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Why Space Exploration Represents the Best of Humanity
The current divisiveness that seems to be permeating our culture has many wondering if we can ever overcome the divisions to find our common humanity, and be able to work together to solve our...
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Book Excerpt: “Incredible Stories From Space,” Roving Mars With Curiosity,...
Following is an excerpt from my new book, “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos,” which will be released tomorrow, Dec. 20, 2016. The...
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Martian Spacecraft Spies Earth and the Moon
The incredible HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter turned its eyes away from its usual target – Mars’ surface – and for calibration purposes only, took some amazing images of Earth...
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Cassini Images Of Enceladus Highlight Possible Cradle For Life
During its long mission to Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft has given us image after spectacular image of Saturn, its rings, and Saturn’s moons. The images of Saturn’s moon Enceladus are of particular...
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300 Asteroids to be Explored by a Fleet of Nanosatellites
The more that planetary astronomers study asteroids, they more they’re realizing just how varied and different they can be. Some, like 16 Psyche are made of solid nickel and iron, while others are made...
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Rosetta Team Finds New, Final Image Hiding in the Data
ESA scientists have found one additional image from the Rosetta spacecraft hiding in the telemetry. This new image was found in the last bits of data sent by Rosetta immediately before it shut down on...
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Special Skinsuits Could Help Astronauts Avoid Back Pain When Their Spines...
The microgravity in space causes a number of problems for astronauts, including bone density loss and muscle atrophy. But there’s another problem: weightlessness allows astronauts’ spines to expand,...
View ArticleMusk Says that SpaceX will use a Giant Party Balloon to Bring an Upper Stage...
When Elon Musk of SpaceX tweets something interesting, it generates a wave of excitement. So when he tweeted recently that SpaceX might be working on a way to retrieve upper stages of their rockets, it...
View ArticleHow Mission Delays Hurt Young Astronomers
Back in Ye Olden Times, the job of astronomer was a pretty exclusive club. Either you needed to be so rich and so bored that you could design, build, and operate your own private observatory, or you...
View ArticleIt’s Decided, the Mars 2020 Rover Will Land in Jezero Crater
Jezero crater is the landing spot for NASA’s upcoming 2020 rover. The crater is a rich geological site, and the 45 km wide (28 mile) impact crater contains at least five different types of rock that...
View ArticleHardy Tardigrades on Board Israel’s Beresheet Lander Probably Survived the Crash
When SpaceIL’s Beresheet lander crashed into the Moon, it was a bitter-sweet moment for Israel’s space exploration aspirations. The privately-built spacecraft was punching above its weight class by...
View ArticleEven Though it Hasn’t Launched Yet, JUICE Took its First Images of Jupiter...
Is there a more complicated and sophisticated technological engineering project than a spacecraft? Maybe a particle accelerator or a fusion power project. But other than those two, the answer is...
View ArticleHere’s NASA’s New Plan to Get InSight’s Temperature Probe Into Mars
The mole is still stuck. The mole is the name given to the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument on NASA’s Mars InSight lander. It’s job is to penetrate into the Martian surface to...
View ArticleA NASA Panel Says We Don’t Need to be so Careful About Infecting Other Worlds
It’s time to update the rules. That’s the conclusion of a panel that examined NASA’s rules for planetary protection. It was smart, at the dawn of the space age, to think about how we might...
View ArticleIt’s Time for Hayabusa-2 to Come Home
Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is on its way home. The asteroid-visiting, sample-return mission departed asteroid Ryugu (162173 Ryugu) on Wednesday, beginning its year-long journey back to Earth. And...
View ArticleIt’s Time to Decide. Where Should OSIRIS-REx Take a Sample from Bennu?
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx arrived at asteroid Bennu in December 2018. During the past year, it’s been imaging the surface of the asteroid extensively, looking for a spot to take a sample from. Though the...
View ArticleCHEOPS Just Opened Its Eyes to Start Studying Known Exoplanets, We Should See...
The CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite) spacecraft just opened the cover on its telescope. The spacecraft was launched on December 18th 2019 and has so far performed flawlessly. In one or two...
View ArticleGood-bye Spitzer. We’ll Miss You But We Won’t Forget You.
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has reached the end of its life. Its mission was to study objects in the infrared, and it excelled at that since it was launched in 2003. But every mission has an end,...
View ArticleRecord-Setting Space Travelers Return to Earth
A trio of space travelers returned to Earth this morning from the International Space Station, including NASA astronaut Christina Koch, who set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman,...
View ArticleHere are the First Pictures from CHEOPS
The CHEOPS spacecraft is taking the first tentative steps in its mission. Back on January 29th, the spacecraft opened the cover on its lens. Now, we have the first images from CHEOPS. CHEOPS stands for...
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