The Vehicle Assembly Building

I just got 3D glasses today through Alan Boyle of CosmicLog, and I couldn't resist using a 3D video I had seen of the inside of NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building for my glasses’ first light¹. The Vehicle Assembly Building is one of the largest buildings on the planet, fourth by volume. The 3D video gives a great idea of the immense scale of the structure, with great views from the inside.



The Vehicle Assembly Building was originally constructed in order to assemble the components of the Saturn V rockets vertically. The building was large enough to contain four of the gargantuan rockets at a time, and includes four massive doors (the largest in the world) that each allowed the Saturn V to pass under. Nowadays, the Vehicle Assembly Building is used for the stacking of the space shuttle, combining vertically the orbiter, the solid rocket boosters, and the external fuel tank.

Rollout of Apollo 11
Image: NASA

STS-36 Rollout
Image: NASA

The duties of the VAB are not so clear once the space shuttle program is retired in 2011. Any future program that utilizes Launch Complex 39² will have access to it, however, none have been upon yet. One possible route could be the Orion Asteroid Mission, a modification of the Constellation program that would allow human exploration of an asteroid.

Footnotes:

1: Yes, technically this isn’t first light, since that’s generally a term used for the first astronomical images taken by an instrument. I extended the definition to encompass the first 3D images viewed through my glasses. ↵
2: The set of two launchpads and the Vehicle Assembly Building that was originally designed for the Apollo program and now used by the space shuttle program. ↵

Preparing for the Moon

Image: NASA

The picture shows the second stage of the Saturn V rocket being prepared for testing on the A-2 test stand at the Mississippi Test Facility (now called the Stennis Space Center) in 1967. The Saturn V rocket is still the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built, and eventually was used for NASA's Apollo and Skylab missions until 1973. The second stage (S-II) contained five J-2 engines arranged in a cross pattern, with the four outer engines being used for control. It contributed 24.9 m to the total 110.6 m (363 feet) height of the entire Saturn V rocket. Interestingly, this stage was constructed in California, and in order to be transported to Florida for the final Saturn V assembly in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center, it had to travel across the Panama Canal.

Stunning Slow Motion Video of Apollo 11 Launch

Image: Mark Gray, Spacecraft Films

Footage of the Apollo 11 Saturn V launch taken from the launch tower, as Mark Gray provides a very descriptive and informative narration.

I really like how the material is sucked below beneath the engines, and the endless flow of water! The whole video is absolutely stunning. The video is embedded below the fold.

One Small Step in Color

Image: NASA

Image: Smithsonian

Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon were not just recorded in the well known black and white grainy video. There was an additional camera aboard the Apollo 11 lunar module "Eagle," the automatic Maurer 16mm Data Acquisition Camera (DAC) (right). The camera was mounted next to the window in the module, and recorded in color. As Neil Armstrong made his historic first steps onto the Moon, Buzz Aldrin recorded with the camera. The DAC was designed to run at several speeds, and afterwards the camera was set to a time laps mode at 1 fps, to conserve the limited amount of film while recording the entire extravehicular activity.

The video from the DAC during the first steps is available on YouTube, and is embedded below the fold. If you look closely, you can notice Buzz Aldrin's reflection in the lunar module window.

Solar System Gravity Wells

On Monday (December 28), Randall Munroe released an XKCD comic on gravity wells. It's a funny, but accurate, way to look at and compare the sizes and masses of the bodies in the solar system. So what exactly is a gravity well?

Water Molecules Discovered on the Moon

Distribution of water-rich minerals around a fresh crater.

Image: ISRO/NASA

The data from three separate spacecrafts have found signs of water molecules on the Moon, more than what has been predicted in the past. In addition hydroxyl (OH, in contrast with H₂O, water) has also been found in the lunar soil.

This finding is very surprising because the Moon has long been thought to be a parched and waterless place. Although the moon reaches frigid temperatures in the dark (reaching down to 100K or -173°C), the extreme temperatures in the sunlight were thought to have made the water evaporate completely. The only places immune to this were thought to have been the permanently dark craters at higher latitudes, near the poles of the Moon. However, the new finding suggests that water is much more widespread throughout the Moon.

40 Years After Apollo 11

Today, 40 years ago, Neil Armstrong first laid foot on the Moon, and spoke the words, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." This was the first time a human laid foot on a body in space outside the Earth. Now, with the help of technology and the internet, we can celebrate the monumental event, and experience the moment in different ways.

Probably the biggest project in this celebration is the We Choose the Moon website, built by the J.F.K. Presidential Library and Museum. This website presents the events of the Apollo 11 mission as they happened 40 years ago. And after the mission is over, the information will be available freely at any time.

NASA has also compiled many features on their website for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo missions. What I found most interesting among these were the recently released images of the Apollo landing sites taken from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Their high resolution allows the features from the landing to be discerned, and in some, even footprints from the astronauts show up clearly. NASA has also released Apollo 11 spacecraft audio and put up restored video of the moon landing.

In addition to these places, there are many other ways to find out more about the Apollo 11 mission and the Moon at this time.


Images: NASA


Astronomy and Space Celebrates International Year of Astronomy 2009.

Moon Rocks Contain Water

The general agreement about the Moon had been before that it was completely dry. No traces of water at all. And detailed research of the Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts seemed to completely confirm this agreement for more than 30 years. But new discoveries have showed that the Moon does contain a little bit  of water.

Image: Some of the volcanic glasses brought to Earth by the Apollo astronauts. Credit: NASA

The Formation of the Moon

The most widely accepted theory about the creation of the Moon involves an impact between a Mars-sized body, called Theia, and the Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. This impact is believed to have launched enough material into space which gradually coalesced into the Moon.

During this formation, most scientists believe that any water existing on the developing moon would have been vaporized into space. Because of this, many think that water has not existed at all on the Earth's satellite. However, this idea may be changed by a research team from Brown University, whose findings were published in the July 10 issue of Nature.

The Research Team

Assistant professor of geological sciences at Brown University, Alberto Saal, has led a team that has discovered evidence for water on the Moon. Analyzing the lunar volcanic glasses, small beads collected by the Apollo 15 mission, they have found minute traces of water. Previously, these rocks were thoroughly searched, but evidence of water did not appear.

But Saal and his team decided to use a technique developed by Erik Hauri from the Carnegie Institution for Science: secondary mass ion spectrometry. Earlier techniques could detect water in the lunar rocks to about 50 ppm (parts per million), but this technique could detect to about 5 ppm. This led to the detection of water in the glass beads.

Water in the Beads

The glass beads were created from small droplets of magma that has come from fire fountains more than 3 billion years ago. The team believes that almost all of the water vapor in the magma disappeared as gas into space right after it came out.

They studied the beads to make sure that they originated from the fire fountains and not fromt he impact of Theia. Saal's team also had to check that the beads were not contaminated by outside factors, like hydrogen from the solar wind.

After the team analyzed the beads, they found that they contained 46 ppm of water. Knowing that most of the water had evaporated during the eruption of the fire fountains, they estimated that pre-eruption magma contained up to 750 ppm of water.

Origin of the Water

So this finding generates a new question: Where did the water on the Moon come from? There are right now two possible answers to this question. Water either did not completely vaporize into space during the formation of the Moon, or came later from the outside, such as from meteorites. This new discovery certainly has sparked new interest in the existing Moon rocks that were brought by the Apollo astronauts to Earth.

1969: First Manned Moon Landing

Today, in 1969, humans first landed on the moon, on the mission Apollo 11. On that day, the lunar module, called the Eagle, separated from the command module, named Columbia. When the lunar lander touched the moon, mission commander, Neil A. Armstrong declared, "Houston, Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed." He later made down the ladder on top of one of the legs of the lunar lander. As he stepped off the ladder, he spoke the famous words, "That's one small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind."

This was a landmark event in human history. It is estimated that over 700 million people watched the event on television worldwide, a record for the time. Although the mission's primary goals were to only make a manned lunar landing, and return safely, the mission accomplished much more than that. It gave us a new way of looking at our home planet, a view from another celestial body. It also unified the people on Earth and conquered a goal that many thought impossible.

For more information, visit:

• Wikipedia