A photo of the Phoenix parachuting … captured by the MRO. There is something about that photo that transforms my perception of space exploration - not too sure how to describe it. It’s a feeling of watching events unfold, rather than simply experiencing the results… and I know that at 15 light minutes there is no difference between those two positions, but the photo communicates that.
The first public taste of rocket racing will take place Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 in Oshkosh, Wis., Whitelaw said, at the annual Experimental Aircraft Association air show. It will involve two of the sleek aircraft developed for the league. The racers will also perform at air shows in Nevada and New Mexico.
And interestingly:
The engines will come from two companies, Whitelaw said: Xcor Aerospace of Mojave, Calif., and Armadillo Aerospace of Mesquite, Tex. Armadillo was founded by John Carmack, a high-tech businessman who created successful video games, including Doom and Quake.
After making it look really easy the Scaled Composites team have had their first and very lethal accident. Three people died. Poor Burt looks completely shell shocked in the video footage. I really feel for all involved. A N20 explosion must’ve come out of left field for these guys…
While NASA and the European Space Agency focus on Mars rovers and future missions to search for life on the Red Planet, a determined core of scientists is lobbying for equal attention to a place they feel is just as likely to harbor life - Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.
Popular Mechanics has a feature on Burt Rutan and his work on SpaceShipTwo:
Details on SpaceShipTwo […] are secret, but the goal is not — to create a craft that flies for decades. “We hope we’re building the DC 3 or Tri-Motor,” Rutan says, “not the barnstorming airplane.”
According to Arstechnica Nasa and Virgin Galactic are looking to team up on aspects of space flight…
The areas of interest to the two entities range from from hypersonic vehicles to space suits for astronauts. “This understanding with Virgin Galactic affords NASA an opportunity to work with an emerging company in the commercial human space transportation industry to support the agency’s exploration, science and aeronautics mission goals,” said S. Pete Worden, director of the NASA Ames Research Center
Great to see Burt getting more attention… and hopefully make an even greater impact.
NASA photographs have revealed bright new deposits seen in two gullies on Mars that suggest water carried sediment through them sometime during the past seven years.
Again, another of these really exciting finds that are busting open a lot of the assumptions we have about our solar system… love it!
UPODATE 2: On a related Mars note… the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has sent back a bunch of images of other Mars landers:
New images have been released of past and present US landing craft on the surface of Mars taken by Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) probe.
The Spirit rover, which touched down in 2004, as well as both Viking landers, sent to explore the Red Planet in the 1970s, can be seen in the new images.
