“BRR” is the word
As You Remember It: The Lift-Off of APOLLO 11
Apollo 11, The True Story of the Lunar Landing
MOON Landing Apollo 11 at 40
byAnne Minard
National Geographic News
July 16, 2009
On the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, get the facts on Apollo 11’s historic trip, from initial skepticism to lunar firsts and the implications for returning humans to the moon.
July 16, 1969: The world watched in anticipation as three men were hurtled skyward in a rocket bound for the moon.
Read about the Apollo 11 moon-landing mission in a 1969 National Geographic magazine article )
The Apollo 11 launch date had arrived with just months to spare: Nine years earlier, U.S. President John F. Kennedy had said that by the end of the decade the country would put a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth.
The successful Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969, ushered in an era of moon exploration that has so far gone unrivaled.
(Find out about NASA’s plans to return humans to the moon in Naked Science: Living on the Moon, which premieres Sunday, July 19, at 9 p.m. ET/PT.)
Moon Race
President Kennedy’s moon mandate came at the height of the space race—a kind of subplot to the Cold War between the United States and what was then the Soviet Union.
(Hear sounds of the space age with an interactive version of a pressed vinyl record that was included in the December 1969 issue of National Geographic magazine.)
The U.S.S.R. had made the opening gambit, sending the first artificial satellites into orbit, starting with the 184-pound (83.5-kilogram) Sputnik I in October 1957.
The Soviets followed that success a month later with the first animal in space, Laika the dog, which did not survive the experience. (See pictures of monkeys and other primates sent into space)
Things came to a head in April 1961, when the Soviets sent the first human to space. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made a 108-minute suborbital flight in a Vostok 1 spacecraft and returned safely to Earth.
A month later Alan Shepherd became the first American in space with his suborbital flight aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft.
From there the two countries started upping the ante by increasing the number of orbits per flight. Meanwhile Kennedy’s moon directive had signaled a change in tactics for the U.S.
Swallowed by Moondust?
At first a moon-landing mission probably raised a lot of eyebrows at NASA—particularly among the astronaut candidates.
“Atlas rockets [which launched spacecraft] were blowing up every day at Cape Canaveral” in Florida, recalled Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell in the 2007 documentary In the Shadow of the Moon.
“It looked like a … quick way to have a short career.”
But Kennedy’s idea “didn’t just come out of the blue,” Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin told National Geographic News.
“People had been studying what could be done—the Air Force in particular—in a far-reaching manner, like sending cargo to the moon.”
At that point, though, scientists still had a lot to learn about what humans and their gear might contend with on the lunar surface.
Geologists didn’t know, for example, whether volcanism or meteor impacts were responsible for the moon’s pockmarked surface. (Current wisdom says meteors.)
Many scientists also feared that the moon was covered with a thick blanket of featherweight dust that would engulf any landing spacecraft.
Moon Landing Practice
Shortly after Kennedy’s speech, an intensive effort got under way to prepare humans for a moon landing.
In January 1963 Neil Armstrong and four other Apollo astronauts took a field trip to Arizona’s Meteor Crater and Sunset Crater, a dormant volcano. Geologists then briefed the astronauts on how those Earthly landscapes were similar to what they might encounter on the moon.
In the years that followed, Apollo crew also toured the Grand Canyon and spent time testing lunar rovers at Bonito Crater northeast of Flagstaff, where the rough, rocky surface mimicked what some geologists thought would exist on the moon.
Geologists flew over Sunset Crater and other landforms in Cessna 182s, taking aerial photos so the astronauts might better understand the lunar geology they were likely to see.
Apollo Moon Program: Tragedy and Triumph
The Apollo moon-landing program carried an optimistic moniker: It was named for the son of Zeus in Greek mythology, often known as the god of light and the sun.
But the first mission almost brought U.S. moon-landing efforts to an abrupt end.
On January 27, 1967, a flash fire occurred in the Apollo 1 command module during a launch simulation, killing the three astronauts meant to pilot the mission.
“I wasn’t sure if we were burying the entire Apollo program or three of our buddies,” Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan said in In the Shadow of the Moon.
Following an exhaustive investigation into the accident, NASA issued a report in April 1967 that called for major overhauls of the Apollo hardware, launch procedures, and quality control.
The program swung back into gear, and by early 1969, Apollo 10 astronauts Alan Shepard and Donald “Deke” Slayton were cruising over the lunar surface—and grudgingly holding back from diving down for a landing—as they scoped out the Sea of Tranquility, the chosen landing spot for Apollo 11.
(Explore an interactive moon map, and read about the first person to map the moon using a telescope. Hint: It wasn’t Galileo.)
A few months later, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins set off toward the moon.
Moonwalkers
Launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 9:32 a.m. ET aboard a Saturn V rocket, Apollo 11 included a command module dubbed Columbia and a lunar lander called the Eagle.
The lander was named after the bald eagle in the mission insignia.
Apollo 11’s journey to the moon took three and a half days.
During that time the astronauts “just kind of gazed out the window at the Earth getting smaller and smaller, did housekeeping things, checking the spacecraft,” Aldrin recalled.
As the craft passed through the shadow of the moon and started its approach, Aldrin and Armstrong got into the spider-like lunar module and began their descent.
The landing process didn’t go flawlessly. Alarms sounded when the computer couldn’t keep up with the data stream: “Nothing serious—it was distracting,” Aldrin said.
“Neil didn’t like what we were heading toward, and we selected a safer spot alongside a crater with boulders in it. We landed with a little less fuel than we would have liked to have had, maybe 20 seconds of fuel left.”
Aldrin insists that he felt no real fear about landing on the moon.
Nevertheless, he said, “we kind of practiced liftoff [for] the first two hours. … We both felt that was the most prudent thing to do after touching down, was to prepare to depart if we had to.”
Finally, with half a billion people watching on televisions across the world, the astronauts emerged from the Eagle to spend another two hours exploring the lunar surface.
The pair planted an American flag and placed mementos for fallen peers.
Armstrong uttered his famous first words, reportedly unscripted: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Armstrong and Aldrin logged 21 hours on the moon—spending the last and longest portion of it trying to sleep in the frigid lander. Then they lifted off to rendezvous with Collins and Columbia for the return voyage.
The crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969—and they were immediately put into a three-week quarantine.
As for their craft, the ascent stage of the Eagle was jettisoned into lunar orbit. Within a couple of years the lander smashed unseen into the moon. Columbia now sits on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
To Infinity, and Beyond
After 40 years, Aldrin’s impressions of the moon are as fresh today as the day he landed.
“What fascinated me was the lifelessness off it,” he said. “That had not changed in hundreds of thousands of years. Generations of humanity had emerged from the trees, and the moon had looked the same way.”
Aldrin also remains passionate about what the Apollo 11 mission meant for the world, and what it can still teach humanity.
Today he advocates the U.S. setting its sights higher than it did 40 years ago, “accepting the role of leading other nations to achieve what we did.”
“We do have this wonderful opportunity to emerge from whatever troubles us now,” he said, “with a very optimistic pathway for the future.”
Source: National Geographic
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com
Teen Becomes Youngest to Sail Around the World Solo
By AP
July 16, 2009
MARINA DEL REY, Calif. — A 17-year-old boy in Southern California has become the youngest person to sail around the world alone.
Zac Sunderland docked Thursday in Marina del Ray, completing a 28,000-mile trip that began last year.
The teenager’s family, friends and hundreds of curious onlookers cheered as his 36-foot Intrepid boat came into the harbor.
But the shaggy-haired Thousand Oaks native might not hold the record for long. British sailor Mike Perham is a few months younger than Sunderland, and is sailing a bigger, faster boat.
The record was previously held by an Australian who was over 18 when he completed the voyage in 1996.
Sunderland was 16 when he left Marina del Ray on June 14, 2008.
Source: Fox News
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com
Squirrel-size Mammal Discovered in the Rain Forests of Brazil
By Laura Leigh Davidson
July 15, 2009
Scientists have discovered a new monkey in Brazil. The tiny mammal is about the size of a squirrel. It weighs seven-and-a-half ounces and is only nine inches tall. The mini-monkey’s fur is mostly gray and brown. It has a spotted back that looks like a saddle and a very long tail.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) reported the monkey discovery. The group says that encountering new types of mammals is quite rare.
“We keep finding new types of plants, insects, and butterflies,” said Avecita Chicchón, an official with the WCS. “But it is more and more difficult to find newer types of mammals.”
Scientists found the little monkey in the rain forests located in the Brazilian state of Amazonas (am-uh-ZOH-nuhs). The little monkey has been named Mura’s saddleback tamarin. Scientists named it after the Mura Indian tribe, whose members also live in the rain forests of Brazil.
Already in Danger?
Scientists aren’t yet sure how many saddleback tamarins make their homes in the area. But they may have to do their work fast.
The tamarins’ habitat is shrinking due to deforestation. Deforestation happens when trees are cut down and land is cleared for building projects.
Conservationists, or people who work to protect natural resources, are alarmed about the effects of deforestation on Brazilian rain forests. They are most concerned about a huge highway that cuts through the area where the tiny monkeys were discovered. There are also plans to build two dams and a gas pipeline in the same region.
The shrinking natural habitat threatens more than just the tamarins. Scientists believe this area is rich with undiscovered plants and animals. As the rain forest disappears, so will the wildlife that lives in it.
“These [building projects] are a significant threat to wildlife that are not even [known and] documented,” Chicchón said. She and others from the WCS want developers to more carefully examine the environmental costs of their building projects.
“This newly described monkey shows that even today, there are still major wildlife discoveries to be made,” said Fabio Röhe, who led the team that found the new tamarin. “This discovery should serve as a wake-up call that there is still much to learn from the world’s wild places.”
Source: Scholastic News Online
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com
Vanessa to Strip for Next Role
July 14, 2009 by Dan
Filed under Entertainment
By Fox News
July 14, 2009
Vanessa Hudgens is taking a bit of a detour from her successful path as a Disney starlet.
The “High School Musical” star, 20, says she is going to strip down for her new role as a hooker in the upcoming film “Sucker Punch,” according to a report in the U.K. Metro.
“I’m playing a character named Blondie and it’s set in a brothel in the 1950s, so there’s not a whole lot of clothes,” the actress was quoted as saying.
“I think this is my time to really step it up and get to grow up. It will be somewhat different with the content and a few more foul words, but that’s the biggest difference.”
A potty-mouthed, half-naked hooker — Yes, that’s definitely “somewhat” different than being a Disney star.
But it’s not the first time that the “HSM” cutie has showed some skin. In 2007, the pint-sized actress apologized for nude photos that showed her smiling while standing in front of a red curtain.
Source: Fox News
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com
Finding the Fun in Potty Training
Toddler’s Bill of Rights: Potty Proclamation
By: Lawrence Kutner, Ph.D.
July 13, 2009
1. Please let me go at my own pace.
Help me, but don’t push me to do things before I’m ready.
2. Please understand that I have accidents and make mistakes.
Remember that everyone has accidents as they learn. I’m not doing it on purpose.
3. Please understand that I will do things differently than other children.
I have my own style. Don’t expect me to be the same as other children you know.
4. Please praise me for my efforts, not just my successes.
Sometimes it will take awhile for me to “get it.” What’s important is that I’m trying. I’ll get there!
5. Please understand when I become frustrated.
I really want to be able to do the things big kids can do, even though my body won’t always let me. Please be patient and understanding when this happens.
6. Please understand when I am suspicious of plumbing.
Toilets and drains are big and noisy and scary. I need to know that they won’t hurt me.
7. Please let me take a break when things are stressful.
I can’t always learn something new when there are big changes in my life, such as a move to a new home or the birth of a baby. At times like these, please understand if I need additional support and have to relearn skills you thought I had already mastered.
8. Please understand when I am concerned about what happens to my body.
Everything about my body, even my potty, is important to me. I need to know what happens after I flush the potty.
9. Please understand if I giggle and act like a child.
After all, I’m just a kid. Sometimes I get overwhelmed.
10. Please explain things to me in ways I can understand.
Sometimes I can’t make sense of the things people say. Help me by using words that I feel comfortable with and can understand.
Source: Pampers
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com
Safe Kids Safety Tip of the Week
July 14, 2009 by Dan
Filed under Parent's Advice
By Safe Kids/PIO
July 13, 2009
Editor’s Note: Each week we will give you safety tips in different areas. We hope this helps you to keep our children safe: This week: Protecting our Babies.
We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com
Accidental injury is the number one killer of America’s children, taking more lives than disease, violence and suicide. Prevention is the cure. It’s estimated that by taking these and other simple precautions, almost all (90 percent) of these accidental injuries can be avoided.
Fragile, helpless and innocent, your infant enters the world completely dependent on you. From the moment you leave the hospital, you take steps to keep her safe. You buckle her tenderly into a rear-facing child safety seat for the ride home. You check the bath temperature carefully before placing her in the water. At night, you tuck her in to a new crib, with a label that assures you it meets national safety standards. But could you be doing more?
Although your home should be a safe haven for your baby, it can be dangerous. Babies face a list of potential injuries – including choking, drowning, falls, poisons and burns – that can overwhelm any parent. Yet each of these risks can be reduced or eliminated by taking simple, time-tested steps.
The greatest gift you can give your baby is a safe environment. Explore the links below to learn more.
To learn more about airway obstruction injury, falls and childhood unintentional poisioning read A Report to the Nation: Trends in Unintentional Childhood Injury Mortality, 1987-2000 (May 2003).
To purchase educational materials about specific risk areas, check out our Resource Catalog (off-site link).
Test Your Knowledge Play the Safety Game
Source: Safe Kids USA