Chandran,
Nilavu, Ambuli, Moon has enamoured mankind for
ages - A miniature rover being developed to explore the Moon's surface is on
track to join the search for water there, its Hungarian inventors believe -
using a device that weighs less than a bag of sugar. Named after a Hungarian
breed of dog, the Puli rover is a low-cost platform designed to carry different
payloads, including the ice water snooper, which won the 2020 "Honey, I
Shrunk the NASA Payload" challenge, a competition organised by the U.S. space
agency.
The Moon (or
Luna) is the Earth’s only natural satellite – considered to have been formed 4.6 billion years ago around some
30–50 million years after the formation of the solar system. The Moon is in
synchronous rotation with Earth meaning the same side is always facing the
Earth. In reality both sides of the Moon
see the same amount of sunlight however only one face of the Moon is ever seen
from Earth. This is because the Moon rotates around on its own axis in exactly
the same time it takes to orbit the Earth, meaning the same side is always
facing the Earth.
Apollo 17 (1972) was the
eleventh and final Moon landing mission of NASA's Apollo program, and remains
the most recent time humans have travelled beyond low Earth orbit. Its crew
consisted of Commander Eugene Cernan, Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, and
Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and it carried a biological experiment
containing five mice. Cernan and Schmitt
landed in the Taurus–Littrow valley and completed three moonwalks, taking lunar
samples and deploying scientific instruments. The landing site had been chosen
to further the mission's main goals: to sample lunar highland material older
than Mare Imbrium, and to investigate the possibility of relatively recent
volcanic activity. Evans remained in lunar orbit in the command and service
module (CSM), taking scientific measurements and photographs. All of them
including the mice returned to Earth on December 19, 1972. The mission broke several crewed spaceflight
records, including the longest Moon landing, longest total lunar surface
extravehicular activities (22 hours 4 minutes), largest lunar sample return
(110.52 kilograms or 243.7 lb), longest time in lunar orbit (6 days 4
hours) and most lunar orbits (75).
It took 400,000
Nasa employees and contractors to put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first
men on the moon in 1969 – but only one
man to spread the idea that it was all a hoax.
It began as “a hunch, an intuition”, before turning into “a true
conviction” – that the US lacked the technical prowess to make it to the moon
(or, at least, to the moon and back).
In 1976, a campaigner published a pamphlet called We Never Went to the
Moon..
Moon is a 2009 science
fiction film directed by Duncan Jones (in his directorial debut) and written by
Nathan Parker from a story by Jones. The film follows Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell),
a man who experiences a personal crisis as he nears the end of a three-year
solitary stint mining helium-3 on the far side of the Moon. A
follow-up film containing an epilogue to the film's events, Mute, was released
in 2018. A third installment, Madi: Once Upon A Time in the Future, was
released in 2020. .. .. for centuries Moon has
attracted people .. ..
In Thiruvallikkeni
divaydesam, today 19th Feb 2021 (7th day of Masi masam)
is Ratha Sapthami. Ratha means chariot
& Sapthami is a thithi in a lunar month falling on the 7th day
of both sukla and Krishna paksha. Ratha Sapthami also Surya
Jayanthi is celebrated on 7th day after Thai Amavasai- Shukla
paksha (waxing phase of moon) dedicated to God Surya.
The chariot of the sun-god (Surya), worshiped by the words Om bhur bhuva svah,
travels at a speed of 3,400,800 yojanas [27,206,400 miles] in a muhurta. .
Every festival is an occasion
for enjoying the bakthi anubhavam of Sriman Narayana and reaching to the lotus
feet of Him. The simplest is to
understand His glory is ‘Thiruvikrama avathara anubhavam’ – By a single swift
movement of one feet, He covered the entire Universe; His raised foot went into
the sky shadowing the Worlds below and filled the space. The light of knowledge and bliss pervaded
everywhere in the Universe. He, the Lord
of Universe, Lord Krishna whose eyes are comparable to that lovely lotus is
only Superior capable of shepherding us to the right path of Dharma. On Ratha sapthami day, at Thiruvallikkeni – there are two
purappadus. Surya prabhai in the morning
and Chandra prabhai in the evening. At
Holy Thirumala – it much more grand – 7 purappadus in various vahanams.
Though our moon is alone –
there are many more of other planets. Jupiter's moon Europa doesn't look like a
particularly inviting place for life to thrive; the icy satellite is nearly 500
million miles (800 million kilometers) from the sun, on average – beneath its
icy crust lies a liquid ocean with more water than Earth contains. A lunar eclipse is a spectacular celestial
show, during which the bright, pearly-white disc of the full Moon turns dark,
and sometimes takes on the colour of dark copper, or even dried blood.
Moon has enamoured mankind for ages – in our literature and in Divyaprabhandnam too, there is mention of moon in many a places. Moon is characterised as a cool, pleasant one. On Ratha Sapthami day – in the evening Sri Parthasarathi Perumal has purappadu in cool Chandra prabhai; and here are some photos of evening purappadu.
In case you
remember the first para and the relevance to Apollo 17 here - as per tradition
in the United States, every incoming President gets to redecorate the Oval
Office – the commander-in-chief’s principal place of business which is visited
by the most powerful people in the world.
So, after taking office as the 46th US President on January 20, 2021, Democrat Joe Biden made a couple of changes to
the Oval Office, including replacing portraits, carpets, and removing the “Diet
Coke button”. Among those was the addition of a Moon
rock– a sample of Earth’s natural satellite collected by
astronauts of the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, just before Joe Biden
began his long career in the US Senate.
Interesting
!
Mamandur Veeravalli Srinivasan Sampathkumar
20.02.2021
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