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Dragon overcomes issues, arrives at Station
Posted by Jason Davis on 2013/03/04 09:16 CST | 2 comments
SpaceX's Dragon capsule has arrived at the International Space Station following a wild Friday in which the capsule's thrusters experienced an issue.
Atacama Diary for March 2, 2013--ALMA Explained
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/03/02 07:00 CST
The second in a series of audio blogs chronicling my trip to the driest spot on Earth, Chile's Atacama desert, to see the inauguration of the ALMA Observatory. Al Wootten and Alison Peck tell the story of ALMA.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/03/01 06:43 CST | 2 comments
Last week I trawled the archives to find all of Galileo's images of asteroid Ida; this week, I turned to Gaspra.
Dragon reaches orbit, but experiences propellant valve issue
Posted by Jason Davis on 2013/03/01 11:41 CST | 1 comments
SpaceX's CRS-2 mission began successfully, but hit a snag when a thruster propellant valve failed to work properly.
Posted by Larry Crumpler on 2013/03/01 10:27 CST
Opportunity completed the observations of the outcrop noted in the previous report and has now moved back down slope.
Dawn journal: Revisiting orbital mechanics
Posted by Marc Rayman on 2013/03/01 09:02 CST | 1 comments
Now that Dawn has changed its speed by nearly eight kilometers per second, Marc Rayman revisits the concept of orbital velocity.
Planetary Society Weekly Hangout: Studying Asteroids from Earth with Andy Rivkin
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/02/28 01:25 CST | 5 comments
Emily Lakdawalla's guest this week was Applied Physics Laboratory asteroid astronomer Andy Rivkin. We talked about the menagerie of rocks in the asteroid belt, how many of them travel in pairs and triples, how some of them are surprisingly wet, and how much you can learn about asteroids using Earth-based telescopes.
Posted by Ted Stryk on 2013/02/28 12:59 CST | 1 comments
Presenting a newly-processed version of Voyager 2's best images of Uranus' moon Umbriel.
Comet to whiz past Mars in October 2014
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/02/27 05:36 CST | 22 comments
A recently discovered comet, C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring), is going to be passing very close to Mars on October 19, 2014. Does it pose a risk to spacecraft?
Checking in with the Future of Mars Exploration at NASA
Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/02/27 02:17 CST | 4 comments
Reporting from NASA's Mars Exploration Program working group on the latest updates in scientific exploration of the red planet.
MarsFest 2013: Mars in the Mojave
March 1st - 3rd, 2013
Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/02/26 01:14 CST | 1 comments
From March 1st - 3rd I'll be representing the Planetary Society at the 2nd annual MarsFest, located in Death Valley National Park.
Atacama Diary
February 25, 2013--The Longest Journey Begins With a Single Dose
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/02/25 11:47 CST | 4 comments
The first in a series of audio blogs chronicling my trip to the driest spot on Earth, Chile's Atacama desert, to see the inauguration of the ALMA Observatory.
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/02/25 12:44 CST | 4 comments
Nineteen years ago this month, the Clementine mission sent some amazing views from the moon.
Galileo got so many more images of Ida than I realized
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/02/22 04:14 CST | 1 comments
While writing up the cruise-phase issues of the Galileo Messenger a couple of weeks ago, I came across a fuzzy montage of images of Ida that I had not seen before. So I decided to spend some time digging into the Planetary Data System to see if there were more images to be found. I found lots and lots pictures that I'd never seen before!
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2013/02/21 06:11 CST | 1 comments
NASA planetary scientist David S. McKay has passed away. He had an enormous impact on planetary studies over the course of his career. He also was a co-investigator on The Planetary Society LIFE experiments.
Pretty picture: a moon transit
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/02/21 05:52 CST | 5 comments
A reader comment inspired me to dig up an oldie but a goodie: a sequence of photos of the Moon transiting Earth, seen from a very long way away,
Planetary Society Hangout Thursday, Feb 21st at noon PST. The Sequester at NASA with Jon Morse
Thursday, Feb 21st, at noon PST/3pm EST/20:00 UT
Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/02/21 02:00 CST | 1 comments
How will the Sequester effect NASA? Dr. Jon Morse, former Director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA, will help us understand the cuts, the process, and the hard decisions being made right now.
Webcast Tonight! Planetary Scientist and Society President Jim Bell
Watch It Live or Later On Demand
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/02/20 07:59 CST
Professor Bell's topic is "Exploring Mars, the Moon, Asteroids, and Comets with Rovers and Landers," and there is no one better to talk about this subject.
Curiosity update, sol 193: drilled stuff is in the scoop, ready for analysis
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/02/20 06:36 CST
There was a press briefing today to announce that Curiosity has completed her last major first-time activity: powder drilled from inside a rock at John Klein successfully made its way into the CHIMRA sample handling mechanism in the turret. Sol 193, then, marks the day that Curiosity is finally ready to start the science mission.
Brother, Can You Spare $1B for a Planetary Space Telescope?
Posted by Van Kane on 2013/02/20 12:29 CST | 2 comments
Imagine you had a Hubble-class telescope and could use in any way you wanted to explore planets. What would you do with it?
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