December 7th, 2019
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A comprehensive and easy to follow visual guide of minerals that have been reported in lunar samples is now available. One of the aims of making this book freely available to the worldwide community is to support the research of current and future generations of planetary mineralogists, reports Andy Tindle and Mahesh Anand. Anand is […]
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A symbolic event on the Moon is being proposed, timed for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, either in 2024 in Paris (France) or in 2026 in Milan-Cortina (Italy). The Moon Village Association (MVA) discussed the concept during the 3rd Moon Village Workshop and Symposium held December 5-8 in Japan. “This proposition is considered […]
The Moon’s farside is an attention grabber…for many reasons. For good measure, enter the Farside Array for Radio Science Investigations of the Dark ages and Exoplanets, shortened to enlightened shorthand: FARSIDE. This concept is to place a low radio frequency interferometric array on the farside of the Moon, blueprinted by Jack Burns of the University […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now carrying out Sol 2606 tasks. The Mars robot’s science team recently faced some tough decisions reports Scott Guzewich, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The geologists had to choose between investigating a plethora of interesting rock targets in the workspace…or limit the […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now closing out Sol 2604 duties. Ashley Stroupe, Mission Operations Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, reports on the robot’s activities under a 2-sol plan that involved working the rover’s robotic arm and also a drive. Use of the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer […]
India’s Vikram lunar lander crash site has been found. Its impact point and debris field imaged after the craft augured into the Moon on September 7th India time (September 6 in the United States). Spotting the crash site was NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), and the craft’s high-powered LROC system. The Chandrayaan 2 Vikram lander […]
China’s large radio telescope is wrapping up testing and commissioning work – an effort that took place over the past three years. One of its assignments is the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), among other scientific tasks. Located in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) began its operation in September 2016. […]
Alcohol in Space – Past, Present and Future by Chris Carberry, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina; 2019; softcover, 217 pages, $29.95. Just in time for cheering on the holidays! This book is a genuine treasure, focused on the making and consumption of alcohol throughout history…with a new upshot – the growing role […]
An appraisal of China’s commercial space sector provides a review of the current landscape of China’s nascent but growing commercial space sector. The report — Evaluation of China’s Commercial Space Sector – has been issued by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) Science and Technology Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Key questions The assessment uses […]
Japan’s Hayabusa2 asteroid explorer is homeward bound, a cruise phase back to Earth nudged by ion engine propulsion. Hayabusa2 operators report that an ion engine test operation has ended. “This trial run has not had any problems and the preparations for the ion engine operation during the cruise phase of the return journey […]
