lunar

I love it when engineers show off.

NASA scientists, having apparently nothing better to do, have shot an image of the Mona Lisa to the moon by piggybacking it on laser pulses. Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece was successfully received by an instrument aboard the agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) some 240,000 miles away.

"This is the first time anyone has achieved one-way laser communication at planetary distances," MIT's David Smith, head of the spacecraft's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA), said in a release.

"In the near future, this type of simple laser communication might serve as a backup for the radio communication that satellites use. In the more distant future, it may allow communication at higher data rates than present radio links can provide." … Read more

COLOGNE, Germany -- Pining for camera with a hand-stitched Italian leather grip and jeweled control dials? You're in luck.

The digital photography revolution exiled Hasselblad's medium-format cameras to an expensive niche inhabited almost solely by professionals. But today, the company announced Lunar, the first camera in an effort that Chief Executive Larry Hansen hopes will bring the storied photography brand back to a wider -- if not mainstream -- market.

Through a partnership with Sony, Hasselblad unveiled its 24-megapixel mirrorless interchangeable-lens model built on the bones and brains of Sony's high-end NEX-7. It's due to ship … Read more

While the world is still basking in the glow of NASA's successful landing of its Curiosity rover on Mars, a flight of the space agency's experimental Morpheus lander had a much more unfortunate ending today.

According to Space.com, the lander crashed and burned at Kennedy Space Center this afternoon after its first free-flight test went badly awry.

"The @MorpheusLander experienced a failure, causing it to catch fire," NASA tweeted. "No one was injured. Information will be released as soon as possible."

But Space.com added that in a statement, NASA said that, "… Read more

Some people try to make the most of their spare time by exercising, volunteering, or simply recharging their batteries. Others like to use that time to build robots that can be blasted to the moon and then set free to roam the lunar landscape. A group of engineers and researchers calling themselves Team Part-Time Scientists have chosen the latter, and are building a moon rover named Asimov they hope will win the coveted Google Lunar X Prize by early 2014.

As the name implies, at least half of Part-Time Scientists' 100 members are holding down full-time jobs at industrial firms … Read more

The one percent may feel under siege these days, but at least there's one consolation to having hundreds of millions of dollars to burn: The opportunity to take a trip around the moon.

According to the Smithsonian magazine Air & Space, anyone with a spare $150 million laying may have the opportunity to hop aboard a future lunar flight.

To be sure, it's not going to be United Airlines ferrying the super rich to the moon. Rather, it is likely to be Space Adventures, the private company that for the last ten years has been taking mega-rich passengers on trips to the International Space Station. … Read more

If you're the type of person who plans to stay up late to watch tonight's total lunar eclipse, you might also want to be one of the first people to try the beta version of a new Android app.

Known as SkySafari, the app has been available for iOS devices for a while. But now, just in time for tonight's lunar eclipse, the app is being released into a free beta for Android.

"SkySafari is the only mobile astronomy app which can correctly reproduce this December's total lunar eclipse, or any other," an announcement … Read more

If you live in the western United States, set your alarm tonight. The total lunar eclipse Saturday morning promises to be big and bright--and we won't get another one until 2014.

It starts around 4:45 a.m. PT, when Earth's shadow will begin to fall across the moon. By 6:05 a.m., the moon will be in full eclipse mode and glowing red. One atmospheric scientist who's become adept at predicting such events expects this eclipse to be "bright red with a possible hint of turquoise." Find out more--and why the moon will … Read more

I am beginning to think that Google should put its doodlers in charge of the whole company.

It seems as if they have an instinct for inspiring real, normal people that has sometimes seemed lacking in some of the titular higher-ups.

So today, as we await the full effects of a lunar eclipse that will provide us with some welcome pause for thought, Google has created a doodle on its home page that shows the progress of the moon as it becomes darkened because the earth is blocking the path of the sun's rays.

Just as with the marvelous Les Paul effort … Read more

The Google Lunar X Prize competition now has an official roster of 29 registered teams, paving the way for a new race to the moon.

The X Prize Foundation today announced seven new teams that had been previously unknown to those who are following the competition. They include Mystical Moon of the USA and Space II of Israel, two teams that are trying to improve "scientific awareness" among the world's youth. Team Puli of Hungary is made up of "young Hungarian professionals," while the Penn State Lunar Lions of the USA are aiming for the … Read more