Credit image : +NASA / SOHO
The ISON comet is on the right side of the picture
November 27, 2013
November 25, 2013
The dream of Dennis Tito: send its own Mars mission before the end of 2017
Dear followers,
in 2013, the red planet, Mars, was the focus of many news : The rover Curiosity, discovery of water in the ground of Mars, the launch of the Maven mission ... But today, the martian dream of the billionaire Dennis Tito is pop-up on the news.
He has revealed his scheme for send two astronauts (a man and a woman) to the red planet before the end of 2017 or in January 2018. His wishes to send some humans is due to the "rare alignments" of planets which should be exploited as the context of the project which requite a minimal rocket fuel. The mission, called "Inspiration Mars" would be a 501-day US mission to the planet but without landing on its surface.
Two separate trips would be necessary for the Mars Mission. First, the billionaire proposes that the first launch would involve a NASA rocket delivering the vehicle into orbit that would actually go onto Mars. Next, a second space launch would carry the two astronauts which would later be united with the spacecraft, preliminary orbited.
For this mission, the Tito's organization would prefer use the Orbital Sciences Corporation's new Cygnus capsule which finished its first mission to the international space station in October. In an other hand, they decided to reject the NASA's new Orion capsule which seems propose the mission requirements.
We will propose you more details soon about this amazing project, so stay tune.
November 24, 2013
November 22, 2013
November 20, 2013
NASA Minotaur liftoff viewed by a Tarheel
As many of you know, there was a launch from NASA
Wallops on the US East Coast and for many it was an unexpected chance to
see a rocket go into orbit even if we were several hundred miles away.
I was following the countdown on +Ustream and went
outside my home about 5 minutes before launch. As Ustream showed the
final seconds I and a neighbour oriented ourselves and saw a bright red
dot ascend into the perfectly clear fall sky very quickly. By the time
the live feed said "LIFTOFF" she was already well up in the sky and
almost out of visual range.
Credits image: +NASA / Brea Reeves
It was over in a matter of just a few seconds and had
you not known where or when to look you would have missed the entire
event. As it was, the launch has kept me smiling even until now.
Although not as thrilling as when myself and 3.5 million others
participated in Curiosity's landing on Mars, this was a true geek-out
moment.
The Minotaur rocket was carrying a hush-hush, what
are you looking at, USAF satellite but launch had been delayed by a
faulty communications station in my home state of North Carolina and one
errant sailboat captain who had wandered into the safety zone.
Article is written by Anthony Scott
November 19, 2013
November 18, 2013
Video of the successful liftoff Atlas 5 carrying MAVEN probe
Dear follower,
This morning, we see that the space rocket Atlas5 was ready on the pad since Saturday November 16th. This afternoon (morning is US), NASA sent with success its last space probe called MAVEN which be sent to Mars. The space probe will analyze and investigate the atmosphere of the red planet. Its travel to Mars will take around 10 months.
Enjoy this great liftoff
Credit:
+NASA
November 17, 2013
Maven ready to take-off tomorrow to Mars
Dear followers,
after the success of Curisoty and its more than 1 year of work on the red planet, +NASA will launch in the following hours a new spacecraft to Mars called MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN). The space probe is ready to be carried by the rocket Atlas 5 which is on the launch pad since Saturday 16th. The new spacecraft arrived on August 3rd at the NASA agency at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. MAVEN was flown to Florida for launch processing from Buckley Air Force base near the +Lockheed Martin facility in Littleton, Colorado, where the spacecraft was built.
ONLINE COUNTDOWN
The travel of the spacecraft should be around 10 month. This mission will be the first one dedicated to studying Mars' upper atmosphere and the scientists of NASA and +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory hope to find traces of the ancient environment of the red planet.
We will share more details of the space launch tomorrow, so stay tune
Credits: +NASA / Bill Ingalls
November 14, 2013
Mars panorama taken by Curiosity rover day 437 on the red planet
Update: Panorama was taken few day before Curiosity experienced an unexpected
software reboot. This computer reset occurred about four-and-half hours
after new flight software had been temporarily loaded into the rover's
memory.
The images for panorama obtained by the rover's 34-millimeter Mast Camera. The mosaic, which stretches about 30,000 pixels width, includes 101 images taken on Sol 437
Source: +NASA
The images for panorama obtained by the rover's 34-millimeter Mast Camera. The mosaic, which stretches about 30,000 pixels width, includes 101 images taken on Sol 437
Source: +NASA
November 13, 2013
Successful landing of Soyuz with the expedition 37 crew
Dear followers,
Last week, the Soyuz took-off with success from Baikonur, Kazakhstan with three astronauts and the Olympic torch. This Monday, November 11th, the Soyuz spacecraft has performed its reentry in the atmosphere and it landed in Kazakhstand. The Russian spacecraft brought the member of the expedition 37 crew members, the Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, the European astronaut +Luca Parmitano and the American astronaut Karen Nyberg.
Credits: +SpacevidsTv1
November 12, 2013
November 8, 2013
November 7, 2013
Successful take-off of Soyuz from Baikonur [with video]
Dear followers,
yesterday, the Soyuz was ready on the pad for its launch. This morning the Russian spacecraft took-off with success from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Credits: REUTERS / Shamil Zhumatov
Actually, the Russian space agency, Roscosmos successfully launched the Soyuz spacecraft TMA-11M bound for the International Space Station. The crew comprises the Japanese Koichi Wakata, the American +Rick Mastracchio and the Russian Mikhail Tyurin. The trio are carrying a replica of the Olympic torch for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games that are set to take place in Sotchi, Russia.
"It's just an outstanding day and a spectacular launch" said William Gerstenmaier, the NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operation.
Enjoy, the video of the take-off (with French commentary) : the launch starts at 14:30 in the video
November 5, 2013
Successful launch of the Indian spacecraft to Mars
Dear followers,
after the mission sent by +European Space Agency, ESA, Mars Express, and after the mission sent by +NASA, curiosity, and the missions Mars2 and Mars3 sent by Russia, India is the fourth country to send a mission to the red planet. The India's Mars Orbiter Mission, the Mangalyaan probe is a spacecraft powered by solar arrays and packed with five instruments to study the surface and atmosphere of Mars. The 1350 kg of the spacecraft has been launched with success from a pad at the agency's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota this morning.
Credits: +TIME
Those instruments include a color camera for photographic imaging, a spectrometer for surface composition and mineralogy analysis and a methane sensor.
We will provide you more details in the next hours, stay tune.
November 4, 2013
October 31, 2013
October 29, 2013
Amateur photograph of Earth's moon October 22nd 2013
Credits: +Kevin Franklin
Details of the photograph: Waning gibbous phase 22nd October 2013, around 1240 UTC. 18.1 days old, 87.2% illuminated.
Mosaic of 5 .ser video files at 7fps in full resolution in Firecaptue with QHY 5L-II mono CCD.
October 28, 2013
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