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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Opportunity's poking at Marquette Island; Cassini's catching dancing moons
Since tomorrow's class is going to be on playing with raw images from the rovers and Cassini, I've been playing with recent raw images from the rovers and Cassini! I just thought I'd share a couple of the fun items I've been working with.
Results of the first "Free Spirit" extrication drive, sol 2088: not much, as expected
Even though all of us rover fans know that Spirit is really, really stuck, I think I'm not the only one who was secretly hoping that today's images downlinked from Spirit would show that the rover had magically popped out of the ground overnight. Of course, she didn't.
How to download the first imaging class: "Images Are Data"
I finally prevailed in hosting the first in my series of classes on processing space images for amateurs this morning, while most people who were not working were probably watching the flawless launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis.
LCROSS team: "Yes, we found water!"
I just posted a story on the announcement today that LCROSS definitely found lots of water in the spectra from their October 9 impact.
Rosetta Earth swingby successful
Rosetta appears to have operated flawlessly as it streaked past Earth for its flyby early this morning. Here are a few more gems from the flyby.
Crescent Earth
Just hours away from its Earth flyby, Rosetta is busily snapping images and gathering other science data.
Highlights from today's Spirit press briefing
Since A. J. S. Rayl was also listening in on today's press briefing about the efforts to extricate Spirit from her predicament at Troy, I'll just hit the high points and send you over to her story when she has posted it.
First space imaging class tomorrow, 10:30 a.m. Pacific / 18:30 UT
The topic of the first class is:
Two new names in the solar system: Herse and Weywot
Via the USGS I learned that Jupiter has passed a milestone of sorts, and now has fifty named satellites.
Hayabusa stumbles on the path back to Earth
JAXA issued a press release (in Japanese) on November 9 stating that one of Hayabusa's ion thrusters, thruster D, had stopped operating. Hayabusa launched with four ion thrusters, but D was one of only two that are still functioning. So the failure of thruster D is a serious problem.
Tracking the stars -- and Earth
This was a neat photo from ESA today.
Rosetta is homing in on Earth
Heads up! ESA's Rosetta spacecraft is approaching for its last flyby of Earth, on Friday, November 13.
Four moons and a ring
Thanks to Mike Malaska for the tip on this one. The image is part of an animation that ends with Rhea transiting Saturn.
A million dollars says The Planetary Society can make a solar sail fly
The Planetary Society announced today that an anonymous donor has put up one million dollars to help us get a solar sail in flight.
Planetary Radio Q and A: Are meteorites on Mars actually interesting?
The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been studying a lot of meteorites. That made me wonder, why study meteorites on Mars when we can study them in hand on Earth? How are Mars meteorites interesting?
She moves! "First drive sequence in 145 sols" for Spirit
It's been an awful long time since we've seen one of these from Spirit: an animation of four Navcam frames documenting motion!
Space Image Processing Classes are Go!
I got a huge response from readers interested in me conducting some online classes on space image data -- how to access and process it.
Reviews of several space-themed books for young children
While I was on maternity leave I suddenly decided to see what books were out there that could help me teach my daughters (one's three years, and the other six months old) about the science and the thrill of space exploration.
MESSENGER Rewrites Mercury Textbooks Even Before Entering Orbit
As MESSENGER zoomed toward Mercury for its third flyby, it was commanded to rotate in a maneuver that would help it test a surprising result from the second flyby.
Planetary Radio Q and A: Not-so-gassy giants
On Planetary Radio's