en-us http://planetary.org/blog/ A guide to interesting stuff going on in space science, space exploration, and space advocacy. 15 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:04:09 GMT Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:04:09 GMT http://www.planetary.org/_img/rss/logo.jpg 127 111 http://planetary.org/blog/ blog@planetary.org (Emily Ladakawalla) Copyright © 2010 by The Planetary Society. http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002340/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002340/ Planetary Society volunteer Ken Kremer is reporting for us from the Kennedy Space Center, where he is covering the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour, set to launch this weekend. Kremer is a research scientist and freelance journalist who spends his spare time giving public outreach presentations on behalf of The Planetary Society as a volunteer and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a Solar System Ambassador. Thanks Ken! by Ken Kremer Space .... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:03:19 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002339/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002339/ This week the Carnival of Space is over at one of my favorite new blogs, Lights in the Dark. Actually it's not so new -- evidently this week marks its first anniversary! Also, yesterday there were a pile of new names announced for features on Enceladus: Al-Medinah Sulci, Al-Yaman Sulci, Andalús Sulci, Bulak Sulcus, Makran Sulci, Misr Sulci, Shiraz Sulcus, Sind Sulci, Bishangarh Fossae, and Kaukabán Fossae. This is great, because .... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:39:19 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002338/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002338/ Here's a neat picture from Opportunity, a panorama composed of its wide-angle, mast-mounted Navcam cameras, showing the crater Concepcion. In this one I particularly like the parallel slices cut through a low dune by Oppy's wheels as she cut over to begin her clockwise circumnavigation of the crater. In front of her are the three cubic ejecta blocks named "Chocolate Hills."Click to enlarge >Concepcion crater, Opportunity sol 2147On sol 2,147 .... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:32:23 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002337/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002337/ Having discovered its first asteroid on January 12, Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has now officially discovered its first comet, P/2010 B2 (WISE). The comet was first observed by WISE on January 22, and has since been followed up on by Mauna Kea, Spacewatch, and by Robert Holmes, a two-time winner of a Planetary Society Shoemaker NEO Grant. Here's the Minor Planet Electronic Circular officially naming P/2010 B2 (WISE). .... Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:50:28 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002336/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002336/ Although I am not suffering under the "snowpocalypse" on the East Coast, I woke up to Monday absolutely buried under a massive pile of things to do for both home and work, and it looks like it's going to take me a few days to dig out. So, with apologies, I'm going to make today's post a linky one. Firstly, today's guest on Planetary Radio is my boss Lou Friedman, giving his perspective on the Administration's plans for NASA's future. Over the .... Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:21:38 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002335/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002335/ The Jet Propulsion Laboratory posted a video to YouTube today showing what seems to be a remarkable amount of motion out of Spirit lately, especially given that she's supposed to be a "stationary science platform" now. The video consists animations from Spirit's forward and rear Hazard Avoidance Cameras -- the belly-mounted, fish-eye cameras that help Spirit understand the terrain immediately in front of and behind it. Spirit's Last Moves .... Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:14:55 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002334/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002334/ I just posted my writeup of today's press briefing on a new map of Pluto produced from Hubble images. The main conclusion was that Pluto has shown an astonishing amount of changes across its surface between 1994 and 2002 -- more, in fact, than any other solid surface in the solar system. An interesting perspective on the announcement, which concerned four years of computational work done by Marc Buie, was provided by Mike Brown. Buie said .... Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:17:07 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002333/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002333/ Doug Ellison has been playing with Martian digital terrain models recently, to great effect. Here is a marvelous animation he produced that flies you over the Pathfinder landing site, out of -- and back into -- its own camera view of the terrain. It's surprising how deep the big crater south of the Pathfinder landing site actually is; it's quite a bit closer to the original bowl shape of the crater than most Martian craters I've seen in .... Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:16:42 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002332/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002332/ Planetary Society volunteer Ken Kremer is reporting for us from the Kennedy Space Center, where he is covering the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour, set to launch this weekend. Kremer is a research scientist and freelance journalist who spends his spare time giving public outreach presentations on behalf of The Planetary Society as a volunteer and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a Solar System Ambassador. Thanks Ken! by Ken Kremer The .... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:42:57 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002331/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002331/ Woo hoo! NASA has just announced that once Cassini's Equinox Mission runs out in June of this year, they will extend it a further seven more years, long enough for the spacecraft to see Saturn through its solstice!! Here's a neat graphic that summarizes Cassini's entire planned tour of the Saturn system:Click to enlarge >Overview of Cassini's mission to SaturnA summary of the completed and planned close flybys of Saturn's moons through .... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:12:39 GMT