Blog Archive

Happy 50th birthday of human spaceflight

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/12 12:12 CDT

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to see firsthand the blackness of space above our home planet's thin atmosphere. Since there's lots of thoughtful reporting and commentary being posted on this anniversary, I thought it'd be more useful to link to some particularly interesting posts than to add in my comments.

Comparing Clementine and Chandrayaan-1 spectra from the Moon

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/11 12:38 CDT

In a paper recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Georgiana Kramer and several coauthors performed a careful comparison of two data sets that seem like they're measuring the same things, so you'd think that the measurements they took would match between the two instruments. But they don't quite match.

Having some fun with Curiosity's pretty face (plus, a conversation about Curiosity with a 4-year-old)

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/08 12:03 CDT

The photo I took of Curiosity's "face" and posted on Monday seems to have tickled a lot of people. I understand it's the subject of a "Photoshop this Mars rover" challenge at Fark, and a couple of the guys over at unmannedspaceflight.com have been having a field day with it.

Juno is being shipped to Cape Canaveral today

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/08 11:15 CDT

Spaceflight Now is following along as the next Jupiter orbiter, Juno, is journeying from its birthplace at Lockheed Martin in Denver to Cape Canaveral. As of this moment it has been packed up and loaded onto a flatbed trailer, which is driving through Denver with police escort, en route to the Denver airport, where it'll board a C-17 for the trip to Florida.

Dawn artist's concept orbiting asteroid Vesta

Dawn Journal: Calibrating instruments and thrusters on Vesta approach

Posted by Marc Rayman on 2011/04/07 03:14 CDT

Three and a half years after launch, Dawn continues its travels around the Sun, maneuvering to take the same orbital path as Vesta. The spacecraft has spent most of the past month gently thrusting with its ion propulsion system. Some of the thrusting this month, however, was not designed to propel Dawn to Vesta.

What's Up in the Solar System diagram by Olaf Frohn (updated for October 2013)

365 Days of Astronomy Podcast: What's up in the second quarter of 2011

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/07 11:16 CDT

Regular readers of this blog will find the content of today's 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast familiar, because it's an update on what the solar system exploration spacecraft are up to, based on my monthly "what's up" updates.

SOHO's view of the Sun and Jupiter, April 5, 2011

Spotting Jupiter's Moons...with a Solar Telescope!?

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/06 12:27 CDT

I was astounded to learn this morning that SOHO can not only see Jupiter, it can actually resolve Jupiter's moons (at least its two outer ones) as points of light separate from their planet!

SpaceX announces new Falcon Heavy

Posted by Susan Lendroth on 2011/04/05 04:30 CDT

Today, Elon Musk, CEO and chief rocket designer of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) -- as well as member of the Planetary Society Board of Directors -- unveiled plans and price points for their new Falcon Heavy.

Chang'E 2 update: primary mission successful

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/05 01:41 CDT

For months I've had no information about China's Chang'e 2 lunar orbiter for my monthly "What's Up" updates, and that's finally changed.

Welcome to Carnival of Space #191

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/05 11:25 CDT

Welcome, everyone, to the Planetary Society Blog for the 191st Carnival of Space! Every week, a different webmaster or blogger hosts the Carnival, showcasing articles written on the topic of space.

Face-to-face with Curiosity

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/04 04:54 CDT

I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity today for a face-to-face visit with one of the biggest celebrities in my world: Curiosity, the next Mars rover. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory gave members of the media a chance to suit up in the white coveralls known as "bunny suits" and enter the Spacecraft Assembly Facility, the clean room in which Curiosity is being assembled and prepared for launch.

Lovely giant full Moon photo

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/01 03:08 CDT

Here's a photo worthy of hanging on the wall: a gorgeous, 4000-pixel-square portrait of the full Moon captured by Rolf Hempel from Germany on the night of the "Supermoon."