August 9th, 2014
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Don’t tell anybody. There may be a secret sauce to cooking in space. Cornell researchers have taken to the air to better understand the effectiveness of a specially constructed space galley – one designed to be used on the Moon as well as Mars. Making use of the microgravity-producing “G-Force 1” space simulator plane […]
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The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft has pulled up to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko – and what an eye-full! You might enjoy these comet comments from Chris Lewicki, President and Chief Asteroid Miner at Planetary Resources, Inc.: What is the difference between a comet and asteroid, after all? Some comets are believed to be as much as […]
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft was launched in 2004 and will arrive at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on August 6 – a 10 year long voyage. It will be the first mission in history to rendezvous with a comet, escort it as it orbits the Sun, and deploy a lander to its surface. Rosetta is an […]
The message from those steering NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is that sandy Martian valleys are in the rover’s near future! NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has just crossed one stretch of rocks hazardous to its wheels and may soon reach rocks different from any it has examined so far. As it approaches the second anniversary of […]
New research suggests that asteroidal collisions not only severely altered the geology of the “Hadean Earth” (meaning hell-like), but likely played a major role in the subsequent evolution of life on Earth as well. That Hadean period is pegged at roughly 4.0 to 4.5 billion years ago. In the very beginning of Earth’s formation, the […]
New imagery of the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimernko as the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft pulls in closer to the target.According to a press statement from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany), the Imagery confirms the collar-like appearance of the neck region which presents itself brighter than most parts of the […]
Fireworks at Mars – there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work and worry about an upcoming cometary encounter. Here’s my take on the situation via Space.com: NASA Prepping Mars Probes, Rovers for Close Comet Flyby By Leonard David, Space.com’s Space Insider Columnist July 31, 2014 07:35am ET http://www.space.com/26690-mars-comet-flyby-spacecraft-preparation.html
New research suggests that it is possible that terrestrial rocks ejected from the Earth by giant impacts from space — and which then strike the Moon — may successfully transfer terrestrial fossils to the Moon. The results were obtained from hypervelocity impact experiments which fired fossilized diatoms frozen in ice into water targets. Diatoms are […]
Europa harbors a global ocean covered by an ice shell. Indeed, that large reservoir of liquid water has long enchanted planetary scientists with the possibility that the moon is also a harbor for life. On one hand, NASA does place high programmatic priority on this prospect to further the potential for a future lander mission […]
The Air Force launched two operational satellites and one experimental satellite into near-geosynchronous Earth orbit on July 28 atop a Delta 4 booster lifting off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The AFSPC-4 mission, according to Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James: “These operational and experimental systems will enhance the nation’s ability to monitor and […]
