Space Exploration

[ysabetwordsmith]

NASA releases 12,000 Artemis pics! See our faves here

NASA has released more than 12,000 images from the Artemis 2 mission on its website. They are a collection of views of Earth and the moon that the astronauts captured while aboard their spacecraft, Integrity. The website is here. Note that a high interest in the images has caused the website to go offline numerous times since NASA released the pictures.


Your tax dollars at work, doing something that isn't monstrous.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Ohhh... I can just tell that's a deep, Deeeeeeepppp rabbit hole to disappear down!

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Remember that I accept picture prompts.

*throws carrot down hole*

Re: Yes ...

[siliconshaman]

*surfaces briefly*

I think this one is eeriest of the images

I checked, this is literally the first time that the actual dark side of the Moon has been photographed. The Apollo missions all orbited it but when the moon was in opposition to the sun, they didn't really get much in the way of photographs of the insufficiently lit side.

And maybe it's just the sci-fi nerd in me...but what if they'd seen a light down there on the surface, steadily blinking? That thought raises the hairs on the back of my neck. The last outpost of some ancient forgotten civilization... Deep space AND deep time.

Re: Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I think this one is eeriest of the images <<

Wow, yes.

>> I checked, this is literally the first time that the actual dark side of the Moon has been photographed. The Apollo missions all orbited it but when the moon was in opposition to the sun, they didn't really get much in the way of photographs of the insufficiently lit side.<<

Fascinating!

>>And maybe it's just the sci-fi nerd in me...but what if they'd seen a light down there on the surface, steadily blinking? That thought raises the hairs on the back of my neck. The last outpost of some ancient forgotten civilization...<<

That would be awesome.

I was briefly tempted to say someone should edit that into the image as an illustration, but it's too dangerous to do nowadays. *sigh*

It occurs to me that this would fit The Blueshift Troupers. Nothing they could use, just that one tiny hint that, somewhen, there was another spacefaring race out there.

You should definitely save the image and these ideas for future use. Hmm, the May 16-17 Creative Jam has a theme of "Quests" so that would fit. June fishbowl is "Fun with Language" which is a clear miss.

Re: Yes ...

[siliconshaman]

Sooth.. ok, America has a long, long history of faked images. Usually light-hearted postcards with ginormous veggies etc bragging about how big things are in X state etc.. but nowadays, there are way too many people willing to believe they're real.

I shall make a note of the prompt idea... may even use it myself. It would make a heck of a hard sci-fi story ala The Martian or Hail Mary Project. But I'm not sure if my science-fu is up to it!

Re: Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

It doesn't require a great deal of hard science detail. Local technology can get to the Moon, and looking up the general description of how is not difficult.

Then all the characters need to do is spot the blinking light. It's up to you if they even land, or can find it again if they do. Should they find it, they will almost certainly not understand it. That's alien technology. It could literally look like nothing more than a blinking light, such as a crystal that lights up, or a sealed metal cube with a light on top. Humans don't have a receiver to read the signal. They likely can't open alien tech designed to withstand space. It'd be like a chimp trying to figure out a locked heavy-duty ammo can.

Re: Yes ...

[siliconshaman]

It would be more interesting however, if they can science the shit out of it.

Slowly, but still. I maintain that the laws of physics being universal, and form tends to follow function, so we might not understand all of it, but enough to start to pick at threads we do understand.