Meteor Crater Blog

Hello-Kim here. On May 5th 1961 Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the 1st American in space. His flight ushered in a new era that eventually brought us the Apollo programs and put men on the Moon. As you may know from other posts on this blog, the Apollo astronauts trained here at Meteor Crater. Like many other astronauts Alan Shepard was a military man. He served in the Navy and retired as a Rear Admiral. On this Memorial Day Weekend, we wish to give thanks to all those who have served.

Hi – Kim here. As mentioned in this blog, we are currently building a new admissions area. As you can see, it’s moving right along. We are open during construction and soon we will be switching to our summer hours. Starting May 24^th our hours will be 7 am to 7pm. We hope to see you here at Meteor Crater this summer.

Hi – Kim here. We can see lots of impact strikes on our Earth, our Moon and the other bodies in our solar system. However only two crater forming impacts occurred during recorded history. One happened this month on May 13, 1972 when a meteorite struck our Moon. When you come to visit, be sure to see the display that tells you about it.

It has been about a year since our trip out west and my wife and I think that the crater was the coolest thing. Freddy, our guide made it a very enjoyable experience. Thanks.

Hi – Kim here. Today the Tucson British Car Registry out of Tucson, Arizona came by to visit us. Their tour this year is called La Carrera PanArizona. As you can see they brought their cars with them! You just never know what you will see here at Meteor Crater. It was lots of fun having them here.

Hi- Kim here. Tomorrow will be the birthday of Dr. Eugene Shoemaker. As you may remember we mentioned him last year in this blog. A NASA website says, “Gene Shoemaker and Carolyn Spellman were married in 1951. A visit to Arizona's Meteor Crater the following year began to set Gene toward the view that both it and the lunar craters were due to asteroidal impacts.” We thank Dr. Shoemaker for his great work. You can read more about him at: http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/news81.html

Hi – Kim here. This month our ‘Hot Off the Press” is an article entitled “Collision Course? A Comet Heads for Mars.” Soon Mars might be come a very different world. The article tells us - "There is a small but non-negligible chance that Comet 2013 A1 will strike Mars next year in October of 2014," says Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at JPL.  "Current solutions put the odds of impact at 1 in 2000." Astronomers around the world are keeping an eye on this comet so stay tuned for updates. You can read the article at: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/26mar_marscomet/

Hi – Kim here. We now have two movies playing in our theater. We still have “Impact!” which was mentioned earlier in this blog. And we also have “B612: Protecting Humanity from Asteroid Impacts.” Among other things, the movie tells about the B612 project’s plan to launch and operate a privately funded telescope that will discover, track and map asteroids whose orbits approach Earth and threaten humanity. Be sure to catch it when you come to see us.

Meteor Crater is surrounded by the Bar T Bar Ranch. It’s spring and the calves are out exploring the world. Here is a picture two of them. How cute! When you come to visit be sure to listen to the signs and watch out for them (and their Mamas too).

Here is a picture of Brad presenting them with the check. The first responders do such a wonderful job and we were happy we could help out.