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First RTG in Space

Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (Qn from Twitter: 27 Nov 2011)

The 1st RTG launched in space by the United States was SNAP 3 in 1961 aboard the Navy Transit 4A spacecraft.

Last man on the Moon?

Who was the last man on the moon? Trish Noble, (Orlando, Florida. Tuesday 8th January 2008).

Astronaut Eugene Cernan was the last man on the Moon. Eugene Cernan has journeyed to space three times: Gemini 9, Apollo 10 and Apollo 17. Harrison J Schmidt stayed longer and travelled further on the surface of the moon than any other crew in  the Apollo missions. He described his experiences in his book '"The Last Man on the Moon" (see Moon Book section).

Mir Shuttle Missions

How many Space Shuttles visited the Mir Space Station? Melanie Fredrick (New Orleans, USA)

NASA made 11 flights to Mir on Shuttle missions (STS-60, STS-63, STS-71, STS-74, STS-76, STS-79, STS-81, STS-84, STS-86, STS-89, and STS-91).

Speed of Light

What is a Light Year? Pascal Brackwell (Toronto, Canada) (Sunday 16th, December 2007)

A light-year is a unit of distance, not time. It is simply the distance that light travels in one year. The speed of light is 299,792,458 metres per second and therefore in one year (365¼ days) light can traverse 9,460,730,472,580,800 metres. In other words, a light-year is equal to about 9.46 trillion kilometres.

Tycho Brahe

Who was Tycho Brahe? Patricia Foggarty (Tralee, Ireland) (Wednesday 12th, December, 2007)

Tycho Brahe was born on this day back in 1546. He made numerous astronomical observations of unprecedented accuracy and did so prior to the invention of the telescope, which was a remarkable accomplishment. Tycho’s extensive observations of Mars, which were both precise and accurate, allowed Johannes Kepler, a famous astronomer in his own right, to formulate the Three Laws of Planetary Motion.
 

Mercury Escape Tower

Hello, I am currently working on plans for a 1/5 scale Mercury Redstone. I was wondering if you could answer a few questions or tell me who I could contact. The questions are as follows;

1. On a successful flight was the escape tower fired from the capsule when the booster was still burning?

2. Or was it fired after booster burnout?

3. If it was fired after booster burnout, was the capsule still attached to the booster?

4. Or was the capsule fired from the booster, then the tower fired?

Thanks for your time,
Vern Hoag ( Wednesday 15th, August, 2007)

During the launch phase of a mission, the Mercury spacecraft was protected from launch vehicle failures by the Launch Escape System which was mounted on a tower above the spacecraft. After booster engine cut-off the Launch Escape System was no longer needed and was separated from the spacecraft by a solid fuel thrust jettison rocket that fired for 1.5 seconds.

In the event of a launch abort, the Launch Escape System would fire for 1 second, pulling the Mercury spacecraft and the astronaut away from a defective launch vehicle. The spacecraft would then descend on its parachute recovery system.

Note: To separate the Mercury spacecraft from the launch vehicle, the spacecraft fired three small solid-fuel, 400 lbf (1.8 kN) thrust rockets for 1 second. These rockets are called the Posigrade rockets.

Doctor Who Series 3 / Season 3 Episodes

How many episodes were there in Series 3 of Doctor Who in 2007 and what were they called? Daryl King (Boston, USA 5th August, 2007)

2007 Episode Guide: The 2007 Season consists of 13 episodes. The following is a list of the names of the episodes and original UK viewing dates:

Super Nova

What would happend on earth if alpha centarie only 4.2 light years away went super nova? Would solid material come this way? Would it just be a great light show? Would there be a blast of electric particals? How would earth be effected?

Thank you R. Williams  (Mobile, Alabama) (Thursday, 2nd August 2007)

A Supernova is a stellar explosion that creates an extremely luminous object that is initially made of plasma, an ionized form of matter. A supernova may briefly outshine its entire host galaxy before fading from view over several weeks or months. During this brief period of time, the supernova radiates as much energy as the Sun would emit over about 10 billion years. The explosion expels much or all of a star's material at a velocity of up to a tenth the speed of light, driving a shock wave into the surrounding interstellar gas. This shock wave sweeps up an expanding shell of gas and dust called a Supernova Remnant.

But do not panic yet. I don't think Alpha Centuari will go Supernova very soon, it might take place hundreds of millions of years in the future. If it did explode, the high-energy electromagnetic radiation and cosmic rays released would destroy Earth's ozone layer within minutes, giving life little chance of survival. It is thought the minimum safe distance from a supernova is 160 to 200 light years.

Moons of Mars

How many moons does mars have and name the mars moons. I would like to compliment you on your wonderful website.

Katie Sugar (London, UK Tuesday 29th May 2007)

Planet Mars has two moons and they are called Deimos and Phobos.

Moon Hoax

My friends still has trouble understanding how the US got the "Eagle" back on its wings after the successful landing. He doesn't believe they could do a soft landing with that much fuel required for launch to come back home. I'm a novice in this area. Any reports I can tell my friend? He's not fully bought into the conspiracy theory, but he throws that into the argument to get me aggravated. What do you think? Thanks in advance for your help.

Margaret (Mon 5th April, 2004)

Space Question

My son's class (5th grade) is learning about space stations.  They are making models.  Where can I find brochures, posters etc. that I can distribute to his class (of 22 kids)?

Debs ( Sat 13th Oct, 2001)

Aerospaceguide Comments

Hi Everyone of this Great Team!

Thanks for amazing Newsletter. You are wonderful. Go ahead inspiring and rejoicing us remainder. Greetings and wishes for further success. 

Best regards. 
Joanna (November 2nd, 2001)

The new look looks impressive I must say and I do believe it when you say you spent 20 nights on it 8 hours each time because it has taken me 4 hours a day and 2 weeks to complete the Mummy Returns website...

Cheers and keep up your good work..!

Brettz Hammer.

Hello Vic my name is Paolo and if you remember the russian boy from internet cafe in Rathmines, how are you? You are doing a good job with you website congratulations....... If you remember about what I asked you --- about artificial gravity--- I am stil interest in this information. Ok see you in next e-mail and best regards in your job. Paolo (Ivan)

My dad worked for the Space program - misc. for sale

My dad designed parts of some of the Apollos and Space Shuttles. We have pins, nuts/bolts that came from Shuttle, 'coins' made from Shuttle metal, first day covers...

-From-: Susan
-Date-: Fri May 4 17:18:01 2001

Astronomy

When you look at the night sky you can see many stars, do you see the gallaxies amongst them, find a point a the chart, you should discover that a whirlpool nebula is catching your eye, would you like to go there....

From-: Tommi 
-Date-: Fri May 25 05:09:07 2001

If you have any Space Question, please email me!

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