Jun 18, 2011 | Asteroid Exploration, Blog, Commercial Space, Education Station, Exploration, Mars, NASA
High-power solar electric propulsion is viewed by NASA as a vital and necessary future capability. This crucial technology is flagged within NASA’s strategic roadmaps for exploration, science and advanced technology. NASA issued late last week a Solar Electric...
Jun 16, 2011 | Blog, Comets, Education Station, Exploration, NASA, Our Solar System
Visited last fall by NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft during its EPOXI mission was comet Hartley 2. Scientists have published their findings about the flyby – offering some new twists to the encounter of a cometary kind. On its EPOXI mission the Deep Impact spacecraft...
Jun 15, 2011 | Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, Mars, NASA
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is being readied for a fall 2011 liftoff from Florida. Preparations are in full-swing on readying the MSL Curiosity rover for its red planet mission. Plans now call for the Curiosity robot and its descent stage to be...
Jun 14, 2011 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Commercial Space, Education Station, Space Tourism, Spaceports
Another glide flight of the SpaceShipTwo took place today at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. Today’s high-altitude drop from the carrier airplane – WhiteKnightTwo – was the eleventh glide flight for the SpaceShipTwo. Onboard the vessel, putting the...
Jun 14, 2011 | Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, Mars, NASA, Space and Science
NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover is rolling its way toward Endeavour crater, eyeing the western rim of the huge feature as seen in new imagery. Endeavour crater has a diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers). Scientists are expecting the robot to gain access to...
Jun 13, 2011 | Ask the Expert, Asteroid Exploration, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science
NASA’s Dawn mission was launched in September 2007. The spacecraft is now approaching Vesta, a protoplanet that is currently some 143 million miles from Earth. Powered by an ion engine, Dawn will arrive at Vesta next month. Starting in September, the spacecraft will...
Jun 13, 2011 | Blog, Book Reviews, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, Mars, NASA, Space and Science
Martian Summer – Robot Arms, Cowboy Spacemen, and My 90 Days with the Phoenix Mars Mission by Andrew Kessler; Pegasus Books; New York, New York; $27.95 (Hardcover); April 2011. NASA’s Phoenix Mars lander was a milestone in red planet probing. Touching down on Mars on...
Jun 9, 2011 | Blog, China, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, Space Race, The Moon
Chinese space officials have announced that their second lunar orbiter – Chang’e-2 – has departed the Moon and is headed for deep space. Making use of leftover propellant, the spacecraft will reportedly carry out additional exploratory tasks. According to the Xinhua...
Jun 9, 2011 | Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science, The Sun
Voyager Spacecraft Data: New Findings. Credit: NASA/JPL A new computer model of the solar system based on data gathered by NASA’s enduring Voyager space probes indicates that the edge of the solar system — the heliosheath — is not smooth. Rather, it is...
Jun 1, 2011 | Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, Mars, NASA
Nuclear-powered Mars rover, Curiosity, is expected to open up a new arm of red planet research. Credit: NASA/JPL NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory is named Curiosity. And if you are curious about where Curiosity is going to land on the red planet, stay tuned. The final...