July 3rd, 2015
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is examing a zone where two regional rock units neighbor each other near “Marias Pass.” The rover is inspecting an area where at least two types of bedrock meet, finding pale mudstone and darker, finely bedded sandstone. Story-telling rock According to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Curiosity website: […]
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The author of a new study of evolutionary convergence argues that the development of life on Earth is predictable, meaning that similar organisms should therefore have appeared on other, Earth-like planets by now. “The almost-certainty of ET being out there means that something does not add up, and badly. We should not be alone, […]
The recent failure of the commercial SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is a near-term setback. But getting that vehicle back in the air means something more for the tomorrows to come. It means getting down to business concerning the future of America’s space program. Buzz Aldrin, Gemini and Apollo space mission veteran, was witness to the […]
Here’s a new story from me on the recent loss of the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster: The June 28 failure of the commercial SpaceX Falcon 9 has put a dent in the rocket’s impressive track record. Whatever the root cause of the malfunction, fixing the problem, and returning to flight is paramount to fulfill billions […]
A flying wing may be added to the tool kit for future exploration of the Red Planet. An early design of such a craft is called the Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars, or Prandtl-m. The concept, quite literally, is under the wing of a research group at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is busy imaging a number of targets – one of which is called “Missoula.” “We refer to it as a dog’s eye mosaic, meaning that we use the MAHLI camera to take a series of images along a vertical face – essentially sticking our nose in there to get a […]
Europe’s ExoMars spacecraft is almost complete for launch next year. ExoMars 2016 is nearing construction in its clean room at Thales Alenia Space in France. The Mars-bound mission is a joint effort between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia’s Roscosmos. That sojourn consists of a Trace Gas Orbiter plus an Entry, Descent and Landing […]
A new, cost-constrained U.S. strategy to send humans on Mars has been blueprinted. The study team believes placing a crew on the Red Planet could be achieved within projected NASA budgets by minimizing new developments and relying mainly on already available or planned NASA assets. This important study has been published in New Space, a […]
Word from ground controllers is that the Opportunity Mars rover is in good health after communication blackout. The Earth-Mars Solar Conjunction command moratorium and communication blackout has ended. Telemetry is again being received from Opportunity. Normal tactical planning has resumed with the Sol 4059 (June 25, 2015) plan. Opportunity is on the west rim […]
ALE CO. Ltd. is a Japan-based space technology company that wants to provide artificial shooting stars “any time, any place as you like.” According to Lena Okajima, head of ALE in Tokyo, her group is working with experts in various Japanese universities to develop a spacecraft that can toss out tiny balls from Earth orbit […]
