Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, a photo, and additional information follow below.
All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 7-17-15.
TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO
From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is
Virginia Water Radio for the week of July 20, 2015.
Unless July 20 is your birthday, you’ll probably agree that date’s most
historic event happened in 1969, on a desolate, far-away place strongly
connected to water on earth. Let’s
listen back for about 35 seconds to parts of that history.
SOUNDS
– ~ 33 sec.
Those were NASA recordings of Apollo 11’s lift-off on July 16, 1969; the
July 20th lunar-module landing on the moon; and astronaut Neil
Armstrong’s famous words just before setting foot on the moon. Watched live on television by an estimated
530 million people, Apollo 11’s moon landing was a milestone in space
exploration, which in the 50 years since has achieved spacecraft landings on
Mars and fly-bys as far away as Pluto, just last week. One of the main objectives of exploring the
moon and beyond has been the search for evidence of water, particularly
possible signs of liquid surface water on Mars and other cold outer planets and
satellites where water ice has been found.
But every
day we see the evidence of the moon’s effect on Earth’s water. In 1687,
Issac Newton explained scientifically how daily ocean tides result largely from
the gravitational pull of the moon and sun, with the moon exerting the
strongest influence. The moon’s pull
also helps stabilize the orientation of the earth’s axis, a major factor in determining
climate and seasonal changes. The moon’s
gravitational effects play a role in two of the 21st Century’s
big challenges—sustainable energy, and the impacts of a changing climate. In some places, the range and speed of daily
tides provide enough renewable energy that commercial-scale electricity
generation can be feasible. Meanwhile,
predicted higher tides resulting from climate-related sea-level rises present a
technological and political challenge to many coastal communities, not least in
Virginia’s Tidewater and Eastern Shore areas.
Just like reaching the moon, those and other current challenges tax our
will, wallets, and imagination. So let’s
go out with words President Kennedy used in 1961 to capture the United States’
imagination for reaching a goal about 240,000 miles away.
SOUND
– ~25 sec – Excerpt of NASA audio of President John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961,
speech to Congress.
For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit
us online at virginiawaterradio.org,
or call us at (540) 231-5463. Virginia
Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part
of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo
version of Cripple Creek to open and close the show. In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you
health, wisdom, and good water.
AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Apollo 11 sounds and the May 25, 1961 recording of President John
Kennedy’s speech to Congress were taken from the National Aeronautic and Space
Agency (NASA), online at http://www.nasa.gov/connect/sounds/index.html.
Addition/Correction
The audio notes that spacecraft have landed on Mars and, of course, Earth’s
Moon. The audio failed to mention that,
as of 2015, spacecraft have also landed successfully (returning useful data) on
Venus and Titan, one of Saturn’s moons.
PHOTO
 |
| NASA radar image of the north pole of the Moon, part of a March 2, 2010, NASA announcement of finding more than 40 craters in the area (green circles) that contain water ice, according to the characteristics of the radar images. Available online at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/Mini-RF/multimedia/feature_ice_like_deposits.html. |
SOURCES
Bernd Brunner, Moon: A Brief
History, Yale University Press,
New Haven, Conn., 2010.
Deborah Byrd, “Tides, and the pull of the moon and sun,” June 8,
2015, online at http://earthsky.org/earth/tides-and-the-pull-of-the-moon-and-sun.
Paul J. Henney, “How Earth and the Moon Interact,” undated, Astronomy Today, online at http://www.astronomytoday.com/astronomy/earthmoon.html.
Paul J. Henney, “How Earth and the Moon Interact,” undated, Astronomy Today, online at http://www.astronomytoday.com/astronomy/earthmoon.html.
David Levitan, “First Tidal Power in U.S. Starts Flowing to the
Grid,” 9/18/12, IEEE Spectrum, online at http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/green-tech/geothermal-and-tidal/first-tidal-power-starts-flowing-to-the-grid.
National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) sources:
1) Main Web site at http://www.nasa.gov/.
2) “Earth’s Moon,” online at http://moon.nasa.gov/home.cfm; see particularly
the “About the Moon” and “Missions” sections.
3) Main Web site for the Apollo 11 mission at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html.
4) NASA History Office, “The
Decision to Go to the Moon: President John F. Kennedy's May 25, 1961, Speech
before a Joint Session of Congress,” online at http://history.nasa.gov/moondec.html.
before a Joint Session of Congress,” online at http://history.nasa.gov/moondec.html.
5) “New Images Suggest Present-Day Sources of Liquid Water on
Mars, 6/22/00, online at http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/news/mars_water_pr_20000622.html.
6) Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Web site, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=2005-029A.
7) NASA Television, “Our Solar System and Beyond: NASA’s
Search for Water and Habitable Planets,” 4/7/15, online at http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/april/our-solar-system-and-beyond-nasa-s-search-for-water-and-habitable-planets.
8) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “NASA-Funded Scientists Detect
Water on Moon's Surface that Hints at Water Below,” 8/28/13, online at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=3887.
9) “NASA Radar Finds Ice Deposits at Moon's
North Pole,” 3/2/10, online at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/Mini-RF/multimedia/feature_ice_like_deposits.html.
10) Solar System Exploration Web site, http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), “Tides and
Currents,” online at http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/.
NOAA/National Ocean Service, “Where is the Highest Tide?” online at http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/highesttide.html; and “Tides and Water Levels,” online at http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_tides/welcome.html.
NOAA/National Ocean Service, “Where is the Highest Tide?” online at http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/highesttide.html; and “Tides and Water Levels,” online at http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_tides/welcome.html.
PBS NewsHour, “Pluto, Underdog of the Solar System, Finally Gets Its
Day,” July 15, 2015 (8 min./51 sec. video), online at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/pluto-underdog-solar-system-finally-gets-day/. A report on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft’s
fly-by of Pluto, the latest (as of July 2015) chapter in U.S. space
exploration. The report includes a brief
history of the discovery and previous investigations of Pluto.
U.S. Department of Energy, “Tidal Energy Basics,” August 13, 2013,
online at http://energy.gov/eere/energybasics/articles/tidal-energy-basics.
U.S. Department of Energy/Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy, “Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Characterization and Assessment,”
online at http://energy.gov/eere/water/marine-and-hydrokinetic-resource-assessment-and-characterization. This site, part of DOE’s Water Power Program,
covers energy potential and use from tides, ocean and river currents, waves,
and thermal gradients in the ocean.
Virginia Department of Transportation, “While Interest in Tidal Power
Surges Ahead, U.S. Lags Behind Europe in Experimentation and Implementation,”
prepared by Ken Winter, April 2009, online (PDF; 47 pages) at http://vtrc.virginiadot.org/rsb/rsb24.pdf. This is a bibliography of reports on the use
of tidal power worldwide.
Virginia Institute of Marine Science, “VIMS calls for flexible,
multi-step approach to deal with flood risk,” 1/10/13, online at http://www.vims.edu/newsandevents/topstories/flooding_study.php.
RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES
This is the first Virginia Water Radio episode on a topic
related to space. For links to other
episodes grouped by category, please see the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html).
SOLS INFORMATION FOR
VIRGINIA TEACHERS
Virginia’s 2010 Science Standards of Learning (SOLs) related to this episode
Grades K-6 Earth Patterns, Cycles, and Change Theme
3.8 – patterns and cycles in nature (including phases of the moon and
tides).
4.7 – organization of the solar system.
4.8 – relationships among Earth, the moon, and the sun.
Grades K-6 Earth Resources Theme
3.11 – sources of energy.
Grades K-6 Force, Motion, and Energy Theme
4.2 – characteristics and interactions of moving objects (including that
moving objects have kinetic energy).
6.2 – energy sources, transformations, and uses.
Grades K-6 Interrelationships in Earth/Space Systems Theme
5.6 – characteristics of the ocean environment.
5.7 – constant change of Earth’s surface (including weathering and
erosion, and plate tectonics).
6.6 – organization and interactions of the solar system (including
gravity, moon phases, earth tilt, tides, and history of space exploration).
Physical
Science Course
PS.6 – energy forms, transfer, and transformations.
Earth
Science Course
ES.3 – characteristics of Earth and the solar system (including
sun-Earth-moon relationships, tides, and history of space exploration).
ES.6 – renewable vs. non-renewable resources (including energy
resources).
ES.7 – geologic processes, including plate tectonics.
ES.10 – ocean processes, interactions, and policies.
Physics
Course
PH.7 – energy transfer, transformations, and capacity to do work.
Virginia’s 2008 Social
Studies SOLs related to this episode
World
Geography Course
WG.2 - how selected physical and ecological processes shape
the Earth’s surface.
WG.7 - types and significance of natural, human, and capital resources.