Moon Exploration and Science News

March 20, 2013

Goldstone Radar Snags Images of Asteroid 2013 ET
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 20, 2013
A sequence of radar images of asteroid 2013 ET was obtained on March 10, 2013, by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., when the asteroid was about 693,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers) from Earth, which is 2.9 lunar distances. The radar imagery suggests the irregularly shaped object is at least 130 feet (40 meters) wide. The 18 radar images were taken over a span of 1.3 hours. During that interval, the asteroid completed only a fraction of ... read more

Previous Issues

Mar 19

Mar 18

Mar 15

Mar 14

Mar 13

Curiosity Mars Rover Sees Trend in Water Presence NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has seen evidence of water-bearing minerals in rocks near where it had already found clay minerals inside a drilled rock. Last week, the rover's science team announ ... more		Leaping Lunar Dust Electrically charged lunar dust near shadowed craters can get lofted above the surface and jump over the shadowed region, bouncing back and forth between sunlit areas on opposite sides, according to ... more		ChemCam data abundant at Planetary Conference Members of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover ChemCam team will present more than two dozen posters and talks next week during the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlan ... more
				First Laser Communication System Integrated, Ready for Launch A new NASA-developed, laser-based space communication system will enable higher rates of satellite communications similar in capability to high-speed fiber optic networks on Earth. The space t ... more		China sets moon mission re-entry test China says it will conduct re-entry tests before 2015 of a spacecraft to be used in a mission to have a lunar explorer probe bring lunar soil samples to Earth. ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project Seeks Public Support To Retrieve Apollo Era Moon Images The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) is seeking support from the public as it continues its efforts to recover and enhance Moon images from the 1960s using modern technology. The L ... more		NASA's SDO Observes Earth, Lunar Transits in Same Day On March 2, 2013, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) entered its semiannual eclipse season, a period of three weeks when Earth blocks its view of the sun for a period of time each day. On ... more		Sidekick autonomy software guides YFQ-42A test mission for CCA program Infleqtion lists shares on NYSE as neutral atom quantum firm Top Chinese gaming companies continue to challenge		Lunar impacts created seas of molten rock Early in the Moon's history an ocean of molten rock covered its entire surface. As that lunar magma ocean cooled over millions of years, it differentiated to form the Moon's crust and mantle. But ac ... more
				Rhea Rev 183 Raw Preview NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured these raw, unprocessed images of Saturn's moon Rhea during a close flyby on March 9, 2013. This flyby marks the mission's last targeted encounter with Rhea and onl ... more		Cassini Makes Last Close Flyby of Saturnian Moon Rhea NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be swooping close to Saturn's moon Rhea on Saturday, March 9, the last close flyby of Rhea in Cassini's mission. The primary purpose will be to probe the interna ... more

Solar systems for home and business installations

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

China targeting navigation system's global coverage by 2020 China's homegrown navigation system BeiDou is expected to achieve full-scale global coverage by around 2020, a leading scientist told Xinhua on Sunday. The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System ( ... more		A Window into Europa's Ocean Right at the Surface If you could lick the surface of Jupiter's icy moon Europa, you would actually be sampling a bit of the ocean beneath. A new paper by Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technol ... more		Solar-driven ionosphere charges may nudge stressed faults toward rupture Stable black carbon in mangrove soils boosts coastal climate role Low crystallinity iron minerals show promise for chromium cleanup and carbon storage		Chinese probe in breakthrough outer space travel China's second moon orbiter, Chang'e-2, has arrived in outer space about 20 million km from the Earth, marking a new breakthrough in the nation's efforts for deep space exploration, Chinese scientis ... more
				Dawn forging through the main asteroid belt The indefatigable Dawn spacecraft is continuing to forge through the main asteroid belt, gently thrusting with its ion propulsion system. As it gradually changes its orbit around the sun, the distan ... more		China to use modified rocket for moon landing mission A rocket expert said Friday that China has developed a modified model of the Long March-3B carrier rocket for an upcoming moon landing mission to be completed by the Chang'e-3 moon orbiter. Th ... more

NASA's next Mars mission invites public to come aboard

Panorama From NASA Mars Rover Shows Mount Sharp

Opportunity Departing South Soon

'Hot Spots' Ride a Merry-Go-Round on Jupiter

Rhea Rev 183 Raw Preview

Cassini Makes Last Close Flyby of Saturnian Moon Rhea

'Vulcan' wins Pluto moon name vote

Public to vote on names for Pluto moons

The PI's Perspective: The Seven-Year Itch

Leaping Lunar Dust

Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project Seeks Public Support To Retrieve Apollo Era Moon Images

China sets moon mission re-entry test

	Water On The Moon: It's Been There All Along Traces of water have been detected within the crystalline structure of mineral samples from the lunar highland upper crust obtained during the Apollo missions, according to a University of Michigan ... more		Waste Dump at the End of the World On their mission to the moon in 1969 the Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin created arguably the most famous footprints ever. Since the time the astronauts of the Apollo 11 Mission stepped ont ... more		Cassini Sees Titan Cooking up Smog A paper published this week using data from NASA's Cassini mission describes in more detail than ever before how aerosols in the highest part of the atmosphere are kick-started at Saturn's moon Tita ... more		Building a lunar base with 3D printing Setting up a lunar base could be made much simpler by using a 3D printer to build it from local materials. Industrial partners including renowned architects Foster + Partners have joined with ESA to ... more

AALTO plans Zephyr stratospheric hub in northern Australia and seeks local payload partners

Ancient guano drove Chincha coastal power

UAH lands first DARPA award for biological sciences department

NASA Beams Mona Lisa to Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at the Moon		Titan Gets a Dune "Makeover"

Free Newsletters - Space - Defense - Environment - Energy

Buy Advertising

Media Advertising Kit

Editorial & Other Enquiries

Privacy statement

The contents herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2013 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy statement