By David Finnigan

I’ve been crouched on the internet all morning listening to the gentle crackle of radio static between NASA Headquarters and the Apollo 11 mission.

Occasionally the fuzz is interrupted by Apollo’s astronauts discussing the merits of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a strangely soothing sound yet, in just 59 hours, the Lunar Module will descend to the surface of the Moon.

Lunchtime on Apollo 11. Image: NASA

Yes, it’s 2009, and what’s going on is this: I have a window of my browser tuned to We Choose The Moon, the JFK Presidential Library’s interactive website recreating Apollo 11’s lunar mission, minute by minute, with archival audio, video, photos and “real-time” transmissions. Everything is dated 40 years to the minute after the actual 1969 event, with touchdown scheduled for July 20, 2009.

With the moondust barely settled, in August NASA astronaut Megan McArthur arrives on Australian soil in August.

Megan McArthur. Image: NASA

With a background as an Oceanographer with the Scripps Institute leading diving operations during sea-floor instrument deployments and sediment-sample collections, McArthur was appointed as a NASA mission specialist in 2002. In May this year  McArthur embarked on the fifth and final servicing mission for the 19-year-old Hubble Space Telescope. McArthur was responsible for the fragile operation of the robotic arm to capture the Telescope and then release it again once  repairs were complete.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a handsome animal. Image: NASA

McArthur will be visiting Australia as one of National Science Week’s Tour Guests, along with Theoretical Physicist Lawrence Krauss, Palaeontologist Scott Sampson and Environmentalist Tanya Ha. For more information about the Tour Guests and their itineraries, visit the Science Week website.

But this blog post has one obvious gaping hole. We’ve covered the historic Apollo 11 mission and announced the tour of an active NASA astronaut. Now for an interactive website in which you can upload your face and breakdance on the Moon in a full space suit. Thank you, Space Your Face for plugging this gap.

Space Your Face: You’re welcome, David.

Tags: Apollo 11, astronauts, Hubble, Megan McArthur, NASA, Tour Guests

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