September 2006 Archives

Date : 04/1993

This false-color photograph is a composite of 15 images of the Moon taken through three color filters by the Galileo spacecraft’s solid-state imaging system during the spacecraft’s passage through the Earth-Moon system on December 8, 1992. When this view was obtained, the spacecraft was 425,000 kilometers (262,000 miles) from the Moon and 69,000 kilometers (43,000 miles) from Earth. The false-color processing used to create this lunar image is helpful for interpreting the surface soil composition. Areas appearing red generally correspond to the lunar highlands, while blue to orange shades indicate the ancient volcanic lava flow of a mare, or lunar sea. Bluer mare areas contain more titanium than do the orange regions. Mare Tranquillitatis, seen as a deep blue patch on the right, is richer in titanium than mare Serenitatis, a slightly smaller circular area immediately adjacent to the upper left o Mare Tranquillitatis. Blue and orange areas covering much of the left side of the Moon in this view represent many separate lava flows in Oceanus Procellarum. The small purple areas found near the center are pyroclastic deposits formed by explosive volcanic eruptions. The fresh crater Tycho, with a diameter of 85 kilometers (53 miles), is prominent at the bottom of the photograph, where part of the moon disk is missing.

Yet another story from the readers. Thanks everybody, please keep them coming.

i grew up very near Munger road back in the 80s. We used to park alongside of the road and drink beer and stuff before it was all developed on the east side. It was all cornfields, three houses near the tracks, and an old farm south of the tracks with only the silo standing.

We all had heard stories of devil worshippers sacrificing kids in the silo (so we go there anyway right?) and of a wolf with red eyes that would run up to your car. I've never heard of a kid getting killed at the tracks, but this story freaked me out.

My brother is ten years younger than I am. and grew up in a different town and went to different schools. So he comes home late one night and tells me that him and his friends drove out to Munger road for fun and an old red Cutlass passed them on the left and disappeared at the tracks.

I had never told him the story about my friend who tore the bottom of her car apart when she tried to jump the tracks. Well the car was not fixable and it was a 75 red Cutlass and she called it Malachai (from the red headed boy from the movie, children of the corn).

My brother said lots of kids had seen the car that disappeared at the tracks.

Also, know anything about morton manor? I saw that it had been torn down recently. It was a beautiful house inside, a few creepy things though.

Reader Submitted

Waldron Middle School gym is haunted.

Long ago people would say, that there were three boys who were friends. They went in the school to explore, two boys locked one in the basement as a joke and forgot. He died of chemicals down in the room, and now haunts the gym.

Below is an interesting story from one of our readers. I'm guessing the gate is mainly for preventing vehicles from driving in. Thank you for sending this in.

I live in Connecticut and I am on the hunt for ANYONE that has information regarding a strange tower in the woods of North Haven.

The cops and neighbors really keep an eye on it and keep it hush hush.Makes me want to know more. I was lucky enough to get up there a couple times (got ticketed for it too) Anyway, this "water type tower" has welded art all over it!

A very strange titanium door that is impossible to get inside, where a spiral staircase is seen through the holes. At the top of the tower is a "Demon" on one side and a "bird type metal sculpture" on the other side that once had a rope on it that when pulled the wings moved. The rope was gone the next time I went there.

Anyway, someone had put a lot of work in this place. There is symbols everywhere!! Over the door, on the tower, everywhere! There is a giant gate that is locked with chains, but get this, no fence on the sides, all you have to do is walk around these gates.

Anyway, then there is a spiral type walkway going to the door of the "tower". About 100 ft away is another mystery... A pyramid. A perfect metal pyramid, about 5-6 ft tall (if memory serves correctly) and about the same size at the base. The main part of the pyramid seems to be made of steel(rusted) while the the "cap" is like a shiny aluminum.

I can go on & on about the this place. Its very easy to get too, not far from the road, but very protected. I cant get any info on it, except for the stories by kids who have gone there in the past. Some call it "Devils Tower" Im very interested in finding out who this artist is and what was the motivation behind. The eeriest feeling sets over you when you walk through the perfectly lined pine trees and come upon the strange gate.

Please if ANYONE knows anything about this place, please post something on this site.Its off route 22 going toward Hamden. Not far from the Hamden town line actually. Its an amazing and fascinating place. Also if someone has pictures I would love to see them, I didnt bring a camera when I went the 1st time and the 2nd time it was confiscated. STRANGE. Hope to hear from someone..It took someone a looong time to burn all those holes in this tower, and not random holes, they are all pictures and symbols.

Date: 1960

This three-radial-module space station concept was intended to utilize Apollo hardware to deploy the station and to transfer crews to and from orbit.

Image above: The Expedition 13 crew (front row) and the STS-115 crew conduct a joint news conference. Photo Credit: NASA TV

The STS-115 crew’s stay at the International Space Station comes to a close today when Space Shuttle Atlantis undocks from the station. Undocking is slated to occur at 8:50 a.m. EDT.

The STS-115 and Expedition 13 crews will conduct final cargo transfers and check out equipment that will be used for undocking. Then, the two crews will bid farewell before they close the hatches between the two spacecraft about 5:43 a.m.

STS-115 is the first of a series of the shuttle missions that will perform on-orbit construction of the station. Atlantis delivered the P3/P4 integrated truss to the station. The crews used the shuttle and station robotic arms to attach the truss to the orbital outpost. STS-115 astronauts conducted three spacewalks in four days to prepare the truss and its solar arrays for operation.

Following today’s undocking, the crew will perform a 360-degree fly-around of the station in order to collect imagery of the newly-expanded station. Atlantis is scheduled to touch down at 5:57 a.m. Wednesday at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

For the latest information on space station activities, please visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

This 1929 Hermann Noordung image depicts a three-unit space station as seen from a space ship. Hermann Potocnik (1892-1929), also known as Herman Noordung, created the first detailed technical drawings of a space station. The three units were the habitat, the machine room, and the observatory, each connected by an umbilical. The Earth is in the background, approximately 26,000 miles away. The station in this image is roughly above Cameroon's southern tip, in a geosynchronous orbit on the median of Berlin.

This is an artist's impression of the "Brick Moon." "The Brick Moon" was the title of an article published in the Atlantic Monthly by Edward Everett Hale in 1869. This piece was the first known proposal for an Earth-orbiting satellite. Hale envisioned that the satellite could be used by mariners as a navigational aid. He believed it would be the longitudinal companion to the latitudinal North Star. In 1869, this story was considered fantasy but in retrospect "The Brick Moon" foreshadowed the need for a space station and some of its technologies.

This is the Johnson Space Center's 1984 "roof" concept for a space station. The "roof" was covered with solar array cells, that were to generate about 120 kilowatts of electricity. Within the V-shaped beams there would be five modules for living, laboratory space, and external areas for instruments and other facilities.

A 1977 concept drawing for a space station. Known as the "spider" concept, this station was designed to use Space Shuttle hardware. A solar array was to be unwound from the exhausted main fuel tank. The structure could then be formed and assembled in one operation. The main engine tank would then be used as a space operations control center, a Shuttle astronaut crew habitat, and a space operations focal point for missions to the Moon and Mars.

Date: 1960

A 1960 concept image of the United States Air Force's proposed Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) that was intended to test the military usefulness of having humans in orbit. The station's baseline configuration was that of a two-person Gemini B spacecraft that could be attached to a laboratory vehicle. The structure was planned to launch onboard a Titan IIIC rocket. The station would be used for a month and then the astronauts could return to the Gemini capsule for transport back to Earth. The first launch of the MOL was scheduled for December 15, 1969, but was then pushed back to the fall of 1971. The program was cancelled by Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird in 1969 after the estimated cost of the program had risen in excess of $3 billion, and had already spent $1.3 billion. Some of the military astronauts selected for the program then transferred to NASA and became some of the first people to fly the Space Shuttle, including Richard Truly, who later became the NASA Administrator.

Date:12/03/1970

Skylab Shroud installed in the NASA Lewis Research Center's (now known as the Glenn Research Center) Plum Brook Station, Space Power Facility. The shroud protected the upper section of the Skylab space station, including its solar power arrays. When it was constructed, the Space Power Facility (SPF) was the world's largest vacuum chamber. It stands more than 122 feet high, 100 feet in diameter and provides a vacuum environment for the study of space propulsion. Originally commissioned for nuclear-electric propulsion studies, the SPF has been recommissioned for current and future use in the ongoing research and development of space propulsion systems.

Image above: Backdropped by the blackness of space and Earth’s horizon, this full view of the International Space Station was photographed by a crew member onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in August 2005. Image credit: NASA

It’s not your typical shipbuilder’s site. In fact, it’s not your typical ship. There are no outfitting piers or full-service bulkheads. No sights of yellow hard hats or sounds of beeping trucks with back-up alarms. However, men and women are at work, harder now than ever before.

Message: 190 Description: The observers are 2 female college graduates and a female college students. The person reporting this event was seated in the back seat of the vehicle. The event occured between Merrillville and Gary, Indiana. The vehicle was driving on interstate 65, moving toward Chicago. The event began when the driver of the car sighted what looked like a large fireball was falling from the sky. The driver referred to the object as an extremely large meteorite, because the movement of the object and what appeared to be fire surrounding it resembed a meteor entering into the atmosphere. After the object had fallen for about 1 minute, it came to a complete stop in the sky. It was a pause of about 10 seconds, and then the single object broke into 5 separate large balls of light and moved into the shape of a pentagon. The 5 lights moved as one for about another minute, and then they began to fly their separate ways across the sky. The flight did not seem to have a distinct pattern at this time. After watching the lights dance across the sky for the next few minutes, trees blocked the line of site of the passengers. Once the vehicle was beyond the trees, the lights had vanished. A few minutes down the road, right around reaching Gary, the passengers all noticed a bright light, which put off much more light than an airplane or any other craft the passengers had seen, shoot from the left side of the sky to the right and paused. This took less than 1 second to occur. After the light had paused, it lowered altitude, paused for another second, shot straight up into the sky, and was gone. The passengers of the car all agreed that the object had moved at about the same speed that a \"shooting star\" shoots across the sky. After this short event, no other lights were spotted by the passengers.