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Mars Base

March 1 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on March 1st, died, and events - 0 views

  • Soviet spacecraft reaches Venus surface
  • In 1966, the mission of the Soviet Union's unmanned spacecraft Venera 3 (Venus 3) was a partial success when it reached Venus and automatically released a small landing capsule intended to explore the planet's atmosphere during a parachute descent. However, contact had been lost since 16 Feb 1966. Although no data was returned before the capsule impacted, it became the first man-made object to touch the surface of another planet. The Soviet Union issued a commemorative stamp to mark the achievement. Venera 3 was launched on 16 Nov 1965. The landing capsule (0.9-m diam., about 300-kg) had been designed to collect data on pressure, temperature, and composition of the Venusian atmosphere. Failure is believed due to overheating of internal components and the solar panels
Mars Base

March 5 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on March 5th, died, and events - 0 views

  • Oldest eclipse record
  • In 1223 BC, the oldest recorded eclipse occurred, according to one plausible interpretation of a date inscribed on a clay tablet retrieved from the ancient city of Ugarit, Syria (as it is now). This date is favoured by recent authors on the subject, although alternatively 3 May 1375 BC has also been proposed as plausible. Certainly by the 8th century BC, the Babylonians were keeping a systematic record of solar eclipses, and possibly by this time they may have been able to apply numerological rules to make fairly accurate predictions of the occurrence of solar eclipses.
Mars Base

March 16 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on March 16th, died, and events - 0 views

  • Spacecraft docking
  • In 1966, the first US manned docking of two spacecraft was accomplished by the Gemini VIII. The Gemini space vehicle with command pilot was Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong and pilot Astronaut David R. Scott, was launched at 10:41 a.m. The primary objective of the scheduled three-day mission was to rendezvous and dock with the Gemini Agena target vehicle and to conduct extravehicular activities. Though this was accomplished, some problems developed that required the mission and its other planed objectives and experiments to be terminated early
  • Rocket
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  • In 1926, the first US liquid-fuel rocket flight was launched by Robert Goddard in a field in Auburn, Mass. He thought stable flight could be obtained by mounting the rocket ahead of the fuel tank. The tank was shielded from the flame by a metal cone and was pulled behind the rocket by the lines for gasoline fuel and oxygen. The design worked, but did not produce the hoped-for stability. The rocket burned about 20 seconds before reaching sufficient thrust (or sufficiently lightening the fuel tank) for taking off. During that time it melted part of the nozzle. It took off to a height of 41-ft, leveled off and within 2.5 seconds hit the ground 184 feet away, averaging about 60 mph. The camera ran out of film, so no photographic record of that flight remains.
Mars Base

March 13 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on March 13th, died, and events - 0 views

  • Pluto
  •   In 1930, the discovery of a ninth planet was announced by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory. It is only one-tenth as large as Earth and four thousand million miles away. The planet was named Pluto on 24 May 1930.
  • Uranus
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  • In 1781, English astronomer William Herschel detected Uranus in the night sky, but he thought it was a comet. It was the first planet to be discovered with the aid of a telescope. By 1787, he had also observed the Uranian satellites Titania and Oberon (11 Jan 1787), which were later given these names by his son, John Herschel.
  • In 1930, the discovery of a ninth planet was announced by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory. It is only one-tenth as large as Earth and four thousand million miles away. The planet was named Pluto on 24 May 1930.
Mars Base

March 12 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on March 12th, died, and events - 0 views

  • Sound on film
  • In 1923, the Phonofilm, the first motion picture with a sound-on-film track was demonstrated at a press conference. It was developed (1920) by Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the radio tube (1907). Dancers and musicians were shown on the film with music, but without voice dialogue. The sound was imaged in a narrow margin alongside the picture frames on the film. (De Forest's process came several years before the 1928 film, the "Jazz Singer," but that film used the Warner Vitaphone system. The Vitaphone system attempted to synchronize its sound from a record player turntable connected to the film projector.) The de Forest process read a series of light and dark areas on the film itself, using a photocell to convert to audio.
Mars Base

March 28 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on March 28th, died, and events - 0 views

  • Hoyle coined “Big Bang”
  • In 1949, Fred Hoyle unintentionally coined the term “Big Bang” as a household name, in a scripted radio broadcast on the BBC Third Programme. His talk was printed in the The Listener (7 Apr 1949). He compared his own belief in a “steady state” universe, saying, “earlier theories … were based on the hypothesis that all the matter in the universe was created in one big bang at a particular time in the remote past.” He repeated its use in a 1950 broadcast published in The Listener (9 Mar 1950): “One [idea] was that the Universe started its life a finite time ago in a single huge explosion… This big bang idea seemed to me to be unsatisfactory.” His critics found the “big bang” term pejorative, yet Hoyle has said his intention was to make a vivid description for the radio audience. The term stuck
Mars Base

March 27 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on March 27th, died, and events - 0 views

  • Alaska earthquake
  • In 1965, south central Alaska was rocked by North America's greatest earthquake. (At 8.3-8.5 on the Richter scale, it released over twice the energy of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.) Its epicenter was near Price William Sound, along a 1,000 km thrust fault where the Pacific plate subducts under the North american plate. The earthquake tilted at least 120,000 sq km. Some landmasses were thrust up locally as high as 25 m; elsewhere land sank as much as 2.5m. The shock was felt over almost 1,300,000 sq km. Extensive coastal damage resulted from submarine landslides and tsunamis which caused 122 of the 131 deaths. Property damage cost was about $311 million. Tsunami damage reached Crescent City, Calif. Tens of thousands of aftershocks indicated that the region of faulting extended about 1,000 km.
Mars Base

March 29 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on March 29th, died, and events - 0 views

  • Coca-Cola
  • In 1886, the first batch of Coca Cola was brewed over a fire in a backyard in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. John Pemberton had created the concoction as a cure for "hangover," stomach ache and headache. He advertised it as a "brain tonic and intellectual beverage," and first sold it to the public a few weeks later on 8 May. Coke contained cocaine as an ingredient until 1904, when the drug was banned by Congress.
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    Coca-Cola
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