KNAU update for July 19 — KNAU eNews: Moon Maps, Chaco Canyon Bill, and More

The moon may be 238,900 miles away, but Flagstaff has a much closer connection to the lunar body. That’s because a scientist who lived here decades ago was recruited by NASA to become an astronaut in the Apollo space program. Learn more at KNAU.org.

Today’s Poetry Friday segment is about a father, a child…and the moon. Jim Skinner is a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s astrogeology lab in Flagstaff. And his 9-year-old son, Leif, thinks that’s pretty cool. They chart moon maps together and stargaze from their back deck. Learn more at KNAU.org.

The House natural resources panel on Wednesday approved the Democrat-sponsored bill. Tribes and environmentalists have been advocating for more protections beyond the boundaries of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, saying the region is full of culturally significant sites. Learn more at KNAU.org.

Every astronaut who walked on the moon first came to Flagstaff to train. That’s partly because it was home to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Branch of Astrogeology, founded by geologist Gene Shoemaker. Shoemaker’s secretary, Jody Swann, remembers what it was like to work there during the heyday of Apollo…and mapmaker Ray Jordan recalls the Surveyor missions, unmanned spacecraft that went to the moon just before Apollo. Learn more at KNAU.org.

In the mid-19th century, Americans developed a frenzied culinary affair with turtle. Almost overnight, the Diamondback Terrapin — a small coastal turtle found from Cape Cod to the Gulf Coast — went from subsistence food to luxury cuisine, showing up on menus from the White House to Gold Rush-era San Francisco.The consequences were savage. Learn more at KNAU.org.