September 30th, 2018
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Due to a massive dust storm on the Red Planet, NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover has remained silent for well over three months. No signal from the robot has been heard since Sol 5111 on June 10, 2018. It is expected that solar powered Opportunity experienced a low-power fault. Perhaps, a mission clock fault and an […]
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The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa2 asteroid probe is set to deploy on October 3 the MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout). MASCOT will join two previously deployed devices; the MINERVA-II1 consists of two rovers, 1A and 1B. MASCOT is a mobile box-shaped landing device measuring 30 x 30 x 20 centimeters and weighing approximately […]
Government funding in space exploration is expected to surpass $20 billion by 2027. In future years, there will be a boost in public and private initiatives in space exploration with a converging global interest in Moon exploration. Those findings and others can be drawn from a new report by Euroconsult a global consulting firm specialized […]
How does 60 years of NASA leadership in human space exploration, past, present, and future stack up? This House hearing featured William Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations. He detailed NASA’s current Moon, Mars, Lunar Gateway, extending the International Space Station, commercial space alliances and other issues. […]
Japan’s Hayabusa2 asteroid probe released the MINERVA-II1 rovers on September 21 to explore the surface of asteroid Ryugu. New photos and video taken by one of the rovers shows the Sun moving across the sky as seen from the surface of Ryugu. Please take a moment to enjoy “standing” on this new world. […]
Leading military space strategy experts are pondering the role of cis-lunar space in the context of U.S. President Trump’s go-ahead to establish a U.S. Space Force. Just how valuable is that property far from Earth, lying between the Earth and the moon’s orbit? Might this celestial real estate become hot property as an […]
Lunar researchers have conducted a geological analysis of the northern portion of the South Pole‐Aitken (SPA) basin. The SPA is the largest recognized and likely the oldest impact structure on the Moon. Impact, volcanic events Results of the team’s mapping efforts permitted the unraveling of the major sequence of impact and volcanic events that have […]
A CubeSat orbiting in the Earth–Moon region has been evaluated to provide data on flashes produced by impacts of meteoroids with the Moon’s surface. Called the Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer, or LUMIO, the space mission concept would contribute to “Lunar Situational Awareness.” LUMIO is an awarded winner of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) SysNova Competition […]
NASA has issued a new document – “the National Space Exploration Campaign Report.” NASA sent Congress the human exploration roadmap required by the 2017 NASA Transition Authorization Act. The 5 sections of the report are: Forward to the Moon, Mars and Beyond; Americans in Lunar Orbit and on the Lunar Surface; Living in Space Prepared […]
How to Live in Space – Everything You Need to Know for the Not-So-Distant Future, by Colin Stuart, Smithsonian Books, September 2018; $17.95, 192 pages. Stuart has written a witty and insightful book that spotlights life on the outside – of our own planet. This is a fun read, particularly if you’re in line, ticket […]
