Lunar Development

Magnificent Desolation - Truly Magnificent

Tom Hanks new IMAX movie is stunning. This is just what the country needs as we are turning back to the Moon.

Thank you, Tom for contributing so much by bringing the history of the greatest human accomplishment to life with Apollo 13, From Earth to the Moon and now with Magnificent Desolation.

Report on opening with pictures.

The Moon in Art, Culture and Events

August -  Darkside- A play about a fiction Apollo 18 where the LM rocket engine fails to ignite

September 23  - Magnificent Desolation Opened: a new IMAX Movie by Tom Hanks

September 24 - John Young's 75th Birthday- Happy Birthday- Live Long and Prosper

October 3 - Annular solar eclipse Visible from Africa

October 4 - Moon occults Mercury

October 17 - Partial Lunar Eclipse

October 20 - 35th anniversery of the Launch of the USSR's Zond 8  which flew by the Moon

October 22 Octogon Moon Rise Event in Ohio - Poster

March 29, 2006  Solar Eclipse can be seen Turkey, Georgia and Russia

Regolith Excavtor Contest

NASA Centennial Challanges prize competition  has a new challange worth $250,000 to theteam that can build an autononomously operated excavtor which can deliver the most regolith to a collector within 30 minutes in a head to head competiton to be held in late 2006 or 2007.

MoonToday.net

Space.com

More Acknowledging The Greatest Human Achievement

A Man in Utah wants to make July 20th a National Holiday in recognition of the Moon Landing.

Apollo, Pennsylvania has an Annual Apollo Moon Landing Celebration.

Elvoterra- a celebration by William Simon, Rand Simberg,and Margaret Jordan is a plan for a ceremony.

Acknowledging The Greatest Human Achievement

Edward Hudgins of  The  Objectivist Center  has suggested July 20^th as Human Achievement Day  in honor of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.

Google Moon has a good map of the landing sites.

BBC did a program on the Moon Trees.

Cool Stuff

There is a lot of cool stuff I found recently to share.

Buzz Aldrin has a new children's Book called Reaching for the Moon

Lunar Planetary Institute Map Catalog.

The Lunar Picture of the Day or also here.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Page.

Peter Grego's Lunar Observers Page.

Gene Cernan Recieved the first Ambassator of Exploration Award. The Award is made out of moon rock and  will be kept at the National Musuem of Naval Aviation.

New ideas on the Maria and the history of the Solar System.

And a Moon Rover Race Class Project.

Jim Lovell will Donate Personal Collection to The Alder

James A. Lovell has announced he will consolidate his personal collection of NASA memorabilia and contribute it to the Alder Planetarium & Astronomy Museum in Chicago, IL.

This is great. We need to asure the preservation of arifacts of the greatest achievement so far in human history.

Interesting Moon Related Stuff

The Saturn 5 has been proposed as the Alabama State Symbol.

A new look at Apoll 13 in IEEE Spectrum by Stephen Cass called Apollo 13, We Have a Solution.

Lunar Lander Simulation

The Eagle Lander 3D  (EL3D) is an authentic simulation of the Apollo lunar landings and includes accurate renditions of scenery, flight dynamics and the lunar module.

Looks cool.

New Moon Media Products

Here are some new lunar books and DVD's Available.

"Lunar Prospector: Against All Odds," by Alan Binder, Ph.D. (Ken Press, see ken@kenpress.com or call 520-743-3200).

Apollo 13 (10th Anniversary Widescreen Edition) DVD

Jim Lovell has a restaurant.

Chip Proser is ready to present Gaia Selene – Saving the Earth by Colonizing the Moon at the ISDC on 19 May in Washington DC. The DVD connects Earth's crisis of pollution, global warming and climate change to the coming global energy crisis.

Light This Candle : The Life and Times of Alan Shepard