Moon

Thinking about being an astronaut?

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Tomorrow marks 50 years since humans first walked on the Moon. Everyone seems to be talking about astronauts, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar mission, where we’ve been in space and where we may go next.

Stuck at the Airport is in Houston – Space City – this week to be part of the festivities. We’re meeting with former astronauts, visting the labs that train and prepare food for astronauts and getting a first look at the restored Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

If all this space talk has got you thinking about becoming an astronaut, consider taking this Astronaut Apitude quiz filled with questions based on the official NASA Astronaut Candidate requirements and real-life psychological tests. Let us know how you score.

Powered by Astronaut Aptitude Test

Feeling spacey?

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NASA planets

If you’re a wee bit crafty, then NASA and Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade arts and crafts, want to hear from you.

The two groups are hosting a “Space Craft,”  contest seeking original handmade items or works of art inspired by NASA and NASA’s programs, such as the Space Shuttle Program, aeronautics, science and exploration of the universe.

astronaut

The deadline is November 2nd and entries can be two-dimensional original art (painting, drawing, prints, mixed media, photographic and computer generated prints) or three-dimensional, such as wearable art and soft sculptures.

The grand prize winner gets a $500 Etsy shopping spree and an trip, with a guest, to February’s shuttle launch at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  Three Best in Category winners will get $250 and gifts from Etsy and NASA.

I’m working on my entry, but here’s a link to some of the artwork already submitted.

And for inspiration, here’s one of my favorite space videos, Gumby on the Moon.

Love the layover: straight to the moon from Düsseldorf Airport

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Next weekend, February 6 and 7, 2010, visitors to the Düsseldorf International Airport will be entertained by skiers and snowboarders performing stunts and jumps on a 130-foot long ski slope set up right in the shopping arcade of the terminal.

Pretty impressive by itself, but if you’re heading to Düsseldorf to see the world’s first indoor ski jump at an airport, you may as well go visit the moon.

(The ‘Largest Moon on Earth’ – sculpture and photo by Wolfgang Volz)

A reproduction and exhibit of the solar system — including an 82-foot wide moon sculpture that is the largest moon sculpture in the world — is on display inside a 380-foot tall former gas container, in nearby Oberhausen.

The exhibit, Out of this World – Wonders of the Solar System, also includes impressive replicas of the sun and its planets and is open through December 30, 2010 as one of the projects of “Ruhr 2010”, a year-long series of art events and exhibits in Germany’s Rhine Ruhr area, near Düsseldorf.