January 29th, 2014
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Teamwork! That’s what it took… NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter caught a glimpse of the space agency’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) required extremely precise timing, worked out by the LADEE, LROC, and LRO operations teams. LADEE is in an equatorial orbit (east-to-west) while LRO is in […]
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A planetary system around our nearest star — beyond our Sun — is emerging. That’s the stellar forecast that suggests scientists are getting closer to discovering Earth-like planets close to Earth. Word is that “superhabitable” worlds must be considered for future follow-up observations of signs of extraterrestrial life. These worlds offer more benign environments to life […]
Concerned technicians work on an ailing Yutu Moon rover. Philip Stooke, an associate professor in physics and astronomy at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada has a take on the rover’s problem. Yutu’s camera mast, also carrying the hi…gh gain antenna, is supposed to fold down into a box on […]
Looks like China’s lunar rover, Yutu (Jade Rabbit), may have stubbed its lucky foot. China’s Xinhua news agency said the Moon rover “has experienced a mechanical control abnormality, and scientists are organizing repairs.” Not clear how serious the abnormality, but the news agency said it happened due to “complicated lunar surface environment,” citing the State […]
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announces that it has confirmed that the first orbital flight of its Dream Chaser Space System will occur on November 1, 2016. Dream Chaser will be brought to orbit on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket that is being built in Decatur, Alabama and will launch from Cape Canaveral, […]
Mini-satellites may become “space cops” to help control traffic in space. If so, the idea could help avoid collisions in space of satellites and the creation of space debris. The work is underway by a team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) experts. The Calif.-based scientists used a series of six images over a 60-hour […]
It’s called Project Moon Dust – intended to inspire and educate the next generation of space travel hopefuls. Behind the effort is Zybek Advanced Products, founded in Boulder, Colorado in 1996. The group has established a project funding effort for a Lunar Simulant Educational package. If the project is successfully funded on Kickstarter, 25% of […]
It’s a bit of a detective story. NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover imagery shows a rock materializing in a spot where it wasn’t seen in earlier imagery. How’d it get there? Mars Exploration Rover (MER) scientists have dubbed the object “Pinnacle Island.” One view is that the robot kicked up the object during its wheeling around […]
Book Review: Alien Seas – Oceans in Space http://spacecoalition.com/blog/book-review-alien-seas-–-oceans-in-space
