Credits: NASA Like many of his colleagues at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., Shyam Bhaskaran is working a lot with asteroids these days. And also like many of his colleagues, the deep space navigator devotes a great deal of time to crafting, and contemplating, computer-generated 3-D models of these intriguing nomads of the solar system. But while many of [...]
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Curiosity Rover Exits ‘Safe Mode’
Source: NASA PASADENA, Calif. – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has returned to active status and is on track to resume science investigations, following two days in a precautionary standby status, “safe mode.” Next steps will include checking the rover’s active computer, the B-side computer, by commanding a preliminary free-space move of the arm. The B-side computer was provided information last [...]
ISU International Symposium on Tele-Reach
Last week saw the 17th annual International Space University Symposium, held at the ISU main campus in Strasbourg, which ran from 5th-7th March. The title of this year’s symposium was “Space Technology and Tele-reach: Benefiting Humanity on Earth and Beyond.” Tele-reach, according to the symposium program’s definition, is a term used to refer to technologies and applications which allow remote [...]
A Week Of Glitches: Dragon, Curiosity, and ATV-4
It’s been a week full of glitches in the space sector. As well as the series of faults that prevented Dragon from making its timely rendezvous with ISS on 2nd March, it has been reported that Curiosity and ESA’s ATV-4 have run into some difficulties. On February 28th, the ground team for NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity at the Jet Propulsion [...]
NASA to Crash GRAIL Probe on Lunar Surface
Source: NASA Twin lunar-orbiting NASA spacecraft that have allowed scientists to learn more about the internal structure and composition of the moon are being prepared for their controlled descent and impact on a mountain near the moon’s north pole at about 2:28 p.m. PST (5:28 p.m. EST) Monday, Dec. 17. Ebb and Flow, the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) [...]
Curiosity Rover Snaps Self-Portrait, Finds Data “For the History Books”
With promises of a big discovery about to be announced by the Curiosity team, we thought it was time for another look at the best of Curiosity’s pictures – of itself. ”We’re getting data from SAM,” lead investigator John Grotzinger recently told NPR referring to the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite aboard Curiosity. “This data is gonna be one for the history books. [...]
Adjusting to Sol Takes Toll on Mars Rovers’ Teams
It accounts for no more than 39 minutes and 35 seconds but the difference between the terrestrial “day” and the Martian “sol” can really mess up human circadian rhythms. It is like skipping one time zone every day, leading to a permanent need to adjust to a feeling of mild jet lag. As everyone who ever experienced jet lag knows, [...]
Spacecraft 3D Brings NASA Missions to iPhone
Source: NASA A NASA-created application that brings some of the agency’s robotic spacecraft to life in 3-D now is available for free on the iPhone and iPad. Called Spacecraft 3D, the app uses animation to show how spacecraft can maneuver and manipulate their outside components. Presently, the new app features two NASA missions, the Curiosity rover that will touch down [...]
Approaching a New Era of Space Exploration: Interstellar Travel
Recent data from Voyager 1 have led NASA scientists to believe that the deep-space probe has reached a region where charged particles from beyond our solar system have a significantly increased intensity. This indicates that a historic milestone is drawing close. “The laws of physics say that someday Voyager will become the first human-made object to enter interstellar space, but we still [...]
Robotics Engineers Explain Roadmap for Crewed Mars Mission
Damon Landau and Nathan Strange, robotics engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, recently published a proposal in Scientific American for achieving quick and cost-effective crewed missions to Mars. The idea began in reaction to the 2009 Augustine Commission’s declaration that NASA’s human exploration program was unsustainable. Landau, Strange, and a small group of “robotic space exploration geeks,” got together to brainstorm [...]
