June 22nd, 2017
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is performing Sol 1734 duties and “gazing longingly towards Vera Rubin Ridge,” reports Mark Salvatore, a planetary geologist and a Curiosity participating scientist and faculty member at Northern Arizona University. “Curiosity continues to drive to the east-northeast around two small patches of dunes that are positioned just north of Vera Rubin […]
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The world’s first laser communication link…from the Moon! A laser communications terminal on a private firm’s upcoming mission to the Moon has been announced during this week’s Paris Air Show. Astrobotic of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and ATLAS Space Operations Inc. of Traverse City, Michigan are now linked at the laser – offering up to one gigabit […]
China’s Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft has begun independent operation Wednesday, backing away from theTiangong-2 space lab. Ground controllers initiated a separation of Tianzhou-1 from the space lab. The cargo ship stopped at a distance of nearly 400 feet (120 meters) in front of the Tiangong-2. The cargo spacecraft will continue space science experiments and applications. Tianzhou-1 […]
Forget looking but don’t touch! The concept is called HydroLander – an interplanetary long duration exploration vehicle focused on a human, on-the-spot search for life on the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. According to the principal architects of the idea — Ostap Rudakevych and Masayuki Sono at the Clouds Architecture Office in New […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is performing science duties, now in Sol 1732 operations. The robot continues to wheel towards Vera Rubin Ridge, reports Mark Salvatore, a planetary geologist and a Curiosity participating scientist and faculty member at Northern Arizona University. “Curiosity continues to make progress along its planned ascent route up Mt. Sharp, and is […]
Hundreds of events in multiple countries are slated to take place on June 30 – the anniversary of Earth’s largest asteroid impact in recorded history: the 1908 Siberia Tunguska incident that flattened 770 square miles (2,000 square kilometers) of forest in Siberia, Russia. Events for Asteroid Day 2017 are being planned on all five continents […]
The 22nd NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) mission is underway, an underwater analog exercise to train for spaceflight without leaving Earth. Six aquanauts took a dive of some 65 feet (20 meters) to the sea floor where they will spend 10 days living and working below the waves. They are now on board the […]
The Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 1729 science duties. A drive by the NASA robot on Sol 1728 was successful, reports Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. “Our weekend plan will be chock-full of activities.” Colorful workspace On the first sol, Curiosity will do some […]
Now in Sol 1728, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover completed a busy day of contact science yesterday, reports Rachel Kronyak, a planetary geologist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The plan now is dedicated towards remote science and driving. Fernald Point A suite of Mastcam images for Curiosity to take included mosaics of “Preble […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is performing Sol 1727 science duties. “After a successful drive, our parking spot included a nice patch of Murray bedrock to allow us to perform contact science,” reports Rachel Kronyak, a planetary geologist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. That contact science involves use of the rover’s Mars Hand […]
