June 2018
Cosmic communications and the anthropology of outer space
... “we have no clue.” Each of the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977 carries a 12-inch gold-plated phonograph ...’ of the solar system taken by Voyager 1 (pictured right). The spacecraft acquired a total of 60 frames for a mosaic of the solar system...
19 November 2018
Kepler officially retires after receiving final "goodnight" commands
...the planet surface. Although no further observations will take place, Kepler’s legacy still continues. ”We know the spacecraft's retirement isn't the end of Kepler's discoveries," said Jessie Dotson, Kepler's project scientist at NASA's Ames Research...
03 December 2018
OSIRIS-REx officially arrives at Bennu today
...a detailed survey that will last over a year. The spacecraft’s primary science goals are to map the chemistry and mineralogy... that it can be captured in the sampler head. The spacecraft has enough nitrogen to allow three sampling attempts, to collect ...
12 December 2018
OSIRIS-REx discovers ingredients for water on Bennu
... mass is needed to help understand the asteroid’s structure and composition but more importantly to ensure that the spacecraft is inserted into the right orbit and is not unexpectedly pulled towards Bennu because of a miscalculation in the pair...
August 2016
Flying in formation - why China and the rest of the world should collaborate
...of space flight, there were sometimes two crewed spacecraft flying closely together. But they all were short-...such a co-orbital station scenario ‘space station formation’. The spacecraft fly at different positions in the same orbit, work independently...
January 2017
Elon Musk and Mars - looking for a snowball effect
... is three to four times the size of the Saturn V in terms of engine thrust and payload capacity. The interplanetary spacecraft which it carries is intended to accommodate 100 people for the four months or so of the journey, and a supporting tanker...
