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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 08 | Aug 07 | Aug 06 | Aug 03 | Aug 02 |
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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 |
Growing US unease with China's new deep space facility in Argentina Moscow (Sputnik) Aug 01, 2018 |
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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 |
US Army scientists create new technique for modeling turbulence in the atmosphere Adelphi MD (SPX) Aug 08, 2018
Army researchers have designed a computer model that more effectively calculates the behavior of atmospheric turbulence in complex environments, including cities, forests, deserts and mountainous regions.
This new technology could allow Soldiers to predict weather patterns sooner using the computers at hand and more effectively assess flight conditions for aerial vehicles on the battlefiel ... 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 |
Touching the Sun to protect the Earth Ann Arbor MI (SPX) Aug 09, 2018
Justin Kasper, professor of climate and space sciences and engineering at the University of Michigan, is a mission principal investigator on the Parker Solar Probe, which is scheduled for launch Aug. 11 from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
"The Parker Solar Probe will help us do a much better job of predicting when a disturbance in the solar wind could hit Earth," Kasper said.
Kasper describes ... more |
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Aerojet Rocketdyne boosters complete simulated air-launch tests Huntsville AL (SPX) Aug 07, 2018
Aerojet Rocketdyne's advanced tactical booster program recently completed two successful hot-fire tests of a motor that had been conditioned to mimic extreme cold- and hot-soak conditions for air-launch application. The tests took place at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
"Aerojet Rocketdyne has been the leading supplier of missile technolog ... more |
Another blow for dark matter interpretation of galactic center excess Amsterdam, Netherlands (SPX) Aug 09, 2018
For almost ten years, astronomers have been studying a mysterious diffuse radiation coming from the center of our galaxy. Originally, it was thought that this radiation could originate from the elusive dark matter particles that many researchers are hoping to find.
However, physicists from the University of Amsterdam/GRAPPA and the Laboratoire d'Annecy-le-Vieux de Physique Theorique have n ... more |
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Household phenomenon observed by Leonardo da Vinci finally explained Cambridge UK (SPX) Aug 09, 2018
An everyday occurrence spotted when we turn on the tap to brush our teeth has baffled engineers for centuries - why does the water splay when it hits the sink before it heads down the plughole?
Famous inventor and painter Leonardo da Vinci documented the phenomenon, now known as a hydraulic jump, back in the 1500s. Hydraulic jumps are harmless in our household sinks but they can cause viol ... more |
Renovations lead to big improvement at Nuclear Astrophysics Lab Washington DC (SPX) Aug 09, 2018
In nature, the nuclear reactions that form stars are often accompanied by astronomically high amounts of energy, sometimes over billions of years. This presents a challenge for nuclear astrophysicists trying to study these reactions in a controlled, low-energy laboratory setting. The chances of re-creating such a spark without bombarding targets with high-intensity beams are unfathomably low. Ho ... more |
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A system to synthesize realistic sounds for computer animation Stanford CA (SPX) Aug 09, 2018
Advances in computer-generated imagery have brought vivid, realistic animations to life, but the sounds associated with what we see simulated on screen, such as two objects colliding, are often recordings. Now researchers at Stanford University have developed a system that automatically renders accurate sounds for a wide variety of animated phenomena.
"There's been a Holy Grail in computin ... more |
Growing US unease with China's new deep space facility in Argentina Moscow (Sputnik) Aug 01, 2018 |
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