How geological maps made the Apollo moon landings worthwhile

International News

I still remember a cartoon in a newspaper in July 1969, just before the first Apollo moon landing. It showed the ground crew reminding the astronauts as they boarded their rocket, “Don’t forget to bring back some rock!” This was a nod to an old holiday cliché – people who went to the seaside were often asked to bring back some “rock”, referring to rock candy. It wasn’t very funny, but it does demonstrate that, once the race against the Soviets was won, the point of it all was to find out about the moon’s geology.
The scientific value of landing on the moon would have been diminished without studies to establish the context of the landing sites. The primary consideration was to touch down somewhere safe, but rocks collected from these places would have conveyed much less information had effort not gone into working out the nature of, and more importantly the relationships between, the rock units from which the samples were collected.
This was done by making detailed geological maps, using the same principles that geologists use on Earth.
Cartography vs geological mapping
Telescopic observers had already begun to draw general maps of the moon’s near side (which is all that can be seen from Earth) in the 1600s. These were essentially exercises in cartography, documenting what the moon looks like. Soon names were being marked to label individual features, but this was just a convenient way to identify them. It wasn’t based on any actual understanding.

 By contrast, geologists make maps to gain insight into the history of a region. They distinguish tracts of terrain of which the ages – and therefore possibly origin and composition – can be deduced to be different. This is usually achieved by working out what is on top of what (younger layers will generally be on top of older layers) and cross-cutting relationships (younger features can cut across older ones, but not vice versa)...Read More

Explore first moon landing in your living room with Google's 3D re-creation

International News
Imagine sitting in your living room and seeing a 3D re-creation of Apollo 11 rocket's command module that first took astronauts to the moon. Ahead of the upcoming 50th anniversary of mankind's first successful trip to the moon, Google has recreated the module with Augmented Reality (AR).
Users would get to explore 20 new stories about lesser-known aspects of the mission and the people who contributed to it, Google said in a blog post.
To celebrate the milestone, when users would Google search Apollo 11 on an AR-enabled device, they would see an AR option in the Knowledge Panel and tapping on it would let users explore a 3D recreation of the command module, Engadget reported on Wednesday. You can also zoom in and out to explore the historic event in all angles.
Explore first moon landing in your living room with Google's 3D re-creation
“On the anniversary of the Moon landing, we’re bringing you new ways to learn about this milestone of human achievement, including new perspectives and stories that celebrate the lesser-known figures who made it happen,” the blog post added.
It also plans to recreate an AR option with Neil Armstrong's spacesuit that would let users understand what astronauts wore on the surface of the Moon.
According to Google, this is the first time it has added a cultural artefact in AR feature on Search, which debuted in May.The search-engine giant has teamed up with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum for this project.

 More features such as moon- and space-related tours and quizzes on Google Earth have also been lined up from July 15...Read More

Space ethics? Five questions for how we choose to use the moon

Company News
The Moon has always served as an inspiration for humanity, and there are many potential benefits for further exploration of our planet’s rocky satellite.
But we need to establish guidelines to prevent unethical behaviour on the Moon, particularly regarding the use of natural resources and off-planet labour.
How humans should interact with space and celestial objects is central to the emerging field of space ethics. It’s something I’ve been involved with since 2015, when I taught my first class on consent for the use of celestial objects at Yale University’s Summer Bioethics Institute.As we prepare to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing, here are five things we need to reflect on regarding ethical considerations for various future uses of the Moon.
1) Human settlement on the Moon
Some people believe establishing human settlements on the Moon – and other bodies – may help lessen the environmental burden of overpopulation on Earth. While the practical issues of survival and maintaining communication receive a lot of attention in discussions of Moon settlements, the ethical considerations are often overlooked.These include whether Moon-based humans would have the same legal and human rights as their counterparts on Earth. Would children born on the Moon even share the citizenship of their parents, or would they be stateless on Earth? And would they have a different physiology to Earth-born humans due to the reduced gravity on the Moon? A new breed of Moonians? Moonlings?

 We need to consider the complexities of establishing independent governance of a Moon base to promote the development of a fair society for those living there...Read More

Shadows on the Moon: A tale of ephemeral beauty, humans and hubris

Company News
Between 1969 and 1972, a new type of archaeological site was created. For the first time, human bodies and the technology needed to sustain them altered the landscape of another world. The astronauts from the six Apollo missions left a suite of space-age artefacts behind on the lunar surface. And not only that: the missions brought to the Moon new kinds of shadows, cast by machines and bodies and flags and rovers, in an interplay of movement and stillness.
On Earth, the movement of living things, the changing of the environment, both natural and cultural; and the weather, which occludes sunlight to different degrees, make shadows very dynamic. Lunar shadows, however, are more passive at human time scales, their movement identical with the fortnightly passage of the Sun over the surface.
The Apollo missions brought shadows that were not so passive. The speed of the shadows differed, depending on the activity being carried out, and was much faster than the slow passing of the day. Some shadows were solid black and some were lacy and textured, reflecting the mesh on the umbrella-shaped antennas.
They crossed and uncrossed with the angle of the Sun and the movement of the astronauts around the tiny landscapes that constituted their lunar experience. The shadows were captured and frozen in many photographs of the Apollo missions; in these photos, they became another type of artefact.
The Apollo 17 lunar rover and its shadows. NASA

 And then some shadows left, never to return, and others stayed to be swallowed by the lunar night and emerge into day again. The shadows of the objects left behind - descent modules, rovers, cameras and other equipment - will continue to be cast over the lunar surface until they decay in tens, hundreds or thousands of years. The objects don’t move, but their shadows circle them in diurnal devotion, sundials without a mission.