Dec 25, 2013 | Benefits of Space Exploration, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, NASA, Our Solar System, Pluto, Space and Science
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is speeding quickly toward the first flyby of Pluto and its moons in July 2015. The real spacecraft – developed at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland – is about the size and shape of a grand piano. The nuclear...
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 19, 2013 | Benefits of Space Exploration, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, Kids Space, MESSENGER, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science
Hellish Mercury may not be as tranquil as “Strawberry Fields Forever” but that song’s creator, the late Beatle, John Lennon, and the Sun-baked world are now tied together. Crater Lennon is one of ten impact craters on the planet Mercury that have been assigned names...
Dec 16, 2013 | Blog, China, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, Kids Space, NASA, Space Race, The Moon
Previously taken NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) images of the area in which China’s Chang’e 3 landed on the Moon December 14 have been matched up with descent images acquired by the Chang’e 3 lander as it dove down onto the lunar surface. According to imaging...
Dec 11, 2013 | Blog, Book Reviews, Education Station, European Space Agency, Exploration, Kids Space, Mars, MESSENGER, NASA, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science, The Moon, Why Space
Alien Seas – Oceans in Space by Michael Carroll, Rosaly Lopes (Editors); Springer, New York; $29.99 (hardcover); 2013. Thanks to the editors for this captivating “wet look” at an under-appreciated aspect of planets and moons in our celestial neighborhood – those “seas...
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 8, 2013 | Blog, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, Kids Space, Mars, Multimedia, Space Research
The planet Mars may be on the receiving end of a “Time Capsule of Humanity” orchestrated by an international team of university students. The students are proposing to fly their time capsule to Mars via a CubeSat platform. This vehicle would carry a unique payload: a...
Dec 6, 2013 | Blog, China, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, The Moon
China’s Chang’e 3 lunar probe has successfully entered lunar orbit. Braking into a circular orbit around the Moon, the spacecraft is set to attempt a soft landing on moonscape in mid-December. According to the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) the craft is in a...
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...
Dec 4, 2013 | Blog, Comets, Education Station, European Space Agency, Exploration, International Cooperation, Kids Space, Our Solar System, Space and Science
Rosetta, Europe’s comet chaser is about to get a wake-up call. Early next year — on January 20th — the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft will yawn to life from its 957-day hibernation. For the outbound probe, it’s the beginning of an eventful...