Next stop: Tycho! Then Jupiter and beyond!
Did Arthur C. Clarke call it right? Water spotted in Moon’s sunlit Clavius crater by NASA telescope
Trouble at Skull-Top Ridge: ESA boffins use data wizardry to figure out Philae probe’s second touchdown site
ESA scientists have identified the location of the Philae lander’s second touchdown site on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and revealed new insights about the space snowball’s interior.
The fridge-sized lander was released from the Rosetta mothership back in November 2014, aiming for a landing on the surface of the comet. Things did not go entirely to plan as Philae was unable to secure itself on first touchdown, bouncing several times before settling in a location that left its solar panels unable to generate sufficient power.
(This is the last page of the extremely tongue-in-cheek late-stage space capitalism employment contract in Hardspace: Shipbreaker)
No need for more asteroid-blasting attempts, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx has more than enough space dirt
NASA has stowed away its first ever sample of asteroid regolith, collected by its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from space rock Bennu, and is working on bringing the material home for 2023.
Has a little video of the sampling. A smash-and-grab job that would make juvenile delinquents proud.
Remember, remember, the 14th of November (if you’re an astronaut): NASA names the date for Crew-1 mission to ISS
That’s amazingly beautiful. It makes me happy to see people creating such breath-taking imagery.
NASA has successfully communicated with the Voyager 2 probe after an eight-month hiatus.
The long break in conversation was due to necessary maintenance work on the only Earthly antenna capable today of sending signals to the probe, an effort that until now paused communications with Voyager 2.
