September 3rd, 2016
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China is preparing to stage the maiden liftoff of the powerful Long March-5 booster. Rocket components are transported from northern China’s Tianjin Port for the launch base in southern Hainan. The booster is expected to be launched by year’s end. Long March-5 is central to carrying the Chang’e-5 lunar probe in 2017 and will […]
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The Curiosity Mars rover has just entered Sol 1448, continuing to investigate the surrounding scenery of buttes and distant features. A new map has been released showing the NASA robot’s location through the 1446 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars (August, 31, 2016). Numbering of the dots along the line […]
European Space Agency engineers reported today that a solar panel on the Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite was hit by a millimeter-size particle in orbit on August 23. The strike produced a sudden small power reduction and slight changes in the orientation and the orbit of the satellite. Preliminary investigation “Following a preliminary investigation, the operations team […]
China is in final checkout mode for its next piloted space mission – a multi-faceted undertaking that lays the foundation for the country to construct in Earth orbit a multi-modular space station in the 2020s. Both the Tiangong-2 (meaning “Heavenly Palace”) and the piloted Shenzhou-11 spacecraft are now undergoing checkout at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch […]
How can you survive on the Red Planet? What’s the science behind the human exploration of Mars? Australia’s Monash University has created a world-first online course designed to teach participants for free about how to live on Mars, where there is no air, water or food – yet! Starting October 24, the course will examine […]
On Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover has just begun Sol 1446 activities. The robot work plan for last weekend went well, reports Ken Herkenhoff at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. “The rover’s batteries have enough energy to proceed with another drive on Sol 1446,” Herkenhoff adds. Laser measurements New Mastcam images of the […]
Carnegie’s Scott Sheppard and Chadwick Trujillo of Northern Arizona University have observed several never-before-seen objects at extreme distances from the Sun in our Solar System. That’s the word today as teams of researchers continue the look to discover a purported ninth “planet” in our Solar System. Extreme objects In 2014, Sheppard and Trujillo announced the […]
Now in Sol 1444, the Curiosity Mars rover is to attempt a drive next week – failing to wheel forward last Wednesday due to an unanticipated flight software interaction, reports Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. Weekend plan Now carrying out a weekend plan, the robot is […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now in Sol 1442 operations, continuing to capture impressive views of the Murray Buttes as the robot presses onward to investigate lower Mount Sharp. This site was informally named nearly three years ago to honor Caltech planetary scientist Bruce Murray (1931-2013), a former director of NASA’s Jet […]
The word from Curiosity Mars rover scientists is that the robot is making good progress through the Murray Buttes Now in Sol 1441, the rover drove some 112 feet (34 meters) to the south on Sol 1439. According to Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, Curiosity planning […]
