http://www.physorg.com/space-news/space-exploration/ en-us PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on space, space exploration, space science and earth sciences. (AP) -- A Seattle team has collected a $900,000 prize in a NASA-backed competition to develop the concept of an elevator to space - an idea spurred by science fiction novels. http://www.physorg.com/news176809468.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:45:52 EST news176809468 The station crew prepared Friday for the arrival of the Russian Mini-Research Module 2 (MRM2) which is scheduled for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on Nov. 10. The MRM2 will arrive at the station on Nov. 12 docking to the top port of the Zvezda service module. http://www.physorg.com/news176739140.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:40:01 EST news176739140 (PhysOrg.com) -- Kepler completed another science data download over October 18-19. In this download, a month's worth of science data was transmitted through the NASA Deep Space Network and into the Science Operations Center at Ames Research Center. After the download was complete, the Kepler spacecraft was returned to its science collection attitude and another cycle of science data collection began. http://www.physorg.com/news176728311.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:00:02 EST news176728311 (PhysOrg.com) -- Mars Express flew over the boundary between Kasei Valles and Sacra Fossae and imaged the region, acquiring spectacular views of the chaotic terrain in the area. http://www.physorg.com/news176721098.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:19:52 EST news176721098 (PhysOrg.com) -- An unusual meteorite with an interesting orbit has been tracked to the ground using a photographic observatory that records time-lapse images of fireballs traveling across the sky. http://www.physorg.com/news176657727.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:42:08 EST news176657727 (PhysOrg.com) -- The first orbiting space hotel is on track to open for its first customers in 2012, but hurry, as bookings are filling fast. http://www.physorg.com/news176632968.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:20:03 EST news176632968 (PhysOrg.com) -- Winter images of NASA's Phoenix Lander showing the lander shrouded in dry-ice frost on Mars have been captured with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. http://www.physorg.com/news176629880.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:52:02 EST news176629880 (AP) -- A robot powered by a ground-based laser beam climbed a long cable dangling from a helicopter on Wednesday to qualify for prize money in a $2 million competition to test the potential reality of the science fiction concept of space elevators. http://www.physorg.com/news176545232.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:34:56 EST news176545232 The MESSENGER spacecraft's third flyby of the planet Mercury has given scientists, for the first time, an almost complete view of the planet's surface and revealed some dramatic changes in Mercury's comet-like tail. http://www.physorg.com/news176575356.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:43:05 EST news176575356 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronauts may in future be wearing spacesuits equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) and digital eyes, turning them into what the researchers call cyborg astrobiologists. http://www.physorg.com/news176552331.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:10:01 EST news176552331 (PhysOrg.com) -- Following the launch of ESA's SMOS satellite on 2 November, the French space agency CNES, which is responsible for operating the satellite, has confirmed that the instrument's three antenna arms have deployed as planned, and that the instrument is in good health. http://www.physorg.com/news176482776.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:30:01 EST news176482776 By travelling to the outer solar system, the two Voyager spacecraft allowed us to see amazing details of far-distant planets and moons. http://www.physorg.com/news176412079.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:22:16 EST news176412079 Dust samples collected by high-flying aircraft in the upper atmosphere have yielded an unexpectedly rich trove of relicts from the ancient cosmos, report scientists from the Carnegie Institution. The stratospheric dust includes minute grains that likely formed inside stars that lived and died long before the birth of our sun, as well as material from molecular clouds in interstellar space. This "ultra-primitive" material likely wafted into the atmosphere after the Earth passed through the trail of an Earth-crossing comet in 2003, giving scientists a rare opportunity to study cometary dust in the laboratory. http://www.physorg.com/news176400764.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:00:02 EST news176400764 (PhysOrg.com) -- The second satellite in ESA's Earth Explorer series - the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission - and the second demonstration satellite under ESA's Project for Onboard Autonomy (Proba-2) were launched into orbit last night from northern Russia. http://www.physorg.com/news176368627.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:18:00 EST news176368627 (PhysOrg.com) -- Until Oct. 24, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover had gone more than six months without an episode of amnesia-like symptoms like those that appeared on four occasions earlier this year. http://www.physorg.com/news176195599.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:14:12 EST news176195599 (PhysOrg.com) -- If you found your grandmother's diary, tattered and dust covered, up in the attic, would you read it? Of course you would. Granny was a pistol! Brush off the dust, open up the little book, and foray into her lively and interesting past. http://www.physorg.com/news176134247.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:50:02 EST news176134247 (AP) -- Two of three parachutes malfunctioned in the test flight of a prototype moon rocket earlier this week, causing major damage to the booster, NASA said Friday. http://www.physorg.com/news176128209.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:30:51 EST news176128209 (AP) -- NASA says the booster rocket used in a test flight was badly dented when it fell into the Atlantic. http://www.physorg.com/news176057111.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:46:30 EST news176057111 (PhysOrg.com) -- Many of us have been rescued from unfamiliar territory by directions from a Global Positioning System (GPS) navigator. GPS satellites send signals to a receiver in your GPS navigator, which calculates your position based on the location of the satellites and your distance from them. The distance is determined by how long it took the signals from various satellites to reach your receiver. http://www.physorg.com/news176041112.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:20:30 EST news176041112 (AP) -- Russia should build a new nuclear-powered spaceship for prospective manned missions to Mars and other planets, the nation's space chief said Thursday. http://www.physorg.com/news176033450.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:11:45 EST news176033450 (PhysOrg.com) -- This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows channels to the southeast of Hale crater on southern Mars. Taken by the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, this view covers an area about 3 kilometers (2 miles) wide. http://www.physorg.com/news175971479.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:10:01 EST news175971479 Every 11 years, the sun undergoes a furious upheaval. Dark sunspots burst forth from beneath the sun's surface. Explosions as powerful as a billion atomic bombs spark intense flares of high-energy radiation. Clouds of gas big enough to swallow planets break away from the sun and billow into space. It's a flamboyant display of stellar power. http://www.physorg.com/news175970429.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:41:06 EST news175970429 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Ares I-X test rocket lifted off at 11:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a two-minute powered flight. http://www.physorg.com/news175953892.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:05:24 EST news175953892 (PhysOrg.com) -- An armada of robots may one day fly above the mountain tops of Saturn's moon Titan, cross its vast dunes and sail in its liquid lakes. http://www.physorg.com/news175942377.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:53:26 EST news175942377 (AP) -- NASA tried for hours Tuesday to launch its newest rocket for a shakedown flight, but clouds and high wind kept it stuck on the pad. http://www.physorg.com/news175870090.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:50:29 EST news175870090 The search for life-friendly real estate around distant stars doesn't have to be limited to planets. New research shows that habitable exomoons can be detected with a new method using current technology. http://www.physorg.com/news175799493.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:00:02 EST news175799493 Right now, the Moon is a ghost town. Nothing stirs. Here and there, an abandoned Apollo rover - or the dusty base of a lunar lander - linger as silent testimony to past human activity. But these days, only occasional asteroid impacts disrupt the decades-long spell of profound stillness. http://www.physorg.com/news175800054.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:21:47 EST news175800054 NASA is set to blast off a prototype rocket on Tuesday that carries hopes of returning humans to the Moon, and for the first time to Mars, despite deep uncertainty about the program's future. http://www.physorg.com/news175694891.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:08:50 EST news175694891 As Saturn's rings orbit the planet, a section is typically in the planet's shadow, experiencing a brief night lasting from 6 to 14 hours. However, once approximately every 15 years, night falls over the entire visible ring system for about four days. http://www.physorg.com/news175584836.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:34:51 EST news175584836 Today it would hardly pass muster as a child's plaything, but the telescope Galileo used 400 years ago this week to peer into the heavens overturned the foundations of knowledge, changing our perception of the Universe and our place in it. http://www.physorg.com/news175502359.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:40:59 EST news175502359