January 3rd, 2016
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has entered Sol 1212 and has begun to transmit imagery in the New Year, 2016. The machine continues to survey nearby dunes and ripples that are part of “Bagnold Dunes,” a band along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater. Landing on the Red Planet in August 2012, […]
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The recent decision by NASA to suspend the planned March 2016 launch of the Discovery-class InSight mission to Mars was due to unsuccessful attempts to repair a leak in a section of the prime instrument in the science payload. That instrument was the sensitive Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS). The spacecraft’s name, InSight, says […]
Thanks to an Arizona hiker, a high-altitude balloon experiment has been reclaimed last year – missing for some two years. Launched via weather balloon in June 2013, the soaring science payload included a GoPro Hero3, Sony Camcorder, Samsung Galaxy Note II phone. The GoPro and camcorder were recording video footage, while the phone was taking […]
Data gleaned by China’s Yutu rover on the Moon has identified a new type of lunar basalt, shedding insight on lunar volcanism. As noted by the state-run Xinhua news agency, the new type of basaltic rock was discovered at a fresh crater named Zi Wei. The measurements were made by Yutu’s Active Particle-induced X-ray Spectrometer […]
A fact-packed treasure-trove of historical data – pictures, film and numerous documents – has been released by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) regarding the secretive Cold War U.S. Air Force project known as the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL). The MOL program ran from December 1963 until its cancellation in June 1969. In those […]
Calling it a “comeback to the Moon,” European space planners envision a series of human missions to the lunar vicinity, starting in the early 2020s, coordinated and interacting with robotic systems on the ground. Robots would land first, paving the way for human explorers that will set foot on the Moon. For more details […]
Things are looking up for researchers at The University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia. A team of investigators moved one step closer to sending small satellites into space via a reusable launch system. Start small It’s called the Austral Launch Vehicle (ALV). On December 23, ALV underwent its first successful test, a craft designed […]
Think of it as nearly 20,000 points of light – and that’s not a good thing. That is roughly the number of tracked pieces of space junk orbiting the Earth – there’s lots of smaller stuff! A visual story of space debris since October 1957 — with the launch of the former Soviet Union’s Sputnik […]
When the first footfalls on Mars takes place, any firm footing on that distant world means living off the land. It is already known that Mars is a plentiful planet, one that has usable resources to sustain any onslaught of future expeditionary crews. But hunkering down and living off the un-earthly scenery is easier said […]
NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars has entered Sol 1206. New imagery from the robot includes added surveys of sand dunes. The dunes close to Curiosity’s current location are part of “Bagnold Dunes,” a band along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater. Thanks to observations of this dune field from orbit, analysis […]
