Tag: pu-238

Juno Arrives at Jupiter, NASA Extends A Host of Other Missions As Well

Juno Arrives at Jupiter, NASA Extends A Host of Other Missions As Well

It is in many ways high summer for NASA’s fleet of robotic spacecraft deployed throughout the solar system. On Monday evening, as the fireworks were lighting up the night sky across much of the United States, the space agency’s latest probe, Juno, arrived in orbit around Jupiter. Coming nearly five years after it launched from […]

Posted in: NASA, Outer Planets
News Years Day 2019:  Kuiper Belt Flyby for New Horizons

News Years Day 2019: Kuiper Belt Flyby for New Horizons

As it speeds away from its historic encounter with Pluto, NASA has identified the most promising target for the New Horizon’s next flyby, and it might present a scheduling issue for mission scientists and space enthusiasts who happen to be college football fans, at least for New Year’s Day 2019. That is when New Horizons […]

Posted in: Outer Planets
Addressing NASA’s Plutonium Problem

Addressing NASA’s Plutonium Problem

Yet another positive aspect of NASA’s highly successful New Horizons probe is the fact that it is focusing attention on one of the biggest gaps in fulfilling some of the space agency’s long term plans; the lack of a coherent policy regarding space nuclear power. New Horizons, like Cassini at Saturn and the Curiosity rover […]

Posted in: Congress, NASA, Outer Planets
Europa Clipper: Cubesats But No Nuclear Power

Europa Clipper: Cubesats But No Nuclear Power

Artists Concept: Image CredIt JPL One recurring theme in coverage from Innerspace.net is a lamentation over the lack of any flagship class outer planet mission to follow in the wake of the spectacularly successful Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. While Innerspace is predominately focused on human exploration and settlement, and in particular the contributions being made […]

Posted in: Outer Planets
NEXT Ion Propulsion : Getting About In Space

NEXT Ion Propulsion : Getting About In Space

NASA Glenn recently announced that it has passed the 43,000 hour mark of continuous operation of its NEXT  (NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster) ion thruster.  Although coverage focused on the long running duration, the more relevent statistic is that NEXT represents a significant advancement over the first generation NSTAR ion thruster which powered Deep Space 1, and is currently accelerating the DAWN mission towards an […]

Posted in: NASA, Space Science
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