Dec 14, 2010 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science, The Sun
Launched back in 1977, the 33-year odyssey of NASA’s Voyager 1continues, chalking up another milestone. The spacecraft has reached a distant point at the edge of our solar system where there is no outward motion of solar wind. Voyager 1 has crossed into an area where...
Dec 14, 2010 | Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science, Space Research, Uncategorized
Soon, NASA will have its first chief science officer in five years. Waleed Abdalati, director of the University of Colorado’s Earth Science and Observation Center, will take the NASA post, effective Jan. 3. Abdalati, a 10-year NASA veteran will serve as a top...
Dec 8, 2010 | Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Kids Space, Our Solar System, Space and Science
Japan’s Venus orbiter — the AKATSUKI spacecraft — has failed to reach an intended orbit insertion around the veiled planet. Officials at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have announced that the planned December 7 injection into Venus orbit was...
Dec 6, 2010 | Blog, Education Station, European Space Agency, Exploration, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Kids Space, Our Solar System, Space and Science
Japan is initiating a hoped for start of a new era in Venusian exploration with the orbit insertion around the veiled planet on December 7 of its AKATSUKI spacecraft. However, the exact whereabouts of the orbiter is not known due to loss of contact with the craft by...
Dec 3, 2010 | Benefits of Space Exploration, Exploration, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science, Space Research
Scientists have identified a surprising form of bacteria that incorporates toxic arsenic rather than traditional phosphorus into the backbone of its DNA, the microscopic genetic material found in the nucleus of cells. The surprising finding re-defines under what...
Nov 26, 2010 | Blog, Education Station, European Space Agency, Exploration, International Cooperation, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science
It is the first time a spacecraft has captured direct evidence of an oxygen atmosphere at a world other than Earth. The flyby measurements of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft at Saturn’s moon Rhea reveal a tenuous oxygen-carbon dioxide atmosphere. The NASA-led...
Nov 23, 2010 | Blog, Commercial Space, Education Station, Kids Space, Mars, NASA, Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, Our Solar System, The Moon
Industry space planners are scoping out next steps beyond low Earth orbit – but with a trajectory twist: Exploring the Moon’s hidden farside from the L2 Lagrange Point. Stationed in that L2 slot a piloted spacecraft would be synchronized with the Moon in its orbit...
Nov 22, 2010 | International Cooperation, International Space Station, Mars, NASA, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science
The human exploration of Mars figures prominently in a new declaration from 30 nations supporting global cooperation in the future exploration and uses of space, under the banner of the half-century old International Academy of Astronautics. At a Washington summit on...
Nov 16, 2010 | Blog, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science
A sample container from Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft that returned from its seven year round-trip to asteroid Itokawa earlier this year reportedly does contain particles from the space rock. According to several press reports, an analysis of some 1,500 particles found...
Nov 15, 2010 | Blog, Education Station, International Cooperation, International Space Station, Mars, NASA, Our Solar System, Spaceports
A study team, comprised of NASA, university and research institute planners, has taken a dedicated look at a flexible path to multiple destinations in space. The focus of the group is to evaluate concepts for post-International Space Station (ISS) space habitation...