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Category: Ocean Observing Systems OOS

You’re Going To The Moon, Alice

Posted on by Bob
Mankind has always been fascinated with exploring the Moon, and that will probably always be the case.  At first, in the time leading up to the famous first moon landing in 1969, the goal was simply to reach the moon, and spend a short time looking around, and return to earth safely.  Now, 50 years […]

Mankind has always been fascinated with exploring the Moon, and that will probably always be the case.  At first, in the time leading up to the famous first moon landing in 1969, the goal was simply to reach the moon, and spend a short time looking around, and return to earth safely.  Now, 50 years later, the goal is more ambitious since technology can support so much more.  The first objective today is to reach the moon, and stay there.  The next goal would be to use the moon as a landing pad to support exploration of things beyond the moon, most notably Mars.  The NASA Artemis Missions will be the way these objectives are accomplished.  I am not sure about you, but this mission snuck up on me, and I am learning about it now. 

The Artemis Mission is comprised of six projects which together will allow NASA to accomplish its goals of reaching the moon, staying on the moon for long term exploration, and getting closer to ultimate goal of being able to send men (and women) beyond the moon.  The six projects include:

Ground Systems – Upgrading Earth ground systems to support the larger rockets which will be needed

Space Launch System – The new and more powerful rocket that will launch man toward the moon and beyond

Orion – The spacecraft that will bring astronauts to the moon’s orbit, and return them to earth from the moon’s orbit

Gateway – The outpost spacecraft which will orbit the moon and be living quarters for the astronauts when they are not on the moon surface

Lunar Landers – The spacecraft which will transfer astronauts between the Gateway and the moon Surface, and

Space Suits – The new and improved suits that the astronauts will need to carry out their mission.

The timeline for this mission has three major milestones, namely, the three Artemis missions, Artemis I, Artemis II, and Artemis III.

Artemis I – an unmanned flight to test the Space Launch System and Orion, scheduled for 2021

Artemis II – a manned flight to test the Space Launch System and Orion, scheduled for 2022

Artemis III – A manned flight to the moon that will return man to the moon.

This is a truly ambitious mission, and an even more ambitious schedule.

ATI offers a plethora of courses which relate to Space exploration.  Check out our list of Space related courses here.    If you are interested in the legal aspects of Space exploration, you can register for our upcoming Astropolitics class here. 

Although the author thinks Space Exploration is exciting and important, and I fully endorse all of the goals of the Artemis Mission, I can’t help but wonder why the Government is not spending at least as much money on exploration of the deep oceans.  I would challenge the US to start investing more money in Ocean Exploration, but not at the expense of Space Exploration.  Both of these are important.  I am curious what readers think about this issue, please leave your comments below.

And, if you are interested in Ocean Exploration, ATI has a few courses which may be of interest to you too.  Please check out our full list of offerings here.

And if you simply want to learn more about the Artemis Mission, you can go to the NASA Artemis site that describes the mission in more detail. 

Using Wounded Dogs to Navigate Ships on the High Seas

Posted on by admin
Using Wounded Dogs to Navigate Ships on the High Seas Finding the latitude of a sailing ship can be surprisingly easy: sight the elevation of the Pole Star above the local horizon. Finding longitude turns out to be quite a bit harder because, as the earth rotates, the stars sweep across the sky 15 degree […]

Using Wounded Dogs to Navigate Ships on the High Seas

Finding the latitude of a sailing ship can be surprisingly easy: sight the elevation of the Pole Star above the local horizon. Finding longitude turns out to be quite a bit harder because, as the earth rotates, the stars sweep across the sky 15 degree every hour. A one second timing error thus translates into a 0.25 nautical mile error in position. How is it possible to measure time on board a ship at sea with sufficient accuracy to make two-dimensional a practical enterprise?

One 18th century innovator, whose name has long since been forgotten, advocated the use of a special patent medicine said to involve some rather extraordinary properties. Unlike other popular nostrums of the day, the Power of Sympathy, as its inventor, Sir Klenm Digby, called it, was applied not to the wound but to the weapon that inflicted it. The World of Mathematics, a book published by Simon and Schuster, describes how this magical remedy was to be employed as an aid to maritime navigation.

Before sailing, every ship should be furnished with a wounded dog. A reliable observer on shore, equipped with a reliable clock and a bandage from the dog’s wound, would do the rest. very hour on the dot, he would immerse the dog’s bandage in a solution of the Power of Sympathy and the dog on shipboard would yelp the hour.

As far as we know, this intriguing method of navigation was never actually tested under realistic field conditions, so we have no convincing evidence that it would have worked as advertised.