Stellary Starry Universe

 

The roving days for NASA’s stuck robotic explorer Spirit are likely over after more than six years rolling across the Martian surface, the space agency announced Tuesday.

“This is not a day to mourn Spirit. This is not a day of loss,” said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA’s Mars exploration program, in a teleconference. “Its driving days are likely over, however its contribution will continue.” [...]

 

Source: Space.com – click here for full article

 

 

Quasars used as signposts to measure positioning of GPS satellites.

“For GPS to work, the orbital position, or ephemeris, of the satellites has to be known very precisely,” said Chopo Ma of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “In order to know where the satellites are, you have to know the orientation of the Earth very precisely.”

To get a stable reference point for global positioning, GPS systems have to turn to something that is stable. The earth is moving, the sun is moving, the stars are moving so what’s stable? Well quasars are so remote they do not seem to be moving relative to earth and our solar system. [...]

 

Source: Space.com – click here for full article

 

 

Milky Way panorama assembled from 3,000 individual photographs.

 

 

Source: Space.com – click here for full article

 

 

Although the main payload onboard the Kepler spacecraft consists of instruments to detect other worlds, a second package reminds anyone who may intercept the craft millennia from now of the hopes of the generation that launched it.

Chris Hall, from Virginia, noted that “This mission serves to expand our exploration of two of humanity’s deepest questions—are there other worlds out there like our own, and if so, are there other entities who may be seeking knowledge of us?”

 

 

Source: Space.com – click here for full article

 

 

Team Italia hopes to win the Lunar X Prize with a swarm of spider-bots.

“Team Italia has evolved,” said Piero Messina, president of the Naples-based International Association for the Aerospace Culture (AICA) that is coordinating Team Italia.

“What we are trying to leverage is that most of aerospace community in Italy is behind this project,” Messina said. “We really want to give an Italian flavor to the undertaking.”

 

 

Source: Space.com – click here for Spider-Bot Swarm article