NASA Releases Curiosity Descent Video

NASA has released video shot from Curiosity as it descended through the Martian atmosphere right up until the moment of landing on Mars.



It's a low-resolution video, and it is expected to be followed up with a high resolution video shortly.

Curiosity Lands Safely On Mars After 7 Minutes of Terror

Streaming video by Ustream

The NASA Mars mission Curiosity has landed safely on Mars.

This is perhaps the photo of the mission - it shows the Curiosity lander as it cuts through the Martian atmosphere with its huge parachute unfurled. It was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from about 300 miles away.

Curiosity is a mobile platform enabling exploration over a wide area. The mission is expected to last more than a year.

Curiosity is the biggest and most capable robotic laboratory ever sent to another celestial body: Its 10 scientific instruments are designed to study the chemistry of Mars' rocks, soil and atmosphere and determine whether the Red Planet had the right stuff to be habitable in ancient times.

The rover's prime target is a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain inside the crater, known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp. The mountain's layers of rock could preserve billions of years' worth of geological history, shedding light on the planet's transition from its warmer, wetter past to its current cold, dry climate.

Some scientists think Curiosity could even detect the signs of present-day life, although NASA doesn't go that far.

UPDATE:

Spaced Out

Newt Gingrich gave a speech in Florida where he indicated that he would oversee the construction of a manned US space platform on the Moon by 2020.

He's hardly the first to consider a return to the moon and go beyond towards Mars and the outer planets. But because this is the Space Coast that has seen lost jobs due to the end of the space shuttle program, they're willing to grasp at straws in the hopes that some jobs could come back as a result of a renewed manned space program. It's also a political ploy in the hopes that he can gain votes over Mitt Romney.

Yet, it's a rather ambitious timeline considering the fact that President George W. Bush first indicated an intention to send a manned mission to Mars and unveiled the Constellation program. That program would provide the heavy-lift capabilities needed to send men to the Moon and then to Mars. President Obama likewise called for a return to the moon, but budgetary concerns have all but scrapped the Constellation program's manned components.

The Ares rocket system has undergone some tests, including the heavy rocket launch into Earth orbit, but no testing has been carried out for the systems designed to send men back to the moon. Even then, those systems were largely based on a combination of space shuttle and Apollo-type technologies (modern variations of the shuttle solid rocket boosters and a J-2X engine based on the engines that powered the Saturn boosters).

How can Gingrich claim that he can return the US to the moon in the number he claims when he's pulling the plug on all kinds of spending.

After all, this is the same Republican party that has called for reductions in spending that will saddle the NOAA with a diminished fleet of satellites critical for weather forecasting.

Indeed, Gingrich has repeatedly claimed that NASA has squandered billions of dollars over the years. His solution to the money crunch is to cut even more fat and to offer incentives to businesses to reach back to the Moon. Incentives still require money, and pose all kinds of questions over what incentives would be sufficient to draw businesses into such risky ventures.

The infrastructure and equipment costs for a project of this size are considerable. The costs for a manned moon mission would still be in the billions of dollars that the country can't seem to allocate for such purposes.

There's no timeline in place for a return of a US manned space program through NASA, though several private programs are in the process of testing equipment that could return Americans to space without having to hop aboard the Russian Soyuz rocket systems. The SpaceX and Dragon systems are undergoing testing, but they are incapable of the heavy-lift missions needed for a manned mission to the Moon.

Those are the two programs that are furthest along in returning Americans to space. Everything else is still on the drawing board.

NASA Unveils New Space Launch System

NASA will be several years away from being able to launch men into space after retiring the shuttle fleet, but Congress appears ready to approve a new space launch system that will be capable of not only sending men into low earth orbit, but propelling manned spacecraft to the moon or beyond - Mars.

The Obama administration on Wednesday unveiled its much-delayed general plans for its rocket design, called the Space Launch System, which will cost about $35 billion. It will begin unmanned test flights in six years, and carry astronauts in a capsule on top in a decade.

"This is a great day for NASA and the nation," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said at a U.S. Senate news conference called to unveil the concept.

Two of the senators who worked with NASA and the White House on the plan, Florida Democrat Bill Nelson and Texas Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison, said they were pleased by the plan and signaled that Congress would give its assent.

"I believe we really are going forward now, all as one, with one goal," Hutchison told journalists. She said the plan was "a commitment that NASA — NASA — is going to lead the pack."

Closer to Apollo
The size, shape and potentially heavier reliance on liquid fuel as opposed to solid rocket boosters is much closer to Apollo than the recently retired space shuttles, which were winged, reusable ships that sat on top of a giant liquid-fuel tank, with twin solid rocket boosters providing most of the power. It's also a shift in emphasis from the moon-based, solid-rocket-oriented plans proposed by the George W. Bush administration.

"It's back to the future with a reliable liquid technology," said Stanford University professor Scott Hubbard, a former NASA senior manager who was on the board that investigated the 2003 space shuttle Columbia accident.

NASA figures it will be building and launching about one rocket a year for about 15 years or more in the 2020s and 2030s, according to senior administration officials who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in advance of Wednesday's announcement.

The idea is to launch its first unmanned test flight in 2017, with the first crew flying in 2021 and astronauts heading to a nearby asteroid in 2025, the officials said. From there, NASA hopes to send the rocket and astronauts to Mars — at first just to circle, but then later landing on the Red Planet — in the 2030s.

At first the rockets will be able to carry into space 77 tons to 110 tons of payload, which would include the six-person Orion multipurpose crew vehicle and more. Eventually it will be able to carry 143 tons into space, maybe even 165 tons, the officials said. By comparison, the long-dormant Saturn V booster that sent humans to the moon was able to lift 130 tons.

Virgin Galactic Makes First Feathered Flight

Virgin Galactic, which expects to make the first commercial suborbital flights in the next year, continues testing its systems designed by Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites (and which won the X-Prize for reusable spacecraft).

It is testing the VSS Enterprise, which is the actual spacecraft that will make the suborbital flights after being launched from the White Knight 2 mothership:



The feathered flight characteristic is used to allow the spacecraft to return to Earth by shedding speed without needing expensive and weighty heat shielding.

Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise Begins Test Flight Phase

Scaled Composites, the Burt Rutan company that won the X Prize for sending a reusable spacecraft into space, is busy testing its aircraft system ahead of the Oshkosh air show. Paid passenger flights are expected in 2012.

Photo of the Day

 

If you look real carefully at the bottom right corner of the photo, you can see a satellite trail. This photo was taken with a 30 second exposure using my Canon Rebel XTi.

Endeavour Set To Land At Kennedy Space Center

NASA's space shuttle Endeavour is set to land shortly, and it's made it through the toughest part of the landing - reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Landing will be at Kennedy Space Center.

You can watch the landing via the Video service at NASA.

Crisis in Space: International Space Station Computers Fail

Russian computers that control the international space station's orientation and supply of oxygen and water have failed, potentially extending the space shuttle's mission -- or cutting it short.

Russian engineers aren't sure why the computers stopped working. A failure of this type has never occurred before on the space station.

The station is operated primarily by the Russian and U.S. space agencies, with contributions from the Canadian, European and Japanese space agencies.

"We have plenty of resources, so we have plenty of time to sort this out," said Mike Suffredini, NASA manager of the space station program.

But the computer failure could extend space shuttle Atlantis' mission by at least a day and, in a worst-case scenario, force the space station's three crew members to return to Earth early if the computers aren't fixed.

The good news is that with the Atlantis docked at the space station, needed repairs could be made, or the astronauts on board the space station can return to earth on the shuttle if the repairs cannot be achieved.

The bad news is that one has to wonder why backup systems did not kick in to address the failure of the primary systems.

One possible source of the problem may have been the installation of new solar arrays that are designed to increase power available to the station.

Rutgers To Display "Freehold Meteorite" on Saturday

As a follow up to my previous story regarding the meteorite that hit a home in Freehold, New Jersey, it seems that Rutgers University will be displaying the meteorite.

NEW BRUNSWICK: It caused a sensation earlier this month when it crashed through the roof of a Freehold Township family's home, landing in the bathroom.

Now members of the public will have a chance to catch a glimpse of the golf ball-sized, silvery meteorite that came to the Garden State from outer space, Rutgers University announced Wednesday.

Rutgers' geology museum in New Brunswick plans to hold a one-day display of the meteorite during its annual open house, scheduled for Saturday. Admission is free.

Two geologists from Rutgers, along with an independent metallurgist, helped Freehold Township police and the homeowners, the Nageswaran family, identify the golf-ball-sized, 13-ounce object as a metal-rich meteorite, possibly from the deep interior of a broken-up asteroid.

The Nageswarans recently said they were still deciding what to do with their meteorite, but wanted it to serve an educational purpose.

If I get a chance on Saturday I would like to see the meteorite. I mean how cool is it to see something that may have traveled millions of miles through space for who know how many years.

Space has always been something that facinates me, and this story, literally, struck close to home.