Category: Space Exploration

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Space Exploration Mars

What happens to old spacecraft?

Voyager 1 in Deep Space (Artist Conception)
Voyager 1 in Deep Space (Artist's Conception). Since the Voyager spacecraft are identical, it could be Voyager 2, as well. The Voyager spacecraft were built by JPL, which continues to operate both. JPL is a division of Caltech in Pasadena. California. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Image: NASA.gov

Since the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957, we launched thousands of spacecraft into Earth orbit and beyond. A fraction of them are still functioning, but what happened to the vast majority of them? “The Curious Droid” published another informative video titled “What happens to old spacecraft?”

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Moon Landing Earth from Space Space Exploration

Apollo 11 Lunar Module ascent stage photographed from Command Module by Michael Collins

Apollo 11 Lunar Module ascent (cropped)
AS11-44-6642 (21 July 1969) --- The Apollo 11 Lunar Module ascent stage, with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. aboard, is photographed from the Command and Service Modules (CSM) during rendezvous in lunar orbit. The Lunar Module (LM) was making its docking approach to the CSM. Astronaut Michael Collins remained with the CSM in lunar orbit while the other two crewmen explored the lunar surface. The large, dark-colored area in the background is Smyth's Sea, centered at 85 degrees east longitude and 2 degrees south latitude on the lunar surface (nearside). This view looks west. The Earth rises above the lunar horizon. This is a cropped and resized image. You can see the full-size image on NASA.gov

A beautiful photo from the Moon’s orbit – Apollo 11 Lunar Module ascent stage photographed from Command Module by Michael Collins on July 21, 1969.

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Earth from Space Moon Landing Space Exploration

Beresheet, Israel’s first moon mission spacecraft sends back selfie with Earth

Israeli spacecraft snaps Earth selfie
Beresheet (which means "Genesis" in Hebrew), Israel's first Moon mission spacecraft took this photo with its "selfie camera" on March 5, 2019, when it was about 37,600 kilometers (23,000 miles) away from the Earth. When it was taken, the spacecraft was in the middle of a slow spin, with Australia visible in the background. In the photo, a plaque on the side of moon lander features the flag of Israel and phrases "Am Yisrael Chai" (which means roughly "The Jewish nation lives" or "the people of Israel are still alive") and "small country, big dreams". Image: SpaceIL/IAI

Beresheet (which means “Genesis” in Hebrew), Israel’s first Moon mission spacecraft has sent an amazing selfie with Earth in the background today.

In the photo, a plaque on the side of moon lander features the flag of Israel and phrases “Am Yisrael Chai” (which means roughly “The Jewish nation lives” or “the people of Israel are still alive”) and “small country, big dreams”.

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Earth from Space Space Exploration

Yes, buddy, that’s your Mother Earth. Isn’t she beautiful?

Buddy and Mother Earth
American astronaut Anne McClain, who is a part of Expedition 58/59 to the International Space Station, shared this beautiful (and cute) photo on her Twitter account, saying "Yes, buddy, that's your Mother Earth. Isn't she beautiful?".

American astronaut Anne McClain, who is a part of Expedition 58/59 to the International Space Station, shared the beautiful (and cute) photo below on her Twitter account, saying “Yes, buddy, that’s your Mother Earth. Isn’t she beautiful?”.

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Space Exploration Earth from Space

The First Commercial Crew Mission Arrives at the ISS

SpaceX Crew Dragon attached to the ISS (March 3, 2018)
After making 18 orbits of Earth since its launch early Saturday morning, the Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully attached to the International Space Station's Harmony module forward port via "soft capture" at 5:51 a.m. EST while the station was traveling more than 250 miles over the Pacific Ocean, just north of New Zealand. As the spacecraft approached the space station, it demonstrated its automated control and maneuvering capabilities by arriving in place at about 492 feet (150 meters) away from the orbital laboratory then reversing course and backing away from the station to 590 feet (180 meters) before the final docking sequence from about 65 feet (20 meters) away. The Crew Dragon used the station's new international docking adapter for the first time since astronauts installed it during a spacewalk in August 2016, following its delivery to the station in the trunk of a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on its ninth commercial resupply services mission. For the Demo-1 mission, Crew Dragon is delivering more than 400 pounds of crew supplies and equipment to the space station. A lifelike test device named Ripley also is aboard the spacecraft, outfitted with sensors to provide data about potential effects on humans traveling in Crew Dragon. The Crew Dragon is designed to stay docked to station for up to 210 days, although the spacecraft used for this flight test will remain docked to the space station only five days, departing Friday, March 8.

On March 3, 2019, at 10:51 UTC (05:51 EST), SpaceX Demo-1 Crew Dragon autonomously docked to the International Space Station’s Harmony module forward International Docking Adapter (IDA), becoming the first commercial crew spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station (ISS). Here’s the video of the docking process.

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Earth from Space Space Exploration

Amazing Footage of 2nd VSS Unity Spaceflight

VSS Unity's Second Suborbital Spaceflight
On February 22, 2019, during the second spaceflight, the supersonic, rocket-powered VSS Unity has reached an altitude of 295,007 feet (89,918 meters) and a top speed of Mach 3.04 (2,255 mph, 3,629 km/h). It three crew for the first time: two test pilots (Dave Mackay, the company's chief pilot, and Michael "Sooch" Masucci) and a mission specialist (Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut instructor). VSS Unity lifted by a plane named "WhiteKnightTwo" until the altitude high enough to fire its hybrid rocket motor.

Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity (Virgin Space Ship Unity) made its second flight into space, reaching an altitude of 55.87 miles (89.9 kilometers) on February 22, 2019. The American space company released amazing footage of the flight.

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Mars Space Exploration

Mars weather service by NASA’s InSight Lander

InSight image acquired on November 27, 2018, Sol 1 (cropped)
NASA's InSight Mars lander acquired this image using its robotic arm-mounted, Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC). This image was acquired on November 27, 2018, Sol 1 where the local mean solar time for the image exposures was 13:32:45. Each IDC image has a field of view of 45 x 45 degrees. This is a cropped photo. You can see the raw image on NASA/JPL-Caltech webpage.

NASA’s InSight lander has started providing a daily Mars weather report everyone can see. The American space agency has created a dedicated web page on the NASA InSight mission website to share that information.

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Space Exploration Mars Moon Landing

Driving Distances on Mars and the Moon [Out-of-This-World-Records]

Opportunity Mars rover - artist conception
This artist conception portrays Opportunity on the surface of Mars. Opportunity was launched on July 7, 2003, 28 days after its twin, Spirit, which launched on June 10, 2003, as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover program. It landed in Meridiani Planum, a plain located 2 degrees south of Mars’s equator on January 25, 2004, three weeks after Spirit touched down on the other side of the planet. Both rovers had a planned 90-sol (Martian day) duration of activity (slightly more than 90 earth days). Spirit functioned until getting stuck in 2009 and ceased communications in 2010, while Opportunity was able to stay operational for 5353 sols after landing. By June 10, 2018, when it last contacted NASA and sent it last photo (the image in the right-hand-side above) to Earth, which shows the intensity of the dust storm, Opportunity had traveled a distance of 45.16 kilometers (28.06 miles) and exceeded its operating plan by 14 years, 295 days (in Earth Time), 55 times its designed lifespan. Image source: NASA

This chart, prepared by NASA illustrates comparisons among the driving distances by various wheeled vehicles on the surface of the planetary bodies other than Earth (as of February 13, 2019, only the Moon and Mars). Opportunity rover, which declared dead after record-breaking 15-years on the Martian surface also holds the off-Earth roving distance record after accruing 45.16 kilometers (28.06 miles) of driving on Mars.

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Mars Space Exploration

It’s time to go home, Oppy [painting by Rostislav Shekhovtsov]

It's time to go home, Oppy by Rostislav Shekhovtsov
It's time to go home, Oppy by Rostislav Shekhovtsov. This is a cropped image. You can see the original image on the artist's Instagram page.

An amazing work by the Uzbek artist Rostislav Shekhovtsov, titled “It’s time to go home, Oppy”. The digital painting shows two future astronauts finding the dust-covered Opportunity rover on Mars.

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Mars Space Exploration

Opportunity Rover’s first and last images from the Martian surface

Opportunity images from Sol 1 (left) and Sol 5111 (right)
Opportunity Rover's first and last images from Sol 1 (left) and Sol 5111 (right). Left: Rear Hazard Camera Non-linearized Downsampled EDR acquired on Sol 1 of Opportunity's mission to Meridiani Planum at approximately 14:58:27 Mars local solar time on January 25, 2004. Right: taken on Sol 5111 (on June 10, 2018), before the rover entered hibernation due to a huge dust storm. Images: Opportunity - All Raw Images on the NASA Mars website

The first and the last images of NASA’s Opportunity rover from the Martian surface. The first photo (on the left) was acquired on Sol 1 (at approximately 14:58:27 Mars local solar time on January 25, 2004). The last photo (on the right) was taken on Sol 5111 (on June 10, 2018 ), before the rover entered hibernation due to a huge dust storm.

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