en-us http://planetary.org/blog/ A guide to interesting stuff going on in space science, space exploration, and space advocacy. 15 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:57:41 GMT Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:57:41 GMT http://www.planetary.org/_img/rss/logo.jpg 127 111 http://planetary.org/blog/ blog@planetary.org (Emily Ladakawalla) Copyright © 2009 by The Planetary Society. http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002224/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002224/ UPDATE 7 p.m. PST: It seems there was a bit more downward motion than I detected. The JPL update says:Spirit successfully completed the first step of its planned two-step motion on Sol 2090 (Nov. 19). After spinning the wheels for the equivalent of 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) in the forward direction, the center of the rover moved approximately 12 millimeters (0.5 inch) forward, 7 millimeters (0.3 inch) to the left and about 4 millimeters (0.2 inch) .... Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:54:45 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002223/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002223/ I probably crammed too much into today's class: an hour-and-a-half whirlwind tour through the cameras on the rovers and Cassini, how to access their raw images on the Internet, and some basic processing that you can do with each of them. If you would like to see the recording of the class, go to the Space Imaging section of our website, to the Tutorials page, and follow the links to the WebEx recording, either streamed or downloaded. Before .... Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:49:29 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002221/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002221/ Ideally, you'd like to have a space mission that faces no problems. But in the real world, spacecraft run into trouble. Trouble has come time and again to JAXA's little Hayabusa asteroid sample return mission, yet the mission's engineers always come up with new and creative ways to solve problems. Just last week, I reported on what seemed like a fatal blow to the mission, the failure of thruster D, one of only two still-functioning ion .... Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:16:24 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002220/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002220/ Since tomorrow's class is going to be on playing with raw images from the rovers and Cassini, I've been playing with recent raw images from the rovers and Cassini! I just thought I'd share a couple of the fun items I've been working with. Opportunity has paused for a few sols to examine a large rock that, for once, is not a meteorite. This one is named "Marquette Island." Among the work they've been doing on Marquette is to take a 13-filter .... Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:58:54 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002219/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002219/ Planetary Society volunteer Ken Kremer is reporting for us from the Kennedy Space Center, where he watched the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on Monday, November 16. 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. He also enjoys creating Mars mosaics. Thanks .... Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:47:30 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002217/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002217/ EDIT: JPL's update for today indicates the drive stopped after less than 1 second of driving because it sensed its tilt was out of the tightly specified parameters, which would explain why there appeared to be basically no change between the "before" and "after" frames. Try again on sol 2090!Even though all of us rover fans know that Spirit is really, really stuck, I think I'm not the only one who was secretly hoping that today's images .... Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:20:52 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002216/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002216/ Having suffered a brief setback at the hands (teeth?) of the neighborhood squirrels who chewed through my cable line last week, I finally prevailed in hosting the first in my series of classes on processing space images for amateurs this morning, while most people who were not working were probably watching the flawless launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis. Thanks to the ten people who showed up live for the presentation, and I hope to see you all .... Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:48:39 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002215/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002215/ by Bruce Betts The Leonid meteor shower peaks on Tuesday, November 17. The Leonids are a highly variable shower, and as such are a bit of a gamble on what you'll see. Could be great, could be so-so. But, there are predictions of a few hour peak with perhaps 300 meteors per hour centered at about 1:45 p.m. Pacific time, which will be great for those in darkness at that time, particularly in pre-dawn hours occurring in Asia. For those .... Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:16:06 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002212/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002212/ Rosetta appears to have operated flawlessly as it streaked past Earth for its flyby early this morning. Here are a few more gems from the flyby. First is an actual sighting of the Rosetta spacecraft from Earth. Crazy to look up in the sky and see a fast-moving streak of light that's something we launched into space more than five years ago.Click to enlarge >Earth sights Rosetta for the last timeAlthough Rosetta will be "visible" at radio .... Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:44:59 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002211/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002211/ by Susan Lendroth The Planetary Society's new solar sail project -- LightSail -- has generated headlines and hundreds of news stories since it was announced on Monday. Read a few of the coverage highlights in our In the News Section. .... Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:33:15 GMT