In a surprising series of tweets on Wednesday, SpaceX announced that with the help of NASA, it is making good on its promise to “Occupy Mars” by launching its first, uncrewed mission to the Red Planet, possibly as soon as 2018. The mission, which has been in the public domain for several years, is the […]
Image Credit: IEEE / Emily Cooper In the immediate aftermath of the Virgin Galactic disaster, SpaceShipTwo’s hybrid rocket motor came under suspicion as the most likely culprit. And, although subsequent updates by the NTSB team investigating the accident have instead centered on a problem with the craft’s feathering device and likely human error, many articles […]
It is the biggest planet haul yet. NASA announced today the discovery of 715 new exo-planets orbiting 305 star systems, bringing the total number of confirmed worlds outside of our solar system to almost 1,700. The announcement is based on findings from data gathered during the first two years of the Kepler Space Telescope’s four […]
If you happened to be playing the Orbital Science’s drinking game, you might have lost track somewhere around 5th stage ignition, but after a flawless countdown and launch, the 844 lb. LADEE probe is on the way to the Moon. Taking off right on time, the Minotaur V continued Orbital’s very good year, boosting the […]
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory yesterday released the results of the Mars Curiosity rover’s initial soil sample. The sample, conducted by the Chemistry and Minerology CheMin instrument on the rover, characterized both planetary windblown dust and as well as local material, as similar to basaltic soils found in Hawaii. The predominate minerals recorded so far are feldspar, pyroxene and olivine, with almost half […]
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