Today, Anna is meeting Werner Herzog during his visit to Chapman University. Here are five reasons that space nerds and science buffs should be interested in Herzog. In the documentary Lo and Behold, he told Elon Musk that he’d be happy to go on a one-way trip to Mars. Musk would prefer to offer round-trips. See the story HERE. At the end of Wild Blue Yonder, Herzog says, … Continue reading Werner Herzog
On November 30, 1954, the Hodges Meteorite fell through the roof of a house in Alabama, injuring Ann Hodges. It was the first time an extraterrestrial object had injured a person in the United States, and she remains the only person confirmed to have suffered directly from a meteorite strike. Read more at National Geographic. Four more, jam-packed tidbits about meteors… A meteorite is a … Continue reading On This Date: Meteor!
Rebecca Green is the Assistant to the Dean in Schmid College of Science at Technology at Chapman University, where the Lofty Duo work. We’ve been on task teams with Rebecca and know her to be a space nerd through and through. So we’re happy to share her family vacation story. This summer, I was fortunate enough to include a day trip to the Canberra Deep … Continue reading Guest Blog: Rebecca Green on Deep Space Communication
Space Math @NASA An amazing resource for K-12 teachers, NASA has developed all sorts of math problems based on space exploration and ready for implementation in classrooms. Whether you’re looking for a specific topic, like Mars, or a bunch of exercises for 5th-graders, you’ll find it here. Of course, math isn’t the only subject for NASA’s educational materials, so you can search by topic (climate … Continue reading 5 Back-to-School Space Apps, Lessons, etc.
On June 29, 1995, the space shuttle Atlantis first docked with the Soviet-then-Russian space station Mir. Though this was the third Shuttle-Mir mission, it was the first docking. Hoot Gibson served as commander, with four crew who flew up and back with him. In addition, two cosmonauts took the trip up, and three other spacefarers returned to Earth to end their longer-term stay aboard Mir. That exchange marked … Continue reading Remembering Mir
What’s It Like In Space by Ariel Waldman Black Hole Blues and Other Songs From Outer Space by Janna Levin Crash Course: Essays from Where Writing and Life Collide by Robin Black Hood (an Object Lessons book) by Alison Kinney Being Mortal by Atul Gawande Continue reading 5 Books We’re Reading This Summer
Here’s Lofty Ambitions giving you an excuse to party on Friday! June 10, 1929: Gemini 4 and Apollo 9 astronaut Jim McDivitt was born in Chicago. He commanded his first spaceflight, something only a handful of astronauts have done. (As an aside, The Cure are playing in Chicago on Friday–just saying.) June 10, 1929: Biologist and author E.O. Wilson was also born on this date. He has … Continue reading Reasons to Celebrate This Weekend
May 25, 1931: Georgy Grechko was born in Leningrad. He grew up to become a cosmonaut who flew on several Soviet missions to space and spent almost a month aboard the Salyut 4 space station in 1975, almost three months aboard Salyut 6 in 1977, and eight days on Salyut 7. May 25, 1961: President John F. Kennedy told a joint session of Congress that the United States … Continue reading On This Date: 5 Things
We sent the manuscript of Generation Space off to the publisher, on to their copyediting. This week, we turn to books by others, sharing posts about books we think others might want to read. 5 Books on Writing & Productivity It’s difficult to finish a book manuscript. Big projects make big demands. Here are five books that offer ideas we took to heart as we made our … Continue reading 5 Posts about Good Books to Read
In 1986, we were in college. In January, Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after lift-off. On April 26, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant suffered catastrophic failures. In July, Anna’s father died of cancer, probably caused by his work cleaning nuclear weapons during two years of requisite military service in the 1950s. In December, Anna traveled to the Soviet Union on a three-week study abroad course; because of … Continue reading Chernobyl: 30 Years Later
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