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Pretty pictures: Curiosity working late
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/07 11:47 CDT | 2 comments
Just some cool photos of Curiosity lighting up the Cumberland drill hole after sunset for a little nighttime science work.
Morpheus lander gets back off its feet
Posted by Jason Davis on 2013/06/07 01:58 CDT | 4 comments
NASA's Project Morpheus lander completed a 74-second flight yesterday, marking the second tethered test of the new vehicle.
ESA launches fourth cargo spacecraft to ISS
Posted by Jason Davis on 2013/06/06 11:57 CDT | 1 comments
An Ariane 5 rocket carrying the Automated Transfer Vehicle Albert Einstein lifted off from French Guiana Wednesday.
Launch is coming! LADEE arrives at Wallops
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/06 10:01 CDT | 5 comments
It's a big day for any space mission: the shipping of the spacecraft from its assembly facility to its launch facility. That happened for the next lunar mission, LADEE, on June 4, 2013.
POSTPONED: Planetary Society Hangout, Planetary Resources' Chris Lewicki
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/05 11:23 CDT
The Hangout has been postponed because of technical difficulties. Stay tuned for rescheduling information.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Departs Cape York, Breaks Apollo Record
Sols 3295 - 3325
Posted by A.J.S. Rayl on 2013/06/05 09:22 CDT | 1 comments
It was a merry and mighty month of May for the Mars Exploration Rover mission: Opportunity finished a blockbuster study of Matijevic Hill finding the best evidence yet for an ancient, potentially habitable environment, and then embarked on its first real road trip in two years. The robot field geologist had barely gotten underway on its journey when it surpassed the Apollo 17 lunar rover distance record to become the most traveled NASA vehicle on another planetary body.
Download This One-Page Summary on the Threat to Planetary Science
Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/06/05 07:11 CDT | 5 comments
When we visit Congress, this is what we leave them with. This one page summarizes the entire threat to continued planetary exploration at NASA in the proposed 2014 budget.
Curiosity update, sol 295: "Hitting the road" to Mount Sharp
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/05 04:54 CDT | 3 comments
There was a Curiosity telephone conference this morning to make an exciting announcement: they're (almost) done at Glenelg and are preparing for the drive south to Mount Sharp. Allow me an editorial comment: finally!
Posted by Jim Bell on 2013/06/03 03:53 CDT | 6 comments
I'm absolutely floored when I stop to think that our beautiful blue ocean is only one of perhaps a half dozen or more oceans on other worlds in our solar system, and only one of probably millions (or more) oceans on other Earth-like planets in our galaxy. Oceans abound!
Dawn journal: Thrusting to a new personal best
Posted by Marc Rayman on 2013/06/02 12:07 CDT | 2 comments
Planetary Resources' Crowdfunded Space Telescope
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/31 11:25 CDT | 2 comments
A fan-funded space telescope, usable by the public? It's an awesome idea, and it appears that a wide swath of the public agrees. Planetary Resources, headed by president and chief engineer Chris Lewicki, announced a Kickstarter project yesterday, with the goal of raising $1 million toward one of their ARKYD space telescopes.
Say "hi!" to asteroid -- actually, asteroids -- (285263) 1998 QE2
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/30 06:51 CDT | 8 comments
A large asteroid is passing reasonably close to Earth in a few hours, and astronomers at the great radio telescopes at Goldstone and Arecibo are zapping it. The latest discovery: QE2, like many asteroids, is a binary.
Implementing Missions Within Budget -- Good News
Posted by Van Kane on 2013/05/30 12:33 CDT | 1 comments
Last decade, cost overruns on a number of planetary missions stretched NASA's budget. Recent missions, though, have stayed within budget. However, the cost of fiscal discipline may have meant staying close to home.
Finding faces and animals on Mars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/30 10:05 CDT | 7 comments
This week's "lizard" or "rat" on Mars is just the latest of a never-ending stream of so-called discoveries of animate and inanimate objects in images returned from the Red Planet. I challenge you readers to find more such objects in one Curiosity panorama.
Planetary Defense Conference 2013 Part 2
Shoemaker NEO Grants
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2013/05/29 05:25 CDT
Second part of a three part wrap up to April's Planetary Defense Conference: a report on Planetary Shoemaker NEO Grant related activities and people at the Planetary Defense Conference 2013
Express Soyuz sends new crew to station
Posted by Jason Davis on 2013/05/29 08:21 CDT | 1 comments
Fyodor Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano lifted off in their Soyuz TMA-09M at 4:31 p.m. EDT and arrived at the International Space Station six hours later.
Lesser-known views of Uranus and Neptune
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/28 10:58 CDT | 7 comments
Despite the fact that Voyager 2 returned relatively few high-resolution images from either Uranus or Neptune, there are many more photos in the archives than regularly make it to public view.
The Shores of the Kraken Sea: Great Place Names in the Solar System
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/05/28 08:59 CDT | 9 comments
Nothing reflects the romance of deep space exploration more than the evocative names of places on the planets and moons.
Astronomy Enters a New Era
Join us for a live webcast about thrilling new tools that will come online in the next decade.
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/05/26 08:45 CDT | 3 comments
A live conversation about just a few of the powerful new instruments that will revolutionize our knowledge of the cosmos once again.
Mars Exploration Rovers Special Update: Opportunity's Findings at Endeavour, So Far
Posted by A.J.S. Rayl on 2013/05/25 03:03 CDT | 2 comments
Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity left Cape York on May 14th and embarked on a 2-kilometer journey south along the western rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is heading now to Solander Point, where it will spend the coming Martian winter.
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