Stories tagged Apollo

Alan Shephard takes a mulligan: The Apollo 14 astronaut duffs one using a makeshift 6 iron. NASA wouldn't let him bring his own clubs.
Courtesy NASAThere are a couple new films out about the Apollo moon program. Well, at least they’re new to me since I haven’t seen them. I really enjoyed IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON when I saw it last fall, but I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff. I thought the Apollo program was the cat’s pajamas, and a high point of the good ol’ USA’s spirit of adventure and exploration. Not to mention our chutzpah for pulling off such an astounding feat in less than a decade from when we declared we were going to do so.

One giant sandtrap for mankind: Alan Shephard's duffed golf ball sets just in front of the near end of the javelin (or is it the shaft of his broken club?). According to NASA officials, he couldn't hit the broadside of a crater with a handful of moon dust.
Courtesy NASAThe first of the new films is the most recent. Its title is THE WONDER OF IT ALL and I guess deals with the human aspect of the adventures of the 12 men who walked on the Moon back in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The film played last weekend at Kennedy Space Center as a benefit for the US Space Walk of Fame in Titusville, Florida in hopes to drum up funds for a planned memorial there for the Apollo program and the astronauts involved.

According to the producers, the award-winning documentary tells “a humanistic story” through interviews with 7 of the Apollo astronauts, that details their lives and how each was affected by walking on the Moon.

The other film is called MAGNIFICENT DESOLATION and is an IMAX production in 3D. It was released in 2005 under the tutelage of none other than Forrest Gump, …er I mean Tom Hanks, who’s listed as producer, co-writer, and narrator. From what I understand, this film is more of a reenactment that simulates what the astronauts saw and did while on the Moon’s surface. It was shot in 3D on a soundstage, and according to Apollo 16’s Charlie Duke “It felt like you were on the Moon driving a rover with those guys. It brought me right back onto the lunar surface.” Hey, maybe they used the same stage where conspiracy theorists claim the real moon missions were faked (there has been criticism that the film provides fodder to those sorts). No matter. I still want to see it. Perhaps the Science Museum will bring it in for a run, if not for our visitors’ sake, at least for mine.

Tags : space, nasa, space exploration, Apollo 11, Apollo, space missions

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So clear, you can taste the cheese: This image from the Apollo 15 mission is presented here with less than 1% of the resolution the new scans will offer. Image from NASA / University of Arizona.

The University of Arizona is working with NASA to put all the original photographs from the Apollo moon missions on-line, free and available to the public. The original images have rarely been seen—they are irreplaceable, so NASA keeps them under lock and key in a deep-freeze. Fuzzy, second-generation prints is all most of us have ever seen.

But now, thanks to digital technology, high-resolution scans can be made. And I do mean high: resolution will range up to 200 pixels/mm (the Internet displays pictures at about 3 pixels/mm), and file size up to 12 gigabytes. The resolution is so fine, you can actually see the original photographic grain.

Some 36,000 images in all will be scanned. The project is expected to take three years to complete.

Tags : moon, digital photography, Apollo

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