April 15th, 2017
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NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars has just begun Sol 1668. A drive by the robot has put it into position in front of the interesting “Moosehead Lake” outcrop with lots of veins and grey patches, “plenty to keep Curiosity busy over the weekend!” That’s the word from Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS […]
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Now at work during Sol 1667, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover had its drive cut short during Sol 1664. The robot had driven less than 6 feet (2 meters) then halted due to the angle of the left bogie wheel side that slightly exceeded the suspension limit. “Such limits are routinely set based on the results […]
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) at NASA evaluated the space agency’s plans for deep space exploration and crewed missions to Mars. The April 13, 2017 OIG report notes: NASA’s initial exploration missions on its Journey to Mars – EM-1 and EM-2 – face multiple cost and technical challenges that likely will affect their planned […]
New research demonstrates the ability to use Moon and Mars stimulants to produce 3D-print structures. That ability presents an easy, highly scalable, sustainable manufacturing method for lunar and Red Planet travelers. 3-D printing allows off-planet settlers the wherewithal to make everything from small tools to large buildings using surrounding extraterrestrial resources. Northwestern Engineering’s Ramille Shah […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is performing Sol 1663 science duties. On Sol 1662 the robot drove roughly 79 feet (24 meters) and another drive is planned for Sol 1664. Targeted remote sensing “Before the drive, lots of targeted remote sensing is planned,” reports Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. That […]
The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program nurtures visionary ideas that could transform future NASA missions with the creation of breakthroughs. Among a new slate of NIAC 2017 Phase I awards is a “Pluto Hop, Skip, and Jump” concept. The idea has been proposed by Benjamin Goldman of Global Aerospace Corporation in Irwindale, California. Low […]
NASA’s Curiosity rover is now performing Sol 1662 science duties. A recent drive by the rover placed it away from the “Ogunquit Beach” sand dune, taking the robot about 115 feet (35 meters) to the southwest. Curiosity has wheeled into “a good location to continue measuring the composition of the bedrock as we drive up […]
A new report — The Fourth Community Workshop on Achievability and Sustainability of Human Exploration of Mars (AM IV) – is now available. The report is a product from a December 6-8, 2016 meeting organized by Explore Mars, Inc. and the American Astronautical Society. Nine “long poles” were assessed in depth before and during the […]
Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign, a Jules Verneish hydrogen gas gun is being pursued to blast payloads to 62 miles (100 kilometers) altitude — the Karman Line — the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. The effort is dubbed Green Launch. This Kickstarter is focused on Phase 1: delivery of scientific and DNA […]
Recent testing of an electromagnetic railgun by the U.S. Navy has led to firing a projectile up to Mach 6 – approaching a velocity that harkens back to early ideas of utilizing this technology on the Moon to hurl payloads from the lunar surface. Mach 6 equals 4,567.24 miles per hour with the […]
