October 25th, 2020
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China’s space station plans are pressing ahead. The recent selection of a new group of 18 reserve astronauts — including one female –were chosen from 2,500 candidates. This new cadre consists of seven spacecraft pilots, seven space flight engineers and four payload experts. According to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), the flight engineers and […]
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China’s Chang’e-4 lander and Yutu-2 rover have been switched to dormant mode, readied to experience another long stint of 14 days of brutal cold. Prior to their celestial slumber, the farside explorers worked stably for a 23rd lunar day, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National […]
There is a multi-country Moon rush in progress. While NASA is orchestrating the Artemis program of robotic and human lunar exploration, there’s China, preparing this year to hurl a go-getting return sample mission to the Moon. A new and successful Chinese spacecraft lunar landing joins still-active Chinese lander/rover machinery on the Moon. Toss […]
Listening to Richard Branson over the past 20 years, you’d be forgiven for assuming that space was by now being frequented by lots of tourists. However, despite the Virgin Galactic chief’s optimism, the space tourism industry has yet to take off. Up to now there have been only seven self-funded […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2918 tasks. The rover science team has decided to stay at the Groken drill locale a little bit longer to let the robot’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite have a taste of this interesting new specimen. That’s the report from Lauren Edgar, a planetary geologist […]
Take a virtual walk through history in a Russian museum of cosmonautics. JSC NPO Lavochkin in Moscow has inaugurated an unprecedented look at the Soviet history of aircraft and rocketry development, including space heritage craft such as the country’s Lunokhod wheeled Moon explorer and its Venus landing craft. All exhibits are presented in high quality […]
A new opinion poll has been released showing that science and scientists are held in high esteem across global publics. However, there is ambivalence in many publics over developments in artificial intelligence, workplace automation, and food science. The poll indicates positive views in other areas such as space exploration. Meanwhile, public concerns around climate […]
Mars is a perplexing world, a complex planet to probe and one that does not easily give up all its stealthy truths – expressly if that globe is a remote abode for life. A four-day online virtual event brought together some of the world’s top leaders and experts on Mars and space exploration to […]
In closing remarks today of the 2020 Mars Society Virtual Convention, society leader Robert Zubrin zeroed in on “planetary protectionists” versus “frontierists.” Zubrin said there is “need to loosen the bonds of this thing that calls itself the planetary protection program but is really a bureaucracy-in-ignorance protection program.” They, the […]
Mike Griffin previously served as NASA Administrator (2005-2009). He spoke during the Mars Society’s “Rising Together to Mars” meeting, offering a set of what he termed “provocative comments.” Prevent stupid Provocative comment #6: “We need to prevent stupid,” Griffin said. “Space professionals need to speak up when stupid is being advocated. So if you’re […]
