Latest Alan Stern Stories
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is nearly seven years into its 9.5-year journey across the solar system to explore Pluto and its moons, but that journey is still far from over. As the spacecraft travels through space, its team has become aware of the possibility that dangerous debris may be orbiting in the Pluto system. "We've found more and more moons orbiting near Pluto -- the count is now up to five," Dr. Alan Stern, principal...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online On August 24, 2006, the solar system’s most distant family member -- tiny, isolated icy planet Pluto -- received some shocking news: it would no longer be considered a true planet. The ruling spurred a hotbed of controversy, with many experts disagreeing with Pluto’s new status as a “dwarf planet.” Despite the controversy and oppositions from scientists and laypeople alike, the ruling went through, reducing the number of...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Using the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) spectrometer aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), scientists have made the first spectroscopic observations of the noble gas helium in the atmosphere surrounding the Moon. These remote-sensing observations complement the situ measurements taken in 1972 by the Lunar Atmosphere Composition Experiment (LACE) deployed by Apollo 17. LAMP was originally designed to map the lunar...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Astronomers and scientists have gotten together to create applications that both make space education fun, and help create income to fund research and development projects. Uwingu (which means “sky” in Swahili and is pronounced “oo-wing-oo) is a company made up of astronomers, planetary scientists, former space-program executives, and educators. The company has announced plans to launch a series of projects to help generate...
Michael Harper for redOrbit.com At this year’s SETIcon II, space experts with varying degrees of expertise and goals gathered together to discuss a far-out plan: Traveling to the moon. Alex Hall, Senior Director of the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, (GLXP) a private competition to drive commercial exploration of space, started an early morning panel discussing Google’s foray into space exploration. She said her organization will be one of the first to sell tickets to land on the...
With NASA facing a possible $300 million cut to its planetary science program, students and professors at universities across the country are going to the extreme in order to help out the US space program -- including holding car washes, bake sales, and shoe-shine events. According to a press release from the University of Central Florida (UCF), one of the participating institutions, nearly 20 different groups are pulling together this weekend in order to "send a clear message to Congress"...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Moon Express, a Google Lunar X PRIZE contender, announced today that some of the world's leading planetary scientists have joined its Science Advisory Board (SAB) to assist the company in its plans to explore and ultimately mine the Moon for precious planetary resources. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120424/SF93286) (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110723/SF40417LOGO) Moon Express Chief Scientist and...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Moon Express, a Google Lunar X PRIZE contender, announced today 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 provide...
During a time of strict budget restraints, NASA still presses on by announcing the new Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) on Monday. NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, John Grunsfeld, named former NASA program manager Orlando Figueroa as the head of the new MPPG. Figueroa is tasked with the job to reformulate NASA's Mars Exploration Program, which has faced budget cuts from President Barack Obama's new proposal. Due to the new budget restraints, NASA...
The new and highly sensitive Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a strong ultraviolet-wavelength absorber on Pluto's surface, providing new evidence that points to the possibility of complex hydrocarbon and/or nitrile molecules lying on the surface, according to a paper recently published in the Astronomical Journal by researchers from Southwest Research Institute and Nebraska Wesleyan University. Such chemical species can be produced by the...
