December 26th, 2018
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NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft encounter with “Ultima Thule” – a Kuiper Belt object that orbits one billion miles beyond Pluto – and the farthest space probe flyby in history. Added good news is that New Horizons principal investigator and planetary scientist, Alan Stern, is prepared for puzzlement. I discussed this new and imminent record-setting flyby […]
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The Moon Village Association (MVA) has issued for review a set of Moon Village Principles. Giuseppe Reibaldi, President of the Moon Village Association, stated in a press statement: “The Principles are the first concrete step in the implementation of the Moon Village concept and this is why they are important. The public will be able […]
How could long-term habitation of Mars impact our bodies? “I propose a futuristic vision of how our noses could look if we lived on Mars,” says Marta Flisykowska of the Academy of Fine Arts, Architecture and Design Faculty in Gdańsk, Poland. Based on the “Who nose” project, Flisykowska has published an intriguing paper — Application […]
What do you need for exploration of icy worlds in our solar system – IceWorm of course! Robotic work is underway that could lead to automaton treks to the frozen plains of Enceladus, Eruopa or Pluto, as well as the polar ice canyons of Mars. The robot is the first of its kind designed to […]
NASA’s newest Mars lander is continuing to install on the Red Planet a set of scientific devices via its robotic arm. New imagery shows the robotic arm departing the recently planted seismometer provided by France. The InSight team worked on leveling the seismometer, which is sitting on ground that is tilted 2 to 3 degrees. […]
Exploration in our sights – the Moon, Mars, asteroids and elsewhere. But is NASA ready to analyze extraterrestrial samples? A new study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine says no. The U.S. space agency’s investment in new instruments to analyze extraterrestrial samples is “insufficient” to provide for replacement of existing instruments, says […]
China is once again at the door step of exploring the Moon. Hurled moonward by a Long March-3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, Chang’e-4 has nudged itself into an elliptical lunar orbit with instructions yet to come on when the craft will nose-dive to a farside of […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2266 duties. Reports Lucy Thompson, a planetary geologist at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, there’s been extensive planning for the rover for the holidays. Planning has revolved around making sure that Curiosity has enough power after the Christmas holidays to be able to […]
Landing on Mars on November 26, NASA’s InSight lander has used its robotic arm outfitted with grippers to emplace its Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or SEIS, on the Red Planet’s surface. On Wednesday, Dec. 19, the seismometer was gently placed onto the ground directly in front of the lander, about as far away as […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has just begun Sol 2265 tasks. “We are still very excited and happy that the final drill hole, “Rock Hall,” on Vera Rubin Ridge was successful over the weekend,” reports Kristen Bennett, a planetary geologist at the USGS in Flagstaff, Arizona. “Now we get to analyze the drilled sample with rover […]
