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Pictures of Spacecraft
This image shows a simulated Opportunity about to descend into Victoria Crater via the rock-paved slopes of an alcove dubbed Duck Bay. Inside the crater, the rover examined the deeper, older rocks that harbored clues to Mars' wet past. Duck Bay has slopes of about 15 to 20 degrees and exposed bedrock, which made it the safest site for entry.
Filed under pretty pictures, art, spacecraft, Mars, Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity
In this picture of Home Plate, taken by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, you can easily see the stark white figure that is Spirit to the left (west) of the geologic formation in this image color enhanced by Stuart Atkinson. "If you look carefully you can actually see bright trailing leading to Spirit - this is the result of the (right front) broken wheel being dragged through the dirt, unearthing brighter material beneath," he points out. For more of Atkinson's enhanced images and poems, check out his blog, Road to Endeavour at: http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, amateur image processing, Mars, Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
An artist's concept of Galileo passing near Jupiter's small inner moon Amalthea. Galileo flew past the tiny moon in November 2002.
Filed under pretty pictures, art, many worlds, spacecraft, Jupiter, Jupiter's moons, Jupiter's small moons, Galileo
Chang'E 3 being lowered into chamber for thermal vacuum testing, May 2013
Taken from a post by user "Galactic Penguin" at the forum NASASpaceflight.com.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, Chang'E program
View from SpaceShipTwo of its rocket firing
The view from SpaceShipTwo's tail as her rocket motor fires during her first supersonic flight on April 29, 2013.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, private spaceflight
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo first powered flight
SpaceShipTwo fires her rocket motor in flight for the first time in a flight over the Mojave Desert on April 29, 2013.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, private spaceflight
A vision for the Mars One project, whose goal is to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars by 2023.
Filed under pretty pictures, art, spacecraft, Future Mission Concepts, human spaceflight, private spaceflight, Mars
Comparison of objects in HiRISE image to model images of Mars 3 hardware
The left column contains cropped segments of HiRISE image PSP_006154_1345. The right column contains drawings of Mars-3 lander (top), soft-landing backshell rocket unit (second row), and heat shield (third row). The last row contains grayscale and color images of the putative parachute.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, amateur image processing, pics of spacecraft in space, Mars, Russian Mars missions
Mars 3 hardware on the Martian surface?
This is an enlargement of HiRISE image PSP_006154_1345. It possibly shows the Mars-3 lander's rocket-equipped backshell and the four-petaled soft lander.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, amateur image processing, pics of spacecraft in space, Mars, Russian Mars missions
Could This Be the Soviet Mars 3 Lander?
The Soviet Mars 3 lander hardware may have been found by Russian citizen enthusiasts following NASA's Curiosity rover.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, pics of spacecraft in space, Mars, Russian Mars missions, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
The Mars 3 rover may have been the first mobile vehicle to set tread on Mars. Unfortunately, following a successful entry, descent, and landing, the lander operated for only 20 seconds before failure, probably because it was blown over by the wind. This rover may possibly have been deployed before then.
Filed under pretty pictures, animation, spacecraft, Russian Mars missions
The Mars 2 and 3 rover, which landed on Mars in 1971. This may have been the first rover on Mars! Their range was to be 15 meters from the lander. The rovers moved by using skis set on either side (see photograph). The two thin bars at the front of the lander (if you look closely at the photograph, you'll see the division between them) are sensors to detect obstacles in the rover's path. The vehicle could determine on which side the obstacle lay, step back, change direction and try to go around it. Unfortunately, neither vehicle completed its mission: Mars 2 crash-landed on the planet and Mars 3 ceased transmissions 20 seconds after landing.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, Russian Mars missions
Filed under pretty pictures, art, spacecraft, Russian Mars missions
Filed under pretty pictures, art, spacecraft, Russian Mars missions
On sol 182, Spirit looked back at tracks she made at the foot of the Columbia Hills, exploring rocks named "End of the Rainbow," "Pot of Gold," "Jaws," and "Shredded," among others.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, amateur image processing, Mars, Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit
Six robotic spacecraft as they appeared on or close to August 5, 2012. The images are rendered, with the exception of Venus Express, in NASA's "Eyes on the Solar System" simulator. From top to bottom: MESSENGER at Mercury, Venus Express, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at Earth's moon, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the spacecraft carrying the Curiosity rover just before it landed on Mars, Cassini at Saturn.
Filed under pretty pictures, explaining image processing, pics of spacecraft in space, MESSENGER, Venus Express, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory), Cassini
The Mars Descent Imager camera captured this remarkable moment: the heat shield separating and falling away from the spacecraft that carried the Curiosity rover as it descended to the surface. There are flying saucers, but they came from Earth to Mars, not the other way around.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, Mars, Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory)
SpaceShipTwo just after she is released from WhiteKnightTwo for another successful test flight. This was her 24th glide flight and the 6th in-flight test of her patented feathered re-entry system. The flight also successfully verified SS2's nitrous loading and venting system, another key milestone on the way to her first powered flight.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, private spaceflight
SpaceShipTwo just after she is released from WhiteKnightTwo for another successful test flight. This was her 24th glide flight and the 6th in-flight test of her patented feathered re-entry system. The flight also successfully verified SS2's nitrous loading and venting system, another key milestone on the way to her first powered flight.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, private spaceflight
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