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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Phobos-Grunt and Phobos LIFE, with Yinghuo-1, have launched!
I am ecstatic to report that at 20:16 UTC, millions of passengers on board the Planetary Society's Phobos LIFE biomodule launched into space inside the Phobos Sample Return (also known as Phobos Grunt or Phobos Soil) spacecraft.
Phobos-Grunt and Yinghuo-1 poised for liftoff
Russia's Phobos-Grunt sample return spacecraft, carrying the Planetary Society's Phobos LIFE experiment, plus China's Yinghuo-1 Mars minisatellite, are poised for launch at Baikonur! The launch window opens in less than six hours, at 20:16 UTC.
A serious problem on Phobos-Grunt
It looks like something has gone wrong with Phobos-Grunt.
Phobos-Grunt and Yinghuo-1 now encapsulated in their fairing (lots of photos)
About a week after Curiosity passed through the same milestone, Phobos-Grunt and Yinghuo-1 -- still slated for a November 8 launch -- were encapsulated in their payload fairing in preparation for being stacked on their rocket. And, of course, our little Phobos LIFE capsule is inside there too!
Curiosity stacked for launch, still waiting for plutonium power source installation
It's still three weeks until Curiosity's launch date, but the spacecraft has already been placed on top of its rocket. The Kennedy Space Center's Curiosity photo album now has lots of pictures of the spacecraft being enclosed inside the payload fairing (the rocket's
Print publications galore!
November has already been a very good month for me in the print publication realm. I've had published not one, but two, feature articles on Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Heads for New Discovery as Winter Blows In at Cape York
Opportunity roved on this month, driving alongside the rim of Endeavour Crater toward the northern end of Cape York in search of more science gold and a place to hunker down for winter.
Mars Climate Sounder confirms a Martian weather prediction
The Mars Climate Sounder team has recently confirmed a prediction of a weather phenomenon on Mars that we haven't been able to observe before.
Nighttime Water Ice Clouds Predicted by Models are Confirmed by MCS Observations
The Mars Climate Sounder instrument provides routine nightside observations of atmospheric temperature and opacity that document the presence of rapidly evolving water ice cloud layers in the Martian tropics during the northern summer season.
Phobos-Grunt unpacked! With Yinghuo-1 and LIFE!
I know I just posted about Phobos-Grunt on Friday, but there are lots of new pictures from Baikonur Cosmodrome (Russia's main launch facility in Kazakhstan) showing Phobos-Grunt being removed from its shipping crate and tipped upright in preparation for its launch in early November.
Phobos-Grunt update; lots of new images and video!
Фобос-Грунт is getting ready for launch!
Photos: Preparations for Curiosity's launch proceeding (don't show these to Blofeld!)
Kennedy Space Center has recently created a photo album collecting their photos from the clean rooms where technicians are working madly to prepare the Curiosity Mars rover for launch.
Notes from Day 5 of the EPSC/DPS meeting: Saturn's storm, Phobos, and Lutetia
Today was (is) the last day of the Division of Planetary Sciences / European Planetary Science Congress meeting in Nantes, France.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Digs In at Endeavour Crater, Team Remembers 9/11
Since leaving the plains of Meridiani, pulling up to Endeavour Crater and checking out its first rock last month, Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has wasted no time in getting the
MAVEN's baby picture
A new Mars mission, MAVEN, has finally leapt the hurdle separating its existence as an idea from its material existence. Here's MAVEN's baby picture: the just-completed
The latest HiRISE view of Opportunity, on Endeavour's rim
In a now-routine act of obtaining detailed photographs of robots from Earth sitting on the surface of another planet, the HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured a view of Opportunity sitting on the rim of Endeavour crater.
Mars Exploration Rover Update: Opportunity Finds Martian Mystery at Endeavour Crater
More than seven and a half years after landing, Opportunity arrived at its long-anticipated destination, the rim of Endeavour Crater, and in less than three weeks found something strange enough to launch a new Martian mystery.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Arrives at Endeavour Crater, Mission Begins Anew
The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission roves back into the exploration spotlight this month as Opportunity arrives at the rim of Endeavour Crater, a destination that wasn't even an impossible dream when the rover landed back in January 2004.
The Making of Martian Clouds in Motion: Part 2, tweening the animation
Two weeks ago I posted an awesome video of Martian clouds in motion. Last week I explained how I accessed the Mars Express images that comprise the animation. Today I'm going to explain how I turned the five-frame animation of Mars Express images into a smooth movie.
The Making of Martian Clouds in Motion: Part 1, working with Mars Express HRSC data
Last Friday I posted an awesome video of Martian clouds in motion. This week I'll tell you how I made it. The how-to is split up into two parts. The first, today, is how to access Mars Express HRSC image data and process it into the individual animation frames, from which you can make an animated GIF.