February 11th, 2014
Author: 
The count in China is one alive, one still silent. That’s the Internet word this morning that scientists have regained contact with the science-instrumented Chang’e 3 lander after surviving a 14-day lunar night. No official word, however, as of this posting. Whether the Yutu (Jade Rabbit) has come out of a “cosmic coma” remains unknown. That […]
Posted in 
Top: Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University/ArizonaState University Bottom: Courtesy of Jim Rice/PSI That odd object – dubbed Pinnacle Island — spotted by NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover continues to be perplexing. More detective work is ahead explains James Rice, Senior Scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover Project, Geology Team Leader, at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona. […]
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechSee More NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover has crossed a dune that stands across a gateway to a southwestward route favored by the rover team for driving to future science destinations. After reaching the west side of the 3-foot-tall (1-meter-tall) dune,… the rover looked back at its tracks down the western slope. […]
Depression in Space: How Computer Software Could Help Astronauts Cope http://www.space.com/24538-space-depression-astronauts-long-missions.html
America’s Space Futures: Defining Goals for Space Exploration, Editor Eric Sterner; George C. Marshall Institute, Arlington, Va.; $12.99, shipping and handling $3.99; (soft cover); 2013. The George C. Marshall Institute has published a thought-provoking new book, America’s Space Futures: Defining Goals for Space Exploration, edited by Institute Fellow Eric R. Sterner. There are those that […]
Ok, not quite “space” related, but if they can do this on Mars and flying around Olympus Mons! Check out these videos: A team of German pilots from the Mountain Wave Project (MWP) and researchers from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches… Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) have achieved a groundbreaking feat around […]
Teamwork! That’s what it took… NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter caught a glimpse of the space agency’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) required extremely precise timing, worked out by the LADEE, LROC, and LRO operations teams. LADEE is in an equatorial orbit (east-to-west) while LRO is in […]
A planetary system around our nearest star — beyond our Sun — is emerging. That’s the stellar forecast that suggests scientists are getting closer to discovering Earth-like planets close to Earth. Word is that “superhabitable” worlds must be considered for future follow-up observations of signs of extraterrestrial life. These worlds offer more benign environments to life […]
Concerned technicians work on an ailing Yutu Moon rover. Philip Stooke, an associate professor in physics and astronomy at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada has a take on the rover’s problem. Yutu’s camera mast, also carrying the hi…gh gain antenna, is supposed to fold down into a box on […]
