Book Review: Fifty Years on the Space Frontier – Halo Orbits, Comets, Asteroids, and More

Fifty Years on the Space Frontier: Halo Orbits, Comets, Asteroids, and More by Robert W. Farquhar; Outskirts Press, Inc., Denver, Colorado; (hard cover); $32.36; 2011 There is renewed and growing interest in imaginative use of L-points in space – special spots in...

Book Review: When Biospheres Collide – A History of NASA’s Planetary Protection Programs

When Biospheres Collide – A History of NASA’s Planetary Protection Programs by Michael Meltzer; NASA History Program Office (NASA SP-2011 – 4234), Washington, D.C.; 2011. Note: Available as NASA e-Book. This is an absorbing look at a topic that receives little...

Spitzer Telescope Spots Echo of Violent Early Solar System Activity

 NASA’s Spitzer space telescope has unveiled what may be a “nearby” replay of the same violent processes that unfolded in our own solar system billions of years ago. Imagery from the infrared observatory has spotted a stream of comets raining down on...

New Evidence Suggests Kuiper Belt Comets Provided Water for Earth’s Oceans

  Scientists have compelling new evidence the Earth’s oceans formed from the impact of comets during the early years of the solar system, and quite likely a specific class of the icy objects from a region known as the Kuiper Belt Tenants of the Kuiper Belt...

NASA Demo Missions to Enable Deep Space Exploration

NASA will invest $175 million in a trio of new technology demonstration flights that promise to hasten much more capable missions of deep space exploration by humans as well as robots. The demo flights, which the space agency intends to undertake in 2015 and 2016,...