Archive for July 18th, 2009

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Apollo 11

Apollo 11 - Buzz Aldrin. Image: NASA

This month commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing – the first steps mankind took on the moon. An historic moment, but how much do you actually know about the moon landing? Here are ten facts you probably didn’t know about Apollo 11.

1. The Apollo’s Saturn rockets were packed with enough fuel to throw 100-pound shrapnel three miles, and NASA couldn’t rule out the possibility that they might explode on takeoff. NASA seated its VIP spectators three and a half miles from the launchpad.

2. The Apollo computers had less processing power than a cellphone.

3. Drinking water was a fuel-cell by-product, but Apollo 11’s hydrogen-gas filters didn’t work, making every drink bubbly. Urinating and defecating in zero gravity, meanwhile, had not been figured out; the latter was so troublesome that at least one astronaut spent his entire mission on an anti-diarrhea drug to avoid it.

4. When Apollo 11’s lunar lander, the Eagle, separated from the orbiter, the cabin wasn’t fully depressurized, resulting in a burst of gas equivalent to popping a champagne cork. It threw the module’s landing four miles off-target.

5. Pilot Neil Armstrong nearly ran out of fuel landing the Eagle, and many at mission control worried he might crash. Apollo engineer Milton Silveira, however, was relieved: His tests had shown that there was a small chance the exhaust could shoot back into the rocket as it landed and ignite the remaining propellant.

6. The “one small step for man” wasn’t actually that small. Armstrong set the ship down so gently that its shock absorbers didn’t compress. He had to hop 3.5 feet from the Eagle’s ladder to the surface.

7. When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle’s door because there was no outer handle.

8. The toughest moonwalk task? Planting the flag. NASA’s studies suggested that the lunar soil was soft, but Armstrong and Aldrin found the surface to be a thin wisp of dust over hard rock. They managed to drive the flagpole a few inches into the ground and film it for broadcast, and then took care not to accidentally knock it over.

9. The flag was made by Sears, but NASA refused to acknowledge this because they didn’t want “another Tang.”

10. The inner bladder of the space suits—the airtight liner that keeps the astronaut’s body under Earth-like pressure—and the ship’s computer’s ROM chips were handmade by teams of “little old ladies.”

So now you know!

Link

“I’m feeling lucky” button costs Google $110 million

Have you ever noticed that little button on Google, next to the main search button? Well, if you haven’t, it’s called the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. This button, unlike the ordinary “Google Search” button, takes users directly to the top search result. So in essence it saves them about 1 second…and this costs Google $110 million per year!

Because the button doesn’t display search ads, Google doesn’t get paid and with over 100 million searches per day, it soon adds up.

“It’s possible to become too dry, too corporate, too much about making money. I think what’s delightful about ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ is that it reminds you there are real people here,” Google executive Marissa Mayer explained.

Luckily only about one percent of searches are done using the lucky button, but is it really worth $110 million?!

Walter Cronkite Announces Death Of JFK

One of the most historic moments of modern times was the death of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The first person to let the nation know of the tragedy was Walter Cronkite. Walter broke the news at the five minute mark on the video. Here’s the clip.

Rest in peace Walter Cronkite.

Piglet Squid Smiles For The Camera

Piglet Squid. Image: Cabrillo Marine Aquarium / CATERS NEWS

This photograph shows a rarely seen sea creature smiling for cameras at a rescue aquarium.

Piglet squids (Helicocranchia pfefferi) are normally found in the depths of the ocean, more than 320ft (100m) below the surface, but this particular squid was collected by the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium where it was filmed looking rather happy.

The creature is only 3.9 inches (10cm) long which is about the same size as an orange. It navigates its way around the ocean using its light producing organs.

This little piglet looks like it’s having a whale of a time!