http://www.moondaily.com/index.html Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST en-us NASA's Dawn spacecraft has provided researchers with the first orbital analysis of the giant asteroid Vesta, yielding new insights into its creation and relation to the terrestrial planets and Earth's moon. Vesta now has been revealed as a special fossil of the early solar system with a more varied, diverse surface than originally thought. Scientists have confirmed a variety of ways Vesta ]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST The Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has been a landmark to the technological advancements of sending men to the moon and astronauts into space for more than 45 years. But the VAB, as it is best known, is due for major renovations to continue processing launch vehicles and support the subsequent launching of a new generation of astronauts into orbit and deeper ]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST A team of researchers led by a NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) member based at Southwest Research Institute has discovered evidence that the giant impact crater Rheasilvia on Asteroid (4) Vesta was created in a collision that occurred only about 1 billion years ago, much more recently than previously thought. This result is based on the analysis of high-resolution images obtained with the Da]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST NASA's Dawn spacecraft has provided researchers with the first orbital analysis of the giant asteroid Vesta, yielding new insights into its creation and kinship with terrestrial planets and Earth's moon. Vesta now has been revealed as a special fossil of the early solar system with a more varied, diverse surface than originally thought. Scientists have confirmed a variety of ways in which ]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST The full Moon has a reputation for trouble. It raises high tides, it makes dogs howl, it wakes you up in the middle of the night with beams of moonlight stealing through drapes. If a moonbeam wakes you up on the night of May 5th, 2012, you might want to get out of bed and take a look. This May's full Moon is a "super Moon," as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full Moons of 2012. ]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST Each spring as Earth passes through the debris trail from Halley's Comet (1P/Halley), the cosmic bits burn up in our atmosphere and result in the annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower. This year the peak will occur on the night of May 5 and into the morning of May 6, with meteor rates of about 40-60 meteors per hour under ideal conditions. A full moon occurs on May 6, just a day after the Eta A]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be flying within about 46 miles (74 kilometers) of Saturn's moon Enceladus on Wednesday, May 2, aiming primarily to learn more about the moon's internal structure. The flyby is the third part of a trilogy of flybys - the other two took place on April 28, 2010, and Nov. 30, 2010 - for Cassini's radio science experiment. The radio science team is particul]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST Astrobotic Technology Inc. has announced a NASA contract to determine whether its polar rover can deploy an ice-prospecting payload to the Moon. The ice could yield water, oxygen, methane and rocket propellant to dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration. "Astrobotic seeks the immense resources available on the Moon to both accelerate space exploration and improve life on Earth," s]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST The race for the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE is creating science opportunities for European lunar researchers. Four teams competing for the competition presented their plans at the European Lunar Symposium in Berlin last week. Representatives from Hungary's Team Puli, Italy's AMALIA mission, and European members of Team FREDNET and Synergy Moon have invited the 170 lunar scientists attendin]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST India's second Moon mission Chandrayaan-2, slated for 2014, will have to wait till the country's space agency flies two of its heavy rocket - Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) - successfully, a top official said Thursday. Speaking to reporters after the successful launch of indigenously built Radar Imaging Satellite I (Risat-1) from here, Indian Space Research Organisation (IS]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST Russia is planning to send a manned mission to the moon by 2030, Russian space agency Roscosmos said on its website on Friday. According to the Russian space strategy published on the Roscosmos website, Moscow has set several waypoints for its space exploration activities: 2015, 2020, 2030 and the period after 2030. Roscosmos will resume lunar exploration by 2015 using an unmanned sp]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST Moon Express has announced that it has successfully delivered a mission design package to NASA under its Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) Program, providing NASA continuing data on the development of the company's commercial lunar missions and plans to mine the Moon for precious planetary resources. The newest task order in the $10M ILDD contract called for Moon Express to provid]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST Shrouded in a thick, complex, organic haze, Saturn's giant moon Titan is proving to be one of the most scientifically interesting destinations in the solar system. Titan's atmosphere, which is mostly molecular nitrogen with a touch of methane, produces chemically complex hydrocarbons that rain down on Titan's icy surface, forming dunes of organic material. The greenhouse effect provided by]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST Data from NASA's Cassini mission reveal Saturn's moon Phoebe has more planet-like qualities than previously thought. Scientists had their first close-up look at Phoebe when Cassini began exploring the Saturn system in 2004. Using data from multiple spacecraft instruments and a computer model of the moon's chemistry, geophysics and geology, scientists found Phoebe was a so-called planetesimal, or]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST Saturn's giant moon Titan hides within a thick, smoggy atmosphere that's well-known to scientists as one of the most complex chemical environments in the solar system. It's a productive "factory" cranking out hydrocarbons that rain down on Titan's icy surface, cloaking it in soot and, with a brutally cold surface temperature of around minus 270 degrees Fahrenheit, forming lakes of liquid methane]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:25 AEST