December 18th, 2015
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It is a growth industry…the popularity and proliferation of CubeSats. They carry out all manner of duties, from testing laser communications hardware to imaging the Earth. Now add one more task for a CubeSat – keeping an eye out for visiting ET. The effort is called “CubeSat for Disclosure” and a fundraising campaign in underway […]
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Curiosity on Mars has entered Sol 1196 recently driving nearly 155 feet (47 meters) around the lee side of Namib Dune. “The latest Navcam images reveal many beautiful aeolian features on the slipface and interdune deposits,” reports Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of Mars […]
NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars has taken a number of new images of Martian sand dunes. The robot continues to drive around Namib Dune, relaying impressive photos of the feature, including up close looks at local bedrock. Curiosity is now on duty, entering Sol 1195 since its landing in August 2012. Images […]
Mars scientists continue to be delighted with imagery from the Curiosity rover of sand dunes, “and the view is pretty spectacular,” explains Lauren Edgar of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. Last weekend, the Mars machinery drove nearly 140 feet (42 meters) closer to “Namib Dune,” Edgar reports. We’ve received a lot of […]
Following its Earth swing-by, a spacecraft is now on trajectory and headed for asteroid “Ryugu.” Japan’s Hayabusa2 is en route to its target, a C-type asteroid to study the origin and evolution of the solar system as well as materials for life. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced today that the swing-by of Earth […]
NASA’s Curiosity rover is relaying stunning images of Martian dunes. The robot has entered Sol 1192 and has wheeled into position to inspect active dunes on the Red Planet. Curiosity’s up-close investigations of dark sand dunes find them up to two stories tall. The dunes are in view as the rover continues to trek […]
The dune-inspecting Curiosity Mars rover is on a roll this weekend. Scientists have scripted a weekend plan, making use of the robot’s tools to observe and study outcrop targets. Curiosity has entered Sol 1191 with researchers planning to use the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to acquire images of “Elizabeth Ray” and “Pomona.” According to […]
The hit movie The Martian is receiving kudos from all over the world – including thumbs up reviews from viewers when the film recently premiered in China. In a new posting, Apollo 11 moonwalker, Buzz Aldrin, lifts his space helmet visor and takes a clear look at The Martian – pros and cons. […]
The word from Russia is that the country wants to send monkeys to the Red Planet by 2017. But waving the red flag on such a plan: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). A few months ago, it was reported that researchers from the Russian Academy of Science are busy training four macaque […]
Forget all that interstellar outreach to extraterrestrials – like the records on the Voyager spacecraft or the plaques on those Pioneer probes. Furthermore, you might as well turn a deaf ear on those synthesizer tones used to converse with alien beings in the movie, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Our human efforts here […]
