June 20th, 2019
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For those Mars terraforming advocates, you’ll find an interesting read from the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A Belfer Center study group has looked at solar geoengineering – not for the Red Planet but for the Blue Marble – Earth. The factsheet comes […]
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now carrying out Sol 2442 duties, parked on Teal Ridge, in the midst of an extended contact science campaign. At this ridge location, new imagery from the robot shows crossbedding in a bedrock layer, as well as a contact between the bedrock outcrop and a rubbly layer below. […]
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued today a report that flags the finding: “Due to continued production and testing challenges, NASA’s three related human spaceflight programs have encountered additional launch delays and cost growth.” Trio of systems NASA is developing a trio of systems to put astronauts into space: the Orion crew vehicle, […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2440 science tasks. “The outcrop in front of us is spectacular,” reports Dawn Sumner, a planetary geologist at the University of California Davis; Davis, California. Curiosity’s science team has planned regular weather observations, a survey of the sky at twilight, a movie looking for dust devils and […]
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library’s JFK Moonshot, is a first-of-its-kind augmented reality documentary app experience, and is now available for free download. JFK Moonshot is a retelling and recreation of the Apollo 11 mission and its connection to President Kennedy. This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the historic Moon Landing; a significant moment […]
Wally Funk’s Race for Space: The Extraordinary Story of a Female Aviation Pioneer by Sue Nelson; Chicago Review Press, 2019; hardcover: 256 pages, $26.99 This is a wonderful read, one that underscores politics and prejudice in America’s embryonic human spaceflight program. Wally Funk was a trailblazer, among the Mercury 13, the first group of American […]
A unique multimedia website has been launched, one that plays the entire Apollo 11 mission in real time. Included are 2,000 photographs, 11,000 hours of Mission Control audio, 240 hours of space-to-ground audio, all onboard recorder audio, 15,000 searchable utterances, post-mission commentary, and astromaterials sample data. The website is the most complete presentation of […]
A newly discovered hydrothermal field at the northern Gorda Ridge in the Pacific Ocean has been named the Apollo Vent Field in honor of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s Moon landing this July. The SUBSEA (Systematic Underwater Biogeochemical Science and Exploration Analog) Research Program team aboard Exploration Vessel Nautilus (E/V Nautilus) tagged the feature. […]
The Planetary Society has released a new Apollo cost analysis, reporting that the effort would cost nearly $300 billion in today’s dollars. The analysis comes in advance of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. As explained in the analysis, the United States spent $264 billion on Project Apollo when adjusted to today’s […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2437 duties. “We are investigating the ridges which are such a prominent feature in this section of Glen Torridon,” reports Catherine O’Connell, a planetary geologist at the University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. “The ridges appear to be composed of sand and pebbles, capped with […]
