February 8th, 2016
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Organizers of Asteroid Day are staging a special press event tomorrow, February 9th, making use of multimedia platforms to accommodate speakers from around the world on current research on threatening asteroids. The press conference is dedicated to reveal the events and partners for Asteroid Day 2016 and will start on Tuesday, February 9 […]
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UPDATE: Curiosity is now in Sol 1245. On Sol 1244, Curiosity did “bump” roughly 6 feet (2 meters) forward to get to a patch of bedrock. “The focus of the weekend plan is to study typical Murray formation bedrock, do some targeted remote sensing, and then drive towards the Naukluft Plateau,” explains Lauren Edgar […]
Word from the European Space Agency (ESA) – there are no vast caverns inside Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. A comet’s low density implies that these objects must be highly porous. The view has been espoused that due to this porosity, huge empty caves may exist in the comet’s interior. New study results have been published in […]
A U.S. congressional hearing was held today…and the hearing was loud, sound, critical and confusing. The U.S. House Space Subcommittee Committee “reviewed” NASA’s human space exploration proposals – particularly the big step to a human mission to Mars. Moon first, Mars first, asteroid first, and whether or not the U.S. can afford any of it […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover remains parked at Namib dune. While troubleshooting continues on the Collection and Handling for Interior Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) anomaly, the rover’s robotic arm has been cleared for use. In a few hours of this posting, the Mars robot will slip into Sol 1242. Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the […]
For all you flying saucer supporters, take a peek into the Central Intelligence Agency’s own “X-Files.” The CIA declassified hundreds of documents in 1978 detailing the Agency’s investigations into Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). The documents date primarily from the late 1940s and 1950s. There’s a vast amount of data contained in their Freedom of Information […]
In an on-line story today from Defense One: “USAF Stands Up Space Mission Force to Counter Russia, China,” written by Patrick Tucker. The story explains that today, on February 1, “the Air Force will stand up a Space Mission Force at the 50th Space Wing at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, the first of several steps meant […]
China’s Yutu robot was dispatched from the Chang’e 3 lander that softly touched down on the lunar landscape on December 14, 2013. For the first time in a format easily accessible to all, downloads and downloads of science-quality images from China’s Chang’e 3 lander and Yutu rover are now available. Check out her impressive new […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is entering Sol 1239, with ground controllers still trying to troubleshoot a problem with the arm-mounted Collection and Handling for In-situ Martian Rock Analysis device – CHIMRA for short. Soil samples are acquired with CHIMRA’s clam-shell scoop mechanism. The CHIMRA is a device that sieves and portions the samples […]
The outlook of Earth being on the receiving end of a menacing asteroid in the future is real – but very much in the celestial cards of chance. But when the high-stakes card is dealt, responding to a hostile near-Earth object (NEO) is a global challenge. In early January, NASA announced the establishment of […]
