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The Planetary Society Blog
Archive
Archived posts are listed in reverse chronological order.
Sep. 19, 2011 | 09:55 PDT | 16:55 UTC
Lou Friedman: Students design human asteroid mission in Caltech Space Challenge
by Lou Friedman
I spent much of the past week attending the Caltech Space Challenge, a student-organized international competition to design a human mission to a Near-Earth asteroid. It was a great week, and one of the most positive, upbeat and... More»
Sep. 17, 2011 | 19:23 PDT | Sep. 18 02:23 UTC
A Skirmish Won, the Battle Will Continue
by Charlene Anderson
In this latest skirmish over NASA's budget, the numbers are in – and it looks like we won! All Planetary Society members and supporters who signed our petitions, wrote letters and e-mails, sent faxes and made phone calls – you... More»
Sep. 16, 2011 | 06:44 PDT | 13:44 UTC
Video: Zooming around Vesta
The Dawn team released today a nice little video that flies around a shape model of Vesta produced by DLR, the German Aerospace Corporation, who built and operate Dawn's camera. What's a shape model? It describes Vesta's topography -- every lump... More»
Sep. 15, 2011 | 12:18 PDT | 19:18 UTC
Scale solar system presentation slide, a provisional version for you to review
I'm preparing a talk for the Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show here in Pasadena on Sunday afternoon at 1:45. I have spent the morning putting together a slide that I have long wanted to have for presentations. It includes all the big stuff in... More»
Sep. 15, 2011 | 10:00 PDT | 17:00 UTC
Guest Post: Jason Davis: NASA unveils Space Launch System
Human spaceflight fans have a new computer desktop wallpaper.
NASA has officially revealed the design of the much-anticipated Space Launch System, the next "exploration-class" human spaceflight vehicle for missions beyond Earth orbit. Outfitted in... More»
Sep. 14, 2011 | 14:44 PDT | 21:44 UTC
Dawn's cryptic image release titles
Every day's image release from the Dawn spacecraft shows something on Vesta that is weird and cool and difficult to explain. The images come out with very little information describing what is going on to make those weird landscapes. In fact, for... More»
Sep. 13, 2011 | 14:14 PDT | 21:14 UTC
Guest Post: Ray Sanders: What's Up in the Night Sky This Fall?
Ray Sanders is currently studying astrophysics at Arizona State University where he is researching variable stars. Ray volunteers at ASU's "Astronomy Open House" and is co-director of outreach for Yuri's Night 2012. He writes for Universe Today... More»
Sep. 13, 2011 | 11:27 PDT | 18:27 UTC
New Horizons Day 2: Liquids on Pluto's surface?
I'm getting back to my notes from Day 2 of the New Horizons meeting again, which I seem to be posting in dribs and drabs! Jeff Moore's presentation was cool because of the discussion it stimulated. He considered what exogenic processes might be... More»
Sep. 12, 2011 | 05:47 PDT | 12:47 UTC
Pretty picture: Talking to GRAIL
A lovely picture from the Canberra DSN this morning, showing two of the workhorse 34-meter antennas communicating with the nearby GRAIL spacecraft. In the distance, the huge DSS-43 talks to the solar observatory STEREO-B.Click to enlarge >Antennas... More»
Sep. 10, 2011 | 07:55 PDT | 14:55 UTC
GRAIL A and B are on their way to the Moon!
After some exasperating delays due to pesky and changeable high-level winds, the twin GRAIL spacecraft launched this morning on their trip to the Moon. Official launch time was 13:08:52.775 UTC on September 10, 2011. Go GRAIL!Click to enlarge... More»
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