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The Planetary Society Blog
Archive
Archived posts are listed in reverse chronological order.
Jan. 19, 2010 | 12:31 PST | 20:31 UTC
Figuring out the shape of Mars (and other places)
I've been following a fascinating thread over on unmannedspaceflight.com, where an amateur named Bernhard Braun ("nirgal" on unmannedspaceflight) has been posting the results from a new piece of software he's developed that generates 3-D models of... More»
Jan. 18, 2010 | 09:48 PST | 17:48 UTC
What about the non-imaging data from spacecraft?
My recent Sky & Telescope article on spacecraft imaging for amateurs has just been made free for download in PDF format from the magazine's website (thanks guys!), so I've been getting some good questions on it from readers. One person asked me... More»
Jan. 15, 2010 | 15:21 PST | 23:21 UTC
Buttoning up the Mars Orbiter Camera science investigation
The science team for Mars Orbiter Camera, or "MOC" (pronounced "mock") has just published a paper that attempts to summarize an investigation that spanned more than two decades. MOC's first image of Mars was taken on July 2, 1997, while Mars Global... More»
Jan. 13, 2010 | 21:09 PST | Jan. 14 05:09 UTC
Just a Few More Approaches to Try for Extrication
I don't have much to add to this "Free Spirit" update posted this evening to JPL's website, except, wow, it's really come to using the arm (though not for digging or pushing):The list of remaining maneuvers being considered for extricating Spirit is... More»
Jan. 13, 2010 | 14:43 PST | 22:43 UTC
Highlights from the January 1, 2010 Cassini imaging data release
There were other things I had planned to do today, but I got sidetracked by the latest data release from the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem; which means I spent most of the day browsing and oohing and aahing at pictures of Saturn and its... More»
Jan. 13, 2010 | 09:30 PST | 17:30 UTC
ESA mission analyst suggests 2010 AL30 might be Venus Express rocket
Well, now, this is interesting. 2010 AL30 zipped past us harmlessly about five hours ago. Because of its one-year orbital period, many people speculated it might be a manmade object, but as I posted last night, NASA issued a release discounting... More»
Jan. 12, 2010 | 21:05 PST | Jan. 13 05:05 UTC
Goldstone detects "STRONG" radar echoes from 2010 AL30
One final item before I go to bed: radio scientist Lance Benner posted to the Minor Planets Mailing list this evening the following message:All,
We have detected STRONG radar echoes from 2010 AL30 at Goldstone. The bandwidth is consistent with the... More»
Jan. 12, 2010 | 10:52 PST | 18:52 UTC
2010 AL30: Watch out for low-flying asteroids
In less than 24 hours, a newly discovered asteroid known as 2010 AL30 will be zipping past Earth at an altitude of approximately a third the Earth-Moon distance. There's no chance it'll hit us, but it's generating a lot of excitement in the... More»
Jan. 11, 2010 | 16:26 PST | Jan. 12 00:26 UTC
Odyssey's going to start listening for Phoenix
It's been the second most popular question I get from readers: "When might we possibly hear from Phoenix?" (The most popular question is "Can't they use the arm to free Spirit?" And the answer to that one is no.) I've always answered "they'll... More»
Jan. 11, 2010 | 12:12 PST | 20:12 UTC
Results from the Rosetta Encounter with Asteroid 2867 Steins
Last week in Science magazine appeared the first peer-reviewed article on the results of Rosetta's September 2008 encounter with the smallish main-belt asteroid Steins. This morning I got a chance to sit down and read the article, and I wrote up a... More»
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