The 50^th anniversary of the moon landing is an exciting milestone of space exploration! Our University archivist David McCartney has written about how Iowa research contributed to the safe landing of the astronauts on the moon! James Van Allen’s discovery of the radiation belts meant that the necessary calculations were done to transport the astronauts safely through these belts. 

A wealth of links can give you more information about the moon landing, from its historical background to the scientific advances that we gained from the Apollo 11 mission. Thank you to Kai Weatherman for gathering this list of links! 

• In this Astronomy July Special Issue, find out about the women of Apollo, research into moon rocks, and download a free ebookcalled Project Apollo: Reaching for the Moon: http://www.astronomy.com/bonus/apollo_home 
• Read and listen to reports on Apollo from NPR! https://www.npr.org/series/738145345/apollo-11-50th-anniversary-coverage
• Check out the collection of photos of the moon landing from the New York Times! https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/science/apollo-11-moon-landing-photos.html and a host of other moon related articles  
• Watch the PBS American Experience “Chasing the Moon”: https://www.pbs.org/video/chasing-the-moon-part-1-kpyzvq/and explore the interactive feature: https://ctm.americanexperience.org/ 
• In Nature, read about the history of the moon landing and possibilities for future lunar research: https://www.nature.com/collections/bfhghadfcc
• Including Moon on the mind: two millennia of lunar literature: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02090-wand Propulsive reading: books on the Moon: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02089-3 

After looking back at Apollo 11, you might wonder, what has recently developed in Iowa space research? 

• MAVEN explores the hydrogen cycle on Mars 
• The Parker Solar Probe takes measurements of the sun’s outer layer 
• Development of a ring core for future space research  
• HaloSat measures matter found around the Milky Way 
• Finally, the University of Iowa recently won a $115 million grant from NASA! This will allow us to study the magnetic fields between the sun and Earth.