Saturday 5 December 2020

Specks from Heaven for St Nicholas' Day


 Hayabusa 2  is about to land a small capsule

 with samples of rock and dust from asteroid Ryugu

 near Woomera in South Australia

on December 6th (local time).


Link to: article from "newscientist.com"

Link to: "Japan’s Journey to an Asteroid Ends With a Hunt in Australia’s Outback"


Wednesday 21 October 2020

Up for grabs at 200 million miles from Earth

 

OSIRIS-REx's robotic arm

has had a first go at collecting a sample 

from Asteroid BENNU's rugged surface.


Link to: "NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Successfully Touches Asteroid"

Friday 10 July 2020

Off to Mars in July 2020


This summer, Mars will not be 401 million km (maximum distance)
nor 225 million km (average distance)
but only about 55 million km away from Earth
on their respective elliptic paths,
which is a good reason for three nations 
to try and send probes to the Red Planet at this time.



Saturday 27 June 2020

Aiming for a comprehensive picture of the Martian climate


The "Hope Probe" of the United Arab Emirates' Mars Mission
is expected to be launched soon
and should start to orbit the Red Planet in 2021.



Saturday 13 June 2020

ASTROBOTIC soon to go to the Moon



NASA's water-seeking mobile VIPER
(Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover)
is scheduled to be delivered to the Moon's South Pole
by ASTROBOTIC of Pittsburgh
in about three years' time.



Wednesday 20 May 2020

The Artemis Accords: Discipline and Fair Play


Will these noble principles genuinely help nations
to behave less erratically beyond the limits of our planet
than they all too often do on Earth?


Friday 3 April 2020

Vaguely reminiscent of ballpoint pens?


After Douglas Adams's  Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
there has now been the initial release of
 SpaceX's Starship User's Guide.


Sunday 8 March 2020

Names for Asteroid Bennu's surface features



11 of Bennu's "saxa" (i.e. rocks and boulders)
have now been given mythological names
by the OSIRIS-Rex team.