Browse by Tags

All Tags » Space Exploration   (RSS)
26 July 2010
Michael Laine Will Answer Your Questions on Space Elevators
After our recent article featuring the concept of a lunar elevator, many of you posted questions about both lunar elevators and space elevators in general. Liftport's Michael Laine has graciously agreed to provide answers for these questions, and if anyone has additional questions, leave them in the comment section here. We'll post Michael's answers in [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
30 June 2010
Red Bull Stratos Update: Breaking the Speed of Sound in Freefall
Here's an update on the Red Bull Stratos project, where skydiver Felix Baumgartner will attempt to break the speed of sound during freefall. (Read our preview article). Baumgartner and the project's aeronautic's experts recently conducted the latest round of high-altitude test jumps and step-off procedure tests. Baumgartner himself reports feeling both satisfaction and apprehension while [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
25 June 2010
Spacecraft to Make Final Flyby of Earth
The re-purposed Deep Impact spacecraft will make one final flyby of Earth on Sunday June 27, 2010, getting a gravity assist to help propel the spacecraft towards a meetup with comet Hartley 2 this fall. The spacecraft bus that brought the Deep Impact "impactor" to comet Tempel 1 in July of 2005 has been put [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
18 June 2010
Video Tour of the Mars500 Habitat
Mars500 participant Diego Urbina (follow him on Twitter at @diegou) provides a tour inside the Mars500 facilities – see how the crew are living and working for the next 17 months in isolation. On June 3, 2010 Urbina and five fellow crewmates from Europe, Russia and China embarked on a 520-day mock mission to Mars, [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
16 June 2010
Separation Camera Takes Full Images and 'Movie' of IKAROS Solar Sail
Two small "separation cameras" were ejected from JAXA's (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) IKAROS solar sail, which successfully took some amazing full images of the fully deployed sail. The cameras are quite small, cylindrical in shape about 6 cm in diameter and height. They were ejected from the sail using a spring, and [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
15 June 2010
100th Launch to the International Space Station
The Soyuz TMA-19 vehicle blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today to bring three new crew members to the International Space Station. This was the 100th launch of missions in support of space station assembly, resupply and crew exchanges. The rocket lit up the early morning sky in Kazakhstan at 3:35 a.m. Wednesday [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
15 June 2010
Unusual Views of the Soyuz Rocket
Two NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut will launch to the International Space Station later today, and astronauts Douglas Wheelock has been able to get up close and personal with the Soyuz rocket that will take them there. He's taken a few pictures of his rocket from unusual vantage points and posted them on [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
13 June 2010
Hayabusa Returns!
Japan's little spacecraft that could returned to Earth, putting on quite a show over the Australian outback, making a fiery reentry. Hayabusa returned around 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) in the Woomera Prohibited Area of South Australia. In the video you'll see a little speck of light ahead of the falling debris: [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
09 June 2010
Needed: Plutonium-238
Sometimes people ask me what they, as a regular citizen can do to help NASA. Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog posted this today, and this is definitely something to write to members of Congress about. NASA is running out of plutonium-238, which is used to power deep space probes, but [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments
Filed under: ,
 
09 June 2010
Ice Caves Possible on Mars
New results published in the journal Icarus suggest that caves on Mars may provide future astronauts with more than just shelter. In many locations, even far from the poles, the caves may actually trap water ice. Ice caves are made of rock, but they contain ice year-round. (Not to be confused with glacier caves, which are [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
08 June 2010
Attention Teachers and Students: Fly An Experiment on Final Shuttle Mission
We just received an exciting note from Dr. Jeff Goldstein, the Director for the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education. There is a unique and historic opportunity for students in grades 5-12 to fly an experiment on the final scheduled space shuttle mission, STS-134, through the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP). There [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
03 June 2010
Crew Embarks on 520-Day Mock Mission to Mars
Six men from Europe, Russia and China embarked on a 520-day mock mission to Mars, heading out to a crew module in a warehouse in Moscow and locking the hatches behind them today. The mission runs from June 2010 to November 2011, and like a real Mars mission, the crew will live and [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
27 May 2010
Japan Shoots for Robotic Moon Base by 2020
These ARE the droids we've been looking for. The Japanese space agency, JAXA, has plans to build a base on the Moon by 2020. Not for humans, but for robots, and built by robots, too. A panel authorized by Japan's prime minister has drawn up preliminary plans of how humanoid and rover [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
25 May 2010
First Orion Capsule forming rapidly
The first Orion crew capsule is rapidly taking shape as assembly work to construct the skeletal framework of the first pathfinder Orion capsule – the Ground Test Article – or GTA, is nearing completion. The Lockheed Martin team building Orion is just one weld away from completing the framework of an Orion cabin at [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
19 May 2010
What is the Air Force's Secret X-37B Space Plane Doing in Orbit?
Last month's launch of the US Air Force X-37B secret mini space plane has fueled speculation about the real mission of this vehicle and if it could possibly be used for a new type of military weapon. The X-37B launched on April 22, 2010 and has the ability to stay in orbit for up [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
More Posts Next page »