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The Planetary Society Weblog
Archive
Archived posts are listed in reverse chronological order.
Jul. 23, 2007 | 09:55 PDT | 16:55 UTC
Venus Express PFS fails to respond to a swift kick
Venus Express has been in orbit since April 11, 2006, and all but one of its instruments have been returning lots of data. There's been one fly in the ointment, however, and that's the failure of its Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS). The... More»
Jul. 20, 2007 | 22:46 PDT | Jul. 21 05:46 UTC
The 2007 Martian Dust Storm: Crisis for Some, Opportunity for Others
I should have posted about this earlier, but real life intervened. You may have heard that there is currently a dust storm at Mars. As long as you're orbiting safely above the storm, this is merely of academic interest. But if you're roving below... More»
Jul. 20, 2007 | 07:14 PDT | 14:14 UTC
Kaguya (SELENE) launch delayed
According to a JAXA press release, the launch of the Kaguya lunar satellite, previously planned for August 16, is being delayed for an unknown length of time. Here's the explanation:When a ground test was prepared for another satellite (Wideband... More»
Jul. 19, 2007 | 15:39 PDT | 22:39 UTC
New moons at Saturn
The Cassini team announced today the discovery of a new moon at Saturn between Methone and Pallene. While researching that story I realized I missed a May announcement of the discovery of three more outer, irregular satellites. So I've put those... More»
Jul. 19, 2007 | 07:39 PDT | 14:39 UTC
Check out the twelfth Carnival of Space
Check out the dozenth Carnival of Space over at Music of the Spheres!
One of the most popular topics this week is the Galaxy Zoo, a website that is taking a truly tedious task -- classifying thousands of galaxies -- off the shoulders of some poor... More»
Jul. 18, 2007 | 15:14 PDT | 22:14 UTC
Yet another active world: Charon
I've just posted a news story on a recently published paper that suggests that Pluto's moon Charon may have active ice volcanoes. Not only that, but since Charon is spectrally relatively typical of intermediate-sized Kuiper Belt objects (ones that... More»
Jul. 18, 2007 | 10:03 PDT | 17:03 UTC
Conference on the Exploration of Phobos and Deimos
The first announcement of an upcoming conference is getting a little bit of press and notice in various other blogs. The First International Conference on the Exploration of Phobos and Deimos, to be held at NASA Ames November 5-8, will focus on the... More»
Jul. 17, 2007 | 11:04 PDT | 18:04 UTC
Will Phoenix' thrust raise too much dust?
A reader just emailed me a question about the Phoenix landing system, and it's one I've been asked repeatedly, so I thought I'd address it here. The question was, "I have been wondering if the exhaust from the retrorockets will not modify the very... More»
Jul. 17, 2007 | 10:04 PDT | 17:04 UTC
Dawn Journal: More than one way to leave the launch pad
Here's another Dawn Journal entry, contributed by Marc Rayman. Marc is the Project System Engineer for the Dawn mission. Thanks Marc!
by Dr. Marc D. Rayman
Dear Dawntothegrounds,
There are two ways for a spacecraft to leave its launch pad:... More»
Jul. 16, 2007 | 17:50 PDT | Jul. 17 00:50 UTC
Hey, Moon! Get out of the way of Cassini!
Here's a funny Cassini item that Dave Seal just pointed out to me. Go to space.jpl.nasa.gov and ask to see Earth as seen from Cassini, and here's what the view looked like just a couple of hours ago:Click to enlarge >Earth as seen from Cassini,... More»
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