NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now closing out Sol 2586 science duties. Reports Claire Newman, an atmospheric scientist at Aeolis Research, Curiosity is again at the “Hunda” facies, high up on Central Butte. “At this location, we’re finding a lot of decimeter-scale laminations – sequences of fine layers – near to and underneath the rover,” […]

SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE AND AERONAUTICS DATE: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019 TIME: 02:00 PM LOCATION: 2318 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING OPENING STATEMENTS: Chair Kendra Horn (D-OK) of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics https://science.house.gov/imo/media/doc/11.13.19%20CHorn%20OS%20Sights%20on%20Mars%20.pdf Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) https://science.house.gov/imo/media/doc/11.13.19%20CJohnson%20OS%20Sights%20on%20Mars%20.pdf — Lt. General Thomas P. Stafford, USAF (Ret.); Member, National Academy of Engineering; Chairman, NASA ISS […]

China’s Longjiang-2 spacecraft (also known as DSLWP-B) crashed onto the lunar farside on July 31, 2019 after completing its orbital mission. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has spotted the apparent impact site. The Longjiang-2 satellite was launched to the Moon along with the Queqiao relay communications satellite on May 20, 2018 by the China National […]

China has unveiled a simulated Mars landing facility, making use of a tower nearly 460 feet (140 meter) in height, a testing structure situated at Huailai County, Hebei Province, north China. The six pylon tower facility included a servo system and a Martian surface simulation area. The highly touted test is prelude to China launching […]

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2585 tasks. A newly released map shows the route driven by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity through the 2582 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars (November 11, 2019). Numbering of the dots along the line indicate the sol number of each drive. North is […]

Worth a read: A new NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) 2019 Report on NASA’s Top Management and Performance Challenges. Among items discussed: Landing Humans on the Moon by 2024 Sustaining a Human Presence in Low Earth Orbit Go to: https://oig.nasa.gov/docs/MC-2019.pdf