June 10th, 2015
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The advancements being made by commercial space organizations – a new way of doing business. Moreover, many new commercial startups will emerge to take advantage of the extra capacity and reduced pricing to access space. An article appearing in the Huffington Post has been authored by Greg Autry, a professor that teaches technology entrepreneurship at […]
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On June 8, NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project tested two decelerator technologies – hardware that could enable larger payloads to land safely on the surface of Mars, and allow access to more of the planet’s surface by assisting landings at higher-altitude sites. Liftoff of the LDSD took place at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile […]
The first international contest to let students shape the future of interstellar travel is underway. The competition comes courtesy of a successful Kickstarter campaign and the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is). Called Project Dragonfly, this feasibility study is shaped around the concept of dispatching small spacecraft to another star, propelled by a laser beam. […]
‘Oh chute! The second flight test of NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) took place today from the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on Kauai, Hawaii. Early indications are that the LDSD did experience a problem with a newly designed parachute – the largest chute ever tested. All other aspects of the balloon-carried test […]
What’s next for the U.S. human spaceflight program? That was the discussion question for a June 3, 2015 gathering, sponsored by the Center for American Progress. On June 3, 1965, Air Force Maj. Ed White became the first American to walk in space when he stepped out of his Gemini IV spacecraft. Fifty years later, […]
UPDATE: LightSail-A: Estimated Post-Sail Deployment Orbital Elements http://www.satobs.org/LightSail-A.html The Planetary Society’s LightSail-A deployed its solar sail on June 7, near 19:55 UTC. According to ground satellite watcher, Ted Molczan in Canada, he estimates that with its sail deployed, LightSail-A’s standard visual magnitude will be about 4.4 (1000 km range, 90 deg phase angle), resulting […]
Max Galka is a New Yorker “fascinated by data” and has just issued on Metrocosm a new data-rich look at UFO sightings. Metrocosm is an exploration of urban life through the lens of statistics, data, and quantitative visualization. Galka cofounded Revaluate, a real estate data business. Prior to that he modeled natural disaster risks and […]
Curiosity and Opportunity rover operators are prepared this month when Mars passes almost directly behind the Sun from Earth’s perspective, celestial geometry called Mars solar conjunction. Mars solar conjunction happens about every 26 months. Because the Sun disrupts radio transmissions between Earth and Mars during conjunction, there is a moratorium on sending commands to […]
U.S. President Obama’s Chief Science Advisor — Dr. John P. Holdren — sent out a note earlier this week from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). “Here’s what I passed along internally Monday morning,” Holdren wrote. “Today’s morning report from NASA contains a Hubble photo I thought worth sharing,” Holdren noted. “The astonishing […]
Control teams are wrapping up operations of the NASA Curiosity Mars rover – preparing for the upcoming solar conjunction. Solar conjunction is the period when Earth and Mars, in their march around the Sun, are obscured from each other by the Sun. That means no communication between Earth and the two active Mars rovers – […]
