Jan 21, 2014 | Ask the Expert, Benefits of Space Exploration, Blog, Commercial Space, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, Multimedia, NASA, Space and Science, The Moon, Why Space
It’s called Project Moon Dust – intended to inspire and educate the next generation of space travel hopefuls. Behind the effort is Zybek Advanced Products, founded in Boulder, Colorado in 1996. The group has established a project funding effort for a Lunar...
Jan 19, 2014 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, Mars, NASA, Space and Science, Space Race
It’s a bit of a detective story. NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover imagery shows a rock materializing in a spot where it wasn’t seen in earlier imagery. How’d it get there? Mars Exploration Rover (MER) scientists have dubbed the object “Pinnacle Island.” One view is that...
Jan 15, 2014 | Ask the Expert, Blog, China, Education Station, Kids Space, NASA, Planet Earth, Space and Science, Space Research
It was seven years ago this month that China purposely destroyed its own Fengyun-1C meteorological-monitoring spacecraft via a Chinese anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon. That January 11, 2007 event represents the worst single debris contamination of low Earth orbit. NASA’s...
Jan 10, 2014 | Ask the Expert, Asteroid Exploration, Benefits of Space Exploration, Blog, Education Station, European Space Agency, Exploration, International Cooperation, International Space Station, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Kids Space, Mars, Multimedia, NASA, Planet Earth, Roscosmos, Space and Science
The United States hosted the International Space Exploration Forum (ISEF), the first-ever ministerial-level meeting to build support for global cooperation in space exploration, at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 2014. ISEF brought...
Dec 21, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Benefits of Space Exploration, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, International Space Station, Kids Space, Multimedia, NASA, Planet Earth
Check out your “app”titude this holiday! Orbit Logic has announced that their SpyMeSat iPhone app is now keeping track of Santa’s helper – Starkey the Space Elf – who travels through space helping Santa make sure children are on their best behavior! The SpyMeSat app...
Dec 10, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Blog, International Cooperation, Kids Space, Mars, Space Race, Space Research
Mars One — a not-for-profit foundation established to plant a permanent human settlement on Mars — has secured lead suppliers for its first mission to Mars. The mission, slated for a 2018 launch, will include a robotic lander and a communications...
Dec 5, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, Kids Space, Mars, NASA, Space and Science
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has surpassed 100,000 zaps of its ChemCam laser instrument. ChemCam zaps rocks with a high-powered laser to determine their composition and carries a camera that can survey the Martian landscape. The ChemCam concept was developed at Los...
Nov 23, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Asteroid Exploration, Blog, Commercial Space, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, NASA, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space Research
NASA and Planetary Resources Inc., of Bellevue, Wash., are partnering to develop crowd-sourced software solutions to enhance detection of near-Earth objects using agency-funded data. The agreement is NASA’s first partnership associated with the agency’s...
Nov 14, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science
NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft is orbiting Mercury and has been able to snag images of two comets: 2P/Encke and C/2012 S1 (ISON. Later this month, both of these comets will be substantially brighter and much closer to Mercury and the Sun. MESSENGER has been poised for...
Nov 12, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, Mars, Space and Science
A new study has calculated how the Martian moon, Phobos, may be peppered with material from Mars itself. Therefore, a planned Russian mission to return a sample from the Martian moon Phobos will likely be a twofer. Work by James Head, professor of geological sciences...