Space Exploration news

Sandtrapped Rover Makes a Big Discovery

Sandtrapped Rover Makes a Big Discovery

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (47) | comments 12

Homer's Iliad tells the story of Troy, a city besieged by the Greeks in the Trojan War. Today, a lone robot sits besieged in the sands of Troy while engineers and scientists plot its escape.


Caltech scientists explain puzzling lake asymmetry on Titan

Scientists explain puzzling lake asymmetry on Titan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 29, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (14) | comments 0

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) suggest that the eccentricity of Saturn's orbit around the sun may be responsible for the unusually uneven distribution of methane and ethane ...


A scale model of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo

Virgin Galactic readies maiden suborbital flight

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created 1hour ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson will unveil a craft on Monday that could soon carry tourists on an out-of-this-world trip into space -- for a mere 200,000 dollars.


Keeping Mars Contained

Keeping Mars Contained

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 04, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2

When robotic spacecraft bring a sample of Mars back to Earth, scientists will need specially-designed facilities to study the samples and prevent them from escaping to the outside world.


Ares I-X rocket

NASA puzzled why parachutes failed in rocket test

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (5) | comments 4

(AP) -- NASA still isn't sure why two parachutes failed during a test flight of its prototype moon rocket just over a month ago.


STAR TRAK for December: Geminid meteors flash in December skies

STAR TRAK for December: Geminid meteors flash in December skies

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The annual Geminid meteor shower, which will reach its maximum on the night of Dec. 13-14, usually offers the best show of the year, outperforming even the Perseid shower of August. This year ...


Orbiter Puts Itself Into Safe Standby

Mars Odyssey Orbiter Puts Itself Into Safe Standby

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter put itself into a safe standby mode on Saturday, Nov. 28, and the team operating the spacecraft has begun implementing careful steps designed to resume Odyssey's ...


Robert Thirsk

ISS astronauts land safely in Kazakhstan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

A space capsule carrying a Belgian, a Canadian and a Russian landed safely in the steppes of Kazakhstan on Tuesday after the trio spent half a year on the International Space Station (ISS).


GOES-14 (O) moving into on-orbit storage around the Earth

GOES-14 (O) moving into on-orbit storage around the Earth

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 30, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite named GOES-14, is being placed in on-orbit storage this month to await its call to duty.


Superior Super Earths

Superior Super Earths

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 30, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (49) | comments 14

Super Earths are named for their size, but these planets - which range from about 2 to 10 Earth masses - could be superior to the Earth when it comes to sustaining life. They could also provide an answer to ...


WISE Launch Scheduled for Dec. 11

WISE Launch Scheduled for Dec. 11

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 04, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 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

Steering the Ares Rockets on a Straight Path

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 04, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 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 ...


Spitzer Unveils Biggest Milky Way View at Adler Planetarium

Spitzer Unveils Biggest Milky Way View at Adler Planetarium

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 04, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- The world's largest image of our Milky Way galaxy, taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, went on display this week at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.


US astronaut Timothy Creamer (L), Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov (C), and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi (R)

Astronauts to taste 'space sushi'

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

US astronaut Timothy Creamer said on Thursday he was impatient to taste "space sushi" courtesy of his Japanese crewmate after they arrive on the International Space Station (ISS) later this month.


NASA Uses Twin Processes to Develop New Tank Dome Technology

NASA Uses Twin Processes to Develop New Tank Dome Technology

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 02, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (3) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA has partnered with Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, Colo., and MT Aerospace in Augsburg, Germany, to successfully manufacture the first full-scale friction stir welded and spun ...