January 28th, 2016
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The Curiosity rover on Mars has run into an anomaly using its Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) device. That hardware is attached to the turret at the end of the robotic arm on the Red Planet machinery. “The cause of the CHIMRA anomaly is still being investigated,” reports Ken Herkenhoff […]
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The informative New Space journal is offering free access to an “uplifting” set of articles on the space elevator concept. This free access to readers is available through February 29th. Read now: Opening up Earth-Moon Enterprise with a Space Elevator By Peter A. Swan Go […]
All the hoopla over that “should be there” Planet 9 has spurred speculation about its danger to Planet 3 – Earth. So far, just mathematical modeling and computer simulations suggest this way out world could have a mass about 10 times that of Earth. Furthermore, this purported planet would make one full orbit around […]
Still running after all those years! NASA’s Opportunity rover landed on Mars 12 years ago this week. The veteran robot touched down on the Red Planet on Jan. 24, 2004, PST (early Jan. 25, UTC). Opportunity is alive and well, working through the lowest-solar-energy days of the mission’s seventh Martian winter. It has been […]
The seminal Viking orbiter and lander Mars missions of the 1970s were a landmark enterprise, giving the U.S. a big plus in the Red Planet exploration column. That epic NASA saga of exploration took place 40 years ago this year. Now, for the first time, over 300 artifacts from the Viking Mars Missions Education […]
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta orbiter cruising along with Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko continues to churn out staggering up-close images of the celestial wanderer. One of those images shows the comet area known as Imhotep. This smooth dusty terrain covers about 0.8 square kilometers etched with curvilinear features stretching hundreds of meters and which have […]
Book Review: The Complete Space Buff’s Bucket List, by Loretta Hall; Rio Grande Books; 2016; Cost: $15.95. Maybe it’s my old age setting in. But a new book just showed up in my mail box that is so timely. Loretta Hall has authored The Complete Space Buff’s Bucket List – 100 Space Things to […]
Chalk up yet another victory for Blue Origin, the “start-up and go” rocket company backed by Amazon.com founder and moneymaker, Jeff Bezos. “The very same New Shepard booster that flew above the Karman line and then landed vertically at its launch site last November has now flown and landed again, demonstrating reuse,” reported […]
A crew of Chinese volunteers will take part in a 180-day isolation study to mimic a human mission to Mars. According to a January 21 report by the state-run People’s Daily, the four volunteers will be confined within a space capsule consisting of six giant “boxes” constructed by China’s Southern Research Institute of Space Technology. […]
Today, the Curiosity rover on Mars is at work on Sol 1231. Mars researchers are continuing their campaign to analyze “Namib Dune” – geared to dropping off a specimen of collected sand in the rover’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite. Earlier, the sol 1230 plan called for a science block with […]
