Like a tourist waiting for just the right lighting to snap a favorite shot during a stay at the Grand Canyon, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has used a low sun angle for a memorable view of a large Martian crater. The resulting view catches a shadow of the rover in the foreground and [...]
Decades of rigorous research, testing and development performed in the Entry Systems and Technology Division at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., has garnered Ames’ thermal protection engineers the respect of not just other government agencies, but also commercial entities. “For four decades, whenever the U.S. government or aerospace industry needed thermal protection [...]
Recently, a study was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society proposing planets simply adrift in space may be something of a common phenomenon. Aptly titled “Nomads of the Galaxy,” the authors proposed an upper limit to the number of nomad planets that might exist in the Milky Way Galaxy: 100,000 [...]
New research from North Carolina State University shows that a wind-driven “tumbleweed” Mars rover would be capable of moving across rocky Martian terrain — findings that could also help the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) design the best possible vehicle. “There is quite a bit of interest within NASA to pursue the tumbleweed [...]
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket thundered into space and delivered a Dragon cargo capsule into orbit on May 22, 2012. The launch began an ambitious mission to show that the company is ready to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. “We’re now back on the brink of a new future, a future that [...]
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