Tag: Mars

NASA has been cruising around the surface of Mars with the Curiosity rover for a while now, performing all sorts of experiments and research. Curiosity has taken selfies, analyzed rocks, and searched for life on the barren red planet.

NASA isn’t immune to software glitches that can cause some of its incredibly expensive hardware to stop functioning. Such was the case about a week ago when a software update caused a fault on the Curiosity Mars rover, leaving it immobile for almost a week.

NASA has announced that the Curiosity Rover took its longest drive yet on the surface of Mars earlier this week. The longest one-day drive in the rover’s history occurred on September 5, putting it within viewing distance of a patch of rocks NASA calls Waypoint 1.

Gamers and game developers alike are excited about the potential of the Oculus Rift headset and the Virtuix Omni walking surface. But these virtual reality devices have applications beyond gaming. The Human Interfaces Group of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory used both devices to make simulations of space environments.

While most of us will never get to visit the red and dusty surface of Mars, we have been afforded the ability to get a first-hand view of the planet, courtesy of NASA’s Curiosity Rover. And while we’ll never get a chance to see the Curiosity itself up close and personal, you can now have your own mini-Rover on your desktop.

Back in 1971, the Soviet Union sent a spacecraft to Mars. The spacecraft was called the Mars 3 Lander and it touched down on the surface of the red planet and continued transmitting for several seconds on December 2, 1971.

The problem with exploring our solar system today is that we lack the technology to make voyages between planets quick enough. It’s nearly impossible to visit other planets because of slow propulsion systems that expose astronauts to cosmic radiation and require huge amounts of fuel.

I’m pretty sure that many people have trouble understanding stellar distances. Even Mars, one of the closest planets, is really far away by Earthly measurement standards. Check out this great and simple web animation on how far away Mars actually is from Earth.

One of the most impressive things that happened to Jupiter in recorded history was when the planet was pummeled by chunks of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet. The thing with Jupiter is that it has an incredibly thick atmosphere so all we could really see of those impacts were disturbances in the clouds near the top of the planet’s atmosphere.

I think we just made a huge discovery. Mars is made out of candy. It’s also apparently in a parallel universe where it is flat and in someone’s house, next to their stairs.

My favorite part of Tim Burton’s cult classic Mars Attacks! (besides every scene with Jack Nicholson in it) is the part where grandma’s Indian Love Call yodeling record is discovered to be the Achilles’ heel of the invaders, blowing their heads to smithereens.

If you follow space and science at all, or watch the news, undoubtedly you would’ve heard by now that NASA was successful in putting the Curiosity Rover on the surface of Mars yesterday. NASA has released a cool photograph of the Curiosity rover taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

NASA is milking the coming landing of the Curiosity rover for all it’s worth with numerous videos to get people excited about the Rover landing on the surface of the red planet. The nuclear powered Curiosity Rover is set to touch down on the surface of Mars, if all goes well, at 1:31 AM EDT on August 6, 2012.

If you follow the space program at all, you probably know that NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, known as Curiosity, is on its way to the red planet. Curiosity is scheduled to touch down on the surface of Mars at 1:31 AM EDT on Monday, August 6.

Growing up in the infamous Tornado Alley in Texas, we learned from an early age what to do and what not to do if a tornado is coming your way. You also learn what a tornado looks like and the sort of devastation they can leave behind as well.

Russia has had some major failures over the last few months in its space program. So far the country has lost a load of supplies that were to go to the ISS, along with a GPS satellite and more.