Robot Scout: Fly Me (Safely) to the Moon

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Astronaut Edwin E.Buzz Aldrin Jr. Lunar Module pilot surveys the Apollo 11 landing site on July 20 1969. He has just deployed the Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package with the Passive Seismic Experiment Package next to him. The Lunar Module Ea ...
Astronaut Edwin E."Buzz" Aldrin Jr., Lunar Module pilot, surveys the Apollo 11 landing site on July 20, 1969. He has just deployed the Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package, with the Passive Seismic Experiment Package next to him. The Lunar Module "Eagle" is in the far right background. Credit: NASA/Neil A. Armstrong, Lunar Module commander.

The first attempt to land humans on the moon -- Apollo 11 -- was a triumph that almost ended in disaster. At just 400 feet from the lunar surface, with only about a minute's worth of fuel remaining, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin saw that their ship's computer was taking them directly into a crater the size of a football field, strewn with SUV-sized boulders. They quickly took control from the computer, flew over the crater and touched down in a smoother area beyond, cutting the engine with just 30 seconds of fuel on the readout.


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NASA Invites Students to Name New Mars Rover

Nov 18, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA is looking for the right stuff, or in this case, the right name for the next Mars rover. NASA, in cooperation with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures' movie WALL-E from Pixar Animation ...

Astronaut outside space station loses tool bag

Nov 18, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
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Calif. utilities must use 33 percent renewable energy for power generation by 2020

Nov 18, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
California utilities, already struggling to meet a law requiring more renewable energy, saw the bar raised even higher Monday.

Global warming predictions are overestimated, suggests study on black carbon

Nov 18, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- A detailed analysis of black carbon -- the residue of burned organic matter -- in computer climate models suggests that those models may be overestimating global warming predictions.

Scientists discover new planet orbiting dangerously close to giant star

Nov 18, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
A team of astronomers from Penn State and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland has discovered a new planet that is closely orbiting a red-giant star, HD 102272, which is much older than our own Sun. The ...
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