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New Views Show Old NASA Mars Landers

By Guest PostFebruary 9, 2012Scienceball aerospace, bonneville crater, canadian space agency, color image, denver, earth, hirise camera, liquid water, lockheed martin space systems, mars, mars reconnaissance orbiter, martian arctic winter, martian soil particles, martian surface, meteorite, microscope, NASA, Phoenix, spacecraft, telescopic camera, three petal lander, university of arizona

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded a scene on Jan. 29, 2012, that includes the first color image from orbit showing the three-petal lander of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit mission. Spirit drove off that lander platform in January 2004 and spent most of its six-year working life in a range of hills about two miles to the east.

Another recent image from HiRISE, taken on Jan. 26, 2012, shows NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander and its surroundings on far-northern Mars after that spacecraft’s second Martian arctic winter. Phoenix exceeded its planned mission life in 2008, ending its work as solar energy waned during approach of its first Mars winter. (more…)

NASA Twin Spacecraft on Final Approach for Moon Orbit

By Guest PostDecember 29, 2011Scienceapollo, cape canaveral air force station, crust, david lehman, denver, elliptical orbit, euphoria, evolution of the moon, grail, gravitational field, gravity recovery and interior laboratory, high resolution map, lockheed martin space systems, lunar orbit, lunar south pole, maria zuber, moon, NASA, new year eve, science objectives, twin spacecraft, ultra stable oscillator

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s twin spacecraft to study the moon from crust to core are nearing their New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day main-engine burns to place the duo in lunar orbit.

Named Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL), the spacecraft are scheduled to be placed in orbit beginning at 1:21 p.m. PST (4:21 p.m. EST) for GRAIL-A on Dec. 31, and 2:05 p.m. PST (5:05 p.m. EST) for GRAIL-B the next day. (more…)

Color View from Orbit Shows Mars Rover Beside Crater

By Guest PostMarch 11, 2011Scienceball aerospace, color image, crater, denver, high resolution imaging science experiment, hirise, lockheed martin space systems, mars exploration rover opportunity, mars reconnaissance orbiter, NASA, opportunity, orbiting camera, robotic arm, ruiz garcia, santa maria, university of arizona

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has nearly completed its three-month examination of a crater informally named “Santa Maria,” but before the rover resumes its overland trek, an orbiting camera has provided a color image of Opportunity beside Santa Maria.

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired the image on March 1, while Opportunity was extending its robotic arm to take close-up photos of a rock called “Ruiz Garcia.” From orbit, the tracks Opportunity made as it approached the crater from the west are clearly visible. Santa Maria crater is about 90 meters (295 feet) in diameter. (more…)

NASA Releases Images of Man-Made Crater on Comet

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2011Science2005 deep impact mission, b 17 bomber, coma, comet, comet atmosphere, comet tempel 1, crater, denver, don brownlee, images, joe veverka, jpl, lockheed martin space systems, mission operations, NASA, new terrain, nucleus, pete schultz, stardust, stardust next, stardust spacecraft, tim larson, valentine day

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Stardust spacecraft returned new images of a comet showing a scar resulting from the 2005 Deep Impact mission. The images also showed the comet has a fragile and weak nucleus.

The spacecraft made its closest approach to comet Tempel 1 on Monday, Feb. 14, at 8:40 p.m. PST (11:40 p.m. EST) at a distance of approximately 178 kilometers (111 miles). Stardust took 72 high-resolution images of the comet. It also accumulated 468 kilobytes of data about the dust in its coma, the cloud that is a comet’s atmosphere. The craft is on its second mission of exploration called Stardust-NExT, having completed its prime mission collecting cometary particles and returning them to Earth in 2006. (more…)

Tag Archives: lockheed martin space systems

New Views Show Old NASA Mars Landers

NASA Twin Spacecraft on Final Approach for Moon Orbit

Color View from Orbit Shows Mars Rover Beside Crater

NASA Releases Images of Man-Made Crater on Comet