• Epoxi Spacecraft Burns for Home, Then Comet

    Updated: 2010-05-31 13:28:20
    (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Deep Impact/Epoxi spacecraft successfully performed a maneuver to refine its orbit prior to an upcoming Earth flyby June 27.

  • A new theory to explain superrotation on Venus

    Updated: 2010-05-31 12:50:02
    (PhysOrg.com) -- One of the mysteries in our Solar System is superrotation, a phenomenon known since the late 1960s, in which the winds on Venus blow faster than the planet rotates. Scientists have proposed a number of theories, but none have been completely satisfactory. Now scientists in Mexico have for the first time suggested a viable mechanism by which a faster wind higher above the planet is driving the superrotation.

  • vIcarus: Interstellar Mission in Cyberspace

    Updated: 2010-05-31 01:56:40
    One of the most useful technologies the Project Daedalus team lacked when designing its interstellar probe back in the 1970s was the personal computer. Today’s effort to re-visit Project Daedalus can draw on the strength of intercontinental networking for fast communications and widespread computer availability to design a probe differently. It’s exciting to hear that [...]

  • International Space Development Conference Day Two

    Updated: 2010-05-29 08:09:28
    Pictured left to right: NASA Administrator General Charles Bolden, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, Bob McDonald from SPACE Canada, SPACE Canada Executive Director Margaret McLaughlin, John Mankins, SPS researcher from Japan whose name I can’t recall. Far too much happened today on day two of the International Space Development Conference to go into any sort of [...]

  • International Space Development Conference - Day 1

    Updated: 2010-05-28 06:12:56
      Buzz Aldrin at the Boeing Coffee Eric Anderson, Space Adventures Gordon Woodcock, Boeing (retired) John Carmack, Armadillo Aerospace John Mankins, SPS guru A model Mars base in the exhibit hall A typical slide at an ISDC presentation I arrived at 8:00am for the first day of the International Space Development Conference (ISDC). I took a walk around the hotel to get [...]

  • The Milky Way from Outside

    Updated: 2010-05-27 14:19:35
    We sometimes forget the conditions under which great images get made. A few years back, in one of the earliest posts on his systemic site, Greg Laughlin (UC-Santa Cruz) showed the image you see below, a famous shot made by the Hubble telescope of the ‘Sombrero Galaxy,’ M104. It’s obvious why this image is a [...]

  • NASA Spacecraft Penetrates Mysteries Of Martian Ice Cap

    Updated: 2010-05-27 03:29:37
    PASADENA, Calif. — Data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have helped scient

  • WISE: First Survey Ends in July

    Updated: 2010-05-26 14:50:09
    What a glorious image WISE has given us. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer has finished three-quarters of its infrared map of the entire sky, with the final images scheduled for July, after which time the spacecraft will spend three months on a second survey before its solid-hydrogen coolant (needed to keep its infrared detectors chilled) [...]

  • Venus Mariner

    Updated: 2010-05-26 02:33:07
    Mariner 1 Early in the morning at 09:26:16 Universal Time (UT) on July 27, 1962, the Mariner 1 space

  • NASA gives up frozen Mars Lander for dead

    Updated: 2010-05-26 01:20:11
    NASA scientists have given up hope of finding any signs of life from the Phoenix Mars Lander, giving

  • Disturbing the Habitable Zone

    Updated: 2010-05-25 14:10:22
    It’s AAS week in Miami, and the American Astronomical Society usually gives us plenty to talk about. Inclined orbits, for one thing. In our Solar System, the process of planetary formation seems relatively intuitive. The eight major planets orbit largely in the same plane, reinforcing the idea that the cloud of gas that collapsed to [...]

  • Space: The Northern Frontier

    Updated: 2010-05-24 07:30:52
    So, you want to build a rocketship? -Lines like these are sprinkled across advertisements during the

  • A New Horizons Wake Up Call

    Updated: 2010-05-24 01:46:58
    Recently we’ve been talking about long-distance repair, and how any probe launched beyond the Solar System is going to have to fix its own problems rather than relying solely on transmissions from Earth. New Horizons, halfway to Pluto/Charon in terms of distance, isn’t yet in that category. It’s going to eventually make its way into [...]

  • Awesome.

    Updated: 2010-05-22 11:57:20
    The instant I saw this photograph I realized I was seeing something so beautiful, I’d have a hard job writing something to accompany it. Coming straight from the Twitter feed of Soichi Noguchi, Japanese astronaut and social-media-in-space-photography-guru, this single photograph has captured the moon, an aurora hanging above the Earth’s limb, a docked space shuttle Atlantis [...]

  • IKAROS Aloft: Shaking Out Sail Technologies

    Updated: 2010-05-21 14:01:32
    Congratulations to JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, for the successful launch of the IKAROS space sail, launched from the Tanegashima Space Center along with the Venus Climate Orbiter yesterday evening US time. The launch was a beautiful sight via JAXA’s Internet feed and we now have the opportunity to shake down solar sail technologies [...]

  • Blink and you'll miss it: Shuttle Atlantis and Space Station pass in front of the sun

    Updated: 2010-05-21 04:51:05
    The back of the shuttle Atlantis and International Space Station can be seen passing in front of the

  • 60 Mile High Club and Sex in Space

    Updated: 2010-05-20 15:58:32
    Now, I’ve already talked once about sex in space requests pouring into various space tourism companies, but now it is time to expand on the subject a bit. Now, the question is should a spaceplane, rocket ship for space tourists or even the International Space Station have a compartment for copulating couples? Even prisoners get [...]

  • A Cassini Double Flyby

    Updated: 2010-05-19 14:15:32
    Raw images from Cassini’s Enceladus encounter yesterday are becoming available, the most fascinating of which show the view of the plumes as the spacecraft approached the moon from the night side. And check the image below, which is an extraordinary combination of Cassini targets the like of which I never thought I would see. At [...]

  • Lander

    Updated: 2010-05-19 10:27:05
    The back of the shuttle Atlantis and International Space Station can be seen passing in front of the

  • Was Voyager 2 Hijacked by Aliens? No.

    Updated: 2010-05-19 09:59:45
    The Voyager 2 spacecraft has been speeding through the Solar System since 1977 and it’s seen a lot. Besides scooting past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the probe is now passing through the very limit of the heliosphere (called the heliopause) where it has begun to detect a magnetic field beyond the Solar System. The [...]

  • INPE observes slowing deforestation with DMCii

    Updated: 2010-05-19 08:20:21
    INPE observes slowing deforestation with DMCii Space blog INPE observes slowing deforestation with DMCii Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research INPE has completed its August 2008-July 2009 detailed survey of deforestation by shallow cut throughout the Amazon region INPE announcement Its PRODES Monitoring of the Brazilian Forest by Satellite programme analyzed 400 images from Landsat , CBERS and the DMC Satellite Constellation to confirm that deforestation during the period was 7464 square kilometers , a reduction of 42 in comparison to 2007-2008. This is the lowest annual deforestation rate since INPE started systematic monitoring of the Amazon forest by satellite in 1988. DMCii has worked with INPE to provide annual imaging of the whole Amazon Basin since 2005 to support this

  • SSTL leads GNSS reflectometry prototype

    Updated: 2010-05-18 11:04:04
    SSTL leads GNSS reflectometry prototype Space blog SSTL leads GNSS reflectometry prototype Development of a new instrument that could use satellite navigation signals to determine sea-surface roughness , ice characteristics , or soil moisture content has received a boost from the Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation CEOI The SSTL-led team will continue the development in a CEOI funded project . The CEOI is an initiative to develop the next generation of Earth observation instruments , funded by the Natural Environment Research Council NERC and Technology Strategy Board TSB Illustration of satellite collecting GPS reflectometry measurements over the ocean and ice as a new means of remote sensing The new project will continue the development of the instrument that exploits signals

  • Here's the shipping forecast for space

    Updated: 2010-05-18 01:30:07
    : British Broadcasting Corporation Home Accessibility links Text only Mobiles Skip to content Skip to local navigation Skip to bbc.co.uk navigation Skip to bbc.co.uk search Help Accessibility Help Access keys help Previous Main Here's the shipping forecast for space Jonathan Amos 12:30 UK time , Tuesday , 18 May 2010 Not so much an armada , more like a flotilla . We're going to see a series of spacecraft launch in the next year or so that try to demonstrate the principle of solar . sailing These craft will deploy very large , ultra-thin membranes to catch the light of our star to push them through . space The idea has long been discussed and now a few groups are very close to showing us the reality . Or so we . hope First out of the space marina is Japan's Ikaros which will be launched on

  • The New NSS Space Art Gallery

    Updated: 2010-05-15 18:18:39
    Shattered Dreams digital painting snippet On Wednesday, I flipped the switch and the National Space Society’s Space Art Gallery went live. Creating the NSS Space Art Gallery has allowed me to combine two of my loves: art and space exploration. I was actually drawn to art because of space art. As a child I found the [...]

  • Have aliens hijacked Voyager 2 spacecraft

    Updated: 2010-05-14 19:29:45
    IT left Earth 33 years ago, now it’s claimed the Voyager 2 spacecraft may have been hijacked b

  • Dawn of the Corporate Scientist-Astronaut

    Updated: 2010-05-14 16:52:07
    For those of you who have known me a while, who have had to endure my many rants during the last dec

  • Aliens hijacking Voyager?

    Updated: 2010-05-14 11:53:13
    The Australian Daily Telegraph reports the information that “[...] It left Earth 33 years ago,

  • Give it a rest, people: Voyager 2 spacecraft not hijacked by aliens

    Updated: 2010-05-13 22:14:24
    NASA is having a hard time talking to the Voyager 2 probe.  It started in late April and has only go

  • Space meets Art

    Updated: 2010-05-13 19:09:08
    These guys are doing great things. I love this blog for entertainment, snowboarding, art, and more.

  • The last (planned) flight of space shuttle Atlantis

    Updated: 2010-05-13 17:50:18
    : Help us to keep our finger on the . pulse Do you have 5 minutes to tell us what you think about this site Yes No Accessibility links Text only Skip to content Skip to local navigation Skip to bbc.co.uk navigation Skip to bbc.co.uk search Help Accessibility Help Access keys help Previous Main The last planned flight of space shuttle Atlantis Jonathan Amos 16:50 UK time , Thursday , 13 May 2010 So , we get down to the first of the lasts Friday's launch of the space shuttle Atlantis is expected to be the final outing for this particular orbiter before . retirement It won't go to a museum straightaway on its return from the space station , however . It will go back into the processing flow , as they say , and made ready as the launch on need rescue shuttle should November's Endeavour flight

  • Have aliens hijacked voyager 2 spacecraft

    Updated: 2010-05-13 14:40:08
    “It left earth 33 years ago, now its claimed the Voyager 2 spacecraft may have been hijacked by alie

  • NASA spacecraft 'hijacked by aliens'

    Updated: 2010-05-12 23:12:12
    A GERMAN UFO expert has claimed that a NASA spacecraft may have been hijacked by aliens – who

  • NASA's Orion spacecraft escapes doom

    Updated: 2010-05-12 16:39:56
    Successful firing of the Orion capsule launch-abort system from the White Sands Missile Range, N.M.

  • The Astroengine Universe is Expanding*

    Updated: 2010-05-11 02:41:50
    Astroengine.com is now being syndicated by The Christian Science Monitor! The CSM has been around for ever (well, since 1908) and it’s a publication that’s won seven Pulitzer Prizes. That’s all kinds of awesome. Personally, I’ve been following CSMonitor.com for some time and their coverage of all things science is excellent — I’m very excited [...]

  • Life on Mars? Only in The Sun.

    Updated: 2010-05-10 00:01:14
    In its haste to become the first newspaper to print the “NASA: Evidence of Life on Mars” headline, the UK’s Sun website caused a stir last week. Not only was this headline incorrect, it was a wee bit irresponsible. For starters, no evidence for life has been found on the Red Planet. Second, NASA has [...]

  • Space Agency Confirms Indonesia ‘Meteorite’

    Updated: 2010-05-06 09:22:01
    So, according to The Jakarta Post, last week’s ‘meteorite’ (these skeptical ‘quotes’ are getting ridiculous) that smashed down in East Jakarta, through the roof of a house, was in fact a meteorite. But this time, a scientist from the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (Lapan) has confirmed the original report to be true. “The heat exposure [...]

  • The Moon enjoys its moment in the Sun

    Updated: 2010-05-04 11:01:25
    : Accessibility links Text only Skip to content Skip to local navigation Skip to bbc.co.uk navigation Skip to bbc.co.uk search Help Accessibility Help Access keys help Previous Main The Moon enjoys its moment in the Sun Jonathan Amos 10:01 UK time , Tuesday , 4 May 2010 Mr Obama is not so excited by the Moon We've been there before was how he dismissed Earth's satellite as a priority destination for US astronauts . Instead , he wants to send humans to more distant , increasingly demanding targets starting with an asteroid in the . mid-2020s It's hard to imagine , though , that we would bypass the Moon altogether . For one thing , it's close by and a great place to test technology . There's also the comfort of knowing that if something goes wrong , home is just a short hop . away More than

  • Gecksteroids! Asteroids and Geckos May Share Common Force

    Updated: 2010-05-01 10:57:05
    What do asteroids and geckos have in common? Not a lot, as you’d expect, but they may share a common force. This rather strange notion comes from research being done by a team of University of Colorado scientists who have been studying the odd nature of the asteroid Itokawa. When the Japanese Hayabusa mission visited the [...]

  • SST-US platforms get NASA seal of approval

    Updated: 2010-04-30 11:18:14
    SST-US platforms get NASA seal of approval Space blog SST-US platforms get NASA seal of approval Flight proven satellite platforms from Surrey Satellite Technology US LLC SST-US have been selected by NASA's Rapid Spacecraft Development Office RSDO for inclusion in the third NASA Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition Catalog Rapid III SST-US’ Chief Executive Officer , Dr . John Paffett stated It is a privilege for SST-US to have been selected by NASA for inclusion in the Catalog . It is recognition of the company’s capabilities , expertise and heritage . We believe that the Catalog provides an efficient route for SST-US to provide rapid , low risk , cost effective satellite solutions to NASA and other Government Agencies and we look forward to delivering future mission . opportunities Through this

  • Hubble Conquers Mystic Mountain

    Updated: 2010-04-23 04:08:58
    Sometimes, words are not enough to describe views of the universe when captured through the lens of the Hubble Space Telescope. This is one of those moments. Kicking off its 20th anniversary (yes, that super-sized telescope has been in space that long — I would say that I remember it being launched, but I don’t, because [...]

  • Simulators prepare star trackers for spaceflight

    Updated: 2010-04-22 11:33:00
    Simulators prepare star trackers for spaceflight Space blog Simulators prepare star trackers for spaceflight SSTL’s Optical Payload Group is currently building two Dynamic Multi Star-field Simulators DMSS at its Sevenoaks facility that will be used to test star trackers that will be flown in space under simulated operating conditions here on Earth . Star trackers are an essential subsystem in any satellite , providing information that allows the spacecraft's on board computer to determine its orientation or pointing” at any point in . time DMSS assembly They work by taking an image of a region of the sky using a specially designed optical camera , and comparing successive images to determine how much the orientation of the satellite has . drifted This information is then sent to an

  • Hubble 3D IMAX Movie

    Updated: 2010-04-17 15:06:41
    Hubble 3D IMAX movie What a great IMAX movie. Thursday I visited Chicago’s Navy Pier to take some photographs and attend a screening of the latest IMAX movie - Hubble 3D. I had a number of free passes so I and several friends from the National Space Society met up to see the movie. According to [...]

  • Will volcanic ash affect satellite communications?

    Updated: 2010-04-16 14:04:05
    Will volcanic ash affect satellite communications Space blog Will volcanic ash affect satellite communications This week , an enormous cloud of volcanic ash is sweeping over Northern Europe , grounding aeroplanes and bringing the jet-setters to a standstill One could be forgiven for taking it all for a hoax there’s nothing for the common Earth dweller to see but it’s bringing some businesses to a standstill as they struggle to make their meeting’s . commitments The reason this ash cloud cannot be seen is that the ash cloud is moving relatively high in the atmosphere , although meteorologists say there are signs some dust is settling at lower levels which could begin affecting the health of those with respiratory conditions such as asthma . However the risk to aircrafts is very real as

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