Moon Exploration and Science News

June 03, 2015

Crashing comets may explain mysterious lunar swirls
Providence RI (SPX) Jun 03, 2015
Brown University researchers have produced new evidence that lunar swirls - wispy bright regions scattered on the moon's surface - were created by several comet collisions over the last 100 million years. In a paper published in the journal Icarus, the researchers use state-of-the-art computer models to simulate the dynamics of comet impacts on the lunar soil. The simulations suggest that such impacts can account for many of the features in the mysterious swirls. "We think this makes a prett ... read more

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NASA's Exploration Plans Include Living Off the Land When early explorers crossed vast oceans to reach new worlds, they traveled with only what they needed to get there. After arriving at their destination, the pioneers planned to live off the land. N ... more		Google Lunar X-Prize meets Yoda "Do, or do not do. There is no try!" Thus spoke Jedi Master Yoda to his apprentice Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back. Right now, it would seem that the managers of the G ... more		Cassini Prepares for Last Up-close Look at Hyperion NASA's Cassini spacecraft will make its final close approach to Saturn's large, irregularly shaped moon Hyperion on Sunday, May 31. The Saturn-orbiting spacecraft will pass Hyperion at a distance of ... more
				The Moon or Mars: Flawed Debate, False Choice - Part One The Moon or Mars debate continues despite every single report or recommendation from NASA, NRC or other independent study that point to the Moon as the next logical destination for human space explo ... more		Flawed Debates begets false choices beyond LEO - Part Two New technologies allow us to go back to the Moon at a fraction the cost of Apollo, and now, even private efforts like the Google X Prize contestants are underway to land and execute exploration miss ... more

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Next Generation Integrated ISR 2015 - Washington DC - July 27-29

Europa Mission Begins with Selection of Science Instruments NASA has selected nine science instruments for a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, to investigate whether the mysterious icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life. NASA's Galileo miss ... more		Planetary Science Institute researchers to study Jupiter's moon Europa PSI researchers are on the science teams of three of nine instruments chosen to be part of an upcoming mission to explore Jupiter's icy moon Europa, NASA has announced. The Europa mission, slated to ... more		Greenland truce or Trump win? Davos "framework" pauses tariffs but not the takeover boasts Greenlanders doubtful over Trump resolution EU says ready to sign defence and security pact with India		China, Russia plan joint landing on the Moon Moscow and Beijing are planning to enhance their cooperation in space research and conduct joint manned space missions, particularly, to the moon. The US does not trust these plans, fearing that Chi ... more
				China Plans First Ever Landing On The Lunar Far Side What lies on the "dark side" of the moon? The ruined civilization of our lunar forbearers? A pile of overplayed Pink Floyd records? ... more		The Moon or Mars: Flawed Debate, False Choice - Part Two New technologies allow us to go back to the Moon at a fraction the cost of Apollo, and now, even private efforts like the Google X Prize contestants are underway to land and execute exploration miss ... more

Army Network Modernization 2015 - Washington DC June 23-25

NASA Seeks Additional Information for Asteroid Redirect Mission Spacecraft NASA has issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking ideas from American companies for a spacecraft design that could be used for both the agency's Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) and a robotic s ... more		Ether Compounds Could Work like DNA On Oily Worlds In the search for life beyond Earth, scientists have justifiably focused on water because all biology as we know it requires this fluid. A wild card, however, is whether alternative liquids can also ... more		Trump vows to relaunch Egypt-Ethiopia talks on dam row China's birth rate falls to lowest on record Chile police arrest suspect over deadly wildfires		Asteroid Distant 'Flyby' Thursday An asteroid, designated 1999 FN53, will safely pass more than 26 times the distance of Earth to the moon on May 14. To put it another way, at its closest point, the asteroid will get no closer than ... more
Engineers Test Hydrogen Burn-off Igniters for Space Launch System NASA has a certain "flare" when it comes to safety on the launch pad. Those flares are called hydrogen burn-off igniters - which resemble celebratory sparklers - and were successfully used to mitiga ... more		Europa's Mystery Dark Material Could Be Sea Salt NASA laboratory experiments suggest the dark material coating some geological features of Jupiter's moon Europa is likely sea salt from a subsurface ocean, discolored by exposure to radiation. The p ... more		NASA's New Horizons Spots Pluto's Faintest Known Moons It's a complete Pluto family photo - or at least a photo of the family members we've already met. For the first time, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has photographed Kerberos and Styx - the sm ... more		Weather forecasts for planets beyond our solar system "Cloudy for the morning, turning to clear with scorching heat in the afternoon." While this might describe a typical late-summer day in many places on Earth, it may also apply to planets outside our ... more

	NASA's LRO Moves Closer to the Lunar Surface NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has completed a maneuver that lowered the spacecraft's orbit to within 20 kilometers (12 miles) above areas near the lunar South Pole, the closest the space ... more		Saturn Moon's Activity Could Be 'Curtain Eruptions' New research using data from NASA's Cassini mission suggests most of the eruptions from Saturn's moon Enceladus might be diffuse curtains rather than discrete jets. Many features that appear to be i ... more

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