September 19th, 2016
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Now in Sol 1465, Curiosity’s Mars survey work is ongoing, with new imagery showing success for the robot’s drilling activities. The drill target is “Quela.” Incoming Curiosity imagery also points to what appears to be assembly of yet another “selfie” – a Mars mosaic that shows the current whereabouts of Curiosity and its […]
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Now in Sol 1464, Curiosity’s Mars roving continues, although late last week the robot’s drilling activities did not complete as expected. The intended drill target is “Quela.” Given the drill issues, the plan focused on trying to understand and troubleshoot the problem while also doing remote sensing, reports Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at […]
China’s second space lab Tiangong-2 has blasted off at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China’s Gansu Province. Wu Ping, deputy director of China Manned Space Engineering Office, explains: “The main purpose of launching Tiangong-2 space lab is to receive the visit of the Shenzhou 11 manned spacecraft and to accomplish a medium-term stay of […]
Back in 1996, I had the inside scoop about a rock from outer space. The claim of biogenic evidence for the rock star that is meteorite ALH84001 – possible indication of long-gone, fossil bacteria and chemical traces that might have come from bacteria on Mars. For a reflective view on this saga, go […]
Preparations are in full swing in China for the soon-to-launch second space lab, Tiangong-2, atop its carrier booster – the CZ-2F. A joint drill has just been completed at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. Xu Peng, head of command and control station at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center explains that “today’s joint […]
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity is at work on Sol 1457 today. According to Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, Curiosity is now parked at the next drill site, called “Quela”. This site is right at the base of one of the Murray Buttes. The Sol 1456 […]
Several thousand planets outside our solar system have been found – but why not seed a candidate world with microbial life forms dispatched from Earth. That’s on the mind of Claudius Gros of the Institute for Theoretical Physics, Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. An interstellar mission loaded with bacteria and unicellular eukaryotes alike, a […]
The Curiosity Mars rover is in Sol 1456, photo facing the Murray Buttes region of lower Mount Sharp. The Martian buttes and mesas rising above the surface are eroded remnants of ancient sandstone that originated when winds deposited sand after lower Mount Sharp had formed. According to a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory release today: “The […]
China’s next space laboratory — Tiangong-2 – is being prepared for liftoff at northwest China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The launch of the un-crewed space module is set to occur between September 15 – September 20th, according to a CCTV-Plus report. Final prep stage Tiangong-2 atop its Long March booster was rolled out from […]
The recent loss of the Falcon 9 and its payload during group preparations for launch was highlighted by Elon Musk of SpaceX by this tweet on September 1, 2016: Loss of Falcon vehicle today during propellant fill operation. Originated around upper stage oxygen tank. Cause still unknown. More soon. Difficult, complex […]
