Curiosity -- Up Up And Away!

They did it! They launched Curiosity, the best NASA rover yet on its mission to Mars on November 26. I watched this launch and held my breath in awe. As always...

From NASA -- launched its newest, largest and most sophisticated rover yet to Mars on November 26, marking an important step toward the ambitious goal of one day landing humans on the surface of the Red Planet.

The Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity rover, lifted off early on Friday from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. After an 8 1/2-month journey, the rover is expected to arrive at the Red Planet in August 2012. Once on the surface, Curiosity will investigate whether the planet is or ever was habitable.

The rover,  equipped with 10 different instruments, which allow it to dig, drill, and shoot a laser into rocks and examine the chemical makeup of Martian soil and dust. The mission will help scientists understand the environment and atmosphere of Mars, which will be essential for planning a manned mission to the planet.

"The goal is to send humans to Mars and return them back again safely — in order to return them back safely, we really need to know about the surface properties," Doug Ming, a co-investigator for the Mars Science Laboratory, said in a news briefing Wednesday (Nov. 23) from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

  Artist's concept of a future Mars mission shows astronauts near a lander on the Red Planet

***

What do you think about future missions that will take humans to Mars?

See my previous post on this Mars Mission ~ Here ~ 


Kaye

Can't Get Enough ISS

If Space is the final frontier, then orbiting Earth aboard the ISS is just the beginning. Earth from Space: Amazing Photos by Astronaut Ron Garan...

 For all who've ever yearned to look out the window of the International Space Station (ISS) and see the magnificent Earth pass by beneath, Michael König created this time-lapse sequence of photographs. Ron Garan and the crew of expeditions 28 and 29 took the photos on board the ISS from this past August to October.

König says the photos of Earth from 217 miles (350 kilometers) up — a typical orbital altitude for the ISS —  were captured at a rate of 25 pictures per second. Very little color adjustment or other digital editing was done to the images before they were stitched together.

 "In my opinion, the original footage already has an almost surreal and aesthetically visual nature," König explained at Vimeo, the site where he uploaded the video. However, he sped up the footage. "This is way faster than real time."

This is an impossibly impressive video. You can check it out here: Viemo 

Let me know what you think...

Kaye

Curiosity and The Red Planet

Mars at the boundary between dark and day with an area including Gale Crater as it catches morning light

Are we ready for a new Mars mission?

NASA's most advanced mobile robotic laboratory, which will examine one of the most intriguing areas on Mars, is in final preparations for a launch from Florida's Space Coast on Nov. 25. The Mars Science Laboratory mission will carry Curiosity, a rover with more scientific capability than any ever sent to another planet.

Scheduled to land on the Red Planet in August 2012, the one-ton rover will examine Gale Crater during a nearly two-year prime mission. Curiosity will land near the base of a layered mountain 3 miles (5 kilometers) high inside the crater. The rover will investigate whether environmental conditions ever have been favorable for development of microbial life and preserved evidence of those conditions.
------
This is such a exciting event for us and for seekers of SF and R for sure. The future holds many possibilities to explore Mars.

What do you think about the idea of sending manned explorers to Mars in the not to distant future? Sounds very exciting to me!


Kaye

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

Asteroids. Near Misses...

This is very exciting and a little freaky too. 

How close is too close? Here is what NASA scientists have to say about the Asteroid 2005 YU55 that will fly very close to Earth -- slightly closer than our moon's orbit. And it all happens today November 8th.

From NASA: Scientists will be tracking asteroid 2005 YU55 with antennas of the agency's Deep Space Network at Goldstone, Calif., as the space rock safely flies past Earth slightly closer than the moon's orbit on Nov. 8. Scientists are treating the flyby of the 1,300-foot-wide (400-meter) asteroid as a science target of opportunity allowing instruments on "spacecraft Earth" to scan it during the close pass.

Arecibo radar observations of asteroid 2005 YU55 made in 2010 show it to be approximately spherical in shape. It is slowly spinning, with a rotation period of about 18 hours. The asteroid's surface is darker than charcoal at optical wavelengths.

NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them, and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.

If you'd like more information about asteroids and near-Earth objects go Here

If you're interested in the Deep Space Network go Here

So, how close do you feel is too close?

Kaye

Space Station View...

I love the idea of being 'out there' looking down on Earth

This is a night time view of the United States' Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains cities taken by the Expedition 29 crew from the International Space Station