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Still no change in Opportunity's status![]() Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 08, 2018 There is no news since the last status update. As reported last week, the planet-encircling dust storm on Mars is showing indications of peaking and perhaps decaying. Dust lifting sites have decreased in extent and some surface features are starting to become visible. The storm has sustained high atmospheric opacity conditions over the Opportunity site, although there are some preliminary indications that the opacity might be decreasing there. Since the last contact with the rover on S ... read more |
Aerojet Rocketdyne delivers power generator for Mars 2020 RoverLos Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 08, 2018 Aerojet Rocketdyne, in collaboration with Teledyne, recently delivered the electrical power generator for NASA's Mars 2020 rover to the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (I ... more
Sorry Elon Musk, but it's now clear that colonising Mars is unlikelyLondon, UK (The Conversation) Aug 06, 2018 Space X and Tesla founder Elon Musk has a vision for colonising Mars, based on a big rocket, nuclear explosions and an infrastructure to transport millions of people there. This was seen as highly a ... more
Russia Plans to Send Capsule With Microorganisms to MarsMoscow (Sputnik) Aug 06, 2018 Russian scientists plan to send a capsule containing microorganisms to Mars' natural satellite Phobos and then get it back to Earth in order to study the possible mutations during the space flight, ... more
Mars Dust Storm May Have PeakedPasadena CA (JPL) Aug 03, 2018 The planet-encircling dust storm on Mars is showing indications of peaking and perhaps decaying. Dust lifting sites have decreased in extent and some surface features are starting to become vi ... more |
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| Previous Issues | Aug 07 | Aug 06 | Aug 03 | Aug 02 | Aug 01 |
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Crewed Missions Beyond LEOBethesda, MD (SPX) Jul 31, 2018 Sending humans to Mars has been a dream of scientists and a large part of the population ever since Nicolaus Copernicus first postulated that it was a planet, about 500 years ago. Even before that f ... more
Evidence of subsurface Martian liquid water bolsteredTucson AZ (SPX) Jul 30, 2018 The announcement of the presence of liquid water beneath the surface of Martian poles validates research published by PSI Senior Scientist Stephen Clifford back in 1987. A paper published in t ... more
Life on Mars: Japan astronaut dreams after lake discoveryTokyo (AFP) July 27, 2018 Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai came back to earth last month but is still dreaming of space, especially after the discovery of an underground lake brought mankind one step closer to unravelling the mystery of life on Mars. ... more
What Looks Like Ceres on EarthPasadena CA (JPL) Jul 30, 2018 With its dark, heavily cratered surface interrupted by tantalizing bright spots, Ceres may not remind you of our home planet Earth at first glance. The dwarf planet, which orbits the Sun in the vast ... more
New family photos of Mars and Saturn from HubbleMunich, Germany (SPX) Jul 27, 2018 In summer 2018 the planets Mars and Saturn are, one after the other, in opposition to Earth. During this event the planets are relatively close to Earth, allowing astronomers to observe them in grea ... more |
![]() Is Mars' Soil Too Dry to Sustain Life?
Mars Express Detects Liquid Water Hidden Under Planet's South PoleNoordwijk, Netherlands (ESA) Jul 26, 2018 Evidence for the Red Planet's watery past is prevalent across its surface in the form of vast dried-out river valley networks and gigantic outflow channels clearly imaged by orbiting spacecraft. Orb ... more |
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Opportunity Continues in a Deep Sleep Beneath Raging Dust StormPasadena CA (JPL) Jul 25, 2018 The dust storm on Mars is continuing as a Planet-encircling Dust Event (PEDE). The storm has sustained high atmospheric opacity conditions over the Opportunity site for several weeks. The last ... more
Mars Passes Closest to Earth Since 2003 on July 31stBoston MA (SPX) Jul 26, 2018 After a slow crawl across the predawn darkness earlier this year, Mars is finally moving into the evening sky - just as it comes its closest to Earth in 15 years. According to Sky and Telescope maga ... more
Space experts worry US won't make it to Mars by 2030sTampa (AFP) July 26, 2018 The United States has vowed to send the first humans to Mars by the 2030s, but space experts and lawmakers on Wednesday expressed concern that poor planning and lack of funds will delay those plans. ... more
Liquid water lake discovered on MarsTampa (AFP) July 26, 2018 A massive underground lake has been detected for the first time on Mars, raising hopes that more water - and maybe even life - exists there, international astronomers said Wednesday. ... more
'Storm Chasers' on Mars Searching for Dusty SecretsPasadena CA (JPL) Jul 23, 2018 In June, one of these dust events rapidly engulfed the planet. Scientists first observed a smaller-scale dust storm on May 30. By June 20, it had gone global. For the Opportunity rover, that m ... more |
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At 60, NASA shoots for revival of moon glory days Tampa (AFP) July 27, 2018
Sixty years ago, spurred by competition with the Soviet Union, the United States created NASA, launching a journey that would take Americans to the moon within a decade.
Since then, the US space agency has seen glorious achievements and crushing failures in its drive to push the frontiers of space exploration, including a fatal launch pad fire in 1967 that killed three and two deadly shuttle ... more |
China to launch space station Tiangong in 2022, welcomes foreign astronauts Beijing (Sputnik) Aug 08, 2018
China's space station Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace, is scheduled to launch in 2022. The facility, which is expected to adhere to similar standards as the International Space Station (ISS), will be open to foreign astronauts.
Larger than the 140-ton Russian Mir space station, the Tiangong will consist of a core module and two laboratory cabins, large enough to accommodate three to six astro ... more |
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"Great Show" predicted for Perseid meteor peak on August 12-13 Boston MA (SPX) Aug 07, 2018
The Perseid meteor shower, an annual celestial event beloved by millions of skywatchers around the world, is about to make its annual return to the night sky. And thanks to a new Moon, there'll be no bright moonlight to hinder the view.
Sky and Telescope magazine predicts that this year's Perseid shower will reach its peak on Sunday night, August 12th, and early morning on the 13th. You wi ... more |
New Horizons team prepares for stellar occultation ahead of Ultima Thule flyby Washington DC (SPX) Aug 02, 2018
Successfully observing an object from more than four billion miles away is difficult, yet NASA's New Horizons mission team is banking that they can do that-again.
Preparations are on track for a final set of stellar occultation observations to gather as much information about the size, shape, environment, and other conditions around New Horizons' next flyby target, the ancient Kuiper Belt ... more |
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Cassini data yields super sharp infrared images of Titan Washington (UPI) Jul 19, 2018
Cassini disappeared into Saturn's atmosphere late last year. But the spacecraft continues to yield impressive images.
This week, NASA shared a series of super sharp infrared images of Saturn's moon Titan, compiled using 13 years of data collected by the probe's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, or VIMS instrument.
The moon's hazy atmosphere prevents clear observations of ... more |
Radar better than weather balloon for measuring boundary layer University Park PA (SPX) Aug 07, 2018
Improving forecasting for a host of severe weather events may be possible thanks to a more comprehensive method for measuring the Earth's boundary layer depth, developed by Penn State researchers.
The boundary layer is the layer of atmosphere that is closest to the Earth, less than one mile from the surface. Because it is the layer that is most affected by the convective heat from the Eart ... more |
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Blend of novices, veterans to fly on first private US spaceships Tampa (AFP) Aug 4, 2018
NASA on Friday named the first nine astronauts who will fly to space on Boeing and SpaceX vehicles in 2019 - a mix of novices and veterans who are tasked with restoring America's ability to send humans into orbit.
These pioneering flights to the International Space Station aboard commercially built crew capsules will be the first leaving US soil to put people into orbit since the iconic spa ... more |
VLA Detects Possible Extrasolar Planetary-Mass Magnetic Powerhouse Charlottesville VA (SPX) Aug 06, 2018
Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have made the first radio-telescope detection of a planetary-mass object beyond our Solar System. The object, about a dozen times more massive than Jupiter, is a surprisingly strong magnetic powerhouse and a "rogue," traveling through space unaccompanied by any parent star.
"This object is right at th ... more |
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An insect-inspired drone deforms upon impact Lausanne, Switzerland (SPX) Jul 26, 2018
In recent years, robotics experts have taken a page from the traditional Japanese practice of origami and come up with light and flexible - and highly innovative - robots and drones. Two types of origami-inspired structures have emerged: rigid structures that have a certain weight-bearing capacity but that break if that capacity is exceeded, and flexible yet resilient structures that cannot carr ... more |
Spacecraft to speed through Sun's atmosphere and snag solar wind Pasadena CA (SPX) Aug 08, 2018
A new NASA mission, set to launch on August 11, will whip through the Sun's sizzling outer atmosphere, or corona, flying closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before it. Observations by the mission, called the Parker Solar Probe, will lead to better predictions of space weather and address fundamental mysteries about the Sun's dynamic corona.
One of these mysteries has to do with high-spee ... more |
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First SLS Core Stage flight hardware complete, ready for joining Huntsville AL (SPX) Aug 01, 2018
The first major piece of core stage hardware for NASA's Space Launch System rocket has been assembled and is ready to be joined with other hardware for Exploration Mission-1, the first integrated flight of SLS and the Orion spacecraft. SLS will enable a new era of exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, launching crew and cargo on deep space exploration missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
T ... more |
The cosmic ray gun duel of Eta Carinae Hiroshima, Japan (SPX) Aug 01, 2018
An international collaboration operating NASA's NuSTAR satellite has revealed that two of the biggest stars in the galaxy are capable of creating cosmic rays. Their results were published in Nature Astronomy this month.
In the time it takes you to read this sentence, hundreds of cosmic rays have pummeled through our bodies. Cosmic rays are mostly made of protons and electrons, with the sma ... more |
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GRAVITY Confirms Predictions of General Relativity Near Galactic Center Paris, France (SPX) Jul 27, 2018
Observations made with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have, for the first time, detected the effects of general relativity predicted by Einstein, in the movement of a star passing into the intense gravitational field of Sagittarius A*, a massive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.
These results were obtained by the GRAVITY consortium, led b ... more |
Black holes are fuzzy balls of string with an endless appetite for matter Washington (UPI) Jul 31, 2018
A trio of physicists at Ohio State University believe black holes are like "fuzzballs" with an insatiable appetite for matter. And according to their latest research, these fuzzballs are not surrounded by a "firewall."
Classical general relativity presents the black hole as an object with a horizon, beyond which nothing can escape. This dichotomy between something and nothing is referre ... more |
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A kernel of promise in popcorn-powered robots Ithaca NY (SPX) Aug 07, 2018
Cornell University researchers have discovered how to power simple robots with a novel substance that, when heated, can expand more than 10 times in size, change its viscosity by a factor of 10 and transition from regular to highly irregular granules with surprising force.
You can also eat it with a little butter and salt.
"Popcorn-Driven Robotic Actuators," a recent paper co-authore ... more |
China to launch space station Tiangong in 2022, welcomes foreign astronauts Beijing (Sputnik) Aug 08, 2018
China's space station Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace, is scheduled to launch in 2022. The facility, which is expected to adhere to similar standards as the International Space Station (ISS), will be open to foreign astronauts.
Larger than the 140-ton Russian Mir space station, the Tiangong will consist of a core module and two laboratory cabins, large enough to accommodate three to six astro ... more |
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