The Explorers' Club, № MCXLIX

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age
The Halley Armada, an internationally coordinated series of space probes to study Halley's Comet: Vega 1 & Vega 2 (U.S.S.R. & France, launched 15 & 21 December 1984), Giotto (European Space Agency, launched 2 July 1985), & Sakigake & Suisei (Japan, launched 7 January & 18 August 1985); all five probes made their closest approaches to Halley's Comet between 6-14 March 1986.

Commentary: The American observatory Spartan Halley was destroyed in the Challenger disaster. The cancelled Space Shuttle mission S.T.S.-61-E (planned to launch 6 March 1986) was also scheduled to conduct observations of Halley's Comet using the ASTRO-1 payload.

An existing space probe, launched in 1978 as the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3, was retasked & renamed the International Cometary Explorer, passing through the tails of Comet Giacobini-Zinner in September 1985 & Comet Halley in March 1986.

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MCXLVI

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
16 March 1926: Robert H. Goddard launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket from his aunt's farm in Auburn, Massachusetts; the rocket, Nell, rose forty-one feet vertically & traveled one hundred eighty-four feet horizontally; liquid propellants are tricker to handle than solid propellants, but yield a higher specific impulse, the amount of thrust produced per unit weight of fuel, & can be throttleable.

Bonus! Song o' the Day
MU330, "Rocket Fuel" from MU330 (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: "Rocket Fuel" isn't about rocketry, but parenting, yet the title was too on the nose to resist.

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MCXLI

The Centennial Light—An incandescent light bulb in Livermore, California that has been lit almost continuously since 1901; the hand-blown bulb has a thick carbon filament, unlike the tungston-alloy filaments that have been standard since the 1910s, & a high nitrogen atmosphere inside the bulb; the sixty-watt lamp has dimmed to a four-watt lamp; it is connected to an uninterruptible power supply.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: The Centennial Light
Less Than Jake, "The Brightest Bulb Has Burned Out/Screws Fall Out" from Anthem (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MCXXXV

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
15 January 1925: The Phoebus Cartel—General Electric (United States), Philips (The Netherlands), Tungsram (Hungary), Associated Electrical Industries (United Kingdom), Tokyo Electric (Japan), Osram (Germany), E.L.I.N. (Austria), & La Compagnie des Lampes (France) standardized a 1,000-hour life for incandescent ligh bulbs (planned obsolescence) & protected each other from competition.

Commentary: The cartel was agreed to endure for thirty years, until 1955, but was cut short in 1939 by the advent of the Second World War.

We regret not publishing an episode on the Phoebus Cartel a year ago, in 2025.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № MCXXX

Destination Moon—Astronaut Group 4 (the "Scientists"), Part II
Harrison Hagan "Jack" Schmitt (born 3 July 1935)—He flew Apollo 17 (America & Challenger, 1972); he was the first member of Astronaut Group 4 to fly & the twelfth of the twelve Moonwalkers; he was re-assigned from the cancelled Apollo 18 to Apollo 17 after intense lobbying by other lunar geologists, displacing Joe Engle; he was elected to the U.S. Senate from New Mexico, serving from 1977-1983.

Commentary: Schmitt worked for the U.S. Geological Survey, developing techniques for training astronauts to conduct field geology on the Moon, before his selection as an astronaut in 1965.

As of this publication, Senator Schmitt is still alive, age ninety.

Bonus! Moonshot Song o' the Day: The Scientists—Jack Schmitt
They Might Be Giants, "Here Comes Science" from Here Comes Science (Space Cadet Mike Papa DSKY)

Commentary:

"Ready or not, here comes science…"

The Wayback Machine Tour of Jack Schmitt
"The Explorers' Club," № CMXXI: The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 17, Part I
"The Explorers' Club," № CMXXII: The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 17, Part II
"The Explorers' Club," № CMXXIII: The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 17, Part III

Ex Luna, Scientia.

The Explorers' Club, № MXCIII

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
10-21 July 1925: The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes (A.K.A. the Scopes Monkey Trial): Scopes, a high school teacher in Dayton, was put on trial for violating the new Butler Act; the trial was a staged publicity stunt for the town, exploiting the modernist—fundamentalist controversy within the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.; Scopes was convicted & fined, later overturned on a technicality.

Commentary: "The Explorers' Club" is covering the Scopes Monkey Trial centenary a month early because the rest of June's & all of July's & August's episodes are tentatively dedicated to space flight, including three Space Shuttle missions, the launch of the two Viking Mars probes, & the final Apollo mission, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № MXVI

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Mars 6 & Mars 7
5 August 1973-12 March 1974: The identical Mars 6 (5 August) & Mars 7 (9 August) landers lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop Proton-K rockets; Mars 6 transmitted degraded data during its descent through the thin Martian atmosphere, but contact was lost prior to a presumed crash landing; Mars 7 had difficulty separating from its cruise stage & missed Mars completely.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Mars 6 & Mars 7
Dennis McCarthy, "Out of Control/The Crash" from Star Trek Generations: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MXV

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Mars 4 & Mars 5
21 July 1973-28 February 1974: The identical Mars 4 (21 July) & Mars 5 (25 July) probes lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop Proton-K rockets; Mars 4 suffered a computer failure (30 July) that left it unable to perform orbital insertion maneuvers; Mars 5 succesfully orbited Mars (12-28 February), though for less time than planned, probably due to micrometeoroid damage.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Mars 4 & Mars 5
"Weird Al" Yankovic, "Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters from a Planet Near Mars" from U.H.F.: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MVI

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age—The 20th Anniversary of Mars Exploration Rover, Part IV
25 January 2004: The Opportunity (M.E.R.-B) landed in the Eagle Crater on the Meridiani Planum, at the Challenger Memorial Station, to begin a 90-sol (a Mars day, 39 minutes 35 seconds longer than an Earth day) mission; Opportunity's 90-sol mission would be extended repeatedly, lasting 5,111 sols (14 years, 47 days); both M.E.R.'s longevity benefited from dust devils cleaning off their solar panels.

Bonus! Space Age Song o' the Day: Opportunity
Seu Jorge, "Life on Mars?" from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou: Soundtrack from the Motion Picture (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MIV

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 60th Anniversary of Ranger 6
30 January-2 February 1964: Ranger 6, the first Block III Ranger probe, lifted off from Florida's Cape Kennedy Air Force Station atop an Atlas-Agena rocket, tasked to photograph & then impact the Lunar surface; a necessary midcourse correction burn was executed perfectly; Ranger 6 crashed on time & on target, but returned no images of the Moon due to camera failure during the final approach.

Commentary: Ranger 6 was the sixth consecutive Ranger mission to fail. Ad astra per aspera.

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age—The 20th Anniversary of Mars Exploration Rover, Part III
4 January 2004: The Spirit (Mars Exploration Rover-A) landed in the Gusev Crater, at the Columbia Memorial Station, to begin a 90-sol (a Mars day, approximately 39 minutes 35 seconds longer than an Earth day) mission; due to the inefficiency of parachutes in the thin Martian atmosphere, the landing was cushioned by airbags; Spirit's 90-sol mission would be extended repeatedly, lasting 2,208 sols.

Bonus! Space Age Song o' the Day: Spirit
David Bowie, "Life on Mars?" from Hunky Dory (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № CMXCVI

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Pioneer 10, Part II
3 December 1973: Pioneer 10 made its closest approach to Jupiter, to within 82,000 miles of the planet; the probe imaged the Great Red Spot & all four of the Galilean moons, winning an Emmy for the real-time broadcast back to Earth; the intense radiation within the Jovian system generated false computer commands; the slingshot effect of Jupiter's gravity flung Pioneer 10 out of the solar system.

Commentary: Contact was maintained with Pioneer 10, as it passed beyond the orbits of Uranus, Neptune, & Pluto & headed out into interstellar space, until 23 January 2003, almost forty-one years after the probe's March 1972 launch.

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № CMLXXXIX

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Mariner 10, Part I
3 November 1973: The Mariner 10 probe lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop an Atlas-Centaur rocket, bound for flybys of Venus & Mercury; the probe was hardened against the intense solar radiation near Mercury with a sunshade, thermal blankets, & adjustable tilting solar panels; instruments included cameras, spectrometers, magnetometers, & plasma detectors.

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № CMLXIV

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
13 July 1923: The discovery of dinosaur egg fossils—An expedition led by Roy Chapman Andrews (1884-1960), searching Mongolia for fossil evidence of an Asiatic origin for modern humans (the weight of evidence today suggsts an African origin), discovered the first nests of fossilized dinosaur eggs; originally thought to be Protoceratops, the eggs were positively identified as Oviraptor in 1995.

Commentary: This episode is "The Explorers' Club" at it's most foundational level: the physical exploration of God's Creation. So are all of our "The Space Race"/"The Space Age" posts, but I'm especially glad to bring such light to the usually darker fare of "Between the Wars."

Bonus! Song o' the Day
John Williams, "Theme from Jurassic Park" from Jurassic Park (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.