en-us http://planetary.org/blog/ A guide to interesting stuff going on in space science, space exploration, and space advocacy. 15 Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:36:23 GMT Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:36:23 GMT http://www.planetary.org/_img/rss/logo.jpg 127 111 http://planetary.org/blog/ blog@planetary.org (Emily Ladakawalla) Copyright © 2008 by The Planetary Society. http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001748/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001748/ The period of Mars solar conjunction has just begun, which means that a host of scientists and engineers whose day jobs entail interaction with the five active Mars spacecraft are getting a five-week break from the daily grind of operations. Conjunction happens roughly every two Earth years when Mars is very close to the Sun in the sky (within five degrees of the Sun), and this time it goes from November 18 to December 24. (If you want to give .... Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:09:23 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001747/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001747/ Sorry for there not being much in the way of posts the last few days -- I've been working on other projects that have kept me from the blog. A couple of announcements: This Friday, November 21, tune in to Stargate Atlantis to watch Planetary Society Vice-President Bill Nye and board member Neil deGrasse Tyson when they guest star in the episode, "Brain Storm," airing at 9:00 pm ET on the SciFi channel. Robert Picardo, a member of The Planetary .... Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:45:34 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001746/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001746/ When the Chandrayaan-1 Moon Impact Probe descended to its crash on the Moon on November 14, it took many pictures on the way down. I repeated earlier a report issued by The Hindu that the probe captured 15,000 images, but I've now been told that that number is not correct. I received an email yesterday from Paul Spudis, a lunar scientist who is the principal investigator on the mini-SAR radar mapper on the Chandrayaan-1 orbiter. Spudis wrote .... Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:53:14 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001745/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001745/ In an essay contest very similar to the one that The Planetary Society and LEGO teamed up to run for the Mars Exploration Rovers, JPL has announced today that they are working with Disney to collect name suggestions for the Mars Science Laboratory rover, scheduled to launch next October. The contest is open only to children ages 5 through 18 who are residents of the U.S. and are enrolled in an American school in grades K-12. The grand prize .... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:00:46 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001744/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001744/ Chandrayaan-1 arrived at the Moon at just about the time that Kaguya completed its primary mission and entered its extended mission. I've received some information from Shin-ichi Sobue at JAXA on the plans for Kaguya's extended mission, and they're interesting to say the least. Click to enlarge >Kaguya (SELENE)Credit: JAXA For its primary mission, Kaguya circled the Moon in a polar orbit at 100 kilometers altitude (much as Chandrayaan-1 is now .... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:56:03 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001743/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001743/ Before you get too excited (as I did) about the word "movie" in the title of this blog entry, no, this is not a movie made from Chandrayaan-1 Moon Impact Probe images as it descended to its crash into the lunar surface near the Shackleton crater at the south pole. I haven't seen such a movie yet. This is a very low-resolution movie made from data from Chandrayaan-1's high-resolution camera as it traveled in its 100-kilometer orbit over the .... Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:11:29 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001742/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001742/ Yesterday the Indian Space Research Organisation released two images taken by the Chandrayaan-1 Moon Impact Probe (MIP) as it descended toward its impact on the lunar surface. Here they are -- they show a very rocky and dusty lunar surface near Shackleton crater, near the lunar south pole.Click to enlarge >Image from the Chandrayaan-1 Moon Impact ProbeChandrayaan-1's Moon Impact Probe captured this image as it descended to a hard impact on the .... Sat, 15 Nov 2008 18:23:12 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001741/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001741/ Lou sent me this report on how yesterday's press conference on the Roadmap to Space went. Thanks Lou! --Emilyby Louis Friedman Yesterday we presented The Planetary Society's new Roadmap to Space to a crowded press conference in Washington DC. Society President Jim Bell, and Board member Scott Hubbard and I conducted the conference at the National Press Club. Our past President Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz Aldin joined .... Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:30:58 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001740/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001740/ Via The Hindu comes the news that Chandrayaan-1, having settled into its final 100-kilometer-altitude science orbit yesterday, successfully released and monitored the impact of its 35-kilogram Moon Impact Probe at 8:31 pm IST (15:01 UTC) today, November 14. The Moon Impact Probe was instrumented, and transmitted images during its 25-minute descent. The Hindu reports that the Indian Space Research Organisation promised to release images on .... Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:26:11 GMT http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001739/ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001739/ When Spirit reported ridiculously low power levels on Monday, mission managers scrambled to shut down everything but the most essential systems and told the rover to lay low through the worst of an early season dust storm, not trying to talk to Earth again until today. I am greatly relieved to report that Spirit did talk to Earth as ordered today, indicating that the rover's power situation did not get so bad that a "low power fault" was .... Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:14:01 GMT