October 31st, 2017
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“We are starting to suspect that Vera Rubin Ridge might be cursed,” reports Ryan Anderson, a planetary geologist at the USGS in Flagstaff, Arizona. “After the challenges we faced last week, we were hoping for a successful weekend plan but alas, it was not to be. Over the weekend Curiosity’s arm didn’t heat up […]
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A new attitude poll of more than 600 Americans regarding business in space has been conducted by the Brodeur Partners’ Space Group. Is space still relevant? Survey says yes, but only if it’s personal. According to the group, the new survey found that Americans: See national security as the top space activity; Support private sector […]
Axiom Space of Houston, Texas is promoting its skills in building the world’s first privately-owned International Commercial Space Station. The goal of Axiom’s international commercial space station is to stimulate growth of the low Earth orbit (LEO) user community. To do so, the group sees itself as providing additional and expanded services at the International […]
Experts in interstellar travel have picked future candidates to make the first extrasolar trek. Their names: Caenorhabditis elegans and Tardigrades, otherwise known as water bears. “These are real interstellar passengers” says Philip Lubin, head of the Starlight program at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). “We are developing the capability to test whether […]
The Curiosity Mars rover is now in Sol 1858, busily engaged in performing a “working weekend,” reports Mark Salvatore, a planetary geologist at the University of Michigan in Dearborn. “Following a series of setbacks this week, Curiosity is on track to have a productive, albeit stationary, weekend,” Salvatore explains. Series of headaches Last week’s […]
The Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) has issued a “Consensus Meeting Findings” document that outlines multi-year milestones to put U.S. astronauts back on the Moon, encourages private sector lunar efforts, utilizes the Moon’s resources and develops a lunar economy. Those milestones are required to show progress toward “return[ing] American astronauts to the Moon,” the […]
The idea of a Deep Space Gateway has garnered high-level interest within the European Space Agency (ESA). A recent ESA call for academic or industrial research ideas has been issued to discern benefits from such a deep space crewed spaceship in lunar vicinity – one that also enables access to the Moon’s surface. Broad […]
“Space is hard,” reports Scott Guzewich, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Scientists had prepared a packed science plan for NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, now wrapping up Sol 1855 duties. On the master plan, along with taking a sure-to-be spectacular panorama of the Gale Crater floor, the rover was […]
China’s Tiangong-1 space lab is headed for an uncontrolled and destructive nose-dive into Earth’s atmosphere early next year. Exactly when and where on Earth the multi-ton discarded craft will make its plunge cannot now be predicted. What is known is that the vehicle will reenter somewhere between 42° North and 42° South latitude. Tiangong-1 (“Heavenly […]
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the international community are celebrating fifty years since the Outer Space Treaty entered into force on October 10, 1967. The Outer Space Treaty — officially entitled the Treaty of Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including […]
