Scholastic Update articles from December 1992

Scholastic Update archives from December 1992

The lure of space. (includes related material) (Cover Story)
December 4, 1992... To tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out," a poet once wrote, "and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy." There is something about space that...

The great wide-open. (space exploration)
December 4, 1992... MERCURY Named for the swift messages of the gods in Roman mythology. Average distance from the sun: 36 million miles. One revolution around the sun: 88 Earth days. Temperature: -279 [degrees] to 801 [degrees] F. Number of moons: 0. The...

Quest for Mars. (searching for life on Mars)(includes related material)
December 4, 1992... Ever since people have looked up into the night sky, they have imagined - and feared - life on Mars. Visible from Earth with the naked eye, the planet's dusty surface is the color of dried blood. To the ancient Babylonians, it was home to the...

Is Mars made of gold? (NASA hopes to discover usable space)
December 4, 1992... Advocates of space flight say there's money to be made in the heavens. Others call such claims pie in the sky. When Christopher Columbus was trying to drum up financial support for his voyage to the New World, he didn't promise potential...

Are we lost in space? (United States must cooperate with global space exploration)
December 4, 1992... Sloppiness and tragic mistakes bring America's once-soaring space program back down to Earth. Two decades ago, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was revered for its successful missions to the moon, inspirational...

The haunting legacy of the Challenger. (space shuttle accident, January 28, 1986)
December 4, 1992... The morning of January 28, 1986, was cold and clear along the Florida coast, an encouraging sign that the space shuttle Challenger would finally lift off from Cape Canaveral after several frustrating weather delays. This mission was...

The Eagle has landed. (1969 United States lunar space mission)(includes related article)
December 4, 1992... Landing a man on the moon was the crowning achievement of the U.S. space program. But the mission's legacy is still in dispute. One billion people around the world watched on TV as a pair of heavy boots slowly descended a ladder. Below them...

The new space race. (international cooperation in space exploration)(includes related information)
December 4, 1992... Once the U.S. and the Soviets had space to themselves. Now everyone's off the ground. For 35 years, two countries, the United States and the Soviet Union, had the universe to themselves. Not anymore. Today, dozens of countries, as small as...

NASA to E.T.: phone us. (searching for outer-space aliens)(includes related article)
December 4, 1992... The U.S. space agency embarks on a search for alien life. UFO Lands at Elvis Mansion! Alien Backs Clinton! Texas Grandma Visited by E.T.! You can't buy a can of soup without seeing headlines like these at the supermarket checkout counter....

Close encounters. (books and films based on science fiction)
December 4, 1992... If and when humans land on Mars, they don't expect to find giant cities under glass, or tiny creatures zipping about in spaceships. Oh well, we can always hope. . . . In the meantime, we earthlings will continue, as we have for a century, to...

Whose universe is it, anyway? (predictions of future space exploration)
December 4, 1992... Scientists predict the future of space exploration and see everything from ski slopes on the moon to human colonies on Mars. Is the universe ours for the taking? Thirty years ago, it seemed like a wild fantasy when President John F....