1.
Melbourne
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Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in Australia and Oceania. The name Melbourne refers to an urban agglomeration spanning 9,900 km2, the metropolis is located on the large natural bay of Port Phillip and expands into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon mountain ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. It has a population of 4,641,636 as of 2016, and its inhabitants are called Melburnians. Founded by free settlers from the British Crown colony of Van Diemens Land on 30 August 1835, in what was then the colony of New South Wales, it was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837. It was named Melbourne by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke, in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. It was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria, to whom Lord Melbourne was close, in 1847, during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, it was transformed into one of the worlds largest and wealthiest cities. After the federation of Australia in 1901, it served as the interim seat of government until 1927. It is a financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region. It is recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature and a centre for street art, music. It was the host city of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the main passenger airport serving the metropolis and the state is Melbourne Airport, the second busiest in Australia. The Port of Melbourne is Australias busiest seaport for containerised and general cargo, Melbourne has an extensive transport network. The main metropolitan train terminus is Flinders Street Station, and the regional train. Melbourne is also home to Australias most extensive network and has the worlds largest urban tram network. Before the arrival of settlers, humans had occupied the area for an estimated 31,000 to 40,000 years. At the time of European settlement, it was inhabited by under 2000 hunter-gatherers from three indigenous tribes, the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong. The area was an important meeting place for the clans of the Kulin nation alliance and it would be 30 years before another settlement was attempted. Batman selected a site on the bank of the Yarra River. Batman then returned to Launceston in Tasmania, in early August 1835 a different group of settlers, including John Pascoe Fawkner, left Launceston on the ship Enterprize
2.
Leeds
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Leeds /liːdz/ is a city in West Yorkshire, England. Historically in Yorkshires West Riding, the history of Leeds can be traced to the 5th century when the name referred to an area of the Kingdom of Elmet. The name has applied to many administrative entities over the centuries. It changed from being the appellation of a small borough in the 13th century, through several incarnations. In the 17th and 18th centuries Leeds became a centre for the production. During the Industrial Revolution, Leeds developed into a mill town, wool was the dominant industry but flax, engineering, iron foundries, printing. From being a market town in the valley of the River Aire in the 16th century Leeds expanded and absorbed the surrounding villages to become a populous urban centre by the mid-20th century. The city has the third largest jobs total by local authority area with 480,000 in employment and self-employment at the beginning of 2015. Leeds is also ranked as a world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Leeds is served by four universities, and has the fourth largest student population in the country and has the fourth largest urban economy. After London, Leeds is the largest legal and financial centre in the UK, with over 30 national and international banks located in the city. Leeds is also the UKs third largest manufacturing centre with around 1,800 firms and 39,000 employees, the largest sub-sectors are engineering, printing and publishing, food and drink, chemicals and medical technology. Outside of London, Leeds has the third busiest railway station, Public transport, rail and road communications networks in the region are focused on Leeds and there are a number of twinning arrangements with towns and cities in other countries. The name Leeds derives from the old Brythonic word Ladenses meaning people of the fast-flowing river and this name originally referred to the forested area covering most of the Brythonic kingdom of Elmet, which existed during the 5th century into the early 7th century. An inhabitant of Leeds is locally known as a Loiner, a word of uncertain origin, the term Leodensian is also used, from the citys Latin name. Leeds developed as a town in the Middle Ages as part of the local agricultural economy. Before the Industrial Revolution it became a centre for the manufacture of woollen cloth. Leeds handled one sixth of Englands export trade in 1770, growth, initially in textiles, was accelerated by the building of the Aire and Calder Navigation in 1699 and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816
3.
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
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Sidney Sussex College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The college was founded in 1596 under the terms of the will of Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex and it was from its inception an avowedly Protestant foundation, some good and godlie moniment for the mainteynance of good learninge. In her will, Lady Sussex left the sum of £5,000 together with some plate to found a new college at Cambridge University to be called the Lady Frances Sidney Sussex College. Her executors Sir John Harington and Henry Grey, 6th Earl of Kent, supervised by Archbishop John Whitgift, as of 2014, the college had an endowment of £36. m. and total capital and reserves of £108. m. By the early 19th century, the original red brick was unfashionable. H. Lyon, and somewhat at odds with the colleges original Puritan ethos, at the beginning of the twentieth century, E. H. Griffiths wrote a ten verse song dedicated to Sidney Sussex, each verse systematically identifies, then dismisses other Cambridge colleges for their faults, before settling on Sidney as the best college of all. Sidney Sussex is recognised as one of the smaller, more classical Cambridge colleges and its current student body consists of roughly 350 undergraduate students and 190 graduates. Academically, Sidney Sussex has tended towards a position in the unofficial Tompkins Table. However, the college has traditionally excelled in subjects, notably Mathematics, History, Engineering. It is also known for the standard of pastoral support from the Tutorial team. The college ranks fourth highest amongst Cambridge colleges in Nobel Prizes won by alumni, the Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge was nominated for a 2013 Gramophone Award in recognition of their disc of the music of Thomas Weelkes. The choir also tours regularly, most recently to Germany, in December 2016, in the television show University Challenge, Sidney Sussex had a winning team in both 1971 and 1978–79. The 1978 team, comprising John Gilmore, John Adams, David Lidington, the college last appeared on the television show in 2015. It is known for producing a well-regarded May Ball for a smaller college, notably, students created an artificial lake and canal in 2010, when the ball had a Venetian theme, to enable punting at the landlocked college. Recent themes have included Light, and Beyond, as with many of the smaller colleges, Sidney Sussex does not run a May Ball every year, instead running a biennial May Ball, on even numbered years. On odd numbered years, the college hosted an Arts Festival. Notable guest speakers at the Sidney Arts Festival include Stephen Fry, however, for 2017 it was decided instead to hold a June Event
4.
Boron
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Boron is a chemical element with symbol B and atomic number 5. Produced entirely by cosmic ray spallation and supernovae and not by stellar nucleosynthesis, it is an element in the Solar system. Boron is concentrated on Earth by the water-solubility of its more common naturally occurring compounds and these are mined industrially as evaporites, such as borax and kernite. The largest known deposits are in Turkey, the largest producer of boron minerals. Elemental boron is a metalloid that is found in small amounts in meteoroids, industrially, very pure boron is produced with difficulty because of refractory contamination by carbon or other elements. Several allotropes of boron exist, amorphous boron is a powder, crystalline boron is silvery to black, extremely hard. The primary use of boron is as boron filaments with applications similar to carbon fibers in some high-strength materials. Boron is primarily used in chemical compounds, about half of all consumption globally, boron is used as an additive in glass fibers of boron-containing fiberglass for insulation and structural materials. The next leading use is in polymers and ceramics in high-strength, lightweight structural, borosilicate glass is desired for its greater strength and thermal shock resistance than ordinary soda lime glass. Boron compounds are used as fertilizers in agriculture and in sodium perborate bleaches, a small amount of boron is used as a dopant in semiconductors, and reagent intermediates in the synthesis of organic fine chemicals. A few boron-containing organic pharmaceuticals are used or are in study, natural boron is composed of two stable isotopes, one of which has a number of uses as a neutron-capturing agent. In biology, borates have low toxicity in mammals, but are toxic to arthropods and are used as insecticides. Boric acid is mildly antimicrobial, and several natural boron-containing organic antibiotics are known, small amounts of boron compounds play a strengthening role in the cell walls of all plants, making boron a necessary plant nutrient. Boron is involved in the metabolism of calcium in both plants and animals and it is considered an essential nutrient for humans, and boron deficiency is implicated in osteoporosis. The word boron was coined from borax, the mineral from which it was isolated, by analogy with carbon, marco Polo brought some glazes back to Italy in the 13th century. Agricola, around 1600, reports the use of borax as a flux in metallurgy, in 1777, boric acid was recognized in the hot springs near Florence, Italy, and became known as sal sedativum, with primarily medical uses. The rare mineral is called sassolite, which is found at Sasso, Sasso was the main source of European borax from 1827 to 1872, when American sources replaced it. Boron compounds were relatively rarely used until the late 1800s when Francis Marion Smiths Pacific Coast Borax Company first popularized and produced them in volume at low cost
5.
Newcastle University
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Newcastle University is a public research university located in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North-East of England. The university can trace its origins to a School of Medicine and Surgery, established in 1834 and these two colleges came to form one division of the federal University of Durham, with the Durham Colleges forming the other. The Newcastle colleges merged to form Kings College in 1937, in 1963, following an Act of Parliament, Kings College became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Newcastle University is a red brick university and is a member of the Russell Group, the university has one of the largest EU research portfolios in the UK. Newcastle attracts over 20,000 students from more than 120 different countries, in June 1851, following a dispute among the teaching staff, the School split into two rival institutions. The majority formed the Newcastle College of Medicine, and the others established themselves as the Newcastle upon Tyne College of Medicine, by 1852, the majority college was formally linked to the University of Durham. It awarded its first Licence in Medicine in 1856, and its teaching certificates were recognised by the University of London for graduation in medicine, the two colleges amalgamated in 1857 and renamed the University of Durham College of Medicine in 1870. Attempts to realise a place for the teaching of sciences in the city were met with the foundation of the College of Physical Science in 1871. By 1908, the Newcastle Division was teaching a range of subjects in the Faculties of Medicine, Arts, and Science. As the successor of Kings College, Durham, the university at its founding in 1963, in the Letters Patent authorising the transfer, the arms are blazoned Azure, a Cross of St Cuthbert Argent and in chief of the last a lion passant guardant Gules. While a Latin motto, mens agitat molem appears in the Students Union building, the university occupies a campus site close to Haymarket in central Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located to the northwest of the city centre between the spaces of Leazes Park and the Town Moor. The Armstrong building is the oldest building on the campus and is the site of the original Armstrong College. The building was constructed in three stages, the north east wing was completed first at a cost of £18,000, the south-east wing, which includes the Jubilee Tower, and south-west wings were opened in 1894. The Jubilee Tower was built with funds raised from an Exhibition to mark Queen Victorias Jubilee in 1887. The north-west front, forming the entrance, was completed in 1906. Much of the construction work was financed by Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell. In 1906 it was opened by King Edward VII, the building contains the Kings Hall, which serves as the universitys chief hall for ceremonial purposes where Congregation ceremonies are held
6.
University of Leeds
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The University of Leeds is a redbrick university located in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, established in 1831. In 1904, a charter, created in 1903, was granted to the University of Leeds by King Edward VII. The Leeds University Business School hold the Triple Crown accreditations from AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS, the university has 31,790 students, the seventh largest university in the UK. From 2006 to present, the university has consistently ranked within the top 5 in the United Kingdom for the number of applications received. Leeds had an income of £634.9 million in 2015/16. The university has financial endowments of £67.7 million, ranking outside the top ten British universities by financial endowment, for 2016-17, Leeds is ranked nationally between 13th and 16th. Internationally, the university is ranked as the 32nd best in Europe, Leeds was ranked top three in the UK and top 20 in the world for graduate employability, also ranked as the 5th most targeted British university by the UKs top graduate employers in 2016-17. Leeds was ranked 10th in the UK for research power in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, the best result in the Yorkshire, the university was named the 2017 Sunday Times University of the Year, having been runner-up in 2016. Notable alumni include former Secretary of State Jack Straw, former co-chairman of the Conservative Party Sayeeda Warsi, American actor Chris Pine, Piers Sellers and five Nobel laureates. The universitys history is linked to the development of Leeds as a centre for the textile industry. The universitys roots can be traced back to the formation of schools of medicine in English cities to serve the general public, prior to 1900, only five universities had been established in England and one in Wales. These consisted of the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of London, Durham University, and the federal Victoria University, Owens College was the sole college of Victoria University from 1880 to 1884, in 1887 Yorkshire College was the third to join the university. In 1831, the Leeds School of Medicine was established with the aim of serving the needs of the five institutions which had been established in the city. In 1874, the Yorkshire College of Science was created to provide education for the children of middle-class industrialists and merchants, financial support from local industry was crucial in setting up the College and aiding the students. The university continues to recognise these elements of its history, for example, the religious qualification ceased in the 1850s but the classics-based education continued at Oxford and Cambridge. When classics, modern literature and history went on offer a few years later, in 1884, the Yorkshire College absorbed the Leeds School of Medicine and subsequently joined the federal Victoria University on 3 November 1887. Students in this period were awarded external degrees by the University of London, Leeds was given its first university in 1887 when the Yorkshire College joined the federal Victoria University on 3 November. The Victoria University had been established by charter in 1880
7.
Fellow of the Royal Society
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As of 2016, there are around 1600 living Fellows, Foreign and Honorary Members. Fellowship of the Royal Society has been described by The Guardian newspaper as “the equivalent of a lifetime achievement Oscar” with several institutions celebrating their announcement each year. Up to 60 new Fellows, honorary and foreign members are elected annually usually in May, each candidate is considered on their merits and can be proposed from any sector of the scientific community. Fellows are elected for life on the basis of excellence in science and are entitled to use the post-nominal letters FRS, see Category, Fellows of the Royal Society and Category, Female Fellows of the Royal Society. Every year, Fellows elect up to ten new Foreign Members, like Fellows, Foreign Members are elected for life through peer review on the basis of excellence in science. As of 2016 there are around 165 Foreign Members, who are entitled to use the post-nominal ForMemRS, see Category, Foreign Members of the Royal Society. Honorary Fellows include Bill Bryson, Melvyn Bragg, Robin Saxby, David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville, Honorary Fellows are entitled to use the post nominal letters HonFRS. Others including John Maddox, Patrick Moore and Lisa Jardine were elected as honorary fellows, statute 12 is a legacy mechanism for electing members before official honorary membership existed in 1997. Fellows elected under statute 12 include David Attenborough and John Palmer, prime Ministers of the United Kingdom such as Margaret Thatcher, Neville Chamberlain, H. H. Asquith were elected under statute 12, see Category, Fellows of the Royal Society. The Council of the Royal Society can recommend members of the British Royal Family for election as Royal Fellows of the Royal Society. As of 2016 there are five royal fellows, Charles, Prince of Wales, Anne, Princess Royal, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Andrew, Duke of York. Her Majesty the Queen, Elizabeth II is not a Royal Fellow, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was elected under statute 12, not as a Royal Fellow. The election of new fellows is announced annually in May, after their nomination, each candidate for Fellowship or Foreign Membership is nominated by two Fellows of the Royal Society, who sign a certificate of proposal. Previously, nominations required at least five fellows to support each nomination by the proposer, the certificate of election includes a statement of the principal grounds on which the proposal is being made. There is no limit on the number of nominations each year. In 2015, there were 654 candidates for election as Fellows and 106 candidates for Foreign Membership. The final list of up to 52 Fellowship candidates and up to 10 Foreign Membership candidates is confirmed by the Council in April, a candidate is elected if he or she secures two-thirds of votes of those Fellows present and voting. A further maximum of six can be ‘Honorary’, ‘General’ or ‘Royal’ Fellows, nominations for Fellowship are peer reviewed by sectional committees, each with fifteen members and a chair
8.
Chemist
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A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties, chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms. Chemists carefully measure substance proportions, reaction rates, and other chemical properties, the word chemist is also used to address Pharmacists in Commonwealth English. Chemists may specialize in any number of subdisciplines of chemistry, materials scientists and metallurgists share much of the same education and skills with chemists. The roots of chemistry can be traced to the phenomenon of burning, fire was a mystical force that transformed one substance into another and thus was of primary interest to mankind. It was fire that led to the discovery of iron and glasses, after gold was discovered and became a precious metal, many people were interested to find a method that could convert other substances into gold. This led to the protoscience called alchemy, the word chemist is derived from the New Latin noun chimista, an abbreviation of alchimista. Alchemists discovered many chemical processes that led to the development of modern chemistry, Chemistry as we know it today, was invented by Antoine Lavoisier with his law of conservation of mass in 1783. The discoveries of the elements has a long history culminating in the creation of the periodic table by Dmitri Mendeleev. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry created in 1901 gives an excellent overview of chemical discovery since the start of the 20th century. Jobs for chemists usually require at least a degree, but many positions, especially those in research. At the Masters level and higher, students tend to specialize in a particular field, postdoctoral experience may be required for certain positions. Workers whose work involves chemistry, but not at a complexity requiring an education with a degree, are commonly referred to as chemical technicians. Such technicians commonly do such work as simpler, routine analyses for quality control or in clinical laboratories, there are also degrees specific to become a Chemical Technologist, which are somewhat distinct from those required when a student is interested in becoming a professional Chemist. A Chemical technologist is more involved in the management and operation of the equipment and they are part of the team of a chemical laboratory in which the quality of the raw material, intermediate products and finished products is analyzed. They also perform functions in the areas of quality control. The higher the level achieved in the field of Chemistry, the higher the responsibility given to that chemist. Chemistry, as a field, have so many applications that different tasks/objectives can be given to workers/scientists with these different levels of education and/or experience
9.
Chemistry
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Chemistry is a branch of physical science that studies the composition, structure, properties and change of matter. Chemistry is sometimes called the science because it bridges other natural sciences, including physics. For the differences between chemistry and physics see comparison of chemistry and physics, the history of chemistry can be traced to alchemy, which had been practiced for several millennia in various parts of the world. The word chemistry comes from alchemy, which referred to a set of practices that encompassed elements of chemistry, metallurgy, philosophy, astrology, astronomy, mysticism. An alchemist was called a chemist in popular speech, and later the suffix -ry was added to this to describe the art of the chemist as chemistry, the modern word alchemy in turn is derived from the Arabic word al-kīmīā. In origin, the term is borrowed from the Greek χημία or χημεία and this may have Egyptian origins since al-kīmīā is derived from the Greek χημία, which is in turn derived from the word Chemi or Kimi, which is the ancient name of Egypt in Egyptian. Alternately, al-kīmīā may derive from χημεία, meaning cast together, in retrospect, the definition of chemistry has changed over time, as new discoveries and theories add to the functionality of the science. The term chymistry, in the view of noted scientist Robert Boyle in 1661, in 1837, Jean-Baptiste Dumas considered the word chemistry to refer to the science concerned with the laws and effects of molecular forces. More recently, in 1998, Professor Raymond Chang broadened the definition of chemistry to mean the study of matter, early civilizations, such as the Egyptians Babylonians, Indians amassed practical knowledge concerning the arts of metallurgy, pottery and dyes, but didnt develop a systematic theory. Greek atomism dates back to 440 BC, arising in works by such as Democritus and Epicurus. In 50 BC, the Roman philosopher Lucretius expanded upon the theory in his book De rerum natura, unlike modern concepts of science, Greek atomism was purely philosophical in nature, with little concern for empirical observations and no concern for chemical experiments. Work, particularly the development of distillation, continued in the early Byzantine period with the most famous practitioner being the 4th century Greek-Egyptian Zosimos of Panopolis. He formulated Boyles law, rejected the four elements and proposed a mechanistic alternative of atoms. Before his work, though, many important discoveries had been made, the Scottish chemist Joseph Black and the Dutchman J. B. English scientist John Dalton proposed the theory of atoms, that all substances are composed of indivisible atoms of matter. Davy discovered nine new elements including the alkali metals by extracting them from their oxides with electric current, british William Prout first proposed ordering all the elements by their atomic weight as all atoms had a weight that was an exact multiple of the atomic weight of hydrogen. The inert gases, later called the noble gases were discovered by William Ramsay in collaboration with Lord Rayleigh at the end of the century, thereby filling in the basic structure of the table. Organic chemistry was developed by Justus von Liebig and others, following Friedrich Wöhlers synthesis of urea which proved that organisms were, in theory
10.
University of Melbourne
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The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australias second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria, Times Higher Education ranks Melbourne as 33rd in the world, while the Academic Ranking of World Universities places Melbourne 40th in the world. Melbournes main campus is located in Parkville, a suburb north of the Melbourne central business district. Melbourne is a university and a member of the Group of Eight, Universitas 21. Since 1872 various residential colleges have become affiliated with the university, there are 12 colleges located on the main campus and in nearby suburbs offering academic, sporting and cultural programs alongside accommodation for Melbourne students and faculty. Amongst Melbournes 15 graduate schools the Melbourne Business School, the Melbourne Law School, four Australian prime ministers and five governors-general have graduated from Melbourne. Nine Nobel laureates have been students or faculty, the most of any Australian university, the university was established by Act of Incorporation on 22 January 1853, with power to confer degrees in arts, medicine, laws and music. The act provided for an endowment of £9,000. The original buildings were opened by the Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Victoria, Sir Charles Hotham. The first chancellor, Redmond Barry, held the position until his death in 1880, the inauguration of the university was made possible by the wealth resulting from Victorias gold rush. The institution was designed to be an influence at a time of rapid settlement. In 1881, the admission of women was a seen as victory over the conservative ruling council. The universitys 150th anniversary was celebrated in 2003, as of May 2009 the university suspended the Bachelor of Music Theatre and Puppetry courses at the college and there were fears they may not return under the new curriculum. New dean Sharman Pretty outlined drastic changes under the plan for the college in early April 2009. As a result, it is now being called into question whether the university have upheld that agreement, staff at the college responded to the changes, claiming the university did not value vocational arts training, and voicing fears over the future of quality training at the VCA. Melbourne University has 12 residential colleges in total, seven of which are located in an arc around the oval at the northern edge of the campus. The other five are located outside of university grounds, the residential colleges aim to provide accommodation and holistic education experience to university students. Several of the earliest campus buildings, such as the Old Quadrangle and Baldwin Spencer buildings, the new Wilson Hall replaced the original building which was destroyed by fire
11.
NASA
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29,1958, disestablishing NASAs predecessor, the new agency became operational on October 1,1958. Since that time, most US space exploration efforts have led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. NASA shares data with various national and international such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite. Since 2011, NASA has been criticized for low cost efficiency, from 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch a satellite for the International Geophysical Year. An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard, after the Soviet launch of the worlds first artificial satellite on October 4,1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. This led to an agreement that a new federal agency based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to develop technology for military application. On July 29,1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, a NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA, earlier research efforts within the US Air Force and many of ARPAs early space programs were also transferred to NASA. In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA has conducted many manned and unmanned spaceflight programs throughout its history. Some missions include both manned and unmanned aspects, such as the Galileo probe, which was deployed by astronauts in Earth orbit before being sent unmanned to Jupiter, the experimental rocket-powered aircraft programs started by NACA were extended by NASA as support for manned spaceflight. This was followed by a space capsule program, and in turn by a two-man capsule program. This goal was met in 1969 by the Apollo program, however, reduction of the perceived threat and changing political priorities almost immediately caused the termination of most of these plans. NASA turned its attention to an Apollo-derived temporary space laboratory, to date, NASA has launched a total of 166 manned space missions on rockets, and thirteen X-15 rocket flights above the USAF definition of spaceflight altitude,260,000 feet. The X-15 was an NACA experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force, the design featured a slender fuselage with fairings along the side containing fuel and early computerized control systems
12.
Moon rock
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Moon rock or lunar rock is rock that is found on the Earths moon, or lunar material collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon. During the six Apollo landing missions,2,415 samples weighing 380.96 kilograms were collected, three Luna spacecraft returned with 326 grams of samples. Since 1980, over 120 lunar meteorites representing about 60 different meteorite fall events have been collected on Earth, with a mass of over 48 kilograms. Rocks from the Moon have been measured by radiometric dating techniques and they range in age from about 3.16 billion years old for the basaltic samples derived from the lunar maria, up to about 4.44 billion years old for rocks derived from the highlands. Based on the age dating technique of crater counting, the youngest basaltic eruptions are believed to have occurred about 1.2 billion years ago, in contrast, the oldest ages of rocks from the Earth are between 3.8 and 4.28 billion years old. Almost all lunar rocks are depleted in volatiles and are lacking in hydrated minerals common in Earth rocks. In some regards, lunar rocks are related to Earths rocks in their isotopic composition of the element oxygen. The Apollo moon rocks were collected using a variety of tools, including hammers, rakes, scoops, tongs, most were photographed prior to collection to record the condition in which they were found. They were placed inside sample bags and then a Special Environmental Sample Container for return to the Earth to protect them from contamination, in contrast to the Earth, large portions of the lunar crust appear to be composed of rocks with high concentrations of the mineral anorthite. The mare basalts have relatively high iron values, furthermore, some of the mare basalts have very high levels of titanium. The main repository for the Apollo Moon rocks is the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, for safe keeping, there is also a smaller collection stored at White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Most of the rocks are stored in nitrogen to keep free of moisture. They are only handled indirectly, using special tools, Moon rocks collected during the course of lunar exploration are currently considered priceless. In 2002, a safe, containing samples of lunar. The samples were recovered, in 2003, during the court case, naturally transported Moon rocks, although expensive, are widely sold and traded among private collectors. In 1970, US president Richard Nixon gave presentation samples of Moon rock brought back by Apollo 11 as gifts to 135 countries and 50 US states. Composed of many fragments, of sizes, and many shapes, probably from all parts of the Moon, perhaps billions of years old. This rock was later labeled sample 70017, president Nixon ordered the distribution of fragments of the rock to 135 foreign heads of state and the 50 U. S. states
