Blogs
Emily Lakdawalla's blogs from 2013
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/06 02:51 CDT | 5 comments
It's so exciting when the small talk that lubricates social interactions with strangers turns into an excited discussion of space and science.
Congratulations to LADEE on arrival at the Moon!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/06 08:33 CDT | 1 comments
After a one-month journey from Earth to the Moon, NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) safely entered orbit at 10:57 UTC today, October 6.
Photos: India's Mars Orbiter Mission arrives at launch site
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/05 02:39 CDT
ISRO posted five photos from the momentous day of the Mars Orbiter Mission's shipment to Sriharikota.
Government shutdown closes 3 of 4 National Radio Astronomy Observatories
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/04 06:38 CDT | 3 comments
The shutdown of the federal government continues to claim casualties. Today, the Green Bank Telescope, Very Large Array, and Very Long Baseline Arrays all shut their doors, blinding us to the radio sky and scuttling long-term research projects.
The 45th Division for Planetary Sciences meeting, Oct 6-11, 2013
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/04 03:21 CDT
The annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society begins on Sunday and runs for a week in Denver, Colorado. I'll be attending all week, bringing you the latest news from across the solar system.
Google+ Hangout with ESA about Europe's Mars exploration
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/04 09:00 CDT
The European Space Agency invited me to join Mars Express project scientist Olivier Witasse, and spacecraft oeprations manager Michel Denis for a Hangout on Europe's recent and future exploration of Mars and Phobos.
Super cool Phobos and Deimos animations from Mars Express
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/03 02:17 CDT
I've been delving in to the Mars Express image archive this week, checking out its images of Phobos, and found a couple of really cool time-series of images to assemble into animations.
Yes, there seems to be a hole in Curiosity's left front wheel, and no, that's not a problem
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/02 11:22 CDT | 15 comments
Some brand-new images just arrived from Curiosity on Mars, and two of the most recent are Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) images of the wheels. Today's images contained two little surprises.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/02 02:39 CDT | 2 comments
When LADEE launched on September 6, it launched into Earth orbit. Today, it is finally on a path that will take it to its October 6 lunar orbit insertion. Its operation is continuing normally in the face of the U.S. government's shutdown yesterday, as is that of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter achieves imaging of comet ISON from Mars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/02 12:03 CDT
Yesterday, the much-anticipated comet ISON made its closest pass by Mars. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera is the first to achieve a positive detection of the somewhat-fainter-than-expected comet in its photos.
On Gandhi's birthday, India ships Mars spacecraft to launch site
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/02 11:45 CDT
Several Indian news sites posted a press wire article this morning indicating that India's Mars Orbiter Mission departed its assembly and testing facility in Bangalore today and is now on the way to the coastal launch site, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, a journey of about 400 kilometers.
American government shut down, but JPL and APL planetary missions still operating -- for now
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/01 11:31 CDT | 6 comments
I spoke with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Veronica McGregor and the Applied Physics Laboratory's Geoff Brown this morning to get accurate information about the operation of NASA planetary missions. In brief: All of NASA's missions that are operated out of JPL and APL are continuing to operate normally today and for at least a week.
Relative and absolute ages in the histories of Earth and the Moon: The Geologic Time Scale
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/30 03:04 CDT
A few days ago, I wrote a post about the basins of the Moon -- a result of a trip down a rabbit hole of book research. Here's the next step in that journey: the Geologic Time Scales of Earth and the Moon.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/26 03:33 CDT | 4 comments
A paper in press in the Journal of Geophysical Research uses new data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to update our story for the history of the Moon's massive impacts.
More fancy Phobos and Deimos photography by Curiosity
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/24 10:19 CDT
Curiosity looked up after dark and captured more cool photos of Mars' moons. They include Phobos and Deimos passing in the night, and Phobos entering Mars' shadow.
Photos and Video of India's Mars Orbiter Mission, proceeding toward October 28 launch
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/23 01:33 CDT | 1 comments
Indian media reported over the weekend that the Mars Orbiter Mission has passed some senior review, and has been approved to proceed toward a launch date of October 28, a week later than previously planned.
The Deep Impact Mission is officially over
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/20 11:10 CDT | 1 comments
Efforts to regain contact with Deep Impact have been ended. The last contact with the spacecraft was on August 8, 2013.
Book Review: Rock Star: Adventures of a Meteorite Man, by Geoff Notkin
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/20 10:41 CDT | 3 comments
Rock Star -- the memoir of television "Meteorite Man" Geoff Notkin -- is a life's journey full of joy, wonder, and fun, and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
ICE is returning to Earth; but do we have the will to regain control?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/18 05:37 CDT | 8 comments
After a journey of more than 30 years, ICE is coming back to Earth next year. But do we know how to regain control of it, and can we find the means to do so?
Two new ways to browse Vesta: 2. Vesta Image data browser
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/16 10:57 CDT
A few weeks ago I received an email pointing me to a really cool new map-based browser to Dawn's Vesta image data.
Two new ways to browse Vesta: 1. Vesta Low-Altitude Mapping Orbit (LAMO) Atlas
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/16 10:57 CDT
Last week was the European Planetary Science Congress in London, and there's been a lot of science news. One thing that caught my eye Friday was the publication of a new atlas for Vesta.
LADEE checkout phase successfully completed!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/13 07:25 CDT
Some good news to start your weekend: the newest member of our deep-space fleet, LADEE, has successfully completed its checkout phase and is now officially in its cruise phase. It is still in Earth orbit, headed for Lunar Orbit Insertion on Sunday, October 6.
Taking a close look at MAVEN assembly and testing videos
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/11 06:33 CDT | 1 comments
I noticed something funny while examining MAVEN assembly and testing videos.
Still no contact with Deep Impact
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/10 06:59 CDT | 4 comments
Oh, that dreaded phrase, "mission status report." It sounds so neutral, but it almost always means bad news. In this case, it's really bad: Deep Impact is not communicating with Earth.
Mars' valley networks tell us of a dry, then wet, then dry Mars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/10 03:43 CDT | 1 comments
Was there rainfall on Mars? Recent work mapping valley networks suggests there probably was -- but only for about 200 million years. What does this mean for life, and the Curiosity mission?
Pluto's atmosphere does not collapse
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/06 11:07 CDT | 1 comments
Just four months ago I posted about a paper recently published by Leslie Young and coauthors that described three possible scenarios for Pluto's atmosphere. Yesterday, Cathy Olkin, Leslie Young, and coauthors posted a preprint on arXiv that says that only one of those scenarios can be true. And it's a surprising one. The title of their paper says it all: "Pluto's atmosphere does not collapse."
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/05 07:20 CDT | 1 comments
I glean all the important facts about NASA's next Moon mission from their prelaunch press kit. Launch is scheduled for September 6, 2013 at 8:27 p.m. PDT (September 7 at 03:27 UTC).
In his own words: Mike Massimino on how he "nearly broke" Hubble
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/05 11:14 CDT
In an enthralling article for Esquire magazine, astronaut Mike Massimino writes about nearly failing to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, and how the people of Earth came to his rescue.
Deep Impact in trouble: last heard from August 8
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/04 01:10 CDT
Communication with the Deep Impact spacecraft was lost some time between August 11 and August 14. The team has determined the cause of the problem, and is trying to figure out how to restore communication.
Book review: Destiny or Chance Revisited
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/04 01:02 CDT | 1 comments
What have the recent discoveries of thousands of exoplanets told us about how we got here, and whether we are alone? In Destiny or Chance Revisited, Stuart Ross Taylor attempts to answer those two questions.
Looking back at Mariner images of Mars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/03 06:49 CDT | 8 comments
Bruce Murray was an early advocate for the inclusion of cameras on planetary spacecraft. As a tribute to him, I thought I'd take a look at a few of the images from the early Mariner missions to Mars.
Results of ten Venus years of cloud tracking by Venus Express
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/29 10:55 CDT | 4 comments
What Venus Express' Visual Monitoring Camera images of Venus have taught us about the motions of Venus' atmosphere.
Chang'e 3 proceeding toward December 1 launch
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/28 11:02 CDT | 2 comments
News agencies are reporting that China's soft lunar lander and rover, Chang'e 3, has passed its final critical reviews and is now proceeding toward launch.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/22 07:02 CDT | 3 comments
LADEE's launch window opens two weeks from today, on September 6. The brief little mission aims to study the lunar atmosphere and dust environment before future soft landings disturb its currently pristine state.
Photo gallery: MAVEN being prepped for launch
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/21 04:56 CDT | 2 comments
Watching MAVEN go through its final launch preparations via the photo gallery at the Kennedy Media Archive.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/20 07:37 CDT | 4 comments
Those sneaky scientists on Curiosity managed to catch a Phobos transit of the Sun with one set of cameras, and to watch its shadow darkening the surface with another. COOL!
Movie of Phobos and Deimos from Curiosity: super cool and scientifically useful
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/16 05:01 CDT | 5 comments
Yesterday, the Curiosity mission released the video whose potential I got so excited about a couple of weeks ago: the view, from Curiosity, of Phobos transiting Deimos in the Martian sky. In this post, Mark Lemmon answers a bunch of my questions about why they photograph Phobos and Deimos from rovers.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/16 11:24 CDT | 4 comments
In which the fifth graders of Kipp Heartwood Academy argue the competing sides in the is-Pluto-a-planet debate through the medium of rap.
Book review: Europe to the Stars, by Govert Schilling and Lars Lindberg Christensen
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/16 11:05 CDT
The world's great telescopes capture stunning photographs of stars, nebulae, and other sky phenomena. In Europe to the Stars, authors Govert Schilling and Lars Lindberg Christensen share many such photos. But the real stars of this book are the great telescopes of the European Southern Observatory.
Pretty picture: spectacular Saturn and Titan
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/15 08:04 CDT | 3 comments
A lovely view of the ringed planet and its hazy moon seen from nearly behind them just a few days ago.
SMAP Under Construction: Field trip to the Spacecraft Assembly Facility
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/14 04:53 CDT | 1 comments
Yesterday I enjoyed my second-ever opportunity to suit up and enter the clean room of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. On display were SMAP, an Earth orbiting radar mission, and ISS-RapidScat, which will perform a different radar experiment from the Space Station.
Want to learn how to process space images? Take my Cosmoquest Academy class!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/09 05:40 CDT | 2 comments
The Planetary Society and Cosmoquest have teamed up to offer a short course in space image processing, and I'll be teaching! The course comprises four one-hour sessions from October 14 to 23.
"Water on Mars" in Sky & Telescope
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/08 11:44 CDT | 7 comments
A shameless plug for my article on "Water on Mars," the cover story in the September issue of Sky & Telescope.
Curiosity's first year on Mars: Where's the science?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/07 02:53 CDT | 31 comments
Yesterday was the first anniversary of Curiosity's landing on Mars, and there was much rejoicing. It's been fun to look back at that exciting day, and it's been an opportunity to reflect on what Curiosity has accomplished in her first year. What science do we have to show for it?
Curiosity is copying Cassini's tricks!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/03 10:59 CDT | 9 comments
Take a look at this amazing photo, captured by Curiosity from the surface of Mars on sol 351 (August 1, 2013). It is unmistakably Phobos.
Pluto on the Eve of Exploration by New Horizons: Is there an ocean, or not?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/02 08:00 CDT | 5 comments
Does Pluto have an ocean under its ice? If it doesn't now, did it ever have one? How will we know?
Keeping up with Curiosity, almost a year after landing
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/01 06:16 CDT | 4 comments
It seems like my attention wandered for just a moment, and all of a sudden Curiosity is really on the road. She's racked up drive after drive, methodically eating up the terrain between here and her goal: the ancient rocks at the foot of Mount Sharp.
Happy 32! Happy New Mars Year!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/31 01:45 CDT | 4 comments
They're too far apart to have a party, but today Curiosity and Opportunity could have rung in the New Mars Year. Today Mars reached a solar longitude of zero degrees and the Sun crossed Mars' equator, heralding the arrival of spring in the northern hemisphere and autumn in the southern hemisphere.
Pluto on the Eve of Exploration by New Horizons: A problem of cartography
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/30 05:44 CDT | 6 comments
Last Thursday at the Pluto Science Conference there was a surprising and interesting talk by Amanda Zangari, who pointed out a serious problem with Pluto cartography.
The road to Mars: updates on NASA's MAVEN and India's Mars Orbiter Mission
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/29 08:00 CDT | 3 comments
The 2013 launch window for Mars is fast approaching. November represents the next chance to send spacecraft to the Red Planet; the next window doesn't open until early 2016. So NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are working hard to prepare their respective Mars missions for launch.
Pluto on the Eve of Exploration by New Horizons: Small moons, dust, surfaces, interiors
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/24 09:04 CDT | 5 comments
My roundup from notes on the day's presentations on dust in the Pluto system and the surfaces and interiors of Pluto and Charon.
Is the study of astrophysics self-indulgent?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/23 09:55 CDT | 15 comments
Is the study of astrophysics self-indulgent? I was caught aback by that assertion, made by a recent graduate in the latest issue of the Brown University alumni magazine.
Pluto on the Eve of New Horizons: Webcast tonight
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/23 08:37 CDT | 3 comments
Pretty picture: Looking backward
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/23 05:03 CDT | 15 comments
Here it is: the view from Saturn of our Earthly home, one and a half billion kilometers away. We see Earth and the Moon through a thin veil of faintly blue ice crystals, the outskirts of Saturn's E ring. Earth is just a bright dot -- a bit brighter than the other stars in the image, but no brighter than any planet (like Saturn!) in our own sky.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/22 05:03 CDT | 3 comments
A new picture of the Earth-Moon system from MESSENGER, taken the same day we were told to "Wave at Saturn." Updated with a neat photo taken from much closer to Earth from a similar perspective.
Pretty picture: An Atlas launch and a very surprised bird
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/19 12:30 CDT
If you take hundreds of photos of every single spacecraft launch you can get to, you will eventually get lucky shots like this one. It was taken by Ben Cooper at today's launch of the U.S. Navy satellite MUOS-2 and features a very surprised turkey vulture in a striking pose in front of the American flag.
Planetary Geomorphology Image of the Month: Water tracks on Earth and Mars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/18 09:57 CDT | 3 comments
The International Association of Geomorphologists' "planetary geomorphology image of the month," contributed by Joe Levy, features water tracks on Earth and compares them to recurring slope lineae on Mars.
A new HiRISE view of Opportunity (sol 3361)
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/17 06:14 CDT
The HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has snapped a lovely color photo of the rim of Endeavour crater, catching Opportunity midway between Nobby's Head and Solander Point.
New names for Pluto's little moons Kerberos and Styx; and a new moon for Neptune
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/15 01:37 CDT | 4 comments
Pluto's moons, formerly known as "P4" and "P5," are now named Kerberos and Styx; I thought I'd help place them into context with a little help from Cassini. Also, Neptune now has a 14th known moon.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/12 06:00 CDT | 3 comments
NASA recently shared a gloriously detailed image of an unusual clear day in Alaska as seen from the Terra satellite.
Scale comparisons of the solar system's major moons
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/10 06:05 CDT | 12 comments
A few presentation slides with pretty pictures, sized to scale, of the large moons of the solar system.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/27 10:55 CDT | 9 comments
It had never occurred to me to think about geostationary satellites in Mars orbit before reading a new paper by Juan Silva and Pilar Romero. The paper shows that it takes a lot more work to maintain a stationary orbit at an arbitrary longitude at Mars than it does at Earth.
Programming Note: Off for 3 weeks, June 23 to July 14
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/23 12:09 CDT
Hi folks, just a note to let you all know I am off for a 3-week vacation.
Is Opportunity near Lunokhod's distance record? Not as close as we used to think!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/21 06:47 CDT | 2 comments
A few weeks ago, a press release from the Opportunity mission celebrated Opportunity's surpassing of the previous NASA off-world driving record. That record was set in December 1972 by the Apollo 17 astronauts aboard their Lunar Roving Vehicle. They seem very close to Lunokhod 2's stated 37-kilometer driving record, but hold your horses -- we now know Lunokhod went longer than we thought.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/20 06:14 CDT | 6 comments
Just a quick post to announce that The Planetary Society's staff is expanding! I am so excited to be able to say that.
Enormously detailed photo of Kasei Valles from Mars Express
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/19 02:36 CDT | 7 comments
ESA celebrated the tenth anniversary of Mars Express' launch with a several-day science meeting during which they issued lots of press releases and numerous spectacular photos. My favorite of them all is this enormous image of Kasei Valles on Mars.
Woohoo! The LEGO Curiosity rover is going to be a kit!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/18 07:02 CDT | 2 comments
The awesome LEGO Curiosity rover designed by Stephen Pakbaz is going to go into production!
Favorite space images: "Many Worlds"
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/17 10:58 CDT | 1 comments
For this evening's Planetary Radio Live event, Mat Kaplan asked me to do a presentation of some favorite space images. I told him that picking favorite space images is like picking favorite children; it's not possible because they're all my favorite. To narrow things down, I decided to explore a theme: "Many Worlds."
Great News: New Horizons to "stay the course" at Pluto
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/17 02:47 CDT
This is extremely good news: after more than a year of analysis, the New Horizons mission and NASA have concluded and agreed that New Horizons' originally-planned trajectory past Pluto is likely safe from dust.
Ten years since Spirit's launch
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/10 04:10 CDT | 1 comments
Ten years ago, Spirit launched on a Delta II rocket toward Mars, and I was there to see it.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Friday fun: Every moon in the solar system in an homage to Tom Lehrer
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/24 08:53 CDT | 3 comments
A girl named Hope Johnson performing an homage to Tom Lehrer's "The Elements" in song and ukelele, except instead of the elements, she's singing the names of all the named moons in the solar system. Check it out!
Statement from the AAS on Proposed Elimination of NASA Science Education & Public Outreach Programs
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/23 02:11 CDT | 2 comments
The American Astronomical Society has issued a strongly worded statement against NASA's proposed elimination of its education and public outreach programs, and I agree with it.
How radar tracking of asteroids helps us know where they are
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/23 11:32 CDT | 5 comments
India's Mars Orbiter Mission update: six months from launch
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/21 11:06 CDT | 10 comments
A couple of articles on India's Mars Orbiter Mission were published on the news website The Week yesterday, and they're much more in-depth and insightful than the norm.
Opportunity and Curiosity updates: Rolling and drilling and a little wear on the wheels
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/20 11:27 CDT | 3 comments
For most of April, while Mars scuttled behind the Sun as seen from Earth, both Mars rovers were pretty inactive. Now that conjunction has ended, both are doing what rovers should be doing: roving and exploring. As of sol 3312 Opportunity had moved more than 300 meters southward toward Solander Point, while on her sol 279 Curiosity drilled at a second site, Cumberland.
Speaking engagements next week: Spacefest V and Society for Astronomical Sciences symposium
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/17 02:10 CDT | 4 comments
Next week I'm traveling to speak at two events. Registration is still open for both, so I hope some of you can come. I also have some commentary on women being invited to speak at public events.
A serendipitous observation of tiny rocks in Jupiter's orbit by Galileo
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/17 09:54 CDT | 3 comments
A look at an older paper describing Galileo's possible sighting of individual ring particles orbiting Jupiter as companions to its inner moon Amalthea.
Brief update with good news on Kiera Wilmot
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/16 02:38 CDT | 3 comments
Two weeks ago I wrote about Kiera Wilmot, a teen girl who was expelled from her school and charged with two felonies for unsupervised messing around with a chemical reaction on school grounds. Yesterday the Orlando Sentinel reported that no charges are being filed against her, which removes the greatest threat to her future.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/15 05:02 CDT | 6 comments
I've been out of town for a couple of days and am overwhelmed with work and an overflowing email box. So what do I do about that? I ignore what I'm supposed to be doing and play with Cassini raw image data, of course. Here is a "mutual event" of Mimas (the bigger moon) and Pandora (the outer shepherd of the F ring).
Chang'e 3 undergoing thermal vacuum testing
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/09 10:48 CDT | 5 comments
China's lunar lander and rover are undergoing some of their last major tests and so are nearly ready for launch.
DSS 35: Watch the construction of the next big dish!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/08 11:23 CDT
You can watch via webcam as the next Deep Space Network radio antenna -- DSS 35, in Tidbinbilla, Australia -- gets its dish.
Thoughts on Kiera Wilmot: Mentor curiosity to create future scientists
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/03 12:30 CDT | 32 comments
Please bear with me -- this blog entry has nothing to do with planets but a lot to do with society. For the last two days, my Twitter feed has been roiling with outrage about the story of Kiera Wilmot.
New Deep Impact Hartley 2 data set
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/03 09:59 CDT | 7 comments
Just messing around with a recently released processed version of the Deep Impact Hartley 2 data set.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/02 07:00 CDT | 2 comments
Note the special time! In this week's Planetary Society hangout at 5pm PDT / midnight UTC, I'll talk with MESSENGER deputy principal investigator Larry Nittler about what MESSENGER has accomplished in its prime and extended missions at Mercury, and what it stands to do if awarded a mission extension.
Pluto's seasons and what New Horizons may find when it passes by
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/02 03:42 CDT | 5 comments
New Horizons might see a Pluto with a northern polar cap, a southern polar cap, or both caps, according to work by Leslie Young.
Planetary Society Hangout: Naming Bennu, with Mike Puzio and Dante Lauretta
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/01 09:51 CDT | 2 comments
In this week's Hangout, Emily Lakdawalla hosted Mike Puzio and Dante Lauretta in a discussion about the naming of OSIRIS-REx' asteroid target.
We have a winner! The OSIRIS-REx asteroid's name is: Bennu!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/01 09:37 CDT
We received more than 8000 entries from all over the world in the Name That Asteroid contest, and we can finally announce the winner. The asteroid formerly known as 1999 RQ36 is now formally named (101955) Bennu, for a heron associated with the Egyptian god Osiris.
Supersonic flight for SpaceShipTwo
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/29 12:48 CDT | 6 comments
Virgin Galactic achieved a major milestone today with the first supersonic flight for its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle. The rocket fired for a total of 16 seconds.
Curiosity on Mars - Design, Planning, and the First Mars Year of Operations
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/26 04:14 CDT | 13 comments
Last month, I formally entered a new phase of my career: I signed my first book contract. I'll be writing a book about the Curiosity mission through its prime mission, for Springer-Praxis.
Awesome interactive solar system exploration history infographic
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/25 11:26 CDT | 2 comments
Check out this absolutely wonderful infographic, produced by Olaf Frohn, that summarizes the entire history of solar system exploration.
One of my favorite image processing tricks: colorizing images
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/23 02:11 CDT | 2 comments
An easy image processing trick -- using lower-resolution color data to colorize a black-and-white photo -- is relied upon by many space missions to keep data volumes low. Here's how to do it.
Mars One astronaut selection announcement
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/21 08:29 CDT | 25 comments
Today I am on my way to New York City, where I will be serving as the moderator for Mars One's first press briefing.
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