June 8th, 2019
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China is set to announce selected experiments to be flown on the country’s space station. In May 2018, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) published an “Announcement of Opportunity” inviting Member States to submit applications to conduct scientific experiments onboard China’s space outpost. By October, 42 applications from 27 countries had […]
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2430 duties. Brittney Cooper, an atmospheric scientist at York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada reports that the original plan for Sol 2429 involved a “touch-and-go” where the rover would have engaged in contact science (that’s the “touch” portion) followed by a drive (the “go” portion). However, the instrument […]
I wanna see it painted, painted black Black as night, black as coal I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted black — “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones Last month, the SpaceX launch of the first group of sixty Starlink satellites signaled the […]
Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas has unveiled new plans to create a Moon base. This base can accommodate four people for a long duration or six people for 120 days on the surface of the Moon. Habitat interior volume is 330m³, not including two airlocks. Crew quarters Interior accommodations include six large […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2427 duties. Reports Sarah Lamm, a planetary geologist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, plans for Curiosity have been scripted for weekend activities at Woodland Bay. Woodland Bay is a location in Glen Torridon, in the clay bearing unit. The plan scripted […]
For those flush with cash, an Apollo 11 Lunar Module Timeline Book is part of One Giant Leap: Celebrating Space Exploration 50 Years after Apollo 11 – to be held July 18 at Christie’s in New York. The Timeline Book sat precisely between Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot ‘Buzz’ Aldrin as they […]
The European Space Agency (ESA) has inaugurated the ExoMars 2020 Rover Operations Control Center that will begin operating in July 2020 when the Mars mission lifts off for the interplanetary trip. The Turin, Italy-based Rover Operations Control Center (ROCC) comprises several different systems and facilities: Operations room, where all Rover operations are planned, managed […]
A “Moonrise” laser system is being designed to bring 3D-printing to the lunar surface by melting Moon dust. This additive manufacturing on the Moon makes use of a laser system that weighs no more than 7 pounds (three kilograms) and has the volume of a large juice package. The system is being designed to melt […]
NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports today about the space agency’s intent to study a Jupiter moon – Europa – and issues regarding the management of that mission. A flyby orbiter known as Europa Clipper, “despite robust early-stage funding, a series of significant developmental and personnel resource challenges place the Clipper’s current mission […]
Ronald Reagan and the Space Frontier by John M. Logsdon; Palgrave Macmillan, 2019; hardcover: 419 pages, $35.00 Another thumbs up book from John Logsdon, internationally recognized as a consummate historian and analyst of space issues. This volume is another classic regarding presidential space policy. During Ronald Reagan’s eight years as U.S. president (1981-1989), his administration […]
