Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy
Music Beamed to Astronauts
This NPR feature describes how Mission Control had a tradition of waking up orbiting astronauts with music. But as you can see in the second piece, the playlist was even more extensive at one time.
Source of text.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 16, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Music, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, 1960s
The Big Book of Mars
Friend of WU Marc Hartzman recently came out with The Big Book of Mars (published by Quirk Books, a division of Penguin Random House), and I was lucky enough to get a copy.
For anyone who's a Mars buff, the book is a must-have. Marc has collected together a smorgasbord of Martian-related weirdness. For instance, I was wondering if he'd cover the Martian beavers that I posted about a few weeks ago. And sure enough, the beavers are in there!
I've also been intrigued by his account of weirdo scientist Francis Galton, back in 1896, studying what he believed to be flashing light signals from Mars. Galton claimed to have decoded words such as 'brackets', 'circumference', and 'Jupiter'. Scientists now believe Galton was seeing sun flashing off the Martian polar ice.
Really, anyone who's at all curious about Mars, or just likes weird history, will enjoy the book. Plus, it's the kind of book that would look great on a coffee table as almost every page contains gorgeous, full-color illustrations.
Definitely recommended!
Amazon, Barnes & Noble
Marc's website
Posted By: Alex - Tue Aug 18, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, Books
Apollo 11 Cuisine
I'm formally a day late with this entry--but yet, the Apollo 11 astronauts were still on the Moon 51 years ago today! Eating their ham-salad sandwiches.Source.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jul 21, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Anniversary, Food, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, 1960s
Lunar Striptease
Edited to stop short of bare bosoms.
Posted By: Paul - Fri May 22, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Aliens, Body, Entertainment, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, Performance Art
Miss Sputnik
Posted By: Paul - Sat May 02, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, 1950s
The boy who was trained to be an astronaut
Jeanne Granveaud wanted her six-year-old son Paul to be an astronaut who would fly to the moon. So she began training him for this role. What made this unusual is that she came up with this plan back in the 1920s.
Some details about little Paul's training from the San Francisco Examiner (Aug 28, 1927):
So far as the hardships of a moon voyage can be foreseen, young Paul will be seasoned to them in advance. His scientific training will include the parts of astronomy which he must learn in order to navigate his queer craft when it gets well out in space. Every fact that terrestrial scientists can learn about the moon will be written down, not in any book for Paul to take along and read, but in a book which he cannot forget or leave behind. These facts will be poured into his brain. Better than an ordinary child knows the alphabet or the multiplication tables, Baby Paul Granveaud will learn to know each scrap of fact about the moon that the astronomers of the world can supply.
The mother's plan seemed incredibly eccentric to people in the 1920s, but in hindsight, her timing was pretty good. Paul was born in 1921, and Alan Shepard, who went to the moon in 1971, was born just two years later, in 1923. So it wouldn't have been impossible for Paul to have grown up to become a lunar astronaut. If only he had been born in America rather than France.
Edmonton Journal - Nov 12, 1927
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 13, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, 1920s
Benefits from the Space Program
You can read the text at the source.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Nov 14, 2019 -
Comments (0)
Category: Business, Advertising, Cosmetics, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy
Space Shuttle Adventure
Be sure to listen to the Space Shuttle Theme Song starting around the 5:00 mark on Side A. "Now we need bigger ships to take us to the stars!"
Listen here.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 09, 2019 -
Comments (1)
Category: Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, 1980s
Nude on the Moon
Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 05, 2019 -
Comments (0)
Category: Movies, Exploitation and Grindhouse, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, Avant Garde, Public Indecency, 1960s
Nuking the Moon
Project A119, also known as A Study of Lunar Research Flights, was a top-secret plan developed in 1958 by the United States Air Force. The aim of the project was to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon, which would help in answering some of the mysteries in planetary astronomy and astrogeology. If the explosive device detonated on the surface, not in a lunar crater, the flash of explosive light would have been faintly visible to people on Earth with their naked eye, a show of force resulting in a possible boosting of domestic morale in the capabilities of the United States, a boost that was needed after the Soviet Union took an early lead in the Space Race and was also working on a similar project.
The project was never carried out, being cancelled primarily out of a fear of a negative public reaction, with the potential militarization of space that it would also have signified, and because a Moon landing would undoubtedly be a more popular achievement in the eyes of the American and international public alike. A similar project by the Soviet Union also never came to fruition.
Wikipedia page here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 10, 2019 -
Comments (1)
Category: Antisocial Activities, Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Explosives, Frauds, Cons and Scams, Government, Mad Scientists, Evil Geniuses, Insane Villains, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, 1950s, North America, Russia
| Who We Are |
|---|
| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |