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The Planetary Society Blog
Archive
Archived posts are listed in reverse chronological order.
Sep. 29, 2009 | 16:18 PDT | 23:18 UTC
A little drama during the MESSENGER Mercury flyby
Just minutes after closest approach, MESSENGER's radio signal was lost unexpectedly, several minutes before the expected blackout due to it passing behind Mercury. Then, of course, came the expected 52-minute blackout period, so for about an hour... More»
Sep. 29, 2009 | 14:58 PDT | 21:58 UTC
MESSENGER just passed closest approach!
I've been Tweeting away today as MESSENGER zoomed in for its flyby; it just now passed closest approach, zooming past at an altitude of 228 kilometers and a relative speed of more than 19,000 kilometers per hour, firing the laser on its laser... More»
Sep. 29, 2009 | 04:13 PDT | 11:13 UTC
MESSENGER's latest Mercury image
A new image of MESSENGER's forward view from 44 hours out. As I write, we're under 11 hours from closest approach. Click to enlarge >44 hours from Mercury Flyby 3MESSENGER took this photo of Mercury on September 28, 2009 on its way in to its third... More»
Sep. 28, 2009 | 13:19 PDT | 20:19 UTC
Now it's Cabeus, not Cabeus A, for LCROSS
The blog entries will be flying fast and furious this week as MESSENGER flies by Mercury tomorrow and LCROSS bears down on its spectacular (we hope) crash into the Moon in only 10 days. NASA just posted an update to the choice of target for LCROSS'... More»
Sep. 28, 2009 | 12:27 PDT | 19:27 UTC
Dawn, now with 33% more Vesta
I just posted Marc Rayman's latest Dawn Journal, and it contained some surprising and welcome news that I wanted to make sure you didn't miss: A "seemingly modest improvement in solar array power" over what was budgeted for in the original mission... More»
Sep. 28, 2009 | 12:27 PDT | 19:27 UTC
Carnival of Space #122
This week's space carnival is live over at Cumbrian Sky, so check it out!... More»
Sep. 28, 2009 | 12:23 PDT | 19:23 UTC
Dawn Journal: Good performance means a longer stay at Vesta!
Here's our monthly checkup with the Dawn mission, contributed by Marc Rayman, the mission's Project System Engineer. Thanks Marc! --ESLClick to enlarge >Marc RaymanBy Marc Rayman
Dear Dawnniversaries,
Dawn is celebrating the second anniversary of... More»
Sep. 28, 2009 | 09:07 PDT | 16:07 UTC
Planetary Radio Q and A: Who sees better, Hubble or ground-based scopes with adaptive optics?
This week's Planetary Radio looks at the Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment, or IRVE. On "Questions and Answers" I answered my this question:
I read that adaptive optics can only be used for infrared, not visible wavelengths. Why is that?
My... More»
Sep. 28, 2009 | 06:52 PDT | 13:52 UTC
Fifty-five hours from Mercury
Actually, at the time that I write this, MESSENGER is only about 32 hours and 400,000 kilometers from closest approach, but this photo was taken at 55 hours and 672,000 kilometers out:Click to enlarge >55 hours from Mercury Flyby 3MESSENGER snapped... More»
Sep. 26, 2009 | 14:07 PDT | 21:07 UTC
My Tweets this week
If you'd like to see these in real time, Follow me at Twitter. A word on some conventions: "RT" means "Retweet" -- I'm repeating something that somebody else said. Anything preceded by an "@" symbol is the username of someone else on Twitter.... More»
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