Tag: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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NASA’s Dawn spacecraft runs out of fuel in the asteroid belt
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft ran out of fuel Wednesday and stopped transmitting to Earth, ending an 11-year mission that explored the two largest objects in the asteroid belt and set several records in the annals of space history. Dawn failed to contact controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California during an overnight communications opportunity late…
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Engineers still hopeful Mars rover will wake up after dust storm
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION The Hubble Space Telescope captured this view Mars, with its surface partially hidden under a veil of dust, last month as the planet reached the closest point in its orbit to Earth. Credit: NASA, ESA, and STScI Flight controllers have not heard from NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover since…
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Scientists thrilled with closer views of Ceres’ famous salty crater
This mosaic of a prominent mound located on the western side of Cerealia Facula was obtained by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on June 22, 2018, from an altitude of about 21 miles (34 kilometers). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA Fresh pictures from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft have provided the sharpest glimpse yet of the bright salt deposits discovered inside a…
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Growing dust storm encircles Mars, rover remains silent
A self-portrait taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover taken June 15. A Martian dust storm has reduced sunlight and visibility at the rover’s location in Gale Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS The effects of a global dust storm on Mars have been observed by NASA’s plutonium-powered Curiosity rover, which continues its scientific campaign as the thick veil of dust…
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Dawn spacecraft flying low over Ceres
This image of Ceres’ limb was obtained by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft May 30 from an altitude of about 280 miles (450 kilometers). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA In the closing months of a nearly 11-year mission, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has arrived in its final orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres and is obtaining the sharpest views yet of…
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Huge dust storm knocks aging Mars rover out of contact with Earth
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION This series of images shows simulated views of a darkening Martian sky blotting out the Sun from NASA’s Opportunity rover’s point of view, with the right side simulating Opportunity’s current view in the global dust storm (June 2018). The left starts with a blindingly bright mid-afternoon sky, with…
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NASA approves three-year extension for Juno mission orbiting Jupiter
Artist’s concept of the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s robotic Juno spacecraft wil spend another three years probing the inside of Jupiter, giving the mission more time to meet its primary science objectives after concerns over the health of the probe’s engine prevented it from dropping into a lower, shorter orbit around the…
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More signs of past — and possibly present — habitability of Mars
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Credit: NASA/GSFC NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover, slowly making its way up the side of a towering mountain of sedimentary rock at the center of its Gale Crater landing site, has found fresh evidence for the red planet’s past — and possibly present — habitability, scientists reported Thursday. The…
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First interplanetary CubeSats already setting records in deep space
Artist’s concept of the MarCO CubeSats. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Two CubeSats developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory launched May 5 with the InSight mission to Mars have deployed their miniaturized antennas and captured a distant family portrait of the Earth and the moon. The twin spacecraft have already set a distance record for CubeSats, and they…
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Helicopter to accompany NASA’s next Mars rover to Red Planet
Artist’s concept of the Mars Helicopter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A flying drone fitted with counter-rotating blades, on-board autonomy, and a lightweight carbon-fiber fuselage will ride to the Red Planet with NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, officials announced Friday. Promising results from recent ground testing and a funding boost provided by a new NASA budget passed by Congress…