been updated for this very reason.

In parallel, more than 20 other experiments are, also, under way. ESA and the International Lunar Exploration Working Group supplied the ExoGeoLab lander, as well as, a telescope for use during simulated Moonwalks.

Polish ESA Young Graduate Trainee Mr Mateusz Kraiński has, also, built a rover and simulator system in his free time. This Netherlands-based rover is being controlled remotely by the crew from Poland.

Seen top row left to right: Vice-Commander Mr Mariusz Słonina, Communication Officer Ms Dorota Budzyń, Astrobiologist Ms Joanna Kuźma. Bottom row left to right: Medical Officer Mr Matt Harasymczuk, Biomedical Engineer Mr Grzegorz Ambroszkiewicz and Commander Mr Piotrek Konorski. ω.

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Back to the Moon

For ESA's three-D-printed lunar base concept, Foster+Partners devised a weight-bearing ‘catenary’ dome design with a cellular structured wall to shield against micrometeoroids and space radiation, incorporating a pressurised inflatable to shelter astronauts. Image: ESA: Foster + Partners
 

|| June 15: 2017 || ά. The last manned mission to the Moon took place in December 1972. Although several probes have targeted the Moon since then, we humans have concentrated on living and working in low Earth orbit and on exploring the rest of the Solar System with some ambitious robotic missions. Today, the general view shared by Earth's space agencies is changing. The exploration of outer space is still high on everybody's list but it has become apparent that many future space activities will require a human presence on the Moon first.

So far, no humans have ever been to the polar regions of the Moon, where unmanned missions have found water in the form of ice. Water is an important resource because it can be used to produce oxygen, which will be vital for human survival on the Moon. But what does this all mean? If we are going to return to the Moon, astronauts will need somewhere to live, in a safe and stable environment. A new study launched under ESA’s General Studies Programme:GSP, called, ‘Conceiving a lunar base using three-D printing technologies’, is set to find out ways of creating habitable structures using all resources available at the destination.

The study is looking into additive manufacturing or three-D printing technology from a wider perspective, including the ancillary equipment needed to operate this and the high-level requirements to ultimately achieve a lunar habitat. Several studies have been carried out by different space agencies to see how humans could survive on the Moon. In this respect, additive manufacturing or three-D printing has been identified as one of the most promising applications for building structures on the Moon.

Lunar soil as a base material for a three-D printer has already been used to fabricate honeycomb-like bricks from which all kinds of useful structures can be made. An even faster way of producing a lunar habitat would make use of an inflatable base that can be covered layer-by-layer with lunar soil or ‘regolith’ to create a protective shell.

However, these studies have focused on conceptual designs, often based on single elements, rather than taking into account the overall needs in terms of energy, collection and transportation of the regolith, machinery and so on.

This new GSP study is to analyse the possibilities of using additive manufacturing for the realisation of a lunar base, including the production of internal equipment for the crew, the processing of food based on a limited number of basic elements and the possibility of making spare parts needed to maintain such base. It will address technologies, that could be used in a lunar environment and investigate the developmental needs of three-D printing to ensure a sustainable, safe place for astronauts on the Moon. ω.

Whatever Your Field of Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law Does Not Exist. The Humanion

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Look Out for the Asteroid to Fly by Mother Earth: April 19

Image: NASA Video-Capture

 

|| April 09: 2017 || ά. A relatively large near-Earth asteroid discovered nearly three years ago will fly safely past Earth on April 19 at a distance of about 01.1 million miles or 01.8 million kilometres or about 04.6 times the distance from Earth to the moon. Although, there is no possibility for the asteroid to collide with our planet, this will be a very close approach for an asteroid of this size. The asteroid, known as 2014JO25, was discovered in May 2014 by astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, a project of NASA's NEO Observations Programme in collaboration with the University of Arizona.

An NEO is a near-Earth object. Contemporary measurements by NASA's NEOWISE mission indicate that the asteroid is roughly 2,000 feet, 650 metres in size and that its surface is about twice as reflective as that of the moon. At this time very little else is known about the object’s physical properties, even though, its trajectory is well known. The asteroid will approach the Earth from the direction of the sun and will become visible in the night sky after April 19. It is predicted to brighten to about magnitude 11, when it could be visible in small optical telescopes for one or two nights before it fades as the distance from the Earth rapidly increases.

Small asteroids pass within this distance of the Earth several times each week but this upcoming close approach is the closest by any known asteroid of this size or larger, since asteroid Toutatis, a 03.1-mile, five-kilometre asteroid, which approached within about four lunar distances in September 2004. The next known encounter of an asteroid of comparable size will occur in 2027 when the half-mile-wide, 800-metre-wide asteroid 1999 AN10 will fly by at one lunar distance, about 236,000 miles, 380,000 kilometres.

The April 19 encounter provides an outstanding opportunity to study this asteroid, and astronomers plan to observe it with telescopes around the world to learn as much about it as possible. Radar observations are planned at NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar in California and the National Science Foundation’s Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, and the resulting radar images could reveal surface details as small as a few meters.

The encounter on April 19 is the closest this asteroid has come to Earth for at least the last 400 years and will be its closest approach for at least the next 500 years. Further, on April 19, the comet PanSTARRS:C:2015ER61 will make its closest approach to the Earth, at a very safe distance of 109 million miles, 175 million kilometres. A faint fuzzball in the sky when it was discovered in 2015 by the Pan-STARRS NEO survey team using a telescope on the summit of Haleakala, Hawaii, the comet has brightened considerably due to a recent outburst and is now visible in the dawn sky with binoculars or a small telescope.

DC Agle: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif: 818-393-9011: agle at jpl.nasa.gov

: Editor: Tony Greicius: NASA: ω.

Whatever Your Field of Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law Does Not Exist. The Humanion

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To Survive the Long Dark Lunar Night: Will You Sing to the Earth

A high-definition image of Earth taken by Japan’s Kaguya lunar orbiter in November 2007.Image: JAXA: NHK

 

|| March 24: 2017 || ά. Designers of the future Moon missions and bases have to contend with a chilling challenge: how might their creations endure the fortnight-long lunar night? ESA has arrived at a low-cost way of surviving. During prolonged night, when the surface is lit only by blue Earthlight, temperatures dip below –170ºC. Some locations at higher latitudes have shorter nights, though others have much longer or even permanent darkness.

Numerous robotic missions have perished during this prolonged cold. Russia’s Lunokhod-tworover, for instance, failed to make it through the night in May 1973, its radioactive heater having gradually run down after four months of exploring. The Apollo manned missions stayed on the surface only a few days at a time and all during the early lunar morning. But future lunar settlers will have to live in the night as well as the day, bearing in mind that vital solar energy and heat would be unavailable during the 14 days of darkness.

“Up until now, radioactive heat and power sources have been the preferred solution for lunar habitats.” explains ESA’s Moritz Fontaine. “But these would multiply the cost and complexity of any expedition. So we’re exploring a more sustainable solution, using the capacity of moondust to absorb and store energy when hit by sunlight, then releasing this energy during the lunar night.”

Driven by the temperature difference, this heat engine would be kept running directly by the heat of the Sun during the day, illuminated surface temperatures rise well above 100ºC at the equator while simultaneously storing excess heat in the soil.

Once night falls, the heat engine would be kept running in turn by the gradual release of the energy from the heated soil. “The principle has been worked out in detail.” adds Moritz. “The next step, being undertaken through ESA’s General Studies Programme, is to perform numerical and simulation studies to put values on the heat storage and electricity provision the system would enable.

“The results should then allow the construction of a small demonstrator to test the concept in practice.” ω.

Whatever Your Field of Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law Does Not Exist. The Humanion

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Cogito Ergo Sum: Descartes: The First Lunar Meditation

 Temple atop Shackleton Crater: Image: Jorge Mañes Rubio. Spatial design and visualisation in collaboration with DITISHOE

|| January 26: 2017 || ά.  A near-perpetually sunlit peak close to the Moon’s south pole has been selected by ESA’s artist-in-residence as the site of a building like no other. Artist Jorge Mañes Rubio, part of ESA’s future-oriented Advanced Concepts Team:ACT, has designed a place of contemplation to serve a future lunar settlement. It would be built on the sunlit rim of Shackleton Crater, which is bathed much of the time in sunlight while overlooking a 04.2 km-deep interior mired in perpetual shadow.

The lunar poles have previously been identified as promising locations for future settlement because craters kept shaded by the lowness of the Sun in the local sky are thought to serve as ‘cold traps’ to preserve water ice, potentially a vital source of water, air or rocket fuel. The first building has yet to be erected on the Moon, and most designs for lunar buildings have been strictly functional in purpose: places to live, work or perform research.

“I’ve been having all sorts of discussions with my ACT colleagues, including speculating on the likely needs of future lunar settlers.” explains Jorge. “What kind of social interactions will they share, what cultural activities and rituals will they have, and what sort of art and artefacts will they be producing? Humans have been creating art for at least 30,000 years, so I have no doubt this will continue in space and on the Moon.

These discussions have been very valuable and stimulating, since they lead us to consider aspects of human exploration that aren’t usually considered by scientists and engineers.” adds Leopold Summerer, heading the ACT. “To benefit fully from Jorge’s creativity, it was important to give him full artistic freedom on what and how he would do.”

What Jorge terms his ‘Moon Temple’ is intended as a symbol of unity for humankind, reflecting the pull that our natural satellite has always had on the human imagination. “Lunar settlement represents a perfect chance for a fresh start, a place where there are no social conventions, no nations and no religion, somewhere where these concepts will need to be rethought from scratch.

Humans have brought flags to the Moon, but they’ve been bleached white by sunlight since then, almost as if the Moon is protecting itself from such terrestrial concepts. So this Temple is intended as a mythic and universal structure that can hopefully bring people together in this new environment in novel ways.”

At the same time, the 50 m-high domed structure is also something that could one day be built. Jorge talked to ESA materials specialists studying 3D printing of lunar soil. “The result might resemble ‘abode’ architecture, an ancient method of building that is still made use to this day.” adds Jorge.

“This was a big source of inspiration for me, along with 18th century utopian architects such as Étienne-Louis de Boullée and Claude Nicolas Ledoux, who designed massive structures too large to be feasibly built on Earth but practical in the Moon’s one-sixth gravity.”

Similarly, the Temple’s free-standing dome would eventually collapse under its own weight on Earth, but could endure on the Moon. Jorge put similar thought into the site of his building: he selected Shackleton over nearby Malapert Crater because Earth is perpetually visible from Malapert, while from Shackleton it will only be seen for two weeks at a time, inspiring more independent thinking.

One opening in the dome will look Earthwards, while another at the top will peer out into deep space. As a next step, Jorge aims to create small sculptures and artefacts out of simulated lunar materials, inspired by the simulated lunar environment at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre near Cologne, Germany. ω.

Whatever Your Field of Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law Does Not Exist. The Humanion

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The December Moon with  Some Green Neighbour

|| December 18: 2016|| ά. This is the best ever we have seen the moon from an earthling's perspective and definitely, the best ever image of the moon that we have ever taken. That was on December 11. The only issue is, with this clarity of the image, that green neighbour, is somewhat of a mystery! No idea who that celestial neighbour is or whether that's just a camera-blur.

What can be visible is the most beautiful almost milky emerald glow-ring around the moon. Just, don't run away with the ring nor with the spoon, even if the cow wants to jump! But, you are welcome to remain on Mother Earth and have a look at what the researchers have found out about the water cycle and how that impacts of the rain and the dry, over there, in The Earth. ω.

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Hadley Rille on the Moon, Seen by SMART-01

Hadley Rille on the Moon, seen by SMART-01: Released 25.07.2016 11:29: Image: ESA:Space-X:Space Exploration Institute

|| August 21: 2016|| ά. This strangely meandering channel, carved on the Moon, is one of the most famous features on our nearest celestial neighbour. It shot to fame in July 1971 when the two astronauts of Apollo 15 drove their lunar rover to its very edge.

Known as Hadley Rille, the feature is named after the 18th century British mathematician and inventor John Hadley. In 1721, Hadley presented a telescope that used a non-spherical mirror to the Royal Society in London. Shaped as a parabola, the mirror avoided the aberration caused by a spherical mirror, and set the shape for all telescope mirrors to come.

Hadley Rille is thought to have been carved by an ancient lava flow, dating back just over 03 billion years to soon after the Moon formed. It stretches more than 120 km, up to 1500 m wide and more than 300 m deep in some places.

From their close-up position, the Apollo astronauts photographed what looked like strata in the walls of the rille. This suggests that there were many volcanic eruptions, each building a new layer. Then, a channel of lava cut through these deposits. When it drained away, it left the sinuous rille we see today. However, planetary scientists are not entirely sure of the details of the process.

This image was taken by ESA’s SMART-01, which explored the Moon from 2004 to 2006. Its miniaturised camera demonstrated that smaller equipment could still provide first-class science.

This image was taken from an altitude of about 2000 km. It spans about 100 km and shows the region around Hadley Rille centred at about 25°N / 3°E.

SMART-01 was ESA’s first mission to the Moon. It tested new engine technologies, including a solar electric propulsion system that will carry ESA’s BepiColombo mission to Mercury in 2018.

At the end of its mission, SMART-01 was flown closer and closer to the lunar surface until it was intentionally crashed on September 03, 2006. During its mission, it had completed more than 2000 orbits of the Moon. ω.

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Clair de Lune

Image: NASA

|| May 08: 2016 || The regular daily and monthly rhythms of Earth's only natural satellite, the moon, have guided timekeepers for thousands of years. Its influence on Earth's cycles, notably tides, has been charted by many cultures in many ages. The moon moderates Earth's wobble on its axis, leading to a relatively stable climate over billions of years. From Earth, we always see the same face of the moon because the moon is spinning on its axis at the same speed that it is going around Earth, that is, it is in synchronous rotation with Earth.

The light areas of the moon are known as the highlands. The dark features, called maria (Latin for seas), are impact basins that were filled with lava between 4.2 and 1.2 billion years ago. These light and dark areas represent rocks of different composition and ages, which provide evidence for how the early crust may have crystallized from a lunar magma ocean. The craters themselves, which have been preserved for billions of years, provide an impact history for the moon and other bodies in the inner solar system.

NASA/Zuber, M.T. et al., Nature, 2012

The leading theory of the moon's origin is that a Mars-sized body collided with Earth approximately 4.5 billion years ago, and the resulting debris from both Earth and the impactor accumulated to form our natural satellite. The newly formed moon was in a molten state. Within about 100 million years, most of the global "magma ocean" had crystallized, with less-dense rocks floating upward and eventually forming the lunar crust. The early moon may have developed an internal dynamo, the mechanism for global magnetic fields for terrestrial planets.

Since the ancient time of volcanism, the arid, lifeless moon has remained nearly unchanged. With too sparse an atmosphere to impede impacts, a steady rain of asteroids, meteoroids, and comets strikes the surface. Over billions of years, the surface has been ground up into fragments ranging from huge boulders to powder. Nearly the entire moon is covered by a rubble pile of charcoal-gray, powdery dust and rocky debris called the lunar regolith. Beneath is a region of fractured bedrock referred to as the megaregolith.

The moon was first visited by the U.S.S.R.'s Luna 1 and Luna 2 in 1959, and a number of U.S. and U.S.S.R. robotic spacecraft followed. The U.S. sent three classes of robotic missions to prepare the way for human exploration: the Rangers (1961-1965) were impact probes, the Lunar Orbiters (1966-1967) mapped the surface to find landing sites, and the Surveyors (1966-1968) were soft landers. The first human landing on the moon was on 20 July 1969. During the Apollo missions of 1969-1972, 12 American astronauts walked on the moon and used a Lunar Roving Vehicle to travel on the surface and extend their studies of soil mechanics, meteoroids, lunar ranging, magnetic fields, and solar wind. The Apollo astronauts brought back 382 kilograms (842 pounds) of rock and soil to Earth for study.

After a long hiatus, lunar exploration resumed in the 1990s with the U.S. robotic missions Clementine and Lunar Propspector. Results from both missions suggested that water ice might be present at the lunar poles, but a controlled impact of the Prospector spacecraft produced no observable water.

The European Space Agency was first in the new millennium with SMART-1 in 2003, followed by Kaguya (Japan), Chang'e-1 (China), and Chandrayaan-1 (India) in 2007-2008. The U.S. began a new series of robotic lunar missions with the joint launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) in 2009. In 2011, a pair of repurposed spacecraft began the ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the moon's Interaction with the Sun) mission. In 2012, the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) twin spacecraft studied the moon's gravity field and produced the highest-resolution gravity field map of any celestial body.

Apollo 17: Source: Scientist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt is photographed standing next to a huge, split boulder during the third Apollo 17 extravehicular activity (EVA) at the Taurus-Littrow landing site on the moon. Schmitt is the Apollo 17 lunar module pilot. This picture was taken by astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, commander. While Cernan and Schmitt descended in the Lunar Module (LM) "Challenger" to explore the moon, astronaut Ronald E. Evans, command module pilot, remained with the Apollo 17 Command and Service Modules (CSM) in lunar orbit. NASA: Published: 12 June 2012

How the Moon Got its Name

Earth's only natural satellite is simply called the moon because people didn't know other moons existed until Galileo Galilei discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter in 1610. Other moons in our solar system are given names so they won't be confused with each other. We call them moons because, like our own, they are natural satellites orbiting a solar system body (which in turn is orbiting a star).

Significant Dates

This map shows the gravity field of the moon as measured by NASA's GRAIL mission. The viewing perspective, known as a Mercator projection, shows the far side of the moon in the center and the nearside (as viewed from Earth) at either side. Units are milliGalileos where 1 Galileo is 1 centimeter per second squared. Reds correspond to mass excesses which create areas of higher local gravity, and blues correspond to mass deficits which create areas of lower local gravity. Image: NASA/ARC/MIT: Published: December 05, 2012
 

1610: Galileo Galilei is the first to use a telescope to make scientific observations of the moon.

1959-1976: The U.S.S.R.'s Luna program of 17 robotic missions achieves many "firsts" and three sample returns.

1961-1968: The U.S. Ranger, Lunar Orbiter, and Surveyor robotic missions pave the way for Apollo human lunar landings.

1969: Astronaut Neil Armstrong is the first human to walk on the moon's surface.

1994-1999: Clementine and Lunar Prospector data suggest that water ice may exist at the lunar poles.

2003: The European Space Agency's SMART-1 lunar orbiter inventories key chemical elements.

2007-2008: Japan's second lunar spacecraft, Kaguya, and China's first lunar spacecraft, Chang'e 1, both begin one-year missions orbiting the moon; India's Chandrayaan-1 soon follows in lunar orbit.

2008: The NASA Lunar Science Institute is formed to help lead NASA's research activities related to lunar exploration goals.

2009: NASA's LRO and LCROSS launch together, beginning the U.S. return to lunar exploration. In October, LCROSS was directed to impact a permanently shadowed region near the lunar south pole, resulting in the discovery of water ice.

2011: Twin GRAIL spacecraft launch to map the interior of the moon from crust to core, and NASA begins the ARTEMIS mission to study the moon's interior and surface composition.

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Now, the Moon Has Got a Home on Earth: ESA's New Online Moon School

|| April 22, 2016 || ESA has set its sights on our Moon, with a vision of working together with international partners to return to our closest neighbour.  What have scientists learnt about the Moon since the first probe in 1959 and the Apollo lunar landing 10 years later? What questions are unanswered and what is the future of lunar exploration?

An interactive web documentary launched today allows users to explore these questions and the missions to the Moon through European scientists who are working on lunar science right now.

By having the scientists and experts express their views and ideas, the website offers a one-stop-shop to learn about the past, present and future of lunar exploration.

From radio telescopes on the far side of the Moon to how Earth’s natural satellite formed, the interactive documentary is a comprehensive guide for a general audience.

Featuring interviews with scientists from all over Europe and a timeline of all the world’s missions to the Moon, the website is a repository of knowledge where you can keep coming back to find more.

ESA’s Massimo Sabbatini explains: “We built a web documentary where the user is encouraged to discover the content through their own curiosity. We will keep updating the information and expand it to other domains of human and robotic exploration in the future.”

Browse and explore through themes of science and technology or via the lunar missions. You are encouraged to immerse yourself in the many aspects of flying to the Moon and performing science on the Moon. From launch and orbital dynamics, to cameras and rovers, from Surveyor-1 to the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, users can find out why the Moon is in the spotlight again.

Visit the website here

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March 16, 1966: Gemini's First Docking of Two Spacecraft in Earth Orbit

 

On March 16, 1966, command pilot Neil Armstrong and pilot David Scott successfully docked their Gemini VIII spacecraft with the Agena target vehicle, the first-ever linking of two spacecraft together in Earth orbit.                       Image: NASA

||April 14, 2016 || On March 16, 1966, command pilot Neil Armstrong and pilot David Scott successfully docked their Gemini VIII spacecraft with the Agena target vehicle, the first-ever linking of two spacecraft together in Earth orbit. This crucial spaceflight technology milestone would prove vital to the success of future moon landing missions. Catching up with already-orbiting spacecraft also has been essential during missions to the International Space Station.

The astronauts aboard the Gemini spacecraft took this side view photograph of the Agena target vehicle at a distance of 45 feet during an inspection prior to docking. The two spacecraft were in the third orbit of the mission, above the west coast of Mexico.

Because of problems with the Gemini spacecraft control system, the crew was forced to undock after approximately 30 minutes, as the spacecraft-target vehicle combination had begun to encounter increasing yaw and roll rates. The crew regained control of their spacecraft by using the reentry control system (RCS), and the decision was made in Mission Control to follow mission rules that dictated once the RCS was activated, the crew must be brought home. The Gemini VIII landed early in a secondary landing area in the Pacific, splashing down within two miles of the predicted impact point 10 hours, 41 minutes after liftoff.

( Editor: Sarah Loff: NASA)

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The Moon Engulfed in Permanent, Lopsided, Dust Cloud

Darryl Waller Writing

This image shows an artist's conception of the lunar dust exosphere surrounding the moon. The color represents the amount of material ejected from the surface, showing a peak in the apex direction. A haze of dust is shown around the moon. Gray faded circles are overlaid on the lunar surface to represent the random nature of the primary impactors. An artist's conception of the LADEE spacecraft's trajectory is also shown. Credits: University of Colorado Boulder/Daniel Morgan/Jamey Szalay