March 15th, 2022
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3415 duties. The robot has now driven over 17 miles since landing in early August of 2012. Over last weekend, the rover completed the planned drive with a relatively easy traverse in the pediment, reports Michelle Minitti, a planetary geologist at Framework in Silver […]
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Photos from the 21st flight of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter have been newly posted. The rotorcraft traveled 1,214 feet (370 meters) and clocked a speed of 3.85 meters per second. The tiny vehicle stayed aloft for 129.2 seconds. These images were acquired on March 10th by the craft’s navigation camera mounted in the helicopter’s fuselage […]
Blue Origin’s 20th mission of its suborbital New Shepard vehicle is slated for March 23rd. Aboard the crew is Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson alongside five customers: Marty Allen, husband and wife duo Sharon and Marc Hagle, Jim Kitchen, and George Nield. This mission is the fourth human flight for the New Shepard program […]
The European Space Agency (ESA) Council will meet March 16-17, 2022 in Paris in its 306th session. On the agenda: “implications of the current geopolitical situation on ESA’s activities.” Last month, ESA stated: “We deplore the human casualties and tragic consequences of the war in Ukraine. We are giving absolute priority to taking […]
China’s Shenzhou-13 crew — Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu – are returning to Earth in April. The taikonaut trio entered the Tianhe core module on October 16, 2021. The under construction space station complex is composed of the core module and the cargo supply crafts Tianzhou-2 and Tianzhou-3. China has planned to […]
The unprovoked Russian military aggression against Ukraine has lit a fuse that has impacted worldwide space cooperation not only here on Earth but set collaborative projects on an unsteady interplanetary trajectory. Like Russian nesting dolls of diminishing sizes, just how major or minor Russia’s actions will impact the space community of nations in years to […]
At the beginning of 2022, the European Space Agency (ESA) awarded two parallel cost-benefit analysis studies, based on two different technical solutions, to Frazer-Nash Consultancy and Roland Berger respectively. These studies, funded through the Preparation element of ESA’s Basic Activities, will evaluate the “business case” for space-based solar power in Europe, using […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3410 duties. The rover continues to face difficult terrain. Scott Guzewich, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center reports that recent Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) AEGIS work has automatically identified an interesting rock near the rover by itself. AEGIS stands for Autonomous […]
China has approved the fourth phase of its lunar exploration program, a phase that includes building an International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) at the south pole of the Moon. “The fourth phase of the project is mainly to make several landings at the south pole of the Moon. After landing, a model lunar scientific […]
How best to keep NASA’s sight on Mars? A status update and review of NASA’s Artemis program was held on March 1 by the U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. It reviewed NASA’s plans and progress on Artemis—the heavy-lift Space Launch System, the Orion crew vehicle, the ground systems, the space suits, the human […]
