Viranga Perera

Lecture 15 of the Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration course, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University. In this lecture, I discuss water on the Moon and plans for future human exploration.

Lecture 14 of the Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration course, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University. In this lecture, I discuss Jules Verne’s book From the Earth to the Moon (1865).

Lecture 13 of the Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration course, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University. In this lecture, I discuss the question: who owns the Moon? I go through the five United Nations Outer Space Treaties and propose that the concept of international waters and how the Antarctic continent is managed may help us ponder how to handle future human exploration of the Moon.

Lecture 12 of the Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration course, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University. In this lecture, I conclude discussion of the Cold War and the Space Race as they relate to the Moon.

Lecture 11 of the Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration course, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University. In this lecture, I continue discussing the Cold War and the Space Race as they relate to the Moon.

Lecture 10 of the Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration course, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University. In this lecture, I continue discussing the Cold War and the Space Race as they relate to the Moon.

Lecture 9 of the Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration course, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University. In this lecture, I discuss the Cold War and the Space Race as they relate to the Moon.

Lecture 8 of the Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration course, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University. In this lecture, I go into some details about rockets including different types of liquid-fueled rockets, the launch sequence of Apollo missions, and Pogo oscillations.

Lecture 7 of the Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration course, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University. This lecture is an introduction to rockets with an emphasis on the rockets that took people to the Moon.

Lecture 6 of the Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration course, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University. In this lecture, I discuss how the Moon solidified over time after it formed in a mostly molten state called the Lunar Magma Ocean.

Lecture 5 of the Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration course, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University. In this lecture, I discuss various Moon formation models including capture, co-accretion, fission, and the canonical giant impact model, along with several modified giant impact models.

Lecture 4 of the Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration course, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University. In this lecture, I make some connections between the Moon and religion. Topics include the Apollo 8 crew reading from the book of Genesis, the Apollo 8 lawsuit, Easter (Christianity), splitting of the Moon (Islam), Ramadan (Islam), Diwali (Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism & Buddhism), Vesak (Buddhism), Rosh Hashanah (Judaism), Mid-Autumn Festival, and the use of the lunar calendar.

Lecture 3 of the Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration course, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University. In this lecture, I try to give some historical context to Apollo 8's famous Earthrise picture by considering events that were taking place at the same time.

Lecture 2 of the Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration course, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University. Topic discussed in this lecture include the Jade Rabbit, Chang'e, Kaguya, Chandra, lunar phases and eclipses.

Introduction to the course Our Moon: From Imagination to Exploration, which I'm teaching this fall at Johns Hopkins University.