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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Rocket Blasts off on Mission Seeking Life on Mars (Update)

    March 14, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    With its suite of high-tech instruments, the Trace Gas Orbiter or TGO, should arrive at the Red Planet on October 19 after a jou

    With its suite of high-tech instruments, the Trace Gas Orbiter or TGO, should arrive at the Red Planet on October 19 after a journey of 496 million kilometres (308 million miles)

    Two robotic spacecraft on Monday began a 7-month journey to Mars as part of a European-Russian unmanned space mission to sniff out leads to life on the Red Planet. Russia’s Proton rocket carrying the spacecraft launched into an overcast sky at the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in the Kazakh steppe at 0931 GMT according to plan ExoMars 2016, a collaboration between ESA and Roscosmos, is the first part of a 2-phase exploration aiming to answer questions about the existence of life on Mars.

    With its suite of high-tech instruments, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), is expected to arrive at the Red Planet in October ...

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    Star-forming ring spotted around distant Supergiant Star Kappa Ori

    March 13, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Star-forming ring spotted around distant supergiant star Kappa Ori

    Far-IR Planck 857 GHz (left panel), mid-IR WISE 12µm (central panel, image from Meisner & Finkbeiner 2014) and velocity integrated CO image (right panel, from CfA CO survey of Dame et al. 2001) around Kappa Ori. Green symbols mark the positions of WISE objects with IR excess. Contours are the footprints of XMM-Newton observations. The dust ring is visible at far-IR and millimeter wavelengths while it appears like a bubble of diffuse emission in mid IR. Credit: Pillitteri et al., 2016.

    Astronomers have spotted a star-forming ring around a distant star Kappa Ori at the south-eastern corner of the constellation of Orion. The star, also known as Saiph, is a supergiant with a mass of approximately 15 solar masses ~650 light years from Earth...

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    NASA Targets May 2018 Launch of Mars InSight Mission

    March 13, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    NASA has set a new launch opportunity, beginning May 5, 2018, for the InSight mission to Mars. This artist's concept depicts the InSight lander on Mars after the lander's robotic arm has deployed a seismometer and a heat probe directly onto the ground. InSight is the first mission dedicated to investigating the deep interior of Mars. The findings will advance understanding of how all rocky planets, including Earth, formed and evolved. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    NASA has set a new launch opportunity, beginning May 5, 2018, for the InSight mission to Mars. This artist’s concept depicts the InSight lander on Mars after the lander’s robotic arm has deployed a seismometer and a heat probe directly onto the ground. InSight is the first mission dedicated to investigating the deep interior of Mars. The findings will advance understanding of how all rocky planets, including Earth, formed and evolved. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission to study the deep interior of Mars is targeting a new launch window that begins May 5, 2018, with a Mars landing scheduled for Nov. 26, 2018...

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    Engine Test Marks Major Milestone on NASA’s journey to Mars

    March 12, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    NASA engineers conduct a successfully test firing of RS-25 rocket engine No. 2059 on the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis. The hot fire marks the first test of an RS-25 flight engine for NASA’s new Space Launch System vehicle. Credit: NASA/SSC

    NASA engineers conduct a successfully test firing of RS-25 rocket engine No. 2059 on the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis. The hot fire marks the first test of an RS-25 flight engine for NASA’s new Space Launch System vehicle. Credit: NASA/SSC

     
    NASA successfully tested the first deep space RS-25 rocket engine for 500s Mar 10, clearing a major milestone toward the next great era of space exploration. The next time rocket engine No. 2059 fires for that length of time, it will be carrying humans on their first deep-space mission in more than 45 years.

    The hot fire marked the first test of an RS-25 flight engine for NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS), being built to carry humans on future deep-space missions, including an asteroid and Mars. 4 RS-25 engines will power the SLS core stage.

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