December 15th, 2016
Author: 
Now in Sol 1550, Curiosity rover operators have yet to solve issues with the robot’s drill. “Use of the arm and driving remain off limits while the drill continues to be diagnosed,” reports Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. A two sol plan has been scripted that makes use […]
Posted in 
Chinese researchers have completed a 180-day “survival experiment” that simulated a deep space human trek. Since June 17, four Chinese volunteers — three men and one woman — lived inside a sealed space capsule situated in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province. They emerged from their off-world mock-up mission on December 14, local time. The six-month […]
Are there ways in which biology and its environment co-evolve? The answer could give essential insight into how we might search for extraterrestrial life. Today, December 14th, Nathalie Cabrol, Director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the universe at the SETI Institute, will give the prestigious Sagan Lecture at […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover continues to investigate higher and younger strata on the central mountain of Gale Crater, adding information about water-rich ancient environments in this part of Mars. Since reaching the base of the mountain two years ago, the rover has examined more than half the vertical extent of a 180-meter-thick geological formation that […]
A 180-day “survival experiment” is near its end mid-week. Four Chinese volunteers — three men and one woman — have been living inside a sealed space capsule in south China’s Shenzhen City. An objective of the space simulation is to test technologies that could support China’s deep-space exploration projects. The effort is evaluating how food, […]
An update from Ryan Anderson of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center: “Unfortunately, one of the drill diagnostics early in the plan indicated a problem, which prevented most of the other activities for the weekend (including the arm motion and drive) from happening.” So the upshot is that Curiosity remains sitting at “Precipice” for Sol 1548-1549. […]
Join me on Wednesday, December 14, 2016 when I’ll be a guest on the popular radio show, Coast to Coast, hosted by George Noory. I’ll be discussing my new book, Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet, research on space travel, and a number of other topics. Coast to Coast AM is a national radio […]
Billions of dollars later, oodles of exploration dollars have been spent on a key question: Is there life on Mars? The answer remains a head-scratcher following decades of studying Mars up-close and personal. The perplexing nature of slam-dunking a life on Mars finding was talked about during a National Academies of Sciences’ Space Studies Board […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now in Sol 1544, still plagued by a problem in its drilling equipment. Among a set of possible drill issues being assessed: a brake on the drill feed mechanism did not disengage fully or that an electronic encoder for the mechanism’s motor did not function as expected. Curiosity is […]
China’s latest set of space travelers — astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong – held a press briefing on Wednesday. It was their first public appearance since the return of the Shenzhou-11 manned spacecraft on November 18, after a three-week quarantine period. The Shenzhou-11 piloted spacecraft blasted off on Oct. 17, 2016, then latched up […]
