I love foursquare, I check in from pretty much everywhere I go. However, I would say that the Curiosity Rover on Mars is seeing cooler scenery than I ever have. Today, foursquare reported that the craft has checked in on foursquare for the first time. → Read More
At 10:32 p.m. PST on Sunday night, NASA’s robotic space rover, “Curiosity,” touched down on the surface of the Red Planet — in the “Gale Crater” for those keeping track. The landing was a landmark event — the culmination of eight months of space travel (Curiosity launched on November 26, 2011) and some $2.5 billion. While the mere feat of surviving a trip through space (35 million+ miles) and a… → Read More
Many of us right now are wide-eyed with the latest images from NASA’s Curiosity mission to Mars — so much so that, as Europe wakes up from its live-TV Olympics 100-meter sprint slumber, it looks like that site is occasionally crashing from traffic. Now, another, important idea is just starting to take shape: NASA needs money, big time, to keep doing cool stuff like this.
#fundNASA is picking… → Read More
Today marks the halfway point for the crew of the simulated mission to Mars. Mars 500, as it’s called, is a study that mocks the conditions of space travel inorder to study the effects on astronauts. The 18-month study has volunteers from Italy and Russia placed in a sort of Biodome structure where they can’t leave, eat only space food, and shower once per week. → Read More
We need more stories like this next one. A crew of six researches has been locked inside a “steel capsule” (presumably not the Elimination Chamber) for an astounding 520 days on a mock mission to Mars. The point of the mission is to study how long-term spaceflight affects the human mind and body. Do people freak out like in that episode of Ren & Stimpy? Do they lose a dangerous amount of… → Read More
Good news for Nasa, which could probably use some right now. On December 15 its Odyssey Orbiter will become the single longest serving Mars surface spacecraft in history. (Unless there’s some sort of Protean ship on there we’re not aware of yet!) Once December 15 hits Odyssey will have served its 3,340th day up there, surpassing the previous record holder, the Mars Global Surveyor. → Read More
OK, this is great. It’s an updated version of Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope, and t’s all about Mars. Microsoft spent three years developing this new version of the application, with its engineers put together after studying super high-resolution Nasa photos. The result is, much like Google Earth, you can zoom around the Red Planet, taking in the sights and sounds right from your computer. → Read More
Awesome. So this January, it seems that Cameron found time in between money-counting sessions to pitch NASA about putting a 3D camera on the Curiosity Mars rover, set for a 2011 launch. Incredibly, they went for it. I’m guessing it had something to do with budget — probably something along the lines of “my movie is making more per month than your department does in a year, I got… → Read More
Someone call Pauly Shore, because there’s a new closed environment that’ll need his madcap hijinks to stave off boredom and no doubt save the day. The Mars500 project, located in Moscow, hopes to simulate the experience of a manned mission to Mars. It’s the mission to part that they’re testing, and not the actual Mars part. It takes a long time to get to Mars, and once you start there’s no… → Read More
Look at that pic. Take a real good look. Got an idea? Well, you’re probably wrong. → Read More
Apparently NASA saw something when they sent up the last Mars rover, because the next one is going to be packing heat. The next rover, named Curiosity, is scheduled to launch next year and will be equipped with an analysis system that uses high-energy laser pulses to help find out what Mars is made of. → Read More
Look at the photo above. Doesn’t it look like rolling hills adorned with patches of trees? Well, it’s not. That’s a picture of Mars taken by the HiRISE, the most powerful camera sent to another planet, and the tree looking things are really just illusions. NASA says that they are just trails of debris left over from ice melt landslides and we can probably believe the agency. → Read More
It’s Friday. We know you really don’t want to work. How about some nerdy space pr0n? → Read More
Maybe someday a human will walk on Mars. The last couple of generations has always told their children that they will be the ones to do it, but we’re still stuck on this planet. Anyway, 6 crazy Ruskies just emerged from a 1970′s Soviet-era testing facility after spending 105 days in isolation to simulate the voyage to Mars. I don’t know why some random Russian government spent so much money… → Read More
A recent survey by Swedish computer magazine PC för Alla, (PC for Everyone) reportedly found that women get more frustrated than men over just about every aspect of computers and using the Web. While many women could say they find men more frustrating than computers, since we don’t speak Swedish its unclear whether the magazine included that question. Here’s Pingdom’s breakdown of the… → Read More
NASA has confirmed the existence of ice on Mars, the first time water has been found on another planet confirming years of speculation as to the possiblity of water on the Red Planet. As the awful movie Semi-Pro says every four seconds, “Get excited!” And, as Bloomberg so kindly reminds us, “Water in liquid form is an essential ingredient for life.” Thanks, Bloomberg. → Read More
The recently-launched Phoenix Lander scooped up some Martian soil on Saturday, leaving behind “an impression that resembles a footprint at a place provisionally named Yeti,” according to NASA. “This first touch allows us to utilize the Robotic Arm accurately. We are in a good situation for the upcoming sample acquisition and transfer,” said David Spencer, Phoenix’s… → Read More
NASA’s latest Mars explorer, Phoenix, is set to land on the Red Planet tonight at just before 8:00 PM Eastern. There will be live coverage on the NASA TV web site starting at 6:00 PM Eastern. Phoenix is being sent to Mars’ north pole to search for what appears to be subsurface liquid water. According to the mission overview, the four main goals are; – Determine whether Life ever… → Read More
It’s times like this I wish we really did just have the rovers on a sound stage or somewhere in the desert. Unfortunately, we really did fire a freaking rocket, loaded with robots, into space, which rendezvoused with another planet, then disgorged said robots for a perfect landing, after which time the robots ran perfectly well for four years now, advancing our knowledge of the red planet… → Read More
Is there life on Mars? Yes, says the Spirit rover. Here’s a photo it snapped last November. It appears to either be an intergalactic Sasquatch, a Tusken Raider, a really tan naked guy, or some sort of rock statue near the base of what’s known as Tsiolkovski Ridge. My guess is that there’s probably an underground Whole Foods in the base of that cliff and this fella’s going… → Read More
NASA’s new Phoenix Lander launched last Friday, destined for the red planet. The first in NASA’s Scout Program, Phoenix will look for habitable zones and evidence of water in Mars’ artic region. The lander itself is powered by a processor based on IBM’s Power Architecture, similar to the one used in Sony’s PlayStation 3. I don’t mean to speak for Josh Goldman… → Read More
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