No Moon Germs On Apollo Crew—Space Germs

Above you see the front page of the Houston Chronicle from July 25, 1969.

The Apollo 11 astronauts had returned from the moon and had been found to have no “moon germs.”

That must have come as very good news.

This story says that salmonella germs launched into space came back more potent.

This article suggest that sunspots may cause flu germs from the stratosphere to infect people on the surface of the Earth.

Here is an article about the possibility that a meteor brought a rain filled with space germs to India.

This story expresses that we are sending Earth germs to Mars.

The world and the heavens are filled with germs. Bring your hand sanitizer whether on Earth or in space.

Manned Missions To Mars And Moon Should Be International

A new administrator for NASA seems to be in the works.

Retired Marine Corps Major General Charles Bolden will be meeting with President Obama today to discuss the post.

General Bolden has flown on the space shuttle four times.

Here is astronaut Bolden’s NASA profile. Above you see his picture.

NASA has plans to go back to the moon and to go to Mars.

I oppose these plans because I feel it costs too much money and because I don’t see any clear reason to send people back to the moon and to Mars.

It could be that the manned space program is at core a giant government jobs program. Okay. I do support government jobs programs.

Yet is it sure will cost a lot of money to send people back to the moon and to Mars. I think that money could be better spent on Earth.

My hope is that if these missions are going to be conducted in any event, that they be as international as possible.

The costs should be spilt between nations and the missions should be flown by an international crew. In fact, there is no reason that an American would have to command these missions or would have to be the first one to take a step on Mars.

I suppose Florida has too many electoral votes for President Obama to go after one of its leading industries. And Democrats have hope of winning Texas some day. The Johnson Space Center is in Texas.

I’m certain NASA has contractors all over the country who are eager for new and expensive missions to the moon, Mars and to the center of the galaxy if that were possible.   

Fine.

Still, we can move past a global space race and move towards cooperation. The advance of peaceful global cooperation would give taxpayers around the globe a more certain return on their money than the nationalistic pursuit of glory for no clear purpose other than that of national glory.

Phobos—A Small Moon Rather Than A Big Rock

Above is a picture of Phobos.

While Phobos looks like a rock, it is in fact a moon of Mars.

The above graphic shows the orbit around Mars of the two Martian moons.

They spin around and around to no apparent end. 

Here are some facts about Phobos–

Phobos, the largest Martian, gouged and nearly shattered by a giant impact crater and beaten by thousands of meteorite impacts, is on a collision course with Mars

Phobos, named after a messenger of the Roman god of war, is the larger of Mars’ two moons and 27 by 22 by 18 km in diameter. It orbits Mars three times a day, and is so close to the planet’s surface that in some locations on Mars it cannot always be seen.

Measurements of the day and night sides of Phobos show such extreme temperature variations that the sunlit side of the moon rivals a pleasant winter day in Chicago, while only a few kilometers away, on the dark side of the moon, the climate is more harsh than a night in Antarctica. High temperatures for Phobos were measured at -4 degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit) and lows at -112 Celsius (-170 degrees Fahrenheit). This intense heat loss is likely a result of the fine dust on Phobos’ surface, unable to retain heat.

Phobos has no atmosphere. It may be a captured asteroid, but some scientists show evidence that contradicts this theory.

Moral of the story—Though it may look like a rock, it may in fact be a moon.