Ice at the Moon’s South Pole: Location for Future Moon Habitat?
The Moon is taking on an icy look thanks to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft. Using a laser altimeter on the LRO, a research team essentially has illuminated the crater’s interior of Shackleton crater. Scientists from MIT, Brown University, NASA’s...X-37B Robotic Space Plane Ends 469-day Mission
A Boeing-built X-37B has swooped down from space to an autopilot landing at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The June 16th runway touchdown of the winged robotic craft marked the record setting end of an impressive 469-day test mission. It was launched...Take a Look! New Mars Atlas Spotlights Impact Craters
When you look up at the Earth’s moon – it’s obvious that it was on the receiving end of impacting objects. New research is also showing that Mars too is a beaten up and battered world. Here’s the count, according to scientists identifying impact craters on the red...Asteroid Vesta Video: World of Color Revealed
A new video from NASA’s Dawn mission has been issued that shows the giant asteroid Vesta in colorful terms. This newly issued visualization enables a detailed view of the variation in the material properties of Vesta in the context of its topography. The colors were...China Prepares for Important Piloted Spaceflight Mission
China is readying its crew-carrying Shenzhou-9 spacecraft to conduct that country’s first piloted docking mission. Shenzhou-9 will have three astronauts onboard – a crew that may include a woman — to manually rendezvous and dock with the already orbiting...Next Steps in Mars Exploration
WASHINGTON, D.C. — NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is drawing closer to a red planet touchdown at Gale Crater. That early August landing, if successful, will open a new chapter of investigating Mars in preparation for eventual human visits. The keys to...Mars Rover: Back On the Prowl for More Science
NASA’s Opportunity Mars Exploration Rover is on a roll. The robot had spent some 19 weeks parked in one spot to survive the Martian winter. Due to the setting sun, Opportunity’s solar power was too low for driving. The winter worksite was on the north slope of an...Book Review: Space Chronicles – Facing the Ultimate Frontier
Space Chronicles – Facing the Ultimate Frontier by Neil deGrasse Tyson (Edited by Avis Lang); W.W. Norton & Co., New York; $26.95 (hardcover); 2012. This delightful read comes courtesy of a thoughtful, charismatic astrophysicist and renowned popular speaker – an...Amateurs to “Crowdsource” Asteroids
Any attempt to survey and catalog hazardous asteroids faces a number of difficulties. Coming to aid the effort are amateur astronomers, ready to boost the European Space Agency’s (ESA) asteroid hunt as part of ESA’s Space Situational Awareness program. A new...Space Talk
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#NASA estimates that a human mission to Mars could take months or years with current propulsion technologies. To accelerate this timeline, NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are exploring nuclear thermal propulsion.
Learn more: https://bit.ly/4f8zDlE
#ICYMI, check out the latest recap of space exploration, science and policy news from CDSE's Deep Space Extra newsletter.
Read it here: https://exploredeepspace.com/news/deep-space-extra-39-2024-09-30/
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.@NASA_Langley is testing the Lightweight Surface Manipulation System AutoNomy capabilities Development for Surface Operations (LANDO), a robotic arm designed to lift payloads and place them on the #lunar surface.
Read more: https://bit.ly/3NbFYAO
📷: NASA/David C. Bowman
#ICYMI, check out the latest recap of space exploration, science and policy news from CDSE's Deep Space Extra newsletter.
Read it here: https://exploredeepspace.com/news/deep-space-extra-38-2024-09-23/
Sign up to stay in the know. #ExploreDeepSpace
