Articles

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the twelfth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this trapezoidal mountain?

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the eleventh door in the advent calendar. Until the New Year, I'll be opening a door onto a different landscape from somewhere in the solar system. Where in the solar system are these sinuous ridges?

Emily Lakdawalla

An English-language article in the December 11 Yomiuri Shimbun summarizes the news from the Akatsuki press briefing held at 11:00 December 10 JST (last night, my time). It's succinct and clear so I'm reposting it here.

Emily Lakdawalla

Here's the latest from the NASA site about NanoSail-D.

Emily Lakdawalla

I'm going to just one day of the enormous annual American Geophysical Union meeting next week, and I am actually presenting a talk!

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the tenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this jumble of bouldery fissures?

Emily Lakdawalla

This image is so, so beautiful, and so, so sad.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the ninth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this jumble of boulders and fissures?

Emily Lakdawalla

Every year, The Planetary Society and Starry Messenger Press collaborate on a

Emily Lakdawalla

I've got two more pieces of information to share on Akatsuki further to what I posted yesterday. The first one is a worrying detail about what went wrong during orbit insertion.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the eighth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this nearly flat plain?

Emily Lakdawalla

I meant to get these posted weeks ago, along with my reviews of kids' space books, but better late than never!

Emily Lakdawalla

JAXA held two press briefings about Akatsuki yesterday. Reports in both English and Japanese based on these press briefings have cleared up some, but not all, of the mystery about what happened and what is to happen with Akatsuki.

Emily Lakdawalla

Emily Lakdawalla

A press release (PDF) was posted in Japanese on the Akatsuki website this morning with some official information on the mission status. Here is a translation of the text.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the seventh door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this icy bridge?

Emily Lakdawalla

There is a press briefing happening right now in Japan, and it's terrible news: Akatsuki failed to enter Venus orbit.

Emily Lakdawalla

In just a few hours, Venus will have a second orbiter. Japan's Akatsuki is due to start firing its orbit insertion engines on December 7.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the sixth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these snowy slopes?

Emily Lakdawalla

I was unable to follow Akatsuki's entry into Venus orbit in real time due to family obligations. Checking in now, about four hours after it was to have entered orbit, it seems that something did not go correctly, but not much information is available.