Latest Unmanned spacecraft Stories

GREENBELT, Md., Dec. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The public is invited to a free event in December to experience "Asking What Was Once Unthinkable," by Dr. Noah Petro, research scientist and team member for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The talk is part of the Gerald Soffen Lecture Series and will be held at the Visitor Center at NASA Goddard...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Twin NASA probes orbiting the moon have generated the highest resolution gravity field map of any celestial body. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The new map, created by the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, is allowing scientists to learn about the moon's internal structure and composition in unprecedented detail. Data from the two washing machine-sized spacecraft also will...

PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has used its full array of instruments to analyze Martian soil for the first time, and found a complex chemistry within the Martian soil. Water and sulfur and chlorine-containing substances, among other ingredients, showed up in samples Curiosity's arm delivered to an analytical laboratory inside the rover. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Detection of the substances...

[ Video 1 ] | Video 2 ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA has finally opened up its tightly sealed lips and said that its Curiosity rover has found evidence of simple organic compounds on Mars. NASA announced at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco today that its Mars Curiosity rover has completed its first analysis of Martian soil, finding a complex chemistry within the Martian soil. The space agency said its Curiosity rover has found...

NEW YORK, Dec. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- It's a city! It's a state! It's a country! No - it's a planet! Breaking with tradition, Oxford University Press has selected Mars as the Place of the Year 2012. Mars, visible to the naked eye, has fascinated and intrigued for centuries but only in the past 50 years has space exploration allowed scientists to better understand the red planet. On August 6, 2012, NASA's Curiosity Rover landed on Mars' Gale Crater; by transmitting its...

[WATCH VIDEO: Curiosity Headed To Mars] Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Monday (Nov 26) marked the one year anniversary since Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft was launched carrying NASA’s next-generation Mars Curiosity rover. After more than 7 months on a journey to the Red Planet, Curiosity touched down on August 6, 2012 in what has been referred to as “seven minutes of terror.” In the 16 weeks since its landing in the Gale Crater on Mars,...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The European Space Agency's Mars Express has relayed scientific data from NASA's Curiosity rover for the first time. The data from Curiosity included detailed images of "Rocknest 3" taken by the rover's ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager camera. ChemCam consists of the camera along with a Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer, which fires a laser at targets and analyzes the chemical composition of vaporized material. Curiosity...

[ Watch the Video: Moon Phase & Libration 2013 ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has helped to create an animation showing hourly intervals of the moon's surface throughout next year. Topographic measurements by the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter aboard LRO makes it possible to simulate shadows on the Moon's surface. "Thanks to Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, we now have excellent terrain maps of the Moon that can tell us...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NPR reported on Tuesday that NASA has some exciting news about a discovery with its Curiosity rover that could be "one for the history books." According to NPR's Joe Palca, NASA is keeping its lips sealed on a Mars discovery until everything is verified. After visiting with John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the rover mission, Palca found out that the data coming down from Curiosity now "is gonna be one for the history...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online It may not be in the company of little Martians, but NASA's Curiosity is determined to celebrate Thanksgiving this year with, or without, the company of extra-terrestrials. For its Thanksgiving festivities, the rover plans to use its Mast Camera (Mastcam) to examine possible routes and targets to the east. NASA said its priority is to choose a rock for the first use of the rover's hammering drill, which will collect samples of...