“Men Wanted For Hazardous Journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success” -Ernest ShackletonSir Ernest Henry Shackleton, in the last great age of exploration of the Antarctic, went on three missions to the South Pole of the Earth. Each mission exceeded the last. The first set a record of Latitude south 82 degrees. The second reached south 88 degrees, less than 200 Km from the pole itself, and included an exped...

“Men Wanted For Hazardous Journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success” -Ernest ShackletonSir Ernest Henry Shackleton, in the last great age of exploration of the Antarctic, went on three missions to the South Pole of the Earth. Each mission exceeded the last. The first set a record of Latitude south 82 degrees. The second reached south 88 degrees, less than 200 Km from the pole itself, and included an exped...

The Sun possesses near 99.9% the mass of the Solar System, a quantity we felt long before we could calculate it, when myths about the sun were treated as reality. Even the gods were at risk if they forgot themselves and tampered with such power. The old gods may have faded away but man’s hunger remained. In the Middle Kingdom long ago, they spoke of 10 suns, all sons of a Goddess, who followed their mother like hatchlings, across the heavens. Warned against gathering in one place, lest their ...

The Sun possesses near 99.9% the mass of the Solar System, a quantity we felt long before we could calculate it, when myths about the sun were treated as reality. Even the gods were at risk if they forgot themselves and tampered with such power. The old gods may have faded away but man’s hunger remained. In the Middle Kingdom long ago, they spoke of 10 suns, all sons of a Goddess, who followed their mother like hatchlings, across the heavens. Warned against gathering in one place, lest their ...

1962 Washington D.C. America was electrified by the vision of landing a man on the moon in the 1960s. To achieve this, NASA created an astronaut program. There was a second astronaut program few knew about. In 1962, the Secretary of Defense authorized work on a variety of special space projects, including a black project, the Military Observation Laboratory, "MOL". In public, the MOL's "cover story" was funding for a laboratory. Its classified mission was as a military orbital platform t...

1962 Washington D.C. America was electrified by the vision of landing a man on the moon in the 1960s. To achieve this, NASA created an astronaut program. There was a second astronaut program few knew about. In 1962, the Secretary of Defense authorized work on a variety of special space projects, including a black project, the Military Observation Laboratory, "MOL". In public, the MOL's "cover story" was funding for a laboratory. Its classified mission was as a military orbital platform t...

The moon, since its first fullness, inspires longing in gods and men alike. In China an immortal, Chang’e, was turned into a mortal as punishment. She is so desperate to restore her immortality that she overdrinks a cosmic elixir which lifts her into the heavens, to her new home, the moon. She becomes a moon goddess. Her one friend is a rabbit. In Japan, on a full moon evening, three animals agree to aid a poor starving beggar. A monkey gathers nuts for the beggar, which the fox steals but th...

The moon, since its first fullness, inspires longing in gods and men alike. In China an immortal, Chang’e, was turned into a mortal as punishment. She is so desperate to restore her immortality that she overdrinks a cosmic elixir which lifts her into the heavens, to her new home, the moon. She becomes a moon goddess. Her one friend is a rabbit. In Japan, on a full moon evening, three animals agree to aid a poor starving beggar. A monkey gathers nuts for the beggar, which the fox steals but th...

1957, The Dawn of The Space Race The first satellite in space was the USSR's Sputnik. The Space Race began during a Cold War. Each side raced to be first but real victory was making sure there was always a next. **The first man in space was Yuri Gagarin, on board Vostok 1. **Vostok 1 was the first manned mission to orbit Earth, for 108 minutes, automated. Soyuz 1's was the first crewed mission, which ended in a tragic crash landing. Afterwards, the authorities banned Gagarin from ne...

1957, The Dawn of The Space Race The first satellite in space was the USSR's Sputnik. The Space Race began during a Cold War. Each side raced to be first but real victory was making sure there was always a next. **The first man in space was Yuri Gagarin, on board Vostok 1. **Vostok 1 was the first manned mission to orbit Earth, for 108 minutes, automated. Soyuz 1's was the first crewed mission, which ended in a tragic crash landing. Afterwards, the authorities banned Gagarin from ne...

1970 Earth To MoonThe mission's call sign was chosen for its message, "a long voyage with many changes of fortune". Odyssey. Third to the Moon , second for precision landing, first disaster in space.It began with one engine failure but the other engines carried the load. After that, everything went as planned. 56 hours into the flight, 210,000 miles away from Earth, about two-thirds of the way to the Moon, everything changed. When a pressure sensor reading was off, Mission Control reques...

1970 Earth To MoonThe mission's call sign was chosen for its message, "a long voyage with many changes of fortune". Odyssey. Third to the Moon , second for precision landing, first disaster in space.It began with one engine failure but the other engines carried the load. After that, everything went as planned. 56 hours into the flight, 210,000 miles away from Earth, about two-thirds of the way to the Moon, everything changed. When a pressure sensor reading was off, Mission Control reques...

4.6 BILLION YEARS AGO, STAR "SOL", MILKY WAY GALAXYThe sun is massive. It has the blinding light of nuclear fusion, screaming electromagnetic fury 24/7, exhaling massive energy. If it were hollow, its volume could fit a million Earths.It powers life on Earth. The sun's mass flexes muscles of gravity and bends the fabric of space-time. A second of its raw power could fuel us for an eon.Despite its might, it's an object of humility in the cosmos.It is not alone, it has a hundred billi...

4.6 BILLION YEARS AGO, STAR "SOL", MILKY WAY GALAXYThe sun is massive. It has the blinding light of nuclear fusion, screaming electromagnetic fury 24/7, exhaling massive energy. If it were hollow, its volume could fit a million Earths.It powers life on Earth. The sun's mass flexes muscles of gravity and bends the fabric of space-time. A second of its raw power could fuel us for an eon.Despite its might, it's an object of humility in the cosmos.It is not alone, it has a hundred billi...

Fear can drive us straight onto a path we avoided, into a future we worried about. In 1936, a young MIT engineer was recruited by Theodore von Karman of Caltech. von Karman, a legend in the history of flight, said this of the engineer: "he was an undisputed genius whose work was providing an enormous impetus to advances in high-speed aerodynamics and jet propulsion" Hsue-Shen Tsien, mathematician by training, experimented with a young technology, rockets. It involved materials that were volat...

Fear can drive us straight onto a path we avoided, into a future we worried about. In 1936, a young MIT engineer was recruited by Theodore von Karman of Caltech. von Karman, a legend in the history of flight, said this of the engineer: "he was an undisputed genius whose work was providing an enormous impetus to advances in high-speed aerodynamics and jet propulsion" Hsue-Shen Tsien, mathematician by training, experimented with a young technology, rockets. It involved materials that were volat...

There was a god who made living machines but he could not restore lost loved ones. Hephaestus, the master builder, known as Vulcan, created living machines, automata for his workshop, a factory for the Gods. His creations included guardians such as Talos, a warrior made of bronze who may have served as a bodyguard for a Phoenician princess, Europa, against kidnappers, or as a protector of the island of Crete against invaders. Aphrodite, Hephaestus’ wife, outdid her husband when it came to cre...

There was a god who made living machines but he could not restore lost loved ones. Hephaestus, the master builder, known as Vulcan, created living machines, automata for his workshop, a factory for the Gods. His creations included guardians such as Talos, a warrior made of bronze who may have served as a bodyguard for a Phoenician princess, Europa, against kidnappers, or as a protector of the island of Crete against invaders. Aphrodite, Hephaestus’ wife, outdid her husband when it came to cre...

1967 Cape Canaveral, Florida The mission to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade was near out of time. In just a few years so much had been achieved to make a moon landing possible. One of the most dramatic leaps in technology took the U.S. from 10 minute ballistic test flights to lunar capable spacecraft in less than 5 years. Apollo.The first version was ready for a test in Earth orbit. Delivered in late 1966 to Kennedy Space Center, there were signs of problems. Warning signs are...

1967 Cape Canaveral, Florida The mission to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade was near out of time. In just a few years so much had been achieved to make a moon landing possible. One of the most dramatic leaps in technology took the U.S. from 10 minute ballistic test flights to lunar capable spacecraft in less than 5 years. Apollo.The first version was ready for a test in Earth orbit. Delivered in late 1966 to Kennedy Space Center, there were signs of problems. Warning signs are...

Among the oldest of the old gods, some of this deity’s names are lost to memory HELIOS HYPERION PHAETON SOL APOLLO So ancient, some remember names of BAAL and RA, others recall the deity of the sun was a daughter, and the sibling moon god was a son, of even older gods of reality Among its youngest incarnations, it was a child of the Titans, of the Sky and the Earth His sister was night, huntress, mistress of portals between worlds, her sigil the moon His sigil the Sun, an all seeing eye of he...

Among the oldest of the old gods, some of this deity’s names are lost to memory HELIOS HYPERION PHAETON SOL APOLLO So ancient, some remember names of BAAL and RA, others recall the deity of the sun was a daughter, and the sibling moon god was a son, of even older gods of reality Among its youngest incarnations, it was a child of the Titans, of the Sky and the Earth His sister was night, huntress, mistress of portals between worlds, her sigil the moon His sigil the Sun, an all seeing eye of he...

1962 Texas, Rice University Stadium The dignitaries melted but he stayed cool under the Texas sun. The most powerful people in country waited for the most powerful man in the world to tell a story. John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the U.S., gave a speech about one of Mankind's oldest dreams. The speech at Rice University Stadium was also a message to the leaders of the Soviet Union, which had an early lead that looked hard to beat. The cost and uncertainty was great but the risk of not...

1962 Texas, Rice University Stadium The dignitaries melted but he stayed cool under the Texas sun. The most powerful people in country waited for the most powerful man in the world to tell a story. John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the U.S., gave a speech about one of Mankind's oldest dreams. The speech at Rice University Stadium was also a message to the leaders of the Soviet Union, which had an early lead that looked hard to beat. The cost and uncertainty was great but the risk of not...