April 3rd, 2019
Author: 
Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft is ready to create an artificial crater on the surface of asteroid Ryugu. On April 5 (JST), the Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI) — a 4.4 pound (2 kilogram) copper lump called “Liner” will be dropped to the surface of the asteroid at a velocity of 2 km per second to make an […]
Posted in 
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is wrapping up Sol 2365 tasks. Ashley Stroupe, a mission operations engineer at NASA/JPL in Pasadena, California reports that Curiosity is getting close to the area in which the robot will next drill. But before heading off, scientists are taking a number of images using the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and […]
A life-indicating gas on Mars – methane – has been independently confirmed. The research has been led by Marco Giuranna of the Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali in Rome, Italy. The paper — Independent confirmation of a methane spike on Mars and a source region east of Gale Crater – has been published in […]
Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft is nearing its next duty: Creating an artificial crater on the surface of asteroid Ryugu. On April 5, the Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI) — a 4.4 pound (2 kilogram) copper lump called “Liner” will be dropped to the surface of the asteroid at a velocity of 2 km per second to […]
An Israeli spacecraft is headed for the Moon, slated to touch down in April within Mare Serenitatis on the northern hemisphere of the Moon. Onboard is an experiment — smaller than a computer mouse — that could enable spot-on touch downs of future robotic and human-carrying landers. For more information, […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is just wrapping up Sol 2363 duties. New imagery shows the robot making tracks and performing a variety of science tasks.
New research suggests deep groundwater on Mars could still be active and creating surface streams in some near-equatorial areas on the planet. Once again, scientists point to the planet’s recurring slope linea – RSL for short – that are akin to dried, short streams of water that appear on some crater walls. The new work […]
According to the China National Space Administration, the country’s lunar rover — Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit-2 — has woken up from its third lunar night on the farside of the Moon and resumed its scientific exploration mission. The rover woke itself up at 8:28 p.m. on Friday and re-established communications with the Queqiao relay satellite. […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has just begun Sol 2362 duties. “We are continuing to find interesting new things in Glen Torridon,” reports Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA/JPL in Pasadena, California. Fraeman points to new imagery on target “Stonebriggs.” “We’ve seen round and smooth clasts before,” Fraeman adds, “but this area really stands out […]
Living styles on Mars! SEArch+/Apis Cor of New York won first place in Phase 3: Level 4 in NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge. This team focuses on regolith construction to provide radiation shielding and physical protection. The competition for this stage challenged teams to use modeling software to create a full-scale habitat design. This level built […]
