July 5th, 2023
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What is going on with Compton-Belkovich? This feature on the Moon, a suspected volcano, is indeed glowing at microwave wavelengths. A new instrument type has discovered evidence of a volcanic process on the Moon that had only been seen on Earth, reports Matthew Siegler, Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) and lead author […]
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale crater is now performing Sol 3877 duties. “We made it!” That’s the report from Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, a planetary geologist at University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. “We are peeking up over the edge of the ridge that we have been trying to climb for a few […]
China intends to alter the country’s space station complex, adopting other new configurations in coming months. The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) has noted that currently the configuration of the orbiting Tiangong space station consists of the Tianhe core module, the lab modules Wentian and Mengtian, the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft, and cargo spacecraft of Tianzhou-5 and […]
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has captured navigation camera images during the rotorcraft’s 52nd flight on April 26. Images were taken by its navigation camera, mounted in the helicopter’s fuselage and pointed directly downward to track the ground during flight. “Sixty-three days is a long time to wait for the results of a flight,” reports JPL’s […]
After a prolonged hiatus, NASA’s Mars helicopter has made its 52nd flight. The craft flew on April 26, but mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory lost contact with Ingenuity as it descended for a landing. “The Ingenuity team expected the communications dropout because a hill stood between the helicopter’s landing location and the Perseverance […]
A new study spotlights how gullies on the slopes of craters on Mars could have formed by on-and-off periods of meltwater from ice on and beneath the planet’s surface. The results from the new study suggest that gully formation was driven by periods of melting ice and by carbon dioxide (CO2) frost evaporation in other […]
While the Artemis return to the Moon effort is indeed one giant leap for the United States to regain a foothold there, much work is ahead to sustain living and work-a-day activities within the harsh and stark lunar environment. A next step for getting hardware to run in tip-top shape on the Moon is […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale crater is now performing Sol 3873 duties. A recent drive by the robot was successful, reports Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University; Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “This put us in a perfect position for our split touch-and-go plan – lots to see, and no need to worry that […]
There is a growing business in selling fake Moon dirt. It is labeled as “simulant,” customized concoctions of lunar topside that are celestial stand-ins for different areas on the Moon. The airless body is pounded by solar wind, radiation and micrometeorites. The Moon is blanketed by grayish, sharp-edged particles and rocky debris termed the lunar […]
GOLDEN, Colorado – Breathe easy. There’s good news from Mars. The first experiment to suck in the planet’s thin, carbon dioxide-laden air has achieved a major milestone in transforming that native resource into oxygen. The toaster-sized device, if built to a larger scale, can be used not just for astronaut expeditions to Mars for […]
