Latest Unmanned spacecraft Stories

Haigh-Farr, Inc. of Bedford, NH, a Business Unit within the Vitec Group, and the world leader in design, development and manufacturing of flight-body antennas for defense, space and commercial applications, congratulates NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on the successful landing of the MSL (a.k.a. Curiosity) Vehicle on Mars. Haigh-Farr designed and manufactured the four-segment Wraparound TM Antenna used during the critical entry Descent and Landing (EDL) pahse of the mission....

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Bobak Ferdowsi, now famously known as NASA's Mohawk Guy, is a flight director for the Mars Science Laboratory mission that put the Curiosity rover on the Martian surface in early August. He will host a two-hour online broadcast on Internet radio station Third Rock Radio at 4pm EDT, August 30. Ferdowsi, who works at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, will be discussing his experience with the landing of...

PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has set off from its landing vicinity on a trek to a science destination about a quarter-mile (400 meters) away, where it may begin using its drill. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The rover drove eastward about 52 feet (16 meters) on Tuesday, its 22nd Martian day after landing. This third drive was longer than Curiosity's first two drives combined. The previous...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's "Mohawk Guy" Bobak Ferdowsi, a flight director for the Mars Science Laboratory mission that lowered the Curiosity rover to the Martian surface in early August, will host a two-hour online broadcast on Internet radio station Third Rock Radio at 4 p.m. EDT, Thursday, August 30. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The show, entitled "Getting Curious with the Mohawk Guy," will feature Ferdowsi...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Two of the coolest things we have on this planet are robots and people who go spelunking, and we are about to take those two cool things, combine them, and send them to Mars. According to a report by Discovery News, recent discoveries of lava tubes on Mars could spark new developments by NASA to send robots to explore caves on the Red Planet. The report said that one robotics researcher is looking into how a robot would be capable...

PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Mars Curiosity has debuted the first recorded human voice that traveled from Earth to another planet and back. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) In spoken words radioed to the rover on Mars and back to NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) on Earth, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden noted the difficulty of landing a rover on Mars, congratulated NASA employees and the agency's commercial and...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will hold an educational event to share findings about Mars with students and premiere a new song by musician will.i.am that will be broadcast from the surface of the Red Planet via the Curiosity rover. The event will take place at 1 p.m. PDT (4 p.m. EDT) Tuesday, Aug. 28, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO ) Members of the team that...

PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will hold a televised news conference at 2 p.m. PDT (5 p.m. EDT), Monday, Aug. 27, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., about the activities of its Curiosity rover mission on Mars. The event will feature new images, an update of the rover's progress, and a special greeting by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Televised news...

Video: Curiosity Landing On Mars In High Resolution Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA posted a high-resolution video of its Curiosity rover as it descended towards the Mars surface during its "seven minutes of terror." The high resolution video starts recording the descent once the heat shield was jettisoned from the rover, exposing it to the Red Planet's surface for the first time. The movie is composed of multiple high resolution images its Mars Descent...

Curiosity beams back strong, clear data from ‘scour’ area on Martian surface Members of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover ChemCam team, including Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists, squeezed in a little extra target practice after zapping the first fist-sized rock that was placed in the laser’s crosshairs last weekend. Much to the delight of the scientific team, the laser instrument has fired nearly 500 shots so far that have produced strong, clear data about the...