July 4th, 2019
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Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Moon landing, 60% say the space program has provided enough benefit to the country to justify its cost, while 38% do not consider the country’s expenditures on the space program warranted. Most Americans say it is important for the space program to monitor objects including […]
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now in Sol 2455, performing science duties. Reports Melissa Rice, a planetary geologist at Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington: “Curiosity is currently near the top of Harlaw Rise, having made a slight diversion from the southward drive through the clay-bearing unit to explore the nice exposures of rocks on this […]
Worth a read: The fact that the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is even considering the idea of a space station in orbit is a pretty big deal — and an even bigger deal if it grows over time to accommodate a human crew. Story by Theresa Hitchens at Breaking Defense. Go […]
In case you didn’t know – and time has flown by — July 2 is World UFO Day. This year UFO supporters are in the spotlight thanks to a flood of UFO news, including: UFO incident reports from Navy pilots and former Pentagon intelligence officers and the release of classified UFO research from […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2451 weekend tasks. Reports Roger Wiens, a geochemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico: “Curiosity has been a bit down lately-in elevation. After exploring the top of Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR) last year, the rover descended into a trough south of the […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2450 science duties. “We are continuing our exploration of Glen Torridon (the clay-bearing unit) and the varied lithologies exposed in this area of Gale crater, including more rubbly bedrock that is mixed with sand, and more coherent bedrock exposed both in the ground and capping prominent […]
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has snapped new imagery of China’s Yutu-2 rover that is still on the move! The orbiter’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) shows the wheeled rover about 426 feet (130 meters) west of the Chang’e-4 lander. Once a month, LRO passes over the Chang’e 4 landing site, allowing LROC to […]
Space Dogs: The Story of the Celebrated Canine Cosmonauts by Martin Parr/Text by Richard Hollingham; Laurence King Publishing, New York, 2019; softcover: 128 pages, $16.99 This enchanting book details the Soviet Union’s space dogs, those uncanny canine explorers that blazed the trail for human space travelers. Laika, Belka, Strelka, and other dogs became superstars! Space […]
China’s Chang’e-4 lander and the Yutu-2 have resumed work for the seventh lunar day on the farside of the Moon after “sleeping” during the extreme cold night. Both are in normal working condition, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration (CNSA). China’s Xinhua news agency reports that […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2449 science duties. Reports Scott Guzewich, an atmospheric scientist at NASA/GSFC in Greenbelt, Maryland: A recent plan wrapped up time for the rover to study the Teal Ridge outcrop, then the robot is to drive toward the next waypoint in the clay-bearing unit of Gale Crater. Lien […]
