March 9th, 2014
Author: 
X-15: The World’s Fastest Rocket Plane and the Pilots Who Ushered in the Space Age by John Anderson and Richard Passman; Zenith Press/Quayside Publishing Group, Minneapolis, MN.; Licensed by Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; $30.00 (hard cover); 2014. This account of the pioneering X-15 program (flying from 1959 into 1968) is a highly enjoyable […]
Posted in 
Take a walk on Mars…without leaving Earth! Check out the third annual MarsFest in Death Valley National Park, being held March 28-30 within the breathtaking desert valley located in Eastern California. Visitors of all ages are invited to MarsFest 2014 – to elevate public awareness about planetary analog research taking place at special spots on […]
Mars return sample back to Earth – with a SpaceX twist! My new story up on SPACE.com: Project ‘Red Dragon’: Mars Sample-Return Mission Could Launch in 2022 with SpaceX Capsule http://www.space.com/24984-spacex-mars-mission-red-dragon.html
Up on SPACE.com – a revealing look at this concept: ‘Faxing’ Life from Mars: Craig Venter’s Wild, Digital Space Exploration Idea http://www.space.com/24923-faxing-life-from-mars-craig-venter.html
A top-notch team of MIT engineers has scoped out orbiting way stations – one such depot placed somewhere between the Earth and the Moon. Once in place, this type of filling station could reduce the fuel a spacecraft needs to carry from Earth. That means, with less fuel onboard, a rocket could launch heavier payloads, […]
My new SPACE.com story can be found here: Futuristic Moon Elevator Idea Takes Aim at Lunar Lifts http://www.space.com/24905-moon-elevator-lunar-exploration-liftport.html
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has provided look-see views of China’s Chang’e 3 lander and the Yutu moon rover. A block of four Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera views have been released showing the Chang’e 3 landing site: A) before landing, taken on June 30, 2013, B) after landing, snapped on December 25, 2013, C) on January […]
Here’s a new story from me, up today on SPACE.com: Meteorite Fragments from Russian Fireball on Display 1 Year After Space Rock Explosion By Leonard David, Space.com’s Space Insider ColumnistFebruary 26, 2014 06:34am ET http://www.space.com/24813-russian-meteor-fragments-museum-display.html
WHAM! A meteorite with the mass of a small car crashed into the Moon last September. Catching the event were astronomers in Spain, reporting the event in the journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The impact on the Moon — in Mare Nubium, an ancient lava-filled basin with a darker appearance than its […]
Progression of images taken Feb. 21-22 show NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars inspecting an interesting feature on the red planet. Using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, ultra up-close imagery of the feature has been obtained. Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech with MAHLI imagery credited […]
