Watch this cool animation by NASA showing how the International Space Station has come together over the past 11 years.
Tags : Every space probe ever launched, all on one map of the Solar System.
Apollo 11 on the Moon: It's obvious from this photo that the astronauts couldn't have been behind the mix-up.
Courtesy NASA with adaption.A supposed genuine "moon rock" given to the Dutch government back in 1969 has turned out to be nothing more than a lousy piece of petrified wood. I'm no geologist but one look at a photograph of the rock and I could have saved everyone involved a boatload of embarrassment. The "precious" souvenir was presented to then Dutch prime minister Willem Drees by U.S. Ambassador J. Middendorf II during a goodwill tour by the three Apollo 11 astronauts. Since Drees's death the rock has resided in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. The gift was arranged though a phone call to NASA and it sounds like somewhere along the line somebody pulled a fast one.
SOURCE
BBC story
Apollo 11 launch
Courtesy NASAToday's the 40th anniversary of the launch of NASA's Apollo 11 mission to the moon. On July 16, 1969 at 13:32 UTC (9:32 a.m. local time), a Saturn V rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral on mankind's first mission to walk on the lunar surface. Thousands of spectators watched the launch in Florida. It took 12 minutes for the rocket to place the three Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Arldrin, and Michael Collins into orbit around the Earth, after which they would head across more than 225,000 miles of empty space to the Moon.
Opportunity has knocked: And is now moving elsewhere to gather more data about Mars.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/CornellThis month the two Mars rovers – Opportunity and Spirit – celebrate their fifth anniversary on the Red Planet. Back in January 2004 the two robotic explorers landed within three weeks of each other on opposite sides of the Martian surface, and have spent the last five years investigating its craters, rock outcrops, and soils for signs of water. The data collected has shown conclusively that water once existed on the planet’s now arid surface.
Incredibly, the two robots have far surpassed their original predicted life-spans of three months operating in Mars' hostile environment.
"We realize that a major rover component on either vehicle could fail at any time and end a mission with no advance notice,” said John Callas, project manager at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “But on the other hand, we could accomplish the equivalent duration of four more prime missions on each rover in the year ahead."
Evidence of hydrated silica on Mars: The presence of opal in these relatively young rocks tells scientists that water, possibly as rivers and small ponds, interacted with the surface as recently as two billion years ago, one billion years later than scientists had expected.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of ArizonaA new category of minerals detected across large areas of the Martian surface by the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MOR) suggests the Red Planet had a much wetter past than thought previously. According to Scott Murchie, Mars researcher at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, the recent discovery of hydrated silica (opal) offers new insights into the planet's watery past.
"This is an exciting discovery because it extends the time range for liquid water on Mars, and the places where it might have supported life. The identification of opaline silica tells us that water may have existed as recently as 2 billion years ago."
You can read the whole story at NASA's MOR site.
Here in Minnesota, we've turned the corner and we're now heading toward winter. Snow can't be that far behind. This week on Mars, NASA's Phoenix explorer has dectected snow falling on the Red Planet. Here's a complete video report. Unfortunately for Martian school children, the snow was so light that it melted before touching down on land, removing the possiblity of having a snow day off from school.
Science debate 2008
Courtesy Science debate 2008.Follow the link below to see the how presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain answered a series of questions about science policy, covering topics including stem cell research, global warming, renewable energy research, science education, space exploration and more. Obama's answers were submitted in August, and McCain's this past Monday.
Click here for the candidates' answers to the top 14 science questions facing America.
Phoenix lander dig zone
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University Rumors are circulating that NASA's Phoenix Lander team has held briefings with the White House regarding some sort of forthcoming big announcement. It's unclear whether any briefings actually took place, but some folks wonder if NASA is hiding something. It could be the space agency is just doing their usual pre-hype of an upcoming announcement. Whatever the case, you can join in the speculation by going here and here or even here. Or you can listen to today's Phoenix Media Telecon and see if you can get some clues of what's happening.
Lost and not found: Private rocket disappears just minutes after take off
We've had a number of post about private space travel recently. Here's the story of a private rocket shot off over the weekend that's disappeared just a couple minutes after launch. Where did it go? If it was one of those model rockets I shot off when I was a kid, it would be wedged between some tree branches.
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