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.

Water Ice on the Moon

Image: ISRO

With the help of ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft and NASA's Mini-RF Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instrument it carried onboard, more than 40 craters have been detected on the Moon to contain water ice. These craters are small and their sizes vary from 2 to 15 km (1 to 9 miles) in diameter. In total, at least 600 million metric tons (1.3 trillion pounds) of water ice are estimated to be in the craters.

The ISS, with Binoculars

Today, I found out that the International Space Station (ISS) was passing over almost directly overhead in my town. So, I grabbed my binoculars and headed out to catch the ISS. It was wonderful. Not only was it really bright at its peak (-4.3 magnitude!), its pass lasted about 7-8 minutes. This gave me ample time to focus on the space station with my binoculars.

The view I saw was mind-blowing! I had seen the ISS with my naked eye before, but the binoculars revealed some really cool details. I think I could pick out faintly the lines of the ISS' large solar panels and I was able to notice a few edges along the station's body. It was a great experience.

Mars Express Passes by Phobos

The Mars Express spacecraft, built by the European Space Agency, flew by the Martian moon Phobos on Wednesday March 3. The pass was just 67 km (42 miles) away from the surface of Phobos, the shortest pass ever to the moon.

The goals of the flyby of Phobos was to learn about the structure of the moon. The Mars Express spacecraft measured the small deviations to its motion from the gravitational field of Phobos. These measurements are extremely small and require a great amount of precision. The gravitational field experienced by the spacecraft is just a billionth of that it would experience on the Earth's surface. Even taking pictures from this extremely close pass was not allowed, since moving the shutter of the camera, among other movements, would change the measurements taken by the spacecraft.

Phobos is one of the two moons of Mars, both of which are characterized by their small and irregular shape. Their masses are not large enough to have made a round sphere during their formations, and they are instead lumpy and potato shaped.