On December 4th, 1997, NASA launched Pathfinder, an unmanned mission to Mars which arrived seven months later on July 4th, 1997. The rover it carried, Sojourner, explored the red planet for a total of eighty days afterwards.
22 years ago today, on April 24th, 1990, NASA launched its Hubble Space Telesecope. However, soon after launch, it is realized that the telescope’s mirror was ground incorrectly, and the flaw was unable to be corrected until December 1993, during a shuttle mission.
This video, by artist Isao Hashimoto, plots every nuclear bomb explosion from 1945 to 1998. Despite its relatively long duration of 14 minutes, this video is extremely effective. It’s both unsettling and sickening to see all the areas contaminated and resources wasted in the name of “domestic security.”
NASA’s longest-serving shuttle, Discovery, was transported from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center atop a Boeing 747 just after dawn this morning. After flying a victory lap around the capitol, it landed at Virginia’s Dulles International Airport, from which it will be moved to the Smithsonian Institution on Thursday.
(Photos via National Geographic)
Symptoms in Schizophrenia, ca. 1930
This silent motion picture documented symptoms of schizophrenia using 18 patients, revealing the lack of understanding of the cause and nature of the disease at the time. The origins of schizophrenia are still poorly understood today.
CREDIT: James D. Page
Images courtesy of Blast Books, New York, from the book Hidden Treasure: The National Library of Medicine, edited by Michael Sappol. Captions adapted from the book.
Ahh, the days before depression’s reign.
Magnesium wire inside glass case. The magnesium is ignited to illuminate as the flash for use in vintage cameras. (via BOB008)
Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on June 18th, 1983. Only a measly 20 years after the first Russian woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova.
America, this is pathetic. Ladies, let’s show these men what we are really capable of!
Deep-sea submarines may seem impenetrable, but in 1967, a peculiar incident enlightened scientists to just how unusual things can get while below the surface.
This particular submersible was the US Navy’s Alvin. Built in 1965, by its retirement, it had survived expeditions to the Titanic, searching for sunken hydrogen bombs, and exploring hydrothermal vents for the first time, but it received a nastly blow along the way from an unlikely predator. According to Gizmodo:
It was after the overhaul, in 1967, when Alvin got attacked by a swordfish at a depth of around 2,000 feet, during dive number 202—somewhere around the Blake Plateau and Cape Charles, in the Bahamas. The pilots heard a big metallic noise, the whole submarine shook, and something penetrated the hull.
It was a dangerous situation, so the crew decided to get quickly back to the surface. When its mothership—105-foot catamaran Lulu—lifted Alvin off the surface, they discovered this huge swordfish stuck in the hull.
While this may seem nearly impossible, its necessary to factor in that these species of fish are so extremely aggressive that they will attack just about everything, even including sharks multiple time their size. This one just managed to both pick out a submarine and pierce it at just the right angle. Bravo! What rewards did it get for its valiant efforts? Well, it was reportedly cooked and eaten by the crew of its intended prey.
We can only hope James Cameron avoids any encounters like these today!
The Curtiss F-5-L flying boat. An American variant of the British Felixstowe F.5 flying boat, itself based on the Curtiss H-12 flying boat, it was the first aircraft having trans-Atlantic range and cargo-carrying capacity. The F-5-L was powered by two Liberty engines and manned by four crew members. Curtiss flying boats were the only American-designed planes used in World War I combat. (via)
World War I Royal Navy ships in Malta’s Grand Harbour, illuminated at night. (by Nigel Bewley)
Dunlop Cycle Tires, 1914
(by Bart King)
