10 Facts

10 Facts about the Apollo 11's Historic Moon Landing: 1. Armstrong was the first human to step foot on the moon, but Aldrin holds the title as the first man to urinate on it.  2. Aldrin and Armstrong reported that the moon smelled a bit like wet ashes and gunpowder. 3. Neil Armstrong’s mom single worry was that the lunar crust was too delicate and wouldn’t support her son’s weight when he walked on it. 4. The Apollo computers had less processing power than a cellphone. 5. Drinking water was a fuel-cell by-product, but Apollo 11's hydrogen-gas filters didn't work, making every drink bubbly. 6. Urinating and defecating in zero gravity had not been figured out; the latter was so troublesome that at least one astronaut spent his entire mission on an anti-diarrhea drug to avoid it. 7. The inner bladder of the space suits—the airtight liner that keeps the astronaut's body under Earth-like pressure—and the ship's computer's ROM chips we...

10 Facts about Voyager 1: 1. Voyager 1 Has Been Traveling for 35 Years Launched in 1977, September 5 will mark the 36th anniversary of Voyager 1's launch. That makes it one of the oldest pieces of space technology that is still in contact with Earth. 2. V1 Has Traversed Over 11 BILLION Miles To put this number in perspective, 11 billion miles is the equivalent of circling the Earth 440,000 times. And yet, in terms of light-years, the unit to measure space that is marked by how far light can travel in a year, V1 hasn't even left the neighbourhood. It will take 40,000 years for V1 to reach only two light-years distance from the sun. As large as 11 billion is, space is infinitely bigger. 3. V1 is Traveling At 39,000 mph This speed makes it the fastest space technology we have right now. Even spacecraft that have been launched years later with better technology is slower than V1. 4. It Was Originally Only Supposed to Survey Jupiter The original intention of V1 a...

10 Facts about Moon: 1. The Moon is drifting away from the Earth: The Moon is moving approximately 3.8 cm away from our planet every year. It is estimated that it will continue to do so for around 50 billion years. By the time that happens, the Moon will be taking around 47 days to orbit the Earth instead of the current 27.3 days. 2. The Moon has only been walked on by 12 people; all American males: The first man to set foot on the Moon in 1969 was Neil Armstrong on the Apoll o 11 mission, while the last man to walk on the Moon in 1972 was Gene Cernan on the  Apollo 17 mission. Since then the Moon has only be visited by unmanned vehicles. 3. The Moon has quakes: These are caused by the gravitational pull of the Earth. Lunar astronauts used seismographs on their visits to the Moon and found that small moonquakes occurred several kilometres beneath the surface, causing ruptures and cracks. Scientists think the Moon has a molten core, just like Earth. 4. The first s...

10 Facts about Area 51: 1. On August 15, 2013, the CIA finally acknowledged the existence of Area 51. After repeated freedom of information request made by George Washington University, the CIA lifted the veil of secrecy on Area 51.  2. Area 51 was also referred to as Groom Lake (the name of the dry lake Area 51 was built around), Paradise Ranch (a half-serious way to entice employees to accept positions at the remote, rustic base), Watertown (the official name of the test sit e, given in 1956), and Dreamland (after an Edgar Allan Poe poem). 3. When Area 51 was chosen as the testing site for the OXCART, a new, 8,500-foot runway had to be built. So as not to draw attention, contractors worked under cover of night. 4. Flying at 2,200 mph, it took OXCART pilot 186 miles just to make a U-turn. To accommodate the plane, an additional 38,400 acres of land around the base had to be withdrawn from public access and the restricted airspace expanded to create a 440-square...