Category Archives: Moon Colonization

This is SpaceXs new rocket: Starship.

It launched last week.It did explode four minutes in:

But SpaceX will make it work. And when it does, what will matter is that its humongous.

It can carry so much payload to space that it will change the economics of space.

This will change civilization.

But we havent yet grasped how this will change civilization, both in space and on Earth. So lets grasp it.

In the last few years, the number of objects launched to space has skyrocketed.

In space, we mainly send things to Low-Earth Orbit, or LEO, the green area below:

We can send all these objects to LEO thanks to SpaceXs reusable rockets. Each one of them can launch payloads to space dozens of times.

With all these launches, its not just the number of objects we can send to space that is soaring. Also the volume and mass. As a result, the cost to launch a kilogram of payload to LEO has dropped since the 1980s:

In the 1980s, it cost over $75k to carry one kilogram to space in a big rocket. Just carrying one astronauts body cost the astronomical sum of over $5M! SpaceXs Falcon Heavy has brought it down to $1,500/kg, or 50 times cheaper. This is the magic of SpaceXs bigger, reusable rockets.

Now SpaceXs Starship rocket will take the baton and go farther. It is designed to carry over 100 tons of payload to LEO, which is 50% more than the latest Falcon heavy. It will have thousands of launches every year. And Elon Musk believes that within 2-3 years, the cost per kg will drop from Falcon Heavys $1,500 to $100.

To put it into perspective:

People dont realize how big of a deal this is.

Look at the cost of different types of transportation on Earth:

Its no coincidence that the US and Northern Europe are two of the wealthiest regions in the world and also two of the regions with the most connected navigable inland waterways

Why does it matter? Because transportation costs over water are much cheaper than over land. And navigation through inland waterways is even better than sea transportation, because weather is much less of a problem, currents can be controlled, and rivers serve two banks instead of just one for coastal transportation.

You can see the value of rivers in a country like France, where the population density closely follows the river systems. Cheap transportation attracted people and wealth to the rivers, and especially to their confluences.

Why is that? Why did people gather around rivers?

Imagine you sell meat and can make a profit of $10 for each kilogram you sell. But it costs you $1 to transport each kg one kilometer. Each additional kilometer you add, your margin is reduced by $1. You can only transport your product 10 km away. In the example below, that means you can only trade with four cities:

If instead, your cost of transportation is half, what happens? It costs you $0.5 per km. Now youre increasing your margins with each of the cities that you used to trade with. But more importantly, now you can reach markets that are 20 km away.

But when you 2x the distance, you 4x the surface! In this case, you cant just trade with four cities anymore, you can trade with sixteen

This is what rivers do: by dropping the cost of transport, they connect huge numbers of cities, which can trade much more between them, become wealthier, their population can buy even more, and so on and so forth.

All in all, the value of the network to the right is at least an order of magnitude higher than that to the left! The cheaper the transport, the more trade at a lower cost, the more wealth generated, the more that wealth can be reinvested in better canals and bridges and roads, and the areas wealth grows even further.

Weve seen this through history. Rome was built around the Mediterraneans cheap transportation costs, and obsessed about reducing overland transportation costs with their famous roads. Their empire was limited by the reach of their communications.

Similarly, the Egyptians lived around the Nile, the early Vikings around the North Sea, early Japan around its Seto Inland Sea, China started its canals in the 5th Century BC

Transportation costs are so important they created empires.Now Starship is dropping transportation costs to new worlds. What will that allow?

Starship is like a conveyor belt to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). When you drop your transportation costs by 100x in a decade, a new universe of opportunities opens up so fast that human brains cant follow.

Space engineers have spent decades focusing on shaving milligrams of weight off their satellites. The weight was so important that it pervaded every decision: cost structure, volumes to be sent, material choices, power sources, thermal protection, software for guidance, navigation, or control Every aspect of the mission was obsessed about one thing: weight. Every NASA mission had to be a marvel of miniaturization to cram as much science as possible into every available micrometer. The obsession against mass was drilled into engineers brains, generation after generation.

Thats out the window.

All space missions, whether robotic or crewed, historical or planned, have been designed with constraints that are not relevant to Starship.

Starship obliterates the mass constraint and every last vestige of cultural baggage it has gouged into the minds of spacecraft designers. A dollar spent on mass optimization no longer buys a dollar saved on launch cost. It buys nothing. It is time to raise the scope of our ambition and think much bigger.Casey Handmer, Starship is still not understood

In this light, it makes much more sense to have sent a Tesla Roadster to space.

It wasnt simply an outrageous public relations move. It was a message to the rest of the industry: See how much you cared about every microgram? That time is gone. My rockets are so big that I can afford to send a Tesla and I barely notice. Anybody in the industry paying attention should have realized what was going on.

Most didnt. For example, Artemis is an international program to send astronauts to the Moon, with the long-term goal of establishing a lunar base. But Artemis is designed with the old mindset, using the expendable Space Launch System rockets. If instead it used Starship, it could send 100x as much cargo and build a base for 1,000 astronauts in a year or two, instead of sending two or three dinky 10 ton crew habitats over the next decade. So why dont we do that? Because Artemis is still trapped in a pre-Starship paradigm where each kilogram costs a million dollars and we must aggressively descope our ambition.

With a 100x decrease in cost and a 100x increase in transportation volume, space agencies can send 100x more payload to space for the same budget. How can the space economy saturate this new supply?

For example, prior to Starship, heavy machinery to build a Moon base could only come from NASA. After Starship, Caterpillar or Deere can qualify their existing products for space with very minimal changes. We could send crews to build a base in space with John Deere equipment in a few years, instead of waiting for decades while NASA engineers catch up with reality.

History is littered with the wreckage of former industrial titans that underestimated the impact of new technology and overestimated their ability to adapt: Blockbuster, Motorola, Kodak, Nokia, RIM, Xerox, Yahoo, IBM, Atari, Sears, Hitachi, Polaroid, Toshiba, HP, Palm, Sony, PanAm, Sega, Netscape, Compaq, GMCasey Handmer, Starship is still not understood

Everyone saw it coming, but senior management failed to recognize that adaptation would require stepping beyond the accepted bounds of their traditional business practice. If they dont do it, others will for them.

This is what Starlink is.

SpaceX created all this cheap cargo space and realized its ramifications before anybody else. They wondered: How can we use all this cheap cargo that nobody knows what to do with?

They looked at the most obvious business model to take advantage of it: satellite communications. They went for it. SpaceX created the satellite constellation Starlink, which provides fast, reliable Internet service all over the world. In many cases, the economics of beaming information down are superior to laying down cable on Earth. Its already making money.

Starlink is just one example of what you can do with all this new, cheap cargo space. There are many more. The more time passes without companies realizing the opportunity, the more businesses SpaceX will gobble up.

What are some of these opportunities?

Today, we use satellite imaging, but the images you get from space are pretty stale, or not very detailed. We can get so much better. For example, theres a thing called synthetic aperture radar, capable of capturing amazing pictures like this:

Have you ever used Google Maps and wondered: Id love to see this, but in much more detail? Or what if I could see the Earth in real time? Or what if we could see an infrared image of the Earth in real time?

We could launch hundreds of satellites with such mind-blowing visual precision of the Earth that we would dramatically improve the accuracy of our meteorological models;Our agriculture;Where crime is happening;Where poachers are operating in the savannah;Whats happening with climate change;Who is moving military personnel where Wouldnt that be useful?

What if we all had access to real-time visualization of everything happening on Earth? How does that change businesses? How does that change society?

Please share your ideas on the types of businesses that this makes possible in the comments. Im especially interested in the ramifications of real-time, detailed imagery of the world.

Leave a comment

Conversely, I dont think deep space is as viable. Tourism, deep-space mining, or Mars colonization are not businesses. This limits their potential a lot. I will cover this in the premium article this week

This article was inspired by and heavily quotes Casey Handmers blog, especially his post Starship is still not understood. I will be writing more about space in the coming weeks, and Caseys blog has been a huge influence. I will also talk about Caseys new venture in the future. Also thank you Chan Komagan for your ideas while writing this article, and Shoni as always for your edits!

Go here to see the original:
How Starship Will Change Humanity Soon - by Tomas Pueyo - Uncharted Territories

In an effort to realize lunar habitation, China is reportedly working on plans for 3D printers to make use of the existing materials on the moon.

During the pandemics first year, the Peoples Republic received its first lunar soil sample as part of the Change 5 mission, leaving scientists and astronomers to study the potential of lunar colonization.

By the end of this decade, China hopes to have completed its Change 6, 7, and 8 missions, collecting a second sample, targeting the moons south pole, and looking for reusable resources, respectively.

Change 8 specifically is designed to explore resources that the country would be able to use for building purposes with its chosen method: 3D printing.

Studying the mineral composition and availability of other resources will give scientists an indication of what may be possible remotely, from Earth, giving the country a chance to draw up plans ahead of broader lunar travel.

Furthermore, China looks to be contemplating technologies whereby humans are not required - such as 3D printing - which would allow liveable structures to be assembled ahead of peoples arrival.

The report comes from Communist Party-owned China Daily (via Reuters (opens in new tab)), which quotes China National Space Administration scientist Wu Weiren: If we wish to stay on the moon for a long time, we need to set up stations by using the moon's own materials.

The Change 8 mission is also reportedly preparing to launch a robot that will be able to build lunar soil bricks as the Republic continues to intensify its space program.

Recently, Russias Roskosmos has been struggling as the country battles sanctions imposed on it by nuemerous Western governments, while NASA has also drawn up plans for lunar exploration in the coming years.

Read the original here:
China is taking 3D printers to the moon - TechRadar

Ill admit that, aside from another student/actually a professional journalist Im mutuals with on Twitter saying Mae Martins SAP is funny, affirming, and poignant without once punching down, I had no idea what to expect from Martins newest Netflix special. Being greeted with a surreal campfire scene where Martin declines a marshmallow but accepts a rubber band, I was delighted by the premise of a snow globe indicating storytime. Martin immediately draws you in with endearing expressions and movement that plays up the theatrics while still coming across as entirely authentic. The humor of the campfire scene with a mysterious man (Phil Burgers) is a bright way to start the special, treating the viewer to Martins compelling and charming body and facial expressions even in a spot of awkwardness or when asking for Burgerss phone to chuck in the fire. Everything shows Martin as a bouncy, captivating person, to the point of them officially starting the special by stumbling out of a forest-themed backdrop.

Watching this feels like watching a friend get so excited they exhibit an almost childlike quality pure, yet touching. At one point, Martin makes a point of commenting on watching their friends stand-up and noting that their show was dynamic, which they wished to be. And theres humor in the bit when removed from context, but it is highlighted further by the fact that Martin is so expressive and physical in this special. I was first introduced to their work in Netflixs 2022 LGBTQ+ comedy special Stand Out, and even in that, theres this physicality that makes Martin so engaging. Their first bit of their special is actually also in Stand Out, but they lead into it seamlessly by discussing how their father is lost in the (moon) sauce, and they were so animated I continued to hang onto every word despite knowing the contents. Their excitement is tangible, coming through in hand gestures and bright movements, which underscores the beginnings focus on a tranquil parent. Framing their special in the context of their parents sets the viewer up for something a little reflective, yet lively.

Around the halfway point, Martin starts a bit about the embarrassment of being an adult but having a room, only to lead into the abstract. Transplanting this idea of rooms as external expressions of oneself, they describe minds as rooms furnished with identity, which they specifically think of as snow globes. And the delight in Burgerss face when Martin offers him a snow globe at the beginning of the special becomes more significant this snow globe indicative of storytime is deeper, now, than an object; it is a symbol of the basis of communication. While Martin acts out this idea of showing mental snow globes to have conversation, complete with voices, there is an underlying contemplativeness. This is the first bit where they pause for a significant beat or two, providing a moment to relax into the snowglobe that is experiencing this special.

That is a feeling carried throughout SAP commentary on some of the specials material being more of a (amusingly concerning) vignette than a joke with a punchline, many jokes explicitly set in childhood or being significantly younger and an entire set-up regarding nostalgia feature in their work. They tease their younger self but remain loving, acknowledging the validity of their anger (likening it to being a teen buying a terrible house from a shady realtor) while also saying that, perhaps, getting a tattoo that says oatmeal and being self-destructive might not be the best way to react to being given a house thats falling apart.

Toward the end, Martin gets more political, mentioning the 2016 election of Trump as proof that the world is tilted on its axis, and the efforts of Gen Z are going to fix the house theyve been given. They even touch on less contemporary issues, acknowledging the colonial nature of gender binaries, specifically calling out UK medias smugness regarding India decriminalizing homosexuality when Englands colonization of India was responsible for the initial criminalization, calling it the ultimate form of gaslighting.

Martin ends the actual stand-up with a Buddhist parable, which they start by asking the audience to stay with them, as its actually a positive story. Once its told, they are earnest, asking the audience to get it, to wait and see it through, because this parable, they reveal, is the origin of the specials name, SAP. The special as a whole ends where it began, with Burgerss character crying (due to their differences in humor), and me crying when Martin takes the snowglobe back, saying Its me, Im me and Burgers agreeing You are you. Credits role as Martin and Burgers get ready to bury some mail.

I didnt go into watching this with any expectations, but even if I did, I dont know whether I would have ever expected what I got. SAP is funny, reflective, poignant and just good. Martin keeps it light, even when talking about serious matters, in a way that avoids minimizing the damage theyre discussing. And yes, I cried a little at the end, but I dont think thats a mark of an unsuccessful special. It is hard to blindly watch comedians these days without fearing that someone will be punching down on my and other peoples existence, so it is refreshing to see a show void of it. The end is an affirmation of existence for Martin and people like them, which is moving. And, I dont know about you, but ending a comedy show with some laughter as well as some acceptance is a pretty good way to go.

Read the original post:
Mae Martins SAP showcases affirming, optimistic humor - The Wellesley News

The team aimed to create something the possums would like, but not lovemore gym protein bar than sweet treat, Parrott says. Trials with captive possums confirmed that the animals would eat the bikkies only if they couldnt get their bogong moths or other natural foods.

In November 2019, Parrotts team successfully tested their concoction in the wild among the struggling possums in the Victorian boulder fields, using a variety of different home-made feeders. But it wasnt until January 2020 that the bikkies really proved their worth. That month, Parrott got a call she would never forget. It was Linda Broome, and she didnt even say hello. Its gone, Broome said. Theres nothing left. Bushfires sweeping across vast areas of Australias southeast had hit northern Koscuisko National Park, near Cabramurra. The areas tinder-dry boulder fields were home to a thriving population of mountain pygmy possums that Broomes PhD student Hayley Bates had discovered in 2010.

Broome knew the possums had likely survived, deep in the damp crevices. But when she visited days after the conflagration, she found the still-smoking hillsides devoid of vegetation and insects for the animals to eat, and no water for them to drink. Please tell me your food and your feeder worked? Broome asked Parrott. It was one of the proudest moments of Parrotts life that she could say yesthat the prototypes had been successful, and that they were ready to deploy.

The Zoos Victoria team sent bags of bogong bikkie mix and prototypes of the feeders to Broome, and the volunteers got making and baking. Every week for the next two summers, the team delivered fresh bikkies and water to 60 feeders stationed across the burned boulder fields.

By the end of 2022, the animals were thriving without support. On one of the sites, almost every trap had possums, says Bates, now an ecologist at the University of New South Wales. Vegetation was returning only slowly, but other prey like bugs and beetles were already crawling around the boulders. The expensive, labor-intensive experiment had workedproving that in extreme situations, audacious interventions can stave off disaster for endangered species. Unfortunately, the need for them will only rise.

Bushfires are natural in Australia, but their frequency and intensity are predicted to increase as the climate warms. Alpine ecosystems in particular require a long time to recover, especially from consecutive burns. In 2003, for instance, bushfires burned right over the top of Mount Blue Cow. Twisting, skeletal forms still writhe among the bouldersthe bleached bones of mountain plum-pine, another favored food source for the possums. Broome transplanted seedlings to replace them, but two decades later, even though the recent fires spared Mount Blue Cow, theyre only just beginning to take.

Then theres the snowthe emblem of the high country, and the source of the water that feeds the fens and the streams. Snow depth and the number of snow days have been declining in Australia since the 1950s, and climate scientists warn that, by the end of the century, the Snowy Mountains may no longer live up to their name.

The outlook for the alpine zone as we know it is pretty bleak, says ecologist Lesley Hughes, an emeritus professor at Sydneys Macquarie University, IPCC report author and director of the Climate Council of Australia. Even before its gone completely, dwindling snow cover will disturb the possums winter rest. Thicker snow provides more insulation; without it, the animals nests get colder, which could wake them from hibernation before moths arrive or berries ripen, Broome says. Snow is also a barrier to predators, and warmer winters allow feral cats and foxes to range more freely and hunt possums more easily. In 2002, Broome began trapping and killing cats at Mount Blue Cow. She caught 30 that first winter.

Read the original:
Of Moths and Marsupials - bioGraphic

Thanks for signing up!

Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app

OpenAI has heard everyone's concerns, and it's finally working on detecting AI-generated writing.

Since its launch, the company's explosive AI chatbot, ChatGPT, has caused shockwaves in many industries due to its skilled writingand coding abilities. The bot has already accomplished several impressive feats, including passing the US Medical Licensing Exam, a Wharton MBA exam, and 4 law school courses.

However, ChatGPT has also caused handwringingamong teachers and other education professionals who say the bot will help students get better at cheating and plagiarism.

On Tuesday, the company launched a web-based program called "AI Text Classifier" to tackle that issue.

The program will flag pasted-in text with the following labels: "very unlikely," "unlikely," "unclear if it is," "possibly," or "likely" AI-generated.

OpenAI admits its tool isn't quite perfect yet: It requires a minimum of 1,000 characters to determine whether text is AI-generated and is prone to making errors.

"These tools will produce both false negatives, where they don't identify AI-generated content as such, and false positives, where they flag human-written content as AI-generated. Additionally, students may quickly learn how to evade detection by modifying some words or clauses in generated content," the company said in a blog post.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

OpenAI isn't the first to attempt an antidote to the AI-writing conundrum. Plagiarism detector Turnitin told Insider they are working on a similar product to detect AI-generated text from ChatGPT, which a Turnitin executive called a "mad-lib machine."

A 22-year-old college student at Princeton University also released a program to detect AI writing earlier this month called GPTZero.

Read the rest here:
Teachers Rejoice! OpenAI Released Tool to Catch ChatGPT Writing

To stop ChatGPT abuse, OpenAI has a new tool that can tell you whether a piece of text is more likely to have come from an AI program or a human.

OpenAI introduced the classifier tool(Opens in a new window) on Tuesday to help crack down on AI-generated text thats being passed off as coming from a human. The problem has become especially pronounced in education with students exploiting ChatGPT to complete homework assignments.

In a blog post(Opens in a new window), OpenAI also noted that AI-generated text could pose a threat when used to generate automated text for misinformation campaigns.

The classifier tool is pretty straightforward: Submit some text at least 1,000 characters in length, and OpenAI will tell you the likelihood that it came from an AI program or a human. The tool was created by training a computer model to discern between pairs of human-written text and AI-written text on the same topic.

(Credit: OpenAI)

However, the San Francisco lab admits the classifier is far from perfect. In our evaluations on a challenge set of English texts, our classifier correctly identifies 26% of AI-written text (true positives) as likely AI-written, while incorrectly labeling human-written text as AI-written 9% of the time (false positives), OpenAI wrote.

The classifiers reliability also drops when examining short snippets or a few paragraphs of text. So the tool will only work on submissions at over 1,000 characters in length. In addition, sometimes human-written text will be incorrectly but confidently labeled as AI-written by our classifier, OpenAI noted.

Additionally, students may quickly learn how to evade detection by modifying some words or clauses in generated content, the lab said.

Hence, OpenAI says the tool should not be used as a primary decision-making tool when it comes to determining whether a piece of text is AI-generated or not. But despite all the limitations, OpenAI decided to release the tool as it works on mitigations to prevent students from exploiting ChatGPT for cheating purposes.

Were making this classifier publicly available to get feedback(Opens in a new window) on whether imperfect tools like this one are useful, OpenAI added. Our work on the detection of AI-generated text will continue, and we hope to share improved methods in the future.

An example of an essay ChatGPT can write.(Credit: Open AI)

Launched in November, ChatGPT is so advanced that the AI program can write essays, poems, and answer test questions on a wide variety of topics within seconds. While the quality of the responses can be shaky, researchers have found that ChatGPT is smart enough to (barely) pass an MBA exam and even fix numerous bugs in computer code.

Inevitably, the emergence of ChatGPT has sparked questions over whether the same program threatens to undermine education and disrupt white-collar jobs. Already, some schools and teachers have decided to block the AI program on their networks over concerns that ChatGPT makes cheating on homework and tests all too easy. Meanwhile, some third parties have released their own free(Opens in a new window) tools(Opens in a new window) to help educators ferret out AI-generated text.

OpenAI said its trying to address the cheating problems by reaching out to teachers in the US to learn about their experiences.The lab has also published a document(Opens in a new window) with advice on how educators could introduce and oversee ChatGPT use in their classrooms safely.

But OpenAI also noted its still too early to say how programs like ChatGPT will affect education and society. To date we have seen instances of productivity improvements that transform jobs, job displacement, and job creation, but both the near and long term net effects are unclear, it said.

Sign up for What's New Now to get our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning.

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.

More here:
Are You Smarter Than ChatGPT? OpenAI Tool Aims to Detect AI-Generated ...

While a number of definitions of artificial intelligence (AI) have surfaced over the last few decades, John McCarthy offers the following definition in this 2004paper(PDF, 106 KB) (link resides outside IBM), " It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable."

However, decades before this definition, the birth of the artificial intelligence conversation was denoted by Alan Turing's seminal work, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" (PDF, 89.8 KB) (link resides outside of IBM), which was published in 1950. In this paper, Turing, often referred to as the "father of computer science", asks the following question, "Can machines think?" From there, he offers a test, now famously known as the "Turing Test", where a human interrogator would try to distinguish between a computer and human text response. While this test has undergone much scrutiny since its publish, it remains an important part of the history of AI as well as an ongoing concept within philosophy as it utilizes ideas around linguistics.

Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig then proceeded to publish,Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach(link resides outside IBM), becoming one of the leading textbooks in the study of AI. In it, they delve into four potential goals or definitions of AI, which differentiates computer systems on the basis of rationality and thinking vs. acting:

Human approach:

Ideal approach:

Alan Turings definition would have fallen under the category of systems that act like humans.

At its simplest form, artificial intelligence is a field, which combines computer science and robust datasets, to enable problem-solving. It also encompasses sub-fields of machine learning and deep learning, which are frequently mentioned in conjunction with artificial intelligence. These disciplines are comprised of AI algorithms which seek to create expert systems which make predictions or classifications based on input data.

Today, a lot of hype still surrounds AI development, which is expected of any new emerging technology in the market. As noted inGartners hype cycle(link resides outside IBM), product innovations like, self-driving cars and personal assistants, follow a typical progression of innovation, from overenthusiasm through a period of disillusionment to an eventual understanding of the innovations relevance and role in a market or domain. As Lex Fridman noteshere(01:08:05) (link resides outside IBM) in his MIT lecture in 2019, we are at the peak of inflated expectations, approaching the trough of disillusionment.

As conversations emerge around the ethics of AI, we can begin to see the initial glimpses of the trough of disillusionment. To read more on where IBM stands within the conversation aroundAI ethics, read morehere.

See the rest here:
What is Artificial Intelligence (AI) ? | IBM

Earth's Moon is the only place beyond Earth where humans have set foot.

The brightest and largest object in our night sky, the Moon makes Earth a more livable planet by moderating our home planet's wobble on its axis, leading to a relatively stable climate. It also causes tides, creating a rhythm that has guided humans for thousands of years. The Moon was likely formed after a Mars-sized body collided with Earth.

Earth's Moon is the fifth largest of the 200+ moons orbiting planets in our solar system.

Earth's only natural satellite is simply called "the Moon" because people didn't know other moons existed until Galileo Galilei discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter in 1610.

NASA currently has three robotic spacecraft exploring the Moon Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the twin ARTEMIS spacecraft (not to be confused with NASA's new Artemis program to send astronauts back to the Moon).

Explore Earth's Moon In Depth

1

If you set a single green pea next to a U.S. nickel, you'd have a pretty good idea of the size of the Moon compared to Earth.

2

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It goes around the Earth at a distance of about 239,000 miles (385,000 kilometers).

3

The Earth and Moon are tidally locked. Their rotations are so in syncwe only see one side of the Moon. Humans didn't see the lunar far side until a Soviet spacecraft flew past in 1959.

Viewing Copernicus

4

The Moon has a solid, rocky surfacecratered and pitted from impacts by asteroids, meteorites, and comets.

5

The Moon has a very thin and tenuous atmosphere called an exosphere. It is not breathable.

8

More than 105robotic spacecraft have been launched to explore the Moon. It is the only celestial body beyond Earth so far visited by human beings.

9

The Moon's weak atmosphere and its lack of liquid water cannot support life as we know it.

10

Apollo astronauts brought back a total of 842 pounds (382 kilograms) of lunar rocks and soil to Earth. We are still studying them.

Apollo 11 Bootprint

The Moon was the first place beyond Earth humans tried to reach as the Space Age began in the late 1950s. More than 100 robotic explorers from more than half a dozen nations have since sent spacecraft to the Moon. Nine crewed missions have flown to the Moon and back.

The former Soviet Union logged the first successes with its Luna program, starting with Luna 1 in 1959. NASA followed with a series of robotic Ranger and Surveyor spacecraft that performed increasingly complex tasks that made it possible for the first human beings to walk on the Moon in 1969.

Twenty-four humans have traveled from the Earth to the Moon. Twelve walked on its surface. The last human visited the lunar surface in 1972.

"That's one small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind."

Now NASA is gearing up to set up a permanent lunar presence on the Moon. The Artemis program will send the first woman and the next man to the Moon and develop a sustainable human presence on the Moon and set the stage for further human exploration of Mars.

The program takes its name from the twin sister of Apollo and the goddess of the Moon in Greek mythology. Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration of the Moon and Mars.

More

During a lunar eclipse, Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, blocking the sunlight from falling on the Moon. There are two kinds of lunar eclipses:

During some stages of a lunar eclipse, the Moon can appear reddish. This is because the only remaining sunlight reaching the Moon at that point is from around the edges of the Earth, as seen from the Moon's surface. From there, an observer during an eclipse would see all of Earth's sunrises and sunsets at once.

Our lunar neighbor has inspired stories since the first humans looked up at the sky and saw its gray, cratered surface. Some observers saw among the craters the shape of a person's face, so stories refer to a mysterious "man in the Moon." Hungrier observers compared the craters to cheese and dreamed of an entire sphere made of delicious dairy products.

The Moon made its film debut in a 1902 black and white silent French film called "Le Voyage Dans la Lune" ("A Trip to the Moon"). And a year before astronauts walked on the Moon, "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) told the story of astronauts on an outpost on the Moon. Decades later, it is still widely regarded as one of the best science fiction movies ever made.

American astronauts have planted six American flags on the Moon. But that doesn't mean the United States has claimed it; in fact, an international law written in 1967 prevents any single nation from owning planets, stars, or any other natural objects in space.

See the original post:
Overview | Earth's Moon NASA Solar System Exploration

Introduction

In our entire solar system, the only object that shines with its own light is the Sun. That light always beams onto Earth and Moon from the direction of the Sun, illuminating half of our planet in its orbit and reflecting off the surface of the Moon to create moonlight.

Like Earth, the Moon has a day side and a night side, which change as the Moon rotates. The Sun always illuminates half of the Moon while the other half remains dark, but how much we are able to see of that illuminated half changes as the Moon travels through its orbit.

Current Moon Phase

Lets take a look at the individual phases, and how the movements of the Moon and Sun appear to us as we watch from the Northern Hemisphere on Earth:

New Moon

This is the invisible phase of the Moon, with the illuminated side of the Moon facing the Sun and the night side facing Earth. In this phase, the Moon is in the same part of the sky as the Sun and rises and sets with the Sun. Not only is the illuminated side facing away from the Earth, its also up during the day! Remember, in this phase, the Moon doesnt usually pass directly between Earth and the Sun, due to the inclination of the Moons orbit. It only passes near the Sun from our perspective on Earth.

Waxing Crescent

This silver sliver of a Moon occurs when the illuminated half of the Moon faces mostly away from Earth, with only a tiny portion visible to us from our planet. It grows daily as the Moons orbit carries the Moons dayside farther into view. Every day, the Moon rises a little bit later.

First Quarter

The Moon is now a quarter of the way through its monthly journey and you see half of its illuminated side. People may casually call this a half moon, but remember, thats not really what youre witnessing in the sky. Youre seeing just a slice of the entire Moon half of the illuminated half. A first quarter moon rises around noon and sets around midnight. Its high in the sky in the evening and makes for excellent viewing.

Waxing Gibbous

Now most of the Moons dayside has come into view, and the Moon appears brighter in the sky.

Full Moon

This is as close as we come to seeing the Suns illumination of the entire day side of the Moon (so, technically, this would be the real half moon). The Moon is opposite the Sun, as viewed from Earth, revealing the Moons dayside. A full moon rises around sunset and sets around sunrise. The Moon will appear full for a couple of days before it moves into

Waning Gibbous

As the Moon begins its journey back toward the Sun, the opposite side of the Moon now reflects the Moons light. The lighted side appears to shrink, but the Moons orbit is simply carrying it out of view from our perspective. The Moon rises later and later each night.

Last Quarter

The Moon looks like its half illuminated from the perspective of Earth, but really youre seeing half of the half of the Moon thats illuminated by the Sun or a quarter. A last quarter moon, also known as a third quarter moon, rises around midnight and sets around noon.

Waning Crescent

The Moon is nearly back to the point in its orbit where its dayside directly faces the Sun, and all that we see from our perspective is a thin curve.

When we think of the way the Moon seems to change over the course of a month, we think of phases. But frequent Moon observers know that the Moon also appears to twist, nod, and roll slightly during its journey across the sky, allowing us to peek around the Moon's shoulder and catch glimpses of the farside. This phenomenon is called libration.

Because the Moon's orbit is not perfectly circular, its distance from Earth and its speed in orbit both change slightly throughout the month. The Moons rate of rotation around its own axis, though, always stays the same.

When the Moon is at its closest to Earth and moving most quickly along its orbital path, the Moon itself doesnt rotate quite fast enough to keep entirely the same side facing us, and we get to see a little more of the eastern side of the Moon. When the Moon is farthest from Earth and orbiting at its slowest, its rotation gets a little ahead, and we see a bit more of its western side. We call this motion libration in longitude.

The 5 degree tilt of the Moons orbit also causes it to appear to nod, as though it were saying yes. The tilt sometimes brings the Moon above Earths northern hemisphere, and sometimes below Earths southern hemisphere, allowing us to see slightly more of the northern or southern hemispheres of the Moon. We call this motion libration in latitude.

Finally, the Moon appears to tilt back and forth like a metronome. The tilt of the Moons orbit contributes to this, but its mostly due to the tilt of our Earth. Earth has a tilt of 23.5 degrees on its axis, which means that when we observe the Moon from Earth, its a little like were standing sideways on a ramp. If you look left, the ramp slopes up. If you look right, the ramp slopes down. In front of you, the horizon looks higher on the right and lower on the left. If you turn around, the horizon appears to tilt the opposite way.

The tilted ramp works the same as the tilted platform of the Earth beneath our feet. Every two weeks, we have to look in the opposite direction to see the Moon, and the ground beneath our feet is then tilted the opposite way as well.

Sometimes, when the Moon is in one of its crescent phases, we can still see the darkened area of the Moons nearside shining dimly. This effect is caused by the Suns light reflecting off Earths surface onto the face of the Moon. Because Earth at that point in its orbit is nearly full from the Moons perspective, the light it reflects, called earthshine, is bright enough to dimly illuminate the darkened surface.

Though the Moon is often thought of as a nighttime visitor, its also visible during the day as a faint, pale presence. The best times to see a daytime Moon are perhaps during the first and last quarter phases, when the Moon is high enough above the horizon and at about 90 degrees from the Sun in the sky. This helps make the Suns reflected light bright enough to see as it reflects off of the Moon. The Moon can be seen in the daylit sky at any phase except for the new moon, when its invisible to us, and full moon, when its below the horizon during the day. The crescent through quarter phases are high in the sky during the day, but the daytime gibbous phases can be glimpsed only just before the Sun sets.

Spend the next month getting to know the Moon and its phases by filling out your own observation journal.

Have you ever wondered when the next full moon will be? How about the first quarter moon? Put the dates and times for all the Moon's phases for the year at your fingertips by building your own Moon Phases Calendar and Calculator!

Moon phases can be hard to visualize. This simple activity uses a lamp, styrofoam ball and pencil to show how phases work.

More here:
Moon Phases | Moon in Motion Moon: NASA Science

Quick Facts:

Earth has just one moon a rocky, cratered place, roughly a quarter the size of Earth and an average of 238,855 miles away. The Moon can be seen with the naked eye most nights as it traces its 27-day orbit around our planet.

Explore the Moon! Click and drag to rotate the Moon. Scroll or pinch to zoom in and out. Credit: NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD)

This is the face of the Moon that we see from Earth. This image is based on data from NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

Chances are that when you imagine the night sky, one of the first things that comes to mind is the Moon glowing in the darkness. The Moon has always held a special place in our imaginations and in daily life.

The Moon has inspired wonder and creativity for thousands of years. This image appeared in a 1902 French film called "Le Voyage dans la Lune" ("A Trip to the Moon").

Its no wonder that we are fascinated. The Moon is Earths only natural satellite and one that we can easily see most nights.

The Moon does not shine with its own light. It simply reflects light coming from the Sun.

From Earth, it might look like the Moon is changing shape each night from a tiny sliver to a half moon to a full moon and back again. Whats actually happening is that from our spot on Earth, we see different parts of the Moon lit up by the Sun as the Moon travels in its orbit.

As the Moon travels around Earth, different parts of it are lit up by the Sun. These changes in the Moon's appearance from our view on Earth are called moon phases. This graphic shows all eight moon phases we see as the Moon makes a complete orbit of Earth about every four weeks. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

No. The Moon rotates on its own axis at the same rate that it orbits around Earth. That means we always see the same side of the Moon from our position on Earth. The side we don't see gets just as much light, so a more accurate name for that part of the Moon is the "far side."

We only ever see one side of the Moon because as it orbits around Earth, it also rotates on its own axis at the same speed. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The "far side" of the Moon looks very different than the near side (see the first photo in this article). Notice how few dark areas the far side has. This image is based on data from NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

Scientists believe that the Moon formed early in the solar systems history after Earth and an object about the size of Mars smashed into each other. The impact sent chunks of Earth and the impactor into space that were pulled together by gravity, creating the Moon.

Even thousands of years ago, humans drew pictures to track the changes of the Moon. Later, people used their observations of the Moon to create calendars.

Today, we study the Moon using telescopes and spacecraft. For example, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been circling the Moon and sending back measurements since 2009.

The Moon is the only other planetary body that humans have visited. On July 20, 1969, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first people to set foot on the dusty surface of the Moon. Ten other American astronauts followed. They collected hundreds of pounds of lunar soil and rock samples, conducted experiments and installed equipment for follow-up measurements.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin set up several scientific experiments while on the surface of the Moon during the historic Apollo 11 mission. You can see the lunar module, Eagle, in the background. Credit: NASA

Today, we know that the Moon is covered by craters as well as dust and debris from comets, asteroids and meteoroid impacts. We know that the Moons dark areas, called maria which is Latin for seas are not actually seas. Instead, they are craters that lava seeped into billions of years ago. We know that the Moon has almost no atmosphere and only about one-sixth of Earths gravity. We even know that there is quite a bit of frozen water tucked away in craters near the Moon's poles.

There is no wind or air on the Moon to help erase craters, so the surface is covered with the remains of old and new impacts. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

There are still many questions left to answer about the Moon. And the most exciting days of lunar activity may still lie ahead as NASA sends humans on the next missions to the Moon and eventually on to Mars!

NASA Solar System Exploration

See more here:
All About the Moon | NASA Space Place NASA Science for Kids