Every Day Is Special: space exploration

Showing posts with label space exploration. Show all posts

August 21 - Voyager 2 Reached Triton!

Posted on August 21, 2022

This is an update of my post published on August 21, 2011:

By this date in 1989, the little-space-probe-that-could had already accomplished its mission goals. It had gathered a lot of information about Jupiter and Saturn—and their moons and rings—and it had continued the Grand Tour by flying by Uranus and Neptune. Now Voyager 2 was about to exit the solar system, collecting and transmitting information as it went, and following in its identical twin's footsteps. (Voyager 1 was launched a few weeks after Voyager 2 but only visited Jupiter and Saturn on its way out of the solar system.) Scientists wanted Voyager 2 to check out one more world before it left:

Triton.

Triton is Neptune's largest moon. It's only half the size of Earth's moon, but it is far colder (of course, being so very far away from the sun), and it has a thin atmosphere.

Triton is unusual in that it is the only large satellite with a retrograde orbit. What does that mean? Well, all of the moons in the solar system orbit their planet in the same direction as the planet rotates. (Scientists explain that this is due to the way that planets and moons form.) That is, all but one: Triton orbits Neptune in the opposite direction of Neptune's rotation on its axis.

Voyager 2 sent back to Earth some pretty great photos of Triton. Check out NASA's photojournal.

By the way, both Voyager 1 and 2 are still operating, still sending us information about deep space! It's been more than 34 years—far longer than the expected lifespan of the space probes—and they are still working for us! Here is a NASA site that shows how far away they are - it's constantly being updated!

Also on this date:

Birthday of Mohammed VI in Morocco

Poet's Day

Anniversary of the eruption of Lake Nyos

Hawaii's statehood anniversary

Anniversary of a total solar eclipse

Anniversary of the First American Revolution

National Spumoni Day in the U.S.A.

Anniversary of the opening of Dismaland

Anniversary of the theft of the Mona Lisa!

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July 20 - Moon Day

Posted on July 20, 2022

This is an update of my post published on July 20, 2011:

Celebrate the first day that human beings stepped foot on another world!

When you feel discouraged about people's stupidity and cruelty, look up in the sky at the moon and remember that, MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY AGO, we went there! Today marks the 53^rd anniversary of Apollo 11's successful voyage of hundreds of thousands of miles to our nearest celestial neighbor, in 1969.

We can also celebrate the 1976 landing of the Viking I Lander on Mars. This intrepid unmanned spacecraft traveled hundreds of millions of miles to Earth's next-door planet, and it was the first to successfully land on Mars. Viking I transmitted many photos of Mars and ran a variety of experiments over a period of over six and a half years!

We need to get back to in-person explorations of the moon! And putting humans on Mars, too!

Check out other years' Moon Day posts, in "Also on this date" below:

Also on this date:

Birthday of Crown Prince Haakon, of Norway

Independence Day in Columbia

Writer Petrarch's birthday

more on Moon Day (here and here)

Moon Day 50

"Peace and Freedom” Day in North Cyprus

A Name Day in Bulgaria

International Cake Day

World Jump Day Anniversary

Birthday of model and environmental activist Gisele Bündchen

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May 26 - Happy Birthday, Sally Ride

Posted on May 26, 2022

This is an update of my post published on May 26, 2011:

Yeah!

The first American woman in space and - at the time of her first flight - the youngest American ever sent into orbit—

—and this "first" and "youngest" had a cool name like “Sally Ride”???!!!

NASA couldn't have planned it better!

Born on this day in 1951 in Los Angeles, California, Ride became a nationally ranked tennis player in high school, earned double Bachelor's degrees from Stanford in physics and English, and went on to earn her Master's and PhD from the same prestigious university. Her research was in astrophysics and free electron laser physics.

A bit of an over-achiever, I think!

NASA was looking for more astronaut trainees, and Ride was one of around 8,000 people to answer a newspaper ad for the position. (A newspaper ad? Really?) Of course, NASA snatched her up.

Ride's first Space Shuttle flight was in 1984, and both flights that she participated on were on the Space Shuttle Challenger.

Ride was NOT on board the Challenger in 1986. Instead, she was training for her third mission in space - and was as horrified as the rest of us when the Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing its seven crew members. (Two of the crew members were women, and one of them, Christa McAuliffe, was the first member of the Teacher in Space Project.) Sally Ride participated in the commission that investigated the Challenger disaster.

After her time with NASA, Ride became a physics professor, served on a variety of commissions and boards, and began her own company to promote science to kids, especially girls. One thing the company does is to put on festivals for girls from fifth to eighth grades—festivals with booths, activities, food, and music.