Meeting Aldrin is pretty exciting, fantasia. Great picture too.

I quite enjoyed our visit to the Cosmosphere during our trip there a couple of years ago. If the Cosmosphere was around here I'd probably spend entirely too much time there.

That was a very cool link and video re Mars and its Moons, 'gazer!

Ahh, what a fun photo, fantasia! And, oooh, look at those big names for the banquet, wow!

Shadow, that video does look interesting. I have bookmarked it to hopefully watch at some point. EDIT: Grrr, a notice came up, "This video contains content from National Geographic, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds". I will try and find it another way.

I've always loved the names of Mars' moons. Phobos and Deimos translates to "Fear" and "Dread."

Oh my.

I am not very knowledgeable about space exploration, but am nonetheless fascinated by it, so am reading this topic with great interest.

I quite enjoyed our visit to the Cosmosphere during our trip there a couple of years ago. If the Cosmosphere was around here I'd probably spend entirely too much time there.

Ditto! What a fascinating place. It seems we only scratched the surface.

Curiosity has done it again, showing us a view of Martian moon Phobos crossing the sun. Though it's close to Mars it's not big enough to cover the disc of the sun, and it moves so fast it only lasted 30 seconds from start to finish.

Very neat link stargazer. I would consider it a bit of a coincidince that I am currently reading the Mars series by Burroughs, and he frequintly mentions the moons of Mars, even their crossing one another.

The Olympic torch for the Sochi Winter Games has returned to earth after a few days aboard the ISS. It's not the first time a torch has visited the station, though apparently it's the first time one has been taken for a spacewalk.

For safety reasons, the torch was not lit.

Read more here

Not even one of those little votive candles?

So I heard that China has launched their first rocket to the moon, and they're one mission away from putting humans on the surface (or something like that?). Good for them. Maybe it will inspire other countries to go back to the moon again.

So I heard that China has launched their first rocket to the moon, and they're one mission away from putting humans on the surface (or something like that?). Good for them. Maybe it will inspire other countries to go back to the moon again.

One day we'll look back and think, "I remember when NASA was mothballed". Man...and just to let em' have it like that without any competition for it...

So I heard that China has launched their first rocket to the moon, and they're one mission away from putting humans on the surface (or something like that?). Good for them. Maybe it will inspire other countries to go back to the moon again.

This article on space.com indicates that the Yutu (Jade Rabbit) rover is the second phase in China's unmanned lunar exploration (the third being to return lunar samples to earth by 2020). The Washington Post reports that while China intends to put a man on the moon, no date has been set for that - but it will certainly be later than that 2020 date.

To be fair, the West has been focusing more on Mars of late, and the Chinese rover is much smaller and less-advanced than the rovers currently operating on the Red Planet.

But I agree that it would be nice if this prompts other spacefaring nations back into action.

Time to look back just a bit:

It was 45 years ago tomorrow (December 21) that Apollo 8 was launched to take the first humans into lunar orbit. Originally planned as an earth-orbit mission, rumors of the Soviet Union readying cosmonauts for a lunar mission (and problems with the lunar module) prompted the change. This was the first manned flight of the huge Saturn V rocket.

Lunar orbit was achieved on Christmas Eve, with the astronauts becoming the first humans to see Earthrise from another celestial object. They also read from Genesis and 'confirmed' the existence of Santa Claus before returning to earth a few days later.

I remember watching this on TV...now I feel old.

That was John Glenn, wasn't it Dale?

John Glenn was a bit earlier, actually (or later, if you count his shuttle mission). The Apollo 8 crew was Frank Borman, Jim Lovell (later commander of Apollo 13), and William Anders.

Oh. . . well. . . excuse my ignorance What year was John Glenn? As he's from Ohio. . . he's kind of a big deal here

Then again. . . Armstrong was born here as well

John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth early in 1962 (he also flew on the space shuttle Discovery in 1998).

You know that old saying "They don't make things like they used to" ?

It may be true of some things but today's news includes an item that is a big exception:

The Mars rover Opportunity landed on the Red Planet 10 years ago today. Considering the planet's harsh environment and the problem of its dust covering the solar panels, engineers gave it a 90-day mission. Thanks in part to the winds blowing dust off the solar panels, it's still operating today, and has made some important discoveries, such as evidence Mars once had much more water than it does now.

Read more here. The video includes a nice shot of the sun near the Martian horizon which somehow reminds me of the double-sunset in the original Star Wars.