The first probe to successfully land on Mars may have been found by Russian space enthusiasts, using images from the NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), revealed NASA in a press statement dated 11th April. The Soviet probe, known as Mars 3, successfully reached the surface of the Red Planet on December 2nd, 1971, but functioned for less than 2 [...]
Post Tagged with: “lander”
News Shorts: Mars: The Game, ExoMars Deal Signed, and Brightman ISS Trip
Hi-RISE: The Video Game A Martian video game is in development, featuring textured background taken from Hi-RISE instrument’s images, which is installed on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The game is called Lacuna Passage, and it is hoped that the real life images used in the game will help to create a more realistic Mars exploration experience for gamers. The game [...]
Golden Spike Goes Public on Commercial Moon Jaunts
On December 6, Golden Spike formally introduced itself. The company, named after the railroad spike that heralded a new era of transportation with the completion of America’s transcontinental railroad, pledges trips to the Moon starting in 2020, for $750 million per seat. “The trick is 40 years old,” said Golden Spike CEO and former NASA associate administrator Alan Stern. ”We know [...]
American Company to Send First Commercial Astronauts to Moon
Golden Spike Company, a space startup from Colorado, is looking to get humans back to the moon by 2020, using existing or underdeveloped technologies to begin what could be called a commercial lunar campaign. Although this plan has so far been circulating unofficially, the company is expected to make a formal announcement in December 2012. According to NASA Spaceflight, a [...]
Mighty Eagle Gets Off the Ground in Untethered Test Flight
Source: NASA The “Mighty Eagle,” a NASA robotic prototype lander, is soaring high again for a series of tests being conducted at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Since its last round of tests in 2011, the Mighty Eagle team has made significant updates to the guidance controls on the lander’s camera, furthering its autonomous capabilities. The three-legged [...]
Crash and Burn for Morpheus Lander
In its first untethered test, the experimental lander Morpheus flopped on its head, crashed into its launch pad, and burst into flames before exploding. “No one was injured, and the resulting fire was extinguished by KSC fire personnel,” NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) said in a statement. ”Engineers are looking into the incident, and the agency will release information as it becomes [...]
The Value of Tests
On March 13, NASA recorded a hover test of Morpheus, a lander testbed used for assessing technologies that could be used in lunar, asteroidal, or Martian landings: The test was successful, unlike one from a year earlier provacatively labelled “This is Why We Test”: The video highlights the importance of remembering, in a time when cost savings drives further [...]
Russia Aims for the Moon by 2030
Russian space agency Roscosmos is planning to send cosmonauts to the Moon by 2030, to perform unmanned mission to Venus and Jupiter, and to develop “a network of permanent research stations on Mars.” According to Russian newspaper Kommersant, the ambitious plan was laid out in a strategy document submitted to the government by the national space agency. The document outlines the [...]
Thruster Test Successful for ESA Lunar Lander
Source: ESA Europe’s ambition of touching down at the Moon’s south pole by 2018 has been boosted by recent test firings of the craft’s thrusters. The robot lander will prove new techniques for sending humans to the Moon and assess lunar hazards. With no atmosphere on the Moon, Lunar Lander cannot rely on parachutes to slow its descent. Instead, [...]
ESA Develops a New Lidar Sensor for Planetary Landing
German company Jena-Optronik and UK based ABSL are currently developing a new generation light detection and ranging (LIDAR) instrument for the European Space Agency. The shoebox sized instrument is designed to create a 3D image that would build up a complete picture of landing targets such as a boulder-strewn planetary surface. Laser ranging is already used for docking in orbit [...]
