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Danny Robb

@inverting-vision.bsky.social
601 followers 780 following 237 posts

Writing about history of science, exploration, and technology. Interested in photography + robotics in lunar and planetary science, oceanography, cryosphere. Work in JSTOR Daily, Aeon, Atlas Obscura, The Space Review. History Blog: invertingvision.com

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Reposted by Danny Robb
Dwayne Day @kennen11.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I did a quick trip to the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum to see a new photography collection and talk by Andy Saunders, who remastered the photos. Really fascinating on a number of levels. There is data in the photos we have not seen before, and that can change our understanding of them.
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Brandon Haber @malderi.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I really love spacecraft photos with structure in the frame. Makes it seem so much more real.
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Daniella M. @farsouthhistory.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Only 2 more days to buy "Antarctic Materialities" with the 50% code McCa6648 #histsci #polar #Antarctica #envhist #musuems www.berghahnbooks.com/title/McCahe...
berghahnbooks.com
Antarctic Materialities | Berghahn Books
Independent Publishing since 1994
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Daniella M. @farsouthhistory.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Somehow I think us historians of science will have an older mean....But twice I have cited Alexander Dalrymple's "An historical collection of the several voyages and discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean (1771), and I think that in my academic writing, it is as old as my citations get #histsci
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Robert McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Interested to see everyone else's "oldest cited work," please post them in the replies!
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Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"Lamarck contributed a subtle yet crucial change of emphasis: these mountains weren’t just made from the remains of marine organisms...[they] were made by living things. The original source of the mountains was not dead organisms, but the incessant activity of living ones." -Jessica Riskin #HPS 🧪 🦑
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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
A rare book in my personal library, in fact it’s possibly the only copy that exists; virtually no footprint in book markets or public library databases: “A Compilation of Pertinent Data Concerning Priority Achievements for U.S.A. Unmanned (sic) Spacecraft” by NASA administrator Sigurd A. Sjoberg 🚀
A manual style book with a light blue green cover. “REQUEST FOR REGISTRATION OF FIRST
PRIORITY ACHIEVEMENTS FOR
UNITED STATES UNMANNED SPACE FLIGHT
INTERNATIONAL AERONAUTIC ASSOCIATION
UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE FEDERATION AERONAUTIQUE INTERNATIONALE
A Compilation of Pertinent Data
Concerning Priority Achievements for U.S.A.
Unmanned Spacecraft
Submitted To
National Aeronautic Association
Federation Aeronautique Internationale.”


#booksky #spaceflight #space #history 🗃️ #tech #techsky #spacesky
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Danny Robb @inverting-vision.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
In the 1930s, Hugo Benioff helped bring musical instruments and seismology into the electronic age. He invented the strain seismometer and electric violins, cellos, and pianos. Both efforts were part of the same intellectual project. #histSTM 🗃️ #seismology daily.jstor.org/what-does-an...
daily.jstor.org
What Does an Earthquake Sound Like? - JSTOR Daily
Seismologist Hugo Benioff spent decades turning seismic vibrations into signals he could study—and, eventually, hear.
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Emily Lakdawalla 🏳️‍⚧️ Uranus Expert @elakdawalla.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Two years ago I wrote an article about trans-Neptunian objects for Sky & Tel. This week I’ve been diving back in to the small bodies databases and there are quite a few updates — lots of things with new names, and quite a few newly discovered possibly round worlds
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Thony Christie @rmathematicus.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Danish astronomer, Ole Rømer, who used the Moons of Jupiter to determine the speed of light, was born 25 September 1644 #histsci thonyc.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/t...
thonyc.wordpress.com
The speed of light, a spin off from longitude research.
When I was growing up in the dim and distant twentieth century spin-off was one of the most frequently used buzz words in the public discussion of science and technology; a spin-off being an uninte…
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Danny Robb @inverting-vision.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
In the 1930s, Hugo Benioff helped bring musical instruments and seismology into the electronic age. He invented the strain seismometer and electric violins, cellos, and pianos. Both efforts were part of the same intellectual project. #histSTM 🗃️ #seismology daily.jstor.org/what-does-an...
daily.jstor.org
What Does an Earthquake Sound Like? - JSTOR Daily
Seismologist Hugo Benioff spent decades turning seismic vibrations into signals he could study—and, eventually, hear.
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The Space Review @thespacereview.com · 25/09/2026
In the early 1960s, the US Air Force launched nearly a dozen Samos satellites with varying designations. But what happened to one class of satellite, Samos E-3, that never launched? www.thespacereview.com/article/5318/1
thespacereview.com
To E-3 or not to E-3: the liminal Samos E-3 program
In the early 1960s, the US Air Force launched nearly a dozen Samos satellites with varying designations. Dwayne Day examines what happened to one class of satellite, Samos E-3, that never launched.
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Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Here's Tharp's map of the ocean floor— first of its kind—revealing the mid-Atlantic Ridge (photo is of a reproduction of Tharp's map given to me by my wonderful former PhD student @federicabocchi.bsky.social) Learn more about Tharp here: lamont.columbia.edu/news/marie-t... #WomenInSTEM #histsci ⚒️ 🌊🧪
Map THE FLOOR OF THE OCEANS
Based on Batlymetric studies by
Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp of tbe Lamont Doberty Geological Obseratory
Columbia Unisersity Palisades, New York, 10964
SUPPORTED BY THE UNITED STATES NAVY
OFFICE OF NAVAL RESEARCH
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Mark Marley @markmarley.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
As OREX formally closes shop at the end of this month, the science in that precious container goes on. Meanwhile the successor mission APEX heads on to Apophis.
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Daniel Pomarède @pomarede.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Three years ago on this day, September 24, 2023, the sample return capsule from the OSIRIS-REx mission touches down in the desert in Utah. The sample inside was collected from the asteroid Bennu three years before. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber flic.kr/p/2qisTV8 🔭🧪
The sample return capsule from NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission is seen shortly after touching down in the desert, Sunday, September 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. The sample inside was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

 

OSIRIS-REx was the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. After dropping off the sample, the spacecraft was renamed OSIRIS-APEX and sent on a new mission to explore asteroid Apophis in 2029.
Credit text: NASA on the Commons
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Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
In today's AIP History Weekly Edition, AIP grant recipient James Lockridge offers a look at the history behind photos he is currently digitizing at NSF NOIRLab in Arizona. This program is an unusual example of a ground-based observatory venturing into rocket-based space research.
aip.org
The Kitt Peak National Observatory rocket program, 1959–1973
AIP History Weekly Edition: September 18, 2026
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Mark Marley @markmarley.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
If the right people are listening we need a crater named for Ewen Whitaker! He found the Surveyor crater and the Apollo upper stage craters and mapped the moon with Kuiper.
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Danny Robb @inverting-vision.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Wild "Officially named McGetchin after pioneering lunar scientist Tom McGetchin, the crater formed on the Moon’s eastern edge sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024, after a comet or asteroid the size of a three- to six-story building hit the surface."
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Emily Lakdawalla 🏳️‍⚧️ Uranus Expert @elakdawalla.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
In my inbox today: a couple press releases about the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission getting ready for Mercury orbit arrival in November! Super exciting -- only the second Mercury orbiter ever!
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Danny Robb @inverting-vision.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
NASA officials in the early 60s thought scientists got too presumptuous when giving advice to the agency. To the scientists, however, a lot was at stake. 🗃️ invertingvision.com/2026/09/15/t...
Porter speculated about why the scientists would have approached the proceedings in this way: “…many individual scientists feel responsibile(sic), in a curious kind of way, for NASA; they feel that the society at large may hold them responsible as a group for the operations of science in space, as they feel that the society at large holds science responsible for the atomic bomb and the things that followed it.”36
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Dwayne Day @kennen11.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
PARCAE ocean surveillance satellites.
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Danny Robb @inverting-vision.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
NASA officials in the early 60s thought scientists got too presumptuous when giving advice to the agency. To the scientists, however, a lot was at stake. 🗃️ invertingvision.com/2026/09/15/t...
Porter speculated about why the scientists would have approached the proceedings in this way: “…many individual scientists feel responsibile(sic), in a curious kind of way, for NASA; they feel that the society at large may hold them responsible as a group for the operations of science in space, as they feel that the society at large holds science responsible for the atomic bomb and the things that followed it.”36
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Jack El-Hai @jackelhai.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Today's #history article pick from Damn History, my free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @inverting-vision.bsky.social & @thespacereview.com! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe thespacereview.com/article/5308/1
thespacereview.com
The 1962 Iowa Summer Study
In the summer of 1962, scientists gathered at the University of Iowa to discuss the future of space research. Danny Robb examines the far-reaching impacts of that little-known event.
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The Space Review @thespacereview.com · 12/09/2026
In the summer of 1962, scientists gathered at the University of Iowa to discuss the future of space research. An examination of the far-reaching impacts of that little-known event. www.thespacereview.com/article/5308/1
thespacereview.com
The 1962 Iowa Summer Study
In the summer of 1962, scientists gathered at the University of Iowa to discuss the future of space research. Danny Robb examines the far-reaching impacts of that little-known event.
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Dr Anna Clark @drannaclark.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Described by Darwin as ‘the greatest scientific explorer', Alexander von Humboldt, Prussian naturalist, pioneer of biogeography, ‘father of ecology’ born #OTD 1769. In his portrait (by Stieler 1843), he holds manuscript of his magnum opus ‘Kosmos’ (pub. 1845-1862). Schloss Charlottenhof, Potsdam
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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
#MondayNetwork - a regular appeal to any #skystorians with intersecting interests: food /nutrition, surviving climate change, environmental determinism, race science, exploration, acclimatisation & physiology, cit sci, Indigenous knowledge, & related topics to say hi or share link to your work! 🗃️
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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Plate XIII from School Atlas of Astronomy by Scottish geographer Alexander Keith Johnston. It depicts the 1866 Leonid meteor storm including tracks observed at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, a diagram showing observation frequency per minute, and spectra of the meteors. 🔭
An astronomical print with a blue background divided into three quadrants. The top half is the white meteor tracks, the bottom jag is divided ingj the frequency diagram on the left and spectra diagrams in the right ight.


#astronomy
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Carolyn Porco @carolynporco.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Isn't this pic a stunner!? We at CICLOPS made a video of this flyby that blew everyone away. Check it out! ciclops.org/s3.amazonaws... Caption: ciclops.org/view/3803/Fl... Enjoy!! 🧪📰🛰️
ciclops.org
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Danny Robb @inverting-vision.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This is a great thread! Wrote a post a while back on the Dana Expeditions, which mapped the distribution of eel larvae in the 1920s. Oddly, a bunch of the funding came from the Carlsberg Foundation (yes, like the beer), which is celebrating its 150th. #histsci invertingvision.com/2023/01/23/s...
invertingvision.com
Studying Eels and the Ocean on Beer Money: The Dana Expeditions
In the rivers of Great Britain and western Europe lives an eel that was once at the center of a great scientific mystery. The European eel was frequently caught in nets or farmed in fisheries for c…
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David S. F. Portree @dsfpspacefl1ght.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I've seen articles that describe the same MSR challenges going back more than 50 yrs. MSR is hard enough that you want strip it down to the basic challenges. So, grab a sample, launch it, grab the sample capsule in orbit, inject it back to Earth, reenter, retrieve, analyze. No rover, no caching.
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Danny Robb @inverting-vision.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
In 1962, science's role in NASA/Apollo was uncertain. That June, scientists and officials met for a massive summer study. Among them were Van Allen, Kuiper, Shoemaker, Spitzer, Whipple, Drake, and Sagan. I wrote about the study for The Space Review: thespacereview.com/article/5308/1 #histsci 🗃️🔭
thespacereview.com
The 1962 Iowa Summer Study
In the summer of 1962, scientists gathered at the University of Iowa to discuss the future of space research. Danny Robb examines the far-reaching impacts of that little-known event.
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Bill Keel @ngc3314.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Almost 1st thing done in Live Astronomy during @dragoncon.org last Friday night - from SARA 1m Kapteyn telescope at La Palma, series of 30s exposures of Nancy Grace Roman space telescope transiting the faint galaxy KOS 222659.3-215011 in Aquarius. (Range 636,000 km)
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Danny Robb @inverting-vision.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
In 1962, science's role in NASA/Apollo was uncertain. That June, scientists and officials met for a massive summer study. Among them were Van Allen, Kuiper, Shoemaker, Spitzer, Whipple, Drake, and Sagan. I wrote about the study for The Space Review: thespacereview.com/article/5308/1 #histsci 🗃️🔭
thespacereview.com
The 1962 Iowa Summer Study
In the summer of 1962, scientists gathered at the University of Iowa to discuss the future of space research. Danny Robb examines the far-reaching impacts of that little-known event.
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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
“TRICERATOPS FAELLATUS, Marsh” Illustration in my 1907 first edition copy of “The Ceratopsia” by John B. Hatcher. The descriptions were based on the preliminary studies of paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh who named the genus, along with 32 additional dinosaur genera and 12 dinosaur families #sciart
A detailed illustration of a triceratops skull I profile facing left. The page the illustration is on folds out to accommodate its large size. 



#paleo #paleosky 🦖 #fossilfriday
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Patrick McGovern @planetpatman.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
"To a Rocky Moon" by Don Wilhelms is also available for download from the @lpitoday.bsky.social "Digitized Books" website section! www.lpi.usra.edu/publications...
lpi.usra.edu
To a Rocky Moon: A Geologist’s History of Lunar Exploration
Written by Don E. Wilhelms, 1993 The Arizona Board of Regents. Reprinted by permission of the University of Arizona Press
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David S. F. Portree @dsfpspacefl1ght.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Don Wilhelms' wonderful 1993 memoir TO A ROCKY MOON: A GEOLOGIST'S HISTORY OF LUNAR EXPLORATION (U of AZ Press) provides the best overview of the Apollo site selection process I've found so far. Plus it's funny.
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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
An illustration from another scarce 📕 in my personal library, “Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York.” The society was formed in 1814 to promote natural history, science, & literature, but had a short life because of competition from the future NY Academy of Sciences. 🧪
An illustration for the treatise “Fishes of New-York” by Samuel Mitchill. They are depicted in profile and engraved by Alexander Anderson. The species listed are 
1. Spinous Ophidium.
2. Cirrhous Ophidium.
3. Cryptous Broadshiner.
4. Codling.
5. Dotted Cod.
6. Fringed Blenny.
7. Large-lipped Blenny.
8. Variegated Goby.
9. Bristly Dory.
10. Two-spined Stickleback.
11. Four-spined Stickleback.


#histsci #booksky #rarebooks
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Luke Dones @lukemeister.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
From lunar-list: Legendary USGS scientist Don Wilhelms passed away yesterday at age 96. 🌖 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Wil...
Cover of The Geologic History of the Moon by Don E. Wilhelms, John F. McCauley, and Newell J. Trask.
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Sarah Hörst @planetdr.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Nice Dragonfly update including the recently approved name of the dune field where we will land We’re going to Ahmakiq undae. go.nasa.gov/4zTQdAA
go.nasa.gov
NASA’s Dragonfly Gets Wired Up While Titan Landing Area Is Named - NASA Science
Peeking into the clean room at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, it might be one of the first things you notice about
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David Burbach 🇺🇸 @dburbach.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
From the Moon. Primordial anorthosite, the moon's first crust as its magma ocean cooled > 4.25 billion years ago. Collected by Apollo 16
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David S. F. Portree @dsfpspacefl1ght.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
"Think big." That's what NASA Administrator Tom Paine told his NASA Center Directors in 1969-1970. The result: the Integrated Program Plan. It's one of the best-known examples of NASA advance planning, but it proved a terrible failure of judgment. spaceflighthistory.blogspot.com/2016/01/thin...
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 01/09/2026
New way to form the Moon just dropped, featuring new modelling by yours truly: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
swri.org
SwRI-led modeling identifies new scenarios for Moon formation | Southwest Research Institute
Geologically realistic modeling changes how a giant collision forms the Earth-Moon system
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Kevin M. Gill @kevinmgill.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Large dust devil near the Mars Perseverance Rover on Sol 1966 (yestersol). NASA/JPL-Caltech/Kevin M. Gill
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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
AIP: Nancy Grace Roman Papers now online www.aip.org/library/ex-l... "correspondence, memorabilia, and meaningful ephemera from throughout her life and career"
aip.org
Nancy Grace Roman Papers now online
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David S. F. Portree @dsfpspacefl1ght.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I was surprised by the level of interest in the post below. Here's the document I'm writing about. I found the chart at upper left to be nearly impenetrable. The table I scribbled up actually includes more info than the chart. My goal is to describe the lunar base program using just plain words.
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David S. F. Portree @dsfpspacefl1ght.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I spent the day sorting out bits of a lunar base transportation model scattered across a 1987 NASA Langley/KSC/Lewis study of lunar base impacts on the dual-keel space station. This crude chart I made sums up ~25 pages of the 274-pg study. It's like doing a puzzle. Fun stuff, I say unironically.
scribbles
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Danny Robb @inverting-vision.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Thinking about subglacial lakes today, and was interested in any recent/planned robotic exploration. Found the TRIPLE project, which did some testing in Sweden in April, and has planned tests for Antarctica later this year. Any other projects like this? triple-project.net/successful-n...
triple-project.net
Successful nanoAUV Field Test Under Ice in Sweden – TRIPLE
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Danny Robb @inverting-vision.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Really cool stuff: “'When the individual parts of the flight model were lying in front of me, it really hit me that I was holding components that would fly into space and explore it,' says Monica Ebert."
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Danny Robb @inverting-vision.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Thinking about subglacial lakes today, and was interested in any recent/planned robotic exploration. Found the TRIPLE project, which did some testing in Sweden in April, and has planned tests for Antarctica later this year. Any other projects like this? triple-project.net/successful-n...
triple-project.net
Successful nanoAUV Field Test Under Ice in Sweden – TRIPLE
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Daniel Pomarède @pomarede.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
in case you missed it: Roman spacecraft separation #Roman 🔭🧪
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