March 9th, 2016
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NASA announced today that the delayed InSight mission to Mars is back – headed for a May 2018 launch date, with landing on the Red Planet in late November 2018. The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission was to fly this month. However, a vacuum leak in its prime science […]
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Word from the Mars Curiosity team is that last weekend’s drive of the rover went well. That wheeling away on Mars put the robot in “a great location for some contact science, right near the contact between the “Murray” and “Stimson” formations, with some interesting veins and textures in the nearby rocks,” reports Ryan […]
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has always had solar system travel on its mind. But a set of vintage travel posters are now available, depicting planets and moons within our solar system as potential vacation getaways. “Imagination is our window into the future. At NASA/JPL we strive to be bold in advancing the edge of […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now in Sol 1273, with the weekend plan calling for driving up to the Naukluft Plateau. On Sol 1273, the rover’s Mastcam is to acquire a multispectral image of the contact between the Murray and Stimson geologic units, explains Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, […]
An expert white paper has been released, calling upon the next U.S. administration and Congress to make space exploration and use a policy priority. A coalition of 13 space organizations has released: “Ensuring U.S. Leadership in Space.” Key issues Despite a treasure trove of benefits that space has provided the United States, maintaining the […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now in Sol 1270 and wheeling its way toward the Naukluft Plateau. Monday’s plan was full of driving and remote sensing. Curiosity was slated to take Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) and Mastcam observations of the target “Swartpunt.” Then the plan was to drive toward the Naukluft Plateau, and acquire post-drive […]
The European Space Agency’s ExoMars 2016 mission is set to launch on March 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. ExoMars is a joint endeavor between ESA and Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, and comprises the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli, an entry, descent and landing demonstrator. Turns out that NASA’s Opportunity rover might […]
China is set to launch its second space laboratory – Tiangong-2 – in the third quarter of this year. That launch is to be followed by the liftoff of the piloted Shenzhou-11 spacecraft. The state-run Xinhua news agency has reported that the fourth quarter launch of Shenzhou-11 will carry two crew members that will dock […]
The weekend warrior, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, is now carrying out Sol 1266 duties – a plan that “has a nice mix of science and driving,” reports Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff Arizona. The rover is slated to have started off on Sol 1266 with Chemistry […]
The U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee held a hearing on February 25, focusing on The Space Leadership Preservation Act and the need for stability at NASA despite changing presidential administrations. Those testifying took on the key challenges facing NASA today, as well as what organizational changes might be made to ensure more stability […]
