Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

February 23, 2015

Opportunity Gets Small Energy Boost With Panel Dust Off
Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater heading towards "Marathon Valley," a putative location for abundant clay minerals now only about 492 feet (150 meters) away.

The project is preparing to mask off the troubled Bank 7 sector of the Flash file system with a new version of the flight software to be uploaded shortly. On Sols 3928 and 3929 (Feb. 10 and 11, 2015), Opportunity performed some targeted color Panoramic Camera (Pancam) observations. On Sol 3930 (Feb. 12, 2015), the rover drove about 66 feet (20 meters) to get a view into Marathon Valley. This was followed by a post-drive Navigation Camera (Navcam) panorama. Opportunity drove again on Sol 3932 (Fe ... read more

Previous Issues

Feb 22

Feb 19

Feb 18

Feb 17

Feb 16

MAVEN Completes First Deep Dip Campaign NASA'S Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution has completed the first of five deep-dip maneuvers designed to gather measurements closer to the lower end of the Martian upper atmosphere. "Durin ... more		OHB and AAC develop InnoSat platform OHB Sweden, Stockholm, and AAC Microtec, Uppsala, have been appointed by the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB) to deliver a highly capable small satellite platform, named InnoSat, and to accomplis ... more		Latest Drive Puts Rover Within Marathon-Distance Record Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater heading towards "Marathon Valley," a putative location for abundant clay minerals now only about 656 feet (200 meters) away. The project is o ... more
				Mars hills hide icy past A complex network of isolated hills, ridges and small basins spanning 1400 km on Mars is thought to hide large quantities of water-ice. Phlegra Montes stretches from the Elysium volcanic region at a ... more		The mystery of cosmic oceans and dunes Simulations by researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tsinghua University indicate that Earth-like planets are more likely to be found orbiting Sun-like stars rather than lower-mass stars ... more

Nuclear Decommissioning Conference Europe May 2015

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

The highest plume ever observed on Mars In the thin, cold, dry atmosphere of Mars the winds blow and raise the dust from the surface to an altitude of about 50 km. In its core thin clouds of ice and carbon dioxide crystallites are formed; ... more		Mystery Mars plume baffles scientists Plumes seen reaching high above the surface of Mars are causing a stir among scientists studying the atmosphere on the Red Planet. On two separate occasions in March and April 2012, amateur astronom ... more		U.S. defense in free fall Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign mutual defense pact Brazil, Chile sign defense agreement		Up, Up and Away! First Humans Chosen for Mission to Mars One hundred people from around the world have been shortlisted for a mission to Mars. Fifty men and fifty women are all hoping to become the first human beings to walk on the red planet. They ... more
				New Horizons Spots Small Moons Orbiting Pluto Exactly 85 years after Clyde Tombaugh's historic discovery of Pluto, the NASA spacecraft set to encounter the icy planet this summer is providing its first views of the small moons orbiting Pluto. ... more		From Vomit Comet to CubeSat Several small-scale experiments aboard NASA's vomit comet have led to a NASA grant to study early planet formation aboard a satellite in low-Earth orbit for a year or more. University of Centr ... more

Research With Space Explorers May One Day Heal Earth's Warriors Growing bone on demand sounds like a space-age concept-a potentially life changing one. Such a capability could benefit those needing bone for reconstructive surgery due to trauma like combat injuri ... more		Laser 'ruler' holds promise for hunting exoplanets The hunt for Earth-like planets around distant stars could soon become a lot easier thanks to a technique developed by researchers in Germany. In a paper published 18 February in the Institute ... more		GUARDIAN Tsunami Detection Tech Catches Wave in Real Time Galileo daughter mission named Celeste to strengthen navigation resilience How quantum computers can be validated when solving unsolvable problems		NASA Team Develops New Ka-Band Communications System to Break Through the Noise The radio frequency band that many NASA missions use to communicate with spacecraft - S-band - is getting a bit crowded and noisy, and likely to get more jammed as science missions demand higher and ... more
SSL-Built High-Throughput Satellite For Telenor Ready For Launch Space Systems/Loral (SSL) has announced that the THOR 7 satellite, designed and built for Telenor Satellite Broadcasting (TSBc), is ready for launch and will ship to the European Spaceport in Kourou ... more		Soyuz Installed at Baikonur, Expected to Launch Wednesday The Soyuz-2.1A carrier rocket has been successfully installed at the launch site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and is scheduled for launch on October 29, the press service of the Russian ... more		Dawn Captures Sharper Images of Ceres Craters and mysterious bright spots are beginning to pop out in the latest images of Ceres from NASA's Dawn spacecraft. These images, taken Feb. 12 at a distance of 52,000 miles (83,000 kilometers) ... more		DSCOVR: Mission Success for Moog Engines Over a Decade Later Moog Space and Defense Group supported NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite that launched today from Cape Canaveral, F.L., atop a Falcon 9 launch vehicle. DSCOVR is a partn ... more

	Life on other planets: Alternative chemistries of life Ideas about directing evolution of life forms on Earth and finding life on other planets are rapidly morphing from science-fiction fantasy into mainstream science, says David Lynn, a chemist at Emor ... more		Mars One cuts list of potential colonists to 100 Dutch interplanetary exploration startup Mars One has further narrowed down the list of potential colonists from over 202,000 to just 100. ... more

Ohio State scientists advance focus on nuclear propulsion

Mixing neutrinos of colliding neutron stars changes how merger unfolds

China launches experimental satellites to enhance mobile space internet

Scientists fail to explain strange plumes spotted on Martian surface		NASA wants to send a submarine to Saturn's moon Titan		The View from New Horizons: A Full Day on Pluto-Charon		A New Way to View Titan: 'Despeckle' It		Application of laser microprobe technology to Apollo samples refines lunar impact history
HAPTIX Starts Work to Provide Prosthetic Hands with Sense of Touch		NASA's Curiosity Analyzing Sample of Martian Mountain		Talking Japanese space robot back on Earth		Mars Rover Nearing Marathon Achievement		IBM brings Watson supercomputer to Japan via SoftBank

Number of Known Accessible Near-Earth Asteroids Doubles Since 2010

NASA's Curiosity Analyzing Sample of Martian Mountain

SSC expands at the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility

Octopus robot makes waves with ultra-fast propulsion

Tiny robotic 'hands' could improve cancer diagnostics, drug delivery

Human insights inspire solutions for household robots

Cool clocks pave the way to new measurements of the earth

US Issuing Licenses for Mineral Mining on Moon

NASA Spacecraft Completes 40,000 Mars Orbits

Researchers determine how the brain controls robotic grasping tools

NASA releases video of the far side of the Moon

Scientists predict earth-like planets around most stars

Dawn Gets Closer Views of Ceres

New Horizons snaps new images of Pluto en route to historic flyby

LRO finds lunar hydrogen more abundant on Moon's pole-facing slopes

Mars Orbiter Spies Curiosity Rover at Work

Fixed astronomical clock vital for galactic history

Spacecraft Power Systems

U.S. Navy unveils firefighting robot SAFFiR

SMAP Satellite utilizes Northrop Grumman's AstroMesh Reflector

Free Newsletters - Space News - Defense Alert - Environment Report - Energy Monitor

Buy Advertising

Media Advertising Kit

Editorial & Other Enquiries

Privacy statement

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.