Catching up with NASA rovers Curiosity and Opportunity and their search for water on Mars

Sep 27, 2012

Catching up with NASA rovers Curiosity and Opportunity and their search for water on Mars

Nick Tann 0 Comment NASA, Technology ChemCam, Curiosity, Gale Crater, HiRISE, laser, Mars, Mars Descent Imager, Mastcam, Microscopic Imager, Mount Sharp, NASA, Opportunity, rock, space, water

31 photos

After news earlier this week of the Curiosity rover petting and naming its new pet rock, Jake Matijevic, NASA released images today indicating that long ago, water probably flowed on the Martian surface.

Other notable images recently sent back from Mars include one from Curiosity’s older, but smaller rover sibling, Opportunity, that photographed small spherical objects, nicknamed “blueberries,” with it’s Microscopic Imager providing important evidence about long-ago wet environmental conditions.

Shuttle Endeavor tours California in flyby photo-op

Sep 21, 2012

Shuttle Endeavor tours California in flyby photo-op

Jerry Jackson 2 Comments NASA, Nation, Technology, Travel, World California, Endeavour, Golden Gate, Los Angeles, NASA, Space Shuttle

44 photos

The space shuttle Endeavour, mounted on the back of a 747, flew over several of California landmarks on it way to retirement at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
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Curiosity rover makes tracks on Mars in successful test drive

Aug 23, 2012

Curiosity rover makes tracks on Mars in successful test drive

Stokely Baksh and Nick Tann 4 Comments NASA, Technology ChemCam, Curiosity, Gale Crater, HiRISE, laser, Mars, Mars Descent Imager, Mount Sharp, NASA, rock, space

66 photos

Since NASA’s Curiosity landed on Mars on August 5, 2012, public excitement and speculation about what the rover will encounter continues to mount. To feed the appetite of the masses, we’ll continue to update our Curiosity gallery with NASA’s latest photos of the red planet, including panorama, composite and computer-generated images.

The next phase of the $2.5 billion mission, and by far the most daunting for Curiosity, will be reaching Mount Sharp. At a height of 3.4 miles, the highest peak of Mount Sharp is taller than Mt. Whitney in California. On its way, the rover will encounter dark dunes, degraded impact craters and other geologic features on the Martian surface of the planet. For updates follow @MarsCuriosity on Twitter.
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Aug 9, 2012

NASA lands Curiosity rover on Mars

Nick Tann 23 Comments NASA, Technology Curiosity, Gale Crater, HiRISE, Mars, Mars Descent Imager, Mount Sharp, NASA, space

41 photos

Our latest Curiosity rover coverage will now be posted in a new gallery, which will continue to grow with NASA’s latest photos of Mars. The images below cover Curiosity’s historic landing and NASA’s following press briefing.
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August 6 Photo Brief: Hiroshima marks 67th anniversary of atomic bomb, Curiosity on Mars, Olympics Day 10 and an underwater wedding

Aug 6, 2012

August 6 Photo Brief: Hiroshima marks 67th anniversary of atomic bomb, Curiosity on Mars, Olympics Day 10 and an underwater wedding

Stokely Baksh 0 Comment Daily Brief Black Sea, Curiosity, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, elephants, Ivory Coast, La Gomera, London, Mars, NASA, Olympics, Scotland, Sea Life Aquarium, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Syria, underwater, wedding

35 photos

Hiroshima marks 67th anniversary of atomic bomb, NASA lands Curiosity on Mars, Day 10 at the Olympics, and more in today’s daily brief.
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June 6 Photo Brief: Polar bear Anori, mud bath, bee sting therapy and a new view of Venus

Jun 6, 2012

June 6 Photo Brief: Polar bear Anori, mud bath, bee sting therapy and a new view of Venus

Jerry Jackson 0 Comment The Baltimore Sun Anori, bees, England, Enterprise, France, India, NASA, Polar bear, Thailand, Transit of Venus

19 photos

The transit of the Space Shuttle Enterprise, NASA’s view of Venus, polar bear Anori and more in today’s daily brief.
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SpaceX: To infinity and beyond, or at least the International Space Station for now

May 25, 2012

SpaceX: To infinity and beyond, or at least the International Space Station for now

Nick Tann 2 Comments Nation Cape Canaveral, Falcon 9 rocket, International Space Station, NASA, PayPal, space, Space Shuttle, SpaceX

33 photos

UPDATE: Today at 9:56 a.m. eastern time, the SpaceX Dragon capsule was grabbed by a robotic arm from the International Space Station about 250 miles above northwest Australia. The Dragon is carrying 1,200 pounds of cargo for the Space Station crew including food, clothing and science experiments, one of which originated from Maryland’s own Paul Warren, an 11th-grader at Henry E. Lackey High School in Indian Head.

Led by CEO, and PayPal founder, Elon Musk, SpaceX is now the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station. With its successful launch on Tuesday and subsequent docking later today, the Falcon 9/Dragon capsule has ushered in a new era in space travel now that NASA has retired its fleet of space shuttles.
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Space Shuttle Discovery’s retirement party

Apr 20, 2012

Space Shuttle Discovery’s retirement party

Nick Tann 1 Comment Nation, The Baltimore Sun Discovery, NASA, Space Shuttle, Washington D.C.

21 photos

This week Discovery* took its last flight, piggybacking a modified 747 from Kennedy Space Center to Washington D.C., where it will replace Enterprise as part of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

NASA’s space shuttle Discovery took its maiden flight on August 30, 1984, when it carried three communications satellites for deployment. It has since completed a record-breaking 39 missions, spent 365 days in space and orbited the Earth 5,830 times. Early notable missions have included the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Ulysses spacecraft to explore the sun’s polar regions in 1990 and launching the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite in 1991. Discovery’s last launch took place on February 24, 2011.

For many, outer space continues to be awe-inspiring, and so to commemorate the retirement of the Discovery, here is a look at the historic shuttle over the years.

Apr 17, 2012

Daily Brief: April 17, 2012

Nick Tann 0 Comment Daily Brief art, Discovery, Easter, Germany, Greece, India, Japan, NASA, Netherlands, oil, Palestine, Patrick Raynaud, Russia, Tortoises, Washington D.C., Yemen

13 photos

The space shuttle Discovery lands in D.C., recycling in Yemen, “Russian Arctic Oil and Gas” protests and more in today’s daily brief.