Episode 219 - Reef Renewal USA

In 1969, NASA’s massive think tank considered multitudes of scenarios of what might be encountered during the Apollo missions.  

Like - when should the astronauts actually land on the moon?  

Certainly, some element makes one arrival time better than all the others.  

For landing on the Moon, that element is lurking in the shadows.  

Actually, it’s the shadows themselves.

That’s right – shadows governed the arrival times for all of the Apollo landings.

See, once each month there’s this 16-hour window of time where the lunar shadows are optimal for a pilot to accurately judge boulders, hills, valleys, and slopes.  

So, all landings were timed so that the sun’s light would strike at between 5 and 14 degrees to the surface.  

And it’s a good thing too, since the Apollo 11 lunar lander overshot its landing site by 4 miles and Neil Armstrong had to manually fly it through a field of boulders while running out of fuel.

While celebrating that one small step on another world, know that July 20th was selected for the perfect lengths of lunar shadows.

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Recorded at Jacksonville University
Eddie Whisler | Story & Voice
Greg Minton | Audio Engineer
Tony Steve | Music
Andy Ouellette | Producer & Editor
David Smith | Logo Design
Bryan Gros | Moon art

#071 | I'll Take Moon Shadows for the Landing | Aired 7-16-21 on WJCT Jax and WUFT Gainesville

Above and Beyond... brings the universe to you, 90 seconds at a time.

Eddie Whisler, Director of the Bryan Gooding Planetarium at Jacksonville's Museum of Science & History brings you above and beyond Jacksonville's night sky to share the wonders of the universe.

Produced by Jacksonville University's The Science Of... in collaboration with the Museum of Science and History and WJCT Public Media. 

Aired on WJCT FM 89.9 during Science Friday and Radiolab.

Recorded at Jacksonville University
Eddie Whisler | Story & Voice
Greg Minton | Audio Engineer
Tony Steve | Music
Andy Ouellette | Producer & Editor
David Smith | Logo Design
Bryan Gros | Space Images
Brett Jacobs | Named "Above and Beyond"
Janel Palomo | General Assistant 2019/2020

#071 | I'll Take Moon Shadows for the Landing | Aired 7-16-21 on WJCT Jax and WUFT Gainesville

Jacksonville University's The Science Of...

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