Benefits of Space Exploration
December 19th, 2013
Hellish Mercury may not be as tranquil as “Strawberry Fields Forever” but that song’s creator, the late Beatle, John Lennon, and the Sun-baked world are now tied together. Crater Lennon is one of ten impact craters on the planet Mercury that have been assigned names thanks to the science team operating NASA’s MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, […]
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December 11th, 2013
Alien Seas – Oceans in Space by Michael Carroll, Rosaly Lopes (Editors); Springer, New York; $29.99 (hardcover); 2013. Thanks to the editors for this captivating “wet look” at an under-appreciated aspect of planets and moons in our celestial neighborhood – those “seas in the sky.” The book begins with an informative and fitting foreword by […]
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January 9th, 2012
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 space that are useful for an array of human and robotic exploration duties. […]
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October 5th, 2011
NASA’s MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) spacecraft entered orbit about Mercury in mid-March. The probe’s one-year study of Mercury that is now underway is providing exciting science. After its first Mercury solar day (176 Earth days) in orbit, MESSENGER has nearly completed two of its main global imaging campaigns: a monochrome map […]
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May 8th, 2011
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft circling the planet Mercury has chalked up its 100th orbit. That milestone was achieved on May 6th with the probe executing nearly 2 million commands since it swung into orbit on March 17th. “We […]
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March 26th, 2011
Artist captures NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around the planet Mercury. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft is the first spacecraft ever to enter Mercury’s orbit. Arriving in orbit around the planet on March 17, the spacecraft is orbiting that globe once every 12 hours for the […]
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