Space Exploration news

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Resumes Observations

Dec 16, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (5) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers are receiving new science data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter after the spacecraft's six science instruments resumed observations today.

NASA unveils latest results from lunar mission

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 15, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (5) | 0

NASA's current mission in orbit around the moon, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has been providing crucial insights about our nearest celestial neighbor since its launch in June. At a scientific ...

Magnetic Dance of Titan and Saturn To Be Main Attraction during Flyby

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 14, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- When it flies by Saturn's largest moon, Titan, this weekend, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will study the interactions between the magnetic field of Saturn and Titan. The flyby will take place ...

ESA's Tigers on prowl for solar corona's secrets

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 11, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Bring together a small group of highly motivated researchers, grant them full access to laboratory and production facilities, remove all administrative distractions, and let them work intensively ...

WISE Launch Delayed 24 Hours

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 10, 2009 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Liftoff of a Delta II rocket and its NASA payload, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), has been delayed 24 hours. At the soonest, launch now will be Saturday, Dec. 12, during a ...

The Meandering Channels of Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 10, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (6) | 5

Sinuous channels on the Martian surface may be evidence of relatively recent rainfall. Researchers plan to test this hypothesis by studying sinuous streams on Earth.

Best (Meteor) Shower of 2009 - No Towel Required

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 10, 2009 | not rated yet | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Bundle up and get ready to watch a fiery lightshow stirred up by dead comets in Earth's upper atmosphere during the cold of winter in the dead of night. The annual Geminid meteor shower is ...

NASA's WISE Set to Blast Off and Map the Skies

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 09, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The countdown clock is ticking, with just days to go before the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, rockets into space on a mission to map the entire sky in infrared light.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Spacecraft Out of Safe Mode

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 09, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter today has been taken out of the precautionary 'safe mode' it had been in since August.

The 2009 Geminid Meteor Shower (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 08, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (6) | 0

Make hot cocoa. Bundle up. Tell your friends. The best meteor shower of 2009 is about to fall over North America on a long, cold December night.

Further Tests Designed for Rover's Right-Rear Wheel

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 08, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A series of diagnostic tests on Spirit's right-rear wheel on sols 2104 and 2105 (Dec. 3 and 4) investigated stalls that occurred on Sol 2099 (Nov. 28) and earlier. The rover team cannot draw ...

Prof gets messages from space

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 08, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (6) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Barbara Frisken received several messages from outer space this year on her answering machine.

Japan's 'space beer' sparkles among drinkers

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 07, 2009 | 3.2 / 5 (6) | 0

A Japanese brewer has come up with a beer that's truly out of this world -- one made with barley grown from a line of seeds that once orbited the Earth aboard the International Space Station.

WISE Launch Scheduled for Dec. 11

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 04, 2009 | 4 / 5 (1) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Launch of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is scheduled for Dec. 11.

Steering the Ares Rockets on a Straight Path

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 04, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Ares I-X rocket stood more than 325 feet tall on the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Spectators watched in awe as its massive solid rocket motor blazed to life with a thunderous ...