Moon
Tag archives for Moon
L-O-L-A, LOLA
Posted by Claire L. Evans on January 22, 2013 
Before the invention of computer flight simulators, engineers at NASA needed a way to help astronauts visualize landing on the moon. So they built LOLA, or Lunar Orbit and Landing Approach, at Langley Space Center: a system of massive glowing murals and scale model-orbs criss-crossed with ribbons of track. In total darkness, pilots would ride…
Mona Laser
Posted by Claire L. Evans on January 20, 2013 
The cultural critic Walter Benjamin, in his seminal 1936 essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, argued that the “aura” of a work of art, that sense of special awe and reverence we feel, being in its presence, isn’t inherent to art itself. Rather, it’s a side-effect of its exclusivity, restricted…
Footprints on the Moon
Posted by Claire L. Evans on August 26, 2012 
Yesterday we lost Neil Armstrong, an accidental hero, thrust by fate onto a rock in the sky. Many dreamt of walking on the moon before he did, and a few men did after him. He happened to be the first. Hopefully many more men, and women too, will echo his iconic footsteps in the future.…
