The story of Hayabusa inspires three major movie releases
The story of Hayabusa, the Japanese space probe that was the first to successfully return material from an asteroid despite serious technical failures, has now inspired three major movies.
Tag: engineering
Could weird lunar crater be the crash site for Lunar Orbiter 2?
Could this weird lunar crater be the crash site for Lunar Orbiter 2?
Summer break for testing of SpaceShipTwo
Wondering why there have been no recent test flights of SpaceShipTwo? Virgin Galactic is taking a summer break.
3-D Printer Passes Zero Gravity Test to Make Space Tools
Two modified off-the-shelf 3-D printers have passed their first zero gravity tests for making tools in space.
Tiangong-1 is not a space station hub
Tiangong-1 is not a space station hub.
The Painted Desert of Mars
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter released this picture yesterday of what the Orbiter’s scientists have labeled “The crazy floor of Hellas Basin.” Below you can see a cropped image of only one part of the large higher resolution image. The NASA caption says that the wild colors probably “indicate that diverse minerals are present,” meaning that any settlers of the red planet will probably take a close look at this location with the reasonable hope of finding the resources they need to colonize a planet.
To me, these colors also indicate that this place on Mars would probably one of its most popular tourist spots. As I look at the image my eye instinctively wants to trace out the best trail route along the ridges and down into the gullies in order to give hikers the best view of this colorful terrain.
Opportunity is now about 1500 feet from the rim of Endeavour Crater
After almost three years and seven miles of travel, Opportunity is now only about 1500 feet from the rim of Endeavour Crater.
What should spaceships look like?
A look at the Chinese space program
A look at the Chinese space program.
ISS to be deorbited in 2020
The head of the Russian space agency said today that ISS will be deorbited in 2020, as agreed to by the governments running it.
Wanna bet? They are only now starting to do the research the station is best designed for, and learning how to live in space for years is going to take years. Come 2020, that work will hardly be done. Moreover, the impossibility of replacing ISS without a shuttle to haul up large modules and trusses will make very appealing the idea of keeping the present station in operation.
Then again, everything I just wrote is simple common sense, and who ever expected common sense from these governments?
ISS partners discuss how to use the space station as a test bed for missions beyond low Earth orbit.
Now why didn’t they think of this before? The ISS partners met today to discuss how to use the space station as a test bed for missions beyond low Earth orbit.
As I wrote in Leaving Earth, a space station is nothing more than a prototype interplanetary spaceship. This kind of research is really its main purpose, and I am glad that the governments running ISS are finally beginning to recognize it, even though their engineers have known it for decades. Note too that the press release above also gives a nice overview of some of the ongoing research on ISS that is directly related to learning how to survive in space for long periods.
The next Jupiter probe heads to the launchpad
Juno, the U.S.’s next Jupiter probe, headed to the launchpad on Friday for a planned August 5 launch.