Space Exploration news

Station Prepares For New Spacecraft, Monitors Debris

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

18 hours ago | 5 / 5 (1) | 2

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 ...

Kepler Mission Update

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

20 hours ago | 4.6 / 5 (5) | 0

(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 ...

Mars: Chaotic terrain between Kasei Valles and Sacra Fossae

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

23 hours ago | 4.7 / 5 (7) | 0

(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.

Frost-Covered Phoenix Lander Seen in Winter Images

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 05, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (5) | 0

(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 ...

German high-school students involved in an astronomical research project

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 05, 2009 | 4 / 5 (1) | 0

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 i ...

Hidden Territory on Mercury Revealed

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 04, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (20) | 1

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 ...

Spacesuits with artificial intelligence may look for life on Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 04, 2009 | 5 / 5 (7) | 0

(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.

Successful Flight Through Enceladus Plume (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 04, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Cassini has started sending data back from its Nov. 2 flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Rosetta's final Earth boost

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 04, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

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 ...

Texas A&M prof to predict weather on Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 04, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

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 ...

SMOS forms three-pointed star in the sky (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 03, 2009 | 3 / 5 (2) | 0

(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 ...

NRL sensor provides critical space weather observations

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 03, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

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 ...

NASA and X Prize Announce Winners of Lunar Lander Challenge

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 03, 2009 | 3.8 / 5 (5) | 0

(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.

Fantastic Voyage

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (19) | 3

By travelling to the outer solar system, the two Voyager spacecraft allowed us to see amazing details of far-distant planets and moons.

'Ultra-primitive' particles found in comet dust

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 02, 2009 | 5 / 5 (8) | 2

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 ...

SMOS, Proba-2: Two new ESA satellites successfully lofted into orbit (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 0

(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 ...

STAR TRAK for November: Mars is prominent again

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 02, 2009 | 4 / 5 (2) | 0

(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 ...

Amnesia-Like Behavior Returns on Spirit

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 31, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (8) | 3

(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.