September 20th, 2017
Author: 
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is carrying out science duties in Sol 1822. It’s “onward and upward” for the robot, reports Lauren Edgar, a planetary geologist; at the USGS in Flagstaff, Arizona. On Sol 1821, Curiosity successfully completed contact science activities at “Pennessewassee” and “Passadumkeag,” Edgar notes. “Perhaps in an effort to get to more […]
Posted in 
The European Space Agency (ESA) has issued an announcement of opportunity centered on the advancement, maturation and demonstration of lunar In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technologies. ESA wants to demonstrate critical technologies in the end-to-end ISRU process chain for production of oxygen at the lunar surface. Also they want harness expertise to characterize the ISRU […]
The ability to make Mars on Earth is being accomplished by a specialized simulation chamber looking into the prospect of detecting life on the Red Planet. Work is underway to investigate how hitchhiking microorganisms on spacecraft might survive, grow, and possibly adapt to the harsh environmental conditions on Mars. Enigmatic features New research […]
What do we need to know to mine an asteroid? To make this concept a reality there’s need to increase knowledge regarding the very diverse population of accessible Near Earth Asteroids (NEA). Last year, dozens of the world’s leading asteroid scientists and asteroid mining entrepreneurs came together in Luxembourg to discuss key questions and […]
Question: “As you may know, a number of private companies are experimenting with individual space travel. If you could afford it, how likely would you be to travel to space?” Taking a new public pulse regarding this question is a Sept. 7-11 Morning Consult/POLITICO poll. Explains Edward Graham, a reporter at Morning Consult covering tech […]
They are dubbed “vibrotactile boots.” New work at Draper Labs in Cambridge, Massachusetts makes use of sensors at the front of the boot to detect obstacles and alert the user through a combination of visual signals and vibrations applied to the feet. Alison Gibson of Draper says her “booted” system of knowing the position of your […]
There is increasing discussion and debate concerning the exploration of Mars and how best to search for past/present life on the Red Planet. One element of the deliberation is what constitutes a “Special Region” on Mars. A Special Region is a region classified by the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) where terrestrial organisms might readily […]
A recent article in the journal Astrobiology has caused a dust-up about Mars. Titled “Searching for Life on Mars Before It Is Too Late” the article makes the case that planetary protection policies as we conceive them today “will no longer be valid as human arrival will inevitably increase the introduction of terrestrial and organic […]
An 8-month Mars analog isolation mission is wrapping up today at the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) facility at the Mauna Loa volcano, Big Island, Hawaii. The six-person crew that began the simulated mission in January is comprised of four men and two women. The purpose of the mock Mars mission — […]
China’s Tianzhou-1 resupply craft has backed away from the uncrewed Tiangong-2 space lab. The Sunday departure at 4:15 p.m. (Beijing time) had the cargo ship move to an orbit of roughly 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth. The Chinese Xinhua news agency reports that Tianzhou-1 will continue to carry out experiments before nose-diving into Earth’s […]
