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Posts Tagged ‘Moon’

Israel, the Third Nation to Reach the Moon?

by Eliana ( 171 Comments › )
Filed under Israel, Open thread, Science, Technology at April 1st, 2011 - 2:00 pm

Three young Israeli scientists are competing for $20 million in the Google Lunar X Prize. The competition is for “privately funded teams to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon and have that robot travel 500 meters over the lunar surface and send images and data back to the Earth.”

If all goes according to plan, by December 2012 a team of three young Israeli scientists will have landed a tiny spacecraft on the moon, explored the lunar surface, and transmitted live video back to earth, thereby scooping up a $20 million prize (the Google Lunar X Prize), revolutionizing space exploration, and making the Jewish State the third nation (after the U.S. and Russia) to land a probe on the moon. And they’re doing it in their spare time.

The three engineers – Yariv Bash (electronics and computers), Kfir Damari (communication systems), and Yonatan Winetraub (satellite systems) all have high-level day jobs in the Israeli science and technology world, and also both teach and study. They all had heard of the Google Lunar X Prize independently, before being introduced by mutual friends who, as Yonatan puts it “thought we were all crazy enough to do it, so we should meet each other.”

Israel, The Third Nation on the Moon?

The Israeli scientists are operating non-profit and “any winnings will be invested in promoting science among Israeli youth.”

If the Israelis’ robot does make it to the moon first, the Muslim world may have to rethink their crescent moon symbol.

Son of the OOT

by Bunk Five Hawks X ( 33 Comments › )
Filed under Humor, Open thread at March 20th, 2011 - 4:02 am

Since things were clogging up a bit, here’s Part II of The Overnight Open Thread.

OMG! IT’S A BIGASS MOON!

by Bunk Five Hawks X ( 243 Comments › )
Filed under Academia, Astronomy, Humor, Open thread, Science at March 19th, 2011 - 11:00 pm

[from here, via]
As explained earlier on this post by Coldwarrior, tonight the moon is at Perigree, and happens to be a full moon as well.

In the past 20 years, this is the closest the moon has been to the earth since

*gets out calculator, inputs mass, speed, orbital diaphonistics, trunculates spatial trig functions, opens enhanced trepanation protocol, combines the Farley model with coprolitical analysis, adds algebra*

um, last night. Whew. We’re still alive, so now we can all sit back and enjoy The Overnight Open Thread.

40 Years Ago Today, Man Walked On The Moon

by WrathofG-d ( 51 Comments › )
Filed under Science at July 20th, 2009 - 11:27 am

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Today is the 40th anniversary of the day that man walked on the moon.  The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of Project Apollo and the third human voyage to the Moon.  Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, Jr.

On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon, while Collins orbited above.