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Moon Mountain Named After Melba Roy Mouton, NASA Mathematician

Black and white photo of Melba Roy Mouton (1929-1990), a mathematician and computer programmer in NASA’s Trajectory and Geodynamics Division, acting as the Assistant Chief of Research Programs. Credit: NASA

Award-winning NASA mathematician and computer programmer Melba Mouton is being honored with the naming of a mountain at the Moon’s South Pole. Mouton joined NASA in 1959, just a year after the space agency was established. She was the leader of a team that coded computer programs to calculate spacecraft trajectories and locations. Her contributions were instrumental to landing the first humans on the Moon.

She also led the group of "human computers," who tracked the Echo satellites. Roy and her team's computations helped produce the orbital element timetables by which millions could view the satellite from Earth as it passed overhead.

The towering lunar landmark now known as “Mons Mouton” stands at a height greater than 19,000 feet. The mountain was created over billions of years by lunar impacts. Huge craters lie around its base—some with cliff-like edges that descend into areas of permanent darkness. Mons Mouton is the future landing site of VIPER, our first robotic Moon rover. The rover will explore the Moon’s surface to help gain a better understanding of the origin of lunar water. Here are things to know:

Mons Mouton is a wide, relatively flat-topped mountain that stretches roughly 2,700 square miles

A slow zoom toward a large, flat-topped mountain on the Moon. The gif animation brings us ever-closer to wide topped lunar mountain surrounded by craters that cast retreating shadow as the light changes, revealing more of the feature as the animation continues. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

The mountain is the highest spot at the Moon’s South Pole and can be seen from Earth with a telescope

A gif animation shows a slow pan down at the Moon’s South Pole reveals Earth in the distance against the black backdrop of space. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

Our VIPER Moon rover will explore Mons Mouton over the course of its 100-day mission

A gif animation circles a rendering of VIPER, NASA’s first robotic Moon rover as it moves forward at the Moon’s South Pole. The Sun illuminates the rover’s silhouette against the black backdrop of space as it leaves tracks in its wake Credit: NASA/Daniel Rutter

VIPER will map potential resources which will help inform future landing sites under our Artemis program

A gif animation pans across a lunar South Pole landscape as the VIPER Moon rover makes its way down the sloping side of a feature on the Moon. Credit: NASA/Daniel Rutter/Ernie Wright

The VIPER mission is managed by our Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The approximately 1,000-pound rover will be delivered to the Moon by a commercial vendor as part of our Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, delivering science and technology payloads to and near the Moon.

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rainyflowerfun

3 years ago

Wish I were there.

㋡🥀

Sessizliğim, Dünya,ya gösterdiğim en Zarif tepkiydi..

Alıntı..

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rainyflowerfun

3 years ago

w-hen I was young, spelling was a big enjoyment for me. She's my hero.

Today in Black Excellence: Zaila Avant-garde—the first Black American to win the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee in almost 100 years, and she’s only 14!

“For spelling, I usually try to do about 13,000 words [per day], and that usually takes about seven hours or so…we don’t let it go way too overboard, of course. I’ve got school and basketball to do.”

—Zaila Avant-garde

Just how big is her achievement?

Enormous: She has only been competing for two years, and she beat 11 other finalists. And then there are the words she had to spell in the bee, like “querimonious” and “solidungulate” (!).

Get your dictionaries out, people, because we have no idea what these words mean either. Her victory was witnessed by the First Lady, Jill Biden, and celebrated on social media by former President Barack Obama and Bernice King, the youngest daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Did we mention she also won $50,000?

Zalia’s victory makes her the first African American to win the iconic competition. She hopes to inspire other young Black students to do well in the Scripps Spelling Bee, describing the competition as a “gate-opener to being interested in education.”

Talk about Black Girl Magic—and not bad for a girl who turns 15 today. 🎉Happy Birthday, Zaila!🎉

Turns out spelling is not her only talent…

Zaila is a teenage basketball prodigy. She holds three Guinness World Records for dribbling multiple balls at once, appeared in an advertisement with NBA megastar Stephen Curry, and aspires to become a pro. She is also an elite unicyclist and can juggle and cycle simultaneously.

However, when it comes to her future, Zaila is sensible and considering several careers: working at NASA, coaching in the NBA, or playing in the WNBA. Then there is always what she describes as a “side interest:” neuroscience.

Original portrait by Tumblr Creatr @novva

Quote: “Zaila Avant-Garde is such an inspiration to me! It's amazing to know that someone who looks like me could accomplish so much at such a young age. It was an honor to illustrate her many achievements for BHM, and from one spelling bee champ to another, I hope she keeps on inspiring people!”

—@novva

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rainyflowerfun

2 years ago

very nice. For more information, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitamaebune