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. The world is not coming to an end on December 21, 2012, the US space agency insisted Monday in a rare campaign to dispel widespread rumors fueled by the Internet and a new Hollywood movie. http://www.physorg.com/news177001418.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:30:20 EST news177001418 A Russian rocket will next year for the first time blast off from a European launch pad in South America, officials said Saturday, as the first rockets headed for the site on board a ship. http://www.physorg.com/news176810118.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:56:08 EST news176810118 (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) -- After the trajectory correction manoeuvre on 22 October, Rosetta has lined up on a near-perfect Earth approach path. The manoeuvre was so precise that mission controllers decided not to use the additional manoeuvre slot that was available yesterday. http://www.physorg.com/news176736191.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:10:04 EST news176736191 (PhysOrg.com) -- Hylas, a flexible, broadband Ka-band satellite, is steadily moving towards completion. The communications payload has been shipped from England to India for integration with the platform, marking a key milestone for the project. http://www.physorg.com/news176736080.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:50:01 EST news176736080 (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 This week, Astronomy & Astrophysics publishes a somewhat unusual research article because it is co-authored by German high-school students. Led by astronomer Klaus Beuermann (University of Göttingen, Germany), the team involves a secondary school physics teacher, three students from two high schools in Göttingen, and three professional astronomers. http://www.physorg.com/news176637137.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:20:02 EST news176637137 (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 (PhysOrg.com) -- Cassini has started sending data back from its Nov. 2 flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus. http://www.physorg.com/news176576460.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:20:02 EST news176576460 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 Is there such a thing as "weather" on Mars? There are some doubts, considering the planet's atmosphere is only 1 percent as dense as that of the Earth. Mars, however, definitely has clouds, drastically low temperatures and out-of-this-world dust storms, and Istvan Szunyogh, a Texas A&M professor of atmospheric sciences, has been awarded a NASA grant to analyze and forecast Martian weather. http://www.physorg.com/news176559648.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:30:01 EST news176559648 (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 ESA's comet chaser Rosetta will swing by Earth for the last time on 13 November to pick up energy and begin the final leg of its 10-year journey to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. ESA's European Space Operations Centre will host a media briefing on that day. http://www.physorg.com/news176551710.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:20:01 EST news176551710 (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 Launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., aboard an United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch vehicle, Oct. 18, 2009, the Special Sensor Ultraviolet Limb Imager (SSULI) developed by NRL's Space Science Division and Spacecraft Engineering Department offers a first of its kind technique for remote sensing of the ionosphere and thermosphere from space. http://www.physorg.com/news176470609.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:50:01 EST news176470609 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA will award $1.65 million in prize money Thursday to a pair of innovative aerospace companies that successfully simulated landing a spacecraft on the moon and lifting off again. http://www.physorg.com/news176456283.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:50:01 EST news176456283 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 (PhysOrg.com) -- Pumpkin-colored Mars will return to prominence during November, rising shortly before midnight at the beginning of the month and more than two hours earlier by month's end. The orange planet will brighten noticeably as it passes the stars of the Beehive cluster. Mars will be highest in the south around the start of morning twilight, the best time for viewing it with a telescope. http://www.physorg.com/news176408672.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:40:01 EST news176408672 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 (AP) -- Qian Xuesen, a rocket scientist known as the father of China's space technology program, died Saturday in Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency said. He was 98. http://www.physorg.com/news176194221.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:53:17 EST news176194221 (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 (PhysOrg.com) -- Last night, an Ariane 5 ECA launcher lifted off from Europe`s Spaceport in French Guiana on a journey to place two telecommunications satellites, NSS-12 and Thor 6, into geostationary transfer orbits. Flight V192 was the sixth Ariane 5 launch of 2009 and the fourth dual-payload mission. http://www.physorg.com/news176108788.html Space & Earth - Space Exploration Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:20:01 EST news176108788