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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 36 declined, 48 accepted (84 total, 57.14% accepted)

Submission + - Laser Communication System Sets Record with Data Transmissions from Moon (nasa.gov)

Submitted by sighted
sighted writes: NASA reports that it has used a pulsed laser beam to transmit data over the 384,633 kilometers (239,000 miles) between the Moon and the Earth at a download rate of 622 megabits per second. The transmissions took place between a ground station in New Mexico and the LADEE robotic spacecraft now orbiting the moon.
Mars

Submission + - Mars Rover Finds Conditions Once Suited for Ancient Life on Mars (nasa.gov)

Submitted by
sighted
sighted writes: "NASA is announcing that analysis of a rock sample collected by the Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes. The statement says that scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater last month. The announcement quotes Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program: 'A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment. From what we know now, the answer is yes.'"
Space

Submission + - Spectacular New Views of Saturn's Polar Vortex (nasa.gov)

Submitted by
sighted
sighted writes: "Today the robotic spacecraft Cassini returned some jaw-dropping images of the odd hexagon in the planet's north polar region. The hexagon has been seen before, but the change of season has more fully revealed the feature in visible light. Cassini also zoomed in on the churning vortex at the north pole itself. The south pole features a similar maelstrom."
Mars

Submission + - Rover Finds Ancient Streambed on Martian Surface (nasa.gov)

Submitted by
sighted
sighted writes: "NASA reports that its Curiosity rover mission has found evidence that a stream once ran vigorously — and for a sustained amount of time — across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. There is, of course, earlier evidence for the presence of water on Mars, but NASA says this evidence, images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels, is the first of its kind."
Space

Submission + - New Signs Voyager is Nearing Interstellar Space (nasa.gov) 1

Submitted by
sighted
sighted writes: "Yesterday, someone tweeting for the Voyager 2 spacecraft posted: 'Interesting. Compare my data 4 high-energy nucleons w V1's That increase is attracting attention!' Today, NASA says that scientists looking at this rapid rise draw closer to an inevitable but historic conclusion — that humanity's first emissary to interstellar space is on the edge of our solar system. Project scientist Ed Stone said, 'The latest data indicate that we are clearly in a new region where things are changing more quickly. It is very exciting. We are approaching the solar system's frontier.'"
Moon

Submission + - Elementary School Kids Explore the Moon at Close Range (nasa.gov)

Submitted by
sighted
sighted writes: "The twin robotic spacecraft that make up the new GRAIL mission to map the moon's gravity include small cameras in addition to their primary scientific instruments. The first images from those cameras, as selected by school kids, were downlinked to Earth on March 20. 'MoonKAM is based on the premise that if your average picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture from lunar orbit may be worth a classroom full of engineering and science degrees,' said Maria Zuber, GRAIL mission principal investigator."
Mars

Submission + - Mars-Bound Probe Serves as Radiation Guinea Pig (swri.org)

Submitted by
sighted
sighted writes: "This week's huge solar storm will benefit future astronauts, thanks to the rover Curiosity, now on its way to Mars. The rover is equipped with an instrument that measures the radiation exposure that could affect a human astronaut en route to the Red Planet. Scientists are just starting to pore over the data from the blast of particles. Don't worry about the poor robotic geologist, though: 'No harmful effects to the Mars Science Laboratory have been detected from this solar event,' says NASA."
NASA

Submission + - New Close-Ups of Saturn's Geyser Moon (nasa.gov)

Submitted by
sighted
sighted writes: "Over the weekend, the robotic spacecraft Cassini buzzed Saturn's moon Enceladus and its intriguing geysers. Cassini flew just 62 miles above the moon's surface--and right through its jets of water vapor and ice--both capturing pictures and 'tasting' the geyser plumes. Cassini makes another pass by Enceladus later this month. Even more pictures can be seen in the stream of raw images sent by the probe."
Space

Submission + - Mercury Turns Out to be a Weird Little World (jhuapl.edu) 1

Submitted by
sighted
sighted writes: "The robotic spacecraft MESSENGER, now orbiting the first planet, has found odd features on its surface, including unexplained, blueish 'hollows' that may be actively forming today. The new findings will be published this week in Science. One scientist said, 'The conventional wisdom was that Mercury is just like the Moon. But from its vantage point in orbit, MESSENGER is showing us that Mercury is radically different from the Moon in just about every way we can measure.'"
Moon

Submission + - New Moon Mission Launched (nasa.gov) 1

Submitted by
sighted
sighted writes: "The twin lunar Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral this morning. GRAIL-A is scheduled to reach the moon on New Year's Eve 2011, while GRAIL-B will arrive New Year's Day 2012. The two solar-powered spacecraft will fly in tandem orbits around the moon to measure its gravity field. Lunar explorers hope the mission will answer longstanding questions about the moon 'from crust to core.'"
Mars

Submission + - Mars Rover Begins "Whole New Mission" (nasa.gov)

Submitted by
sighted
sighted writes: "NASA reports that the seemingly-unstoppable robotic geologist Opportunity is finding things at Endeavour crater that it has never seen before, adding new life to a mission that has already been epic. Observations "suggest that rock exposures on Endeavour's rim date from early in Martian history and include clay minerals that form in less-acidic wet conditions, possibly more favorable for life." In a teleconference today, one mission scientist compared this new phase of exploration to a "whole new mission." More information, including lots of pictures, here."
Mars

Submission + - Methane on Mars May Indicate Living Planet (nasa.gov)

Submitted by
Riding with Robots
Riding with Robots writes: "NASA is announcing today that the definitive detection of methane in the Martian atmosphere means the planet is still alive, at least geologically, and perhaps even biologically. 'Methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere in a variety of ways, so our discovery of substantial plumes of methane in the northern hemisphere of Mars indicates some ongoing process is releasing the gas,' said one agency scientist. The gas was detected with observations made over over several Martian years with NASA telescopes at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Both biological and geological processes could explain the methane."
Mars

Submission + - Next-Gen Mars Rover Mission Delayed Two Years (nasa.gov)

Submitted by
Riding with Robots
Riding with Robots writes: "NASA announced today that the Mars Science Laboratory, the agency's next Mars rover mission, is now slated to launch in 2011 instead of next year. 'We've reached the point where we can not condense the schedule further without compromising vital testing,' said NASA's director for Mars exploration. The length of the delay is driven by the fact that the orbits of Earth and Mars only provide a favorable flight window every two years."

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In the long run, every program becomes rococco, and then rubble. -- Alan Perlis

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