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...
Oct 28, 2013 | Asteroid Exploration, Mars, NASA, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science, Space Research, The Moon
Orion, the new NASA spacecraft under development to transport U. S. astronauts to an assortment of deep space destinations, including the asteroids, the moon and eventually Mars, has been powered up for the first time at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where it is...
Oct 22, 2013 | Asteroid Exploration, Benefits of Space Exploration, Exploration, International Space Station, Mars, NASA, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science
NASA scores high in a new poll of U. S. federal agencies carried out during the October U. S. Government shutdown and worker furlough that disrupted many operations. The poll of 1,504 adults was conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press...
Oct 19, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Ask the Experts — Answers, Asteroid Exploration, Benefits of Space Exploration, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science
In dealing with asteroids that could cause damage to people and property, Earth has a blind spot. According to space rock expert, Jay Melosh, a distinguished professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences and physics at Purdue University in West Lafayette,...
Oct 11, 2013 | Benefits of Space Exploration, Education, Exploration, Hubble Space Telescope, NASA, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science, Space Research
Comet ISON is increasingly likely to appear brightly in the night skies of Earth in early December. The results of studies released this week suggest ISON has the qualities needed to survive its Nov. 28th brush with the sun, a point in its journey toward...
Oct 11, 2013 | Blog, Comets, Education Station, European Space Agency, Exploration, Kids Space, Our Solar System, Space and Science
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) deep-sleep spacecraft – Rosetta — is due for a wake-up call in 100 days’ time. Shot into space in early March 2004, the ESA probe is en route to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta is an orbiter and lander mission, designed...
Oct 8, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, NASA, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science
On Oct. 9, NASA’s Juno spacecraft will fly past the Earth for a gravity-assist boost that will slingshot the probe onward to Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. The time of closest approach is 3:21 p.m. EDT (12:21 p.m. PDT / 19:21 UTC) when Juno will pass...
Sep 27, 2013 | Blog, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, Kids Space, Our Solar System, Pluto, Space and Science
A New Horizons Message Initiative is underway in the hopes of persuading NASA to upload a crowd-sourced message to the New Horizons probe that’s now outbound to Pluto. Based on bandwidth and the spacecraft’s onboard computers, the intent is to send pictures and sounds...
Sep 12, 2013 | Asteroid Exploration, Benefits of Space Exploration, Commercial Space, Exploration, International Space Station, Space Shuttle, NASA, Mars, Our Solar System, Space and Science, Space Research, The Moon
Experts within NASA and outside are making strides in their plans for a bold Asteroid Retrieval Mission, a joint robotic and human enterprise that would take U. S. explorers beyond low Earth orbit for the first time since the final Apollo mission to the moon....
Sep 7, 2013 | Benefits of Space Exploration, Exploration, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science, Space Research, The Moon
NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere & Dust Environment Explorer mission began a 30-day trek to the moon late Friday, successfully blasting off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility inVirginia. Flight controllers encountered then quickly addressed a problem with the...