Tag: Solar System
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Indian moon lander ready for final descent
Artist’s concept of the Chandrayaan 2 Vikram lander. Credit: ISRO The Vikram lander, part of India’s Chandrayaan 2 mission launched in July, will attempt to land near the lunar south pole Friday and deploy a rover to conduct the first on-the-ground scientific surveys away from the moon’s equatorial regions. The robotic spacecraft is set for…
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Mini-helicopter installed on NASA’s next Mars-bound rover
Members of the NASA Mars Helicopter team attach a thermal film to the exterior of the flight model of the Mars Helicopter. The image was taken on Feb. 1, 2019 inside the Space Simulator, a 25-foot-wide (7.62-meter-wide) vacuum chamber at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory…
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Chandrayaan 2 arrives in lunar orbit, targets moon landing next month
Artist’s illustration of the Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft, including the lander and orbiter, at the moon. Credit: ISRO India’s Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft braked into orbit around the moon Tuesday, positioning the robotic science mission for a landing in the moon’s south pole region Sept. 6. The spacecraft ignited its main engine at 0332 GMT Tuesday (11:32…
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NASA terminates lunar lander contract with OrbitBeyond
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) with new CLPS on-ramp announcement. OrbitBeyond’s Z-01 lunar lander. Credit: OrbitBeyond NASA has terminated a $97 million contract with OrbitBeyond, a New Jersey-based company with plans to build robotic moon landers in Florida, just two months after announcing an agreement to send science instruments to the lunar…
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Japanese spacecraft snags second sample from asteroid
A camera on-board Hayabusa 2 shows the spacecraft’s sampler horn contacting the asteroid’s surface, then kicking up rocky debris after firing a sampling projectile. Credit: JAXA Scientists celebrated another success with Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft late Wednesday (U.S. time), when the robot explorer accomplished a second pinpoint touch-and-go landing on asteroid Ryugu, this time to…
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Hayabusa 2 cleared for second touchdown on asteroid
Artist’s concept of the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft touching down on asteroid Ryugu. Credit: JAXA/Akihiro Ikeshita Ground teams have approved plans for Japan’s Hayabusa 2 sample return mission to briefly land on asteroid Ryugu for the second time July 11, aiming for a targeted touch-and-go to gather material exposed by an explosive impactor released by the…
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NASA approves development of flying drone to explore Saturn’s moon Titan
Artist’s concept of the Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. Credit: NASA NASA officials announced Thursday that the agency will move forward with the development of a plutonium-powered robotic quadcopter drone to explore Saturn’s moon Titan, a hazy world covered with dunes and methane lakes that scientists say is reminiscent of the ancient Earth. The…
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Japanese probe readies for another possible touch-and-go on asteroid
A camera on-board Hayabusa 2 captured this image of the target marker (the bright feature at bottom right) being released just above asteroid Ryugu on May 30. Credit: JAXA Approaching the one-year anniversary since its arrival at asteroid Ryugu, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft has deployed a target marker near an artificial crater created by an…
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Hayabusa 2 locates artificial crater on asteroid
[CRA2] Crater formation where the Small Carry-on Impactor collided with Ryugu has been confirmed! These images compare the surface before and after the SCI collision. pic.twitter.com/BZPYlHhSjs — HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) April 25, 2019 New images from Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft show the location of a fresh crater carved from the jagged terrain of asteroid Ryugu by…
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Errant command doomed Israeli moon lander, officials vow to try again
A camera aboard the Israeli Beresheet lunar lander captured this picture of the moon from an altitude of 15 kilometers, or about 49,000 feet. Credit: SpaceIL A command uplinked by mission control to resolve an error in the guidance system on the Israeli Beresheet moon lander inadvertently triggered a chain reaction that led to the…