Remember the Commander on the Forbidden Planet

Leslie Nielsen as Commander John J. Adams from "Forbidden Planet," 1956

The Powers of 10

On this historic date (10/10/10) I'd like to share with you a short work created by the Eames (Eameses?), namely the Powers of 10.

Basically, the Powers of Ten is a 1968 American documentary short film written and directed by Ray Eames and her husband, Charles Eames, depicting the relative scale of the Universe in factors of ten.

This film has been stuck in my mind since being wowed by it in my junior high school science class. Believe me, most of the filmfare we got in school was pretty dry stuff!

Visit the official website to learn more.

Colonies to the Moon

Though heated arguments still rage among rocket engineers, in their discussions of the future, as to whether or not colonies will be established on the moon, and how these colonies will be transported through space to the earth's satellite, the only elaborately detailed plan yet presented publicly on a scientific basis for this purpose is that advance by Dr. Wernher von Braun. He proposes three tremendous space ships weighing more than 4,300 tons each, merely for a six week stay on the moon in space ships similar to that pictured here.

From the book "Worlds in Space"
by Martin Caidin
illustration by Fred L. Wolff
(1954)

Pacific Rocket Society

Pacific Rocket Soc.

Date: June 1951
Photographer: Loomis Dean
From the photographers of LIFE magazine

Fashionable Moon Hat - 1956

bettmann - moon bridal hat - boston - 1956, originally uploaded by Foxtongue.

Straight out of "Moon Men from Mars" its the moon bridal hat for the open-minded....
the very open-minded.

X-1 and Crew

X-1Jack Russell/Chuck Yeager & addtl ground crew, originally uploaded by imjmr.

X-1, Jack Russell, Chuck Yeager & the ground crew stand underneather the mothership loaded and ready to go with the experimental X-1 rocket plane aka Glamorous Glennis.

Jack Russell was also Chuck Yeager's Crew Chief - pictured front and center.

Jack was a technical advisor for the movie "The Right Stuff." He even had a cameo role as the janitor who sawed the broom handle needed to close the hatch after Yeager broke his ribs.

V2 and Little Joe

V2 and Little Joe, originally uploaded by mikegrados.

White Sands Missile Range static display of the twisted remains of a flown V-2 and in the background a rocket configured to test an Apollo capsule configuration, nicnamed "Little Joe."