Search results

SpaceNews: "NASA proposes rapid Mars sample return architecture" The Planetary Society: "NASA considers kicking Mars sample return into high gear" In short, this plan for sample return requires NASA to launch the mission preferably in 2026 so the agency wouldn't need another Mars...

NASA's New Frontiers planetary missions are valued at about $1 billion dollars bucks USD each and the selection of the latest in this series is approaching. NASA will choose the winner in 2019, however two or three finalists will be selected later this year. Unlike the cheaper Discovery...

Happy New Horizons year! :hailprobe: I wanted to do that for weeks. What better way than starting a thread with it?

It seems like many of us use Steam, so I've had the idea to make a group for O-F. I haven't found any other groups for this place so I thought this would be a good idea. The more the merrier, so feel free to join. It should be open to everybody. http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Orbiter-Forum...

A concise history of NASA's upcoming Mars rover is written below. As of this time, it looks like there may be two rovers scheduled to launch towards Mars in 2020. This means that the ExoMars rover will miss the more favorable 2018 launch window and launch during the same year as NASA's newly...

NASA is focusing on developing the technologies to land the heaviest ever payloads on Mars for obvious reasons. Whether this technology will see use sooner or later is an open question. This thread will be limited to covering the test flight of the LDSD, Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator...

It's been nearly a year since I wrote my thoughts on Planetes, and since then I've seen a considerable number of animes. I guess that makes me an otaku. Anyways, I've been keeping track of these cartoons and writing short reviews, which can lead me to reliably rate what I've seen. I created four...

As an early proponent of using Lunar Orbit Rendezvous to get Americans to the moon, John Houbolt helped fulfill Kennedy's vision. If it wasn't for Houbolt's continuous and unwavering support for the idea of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous over Direct Ascent and Earth Orbit Rendezvous, it is possible that...

This event will be visible to everybody in the Americas, so I thought I would give a heads-up. The greatest eclipse will occur at 7:46 AM UT, 3:36 AM EDT, or 12:46 AM PDT. Click here for more information. Greatest eclipse is 2014-04-15 07:45:40?in the future|ago;%d% days, %hh% hours, %mm%...

Click here to visit Deep Space Network Now Recently JPL launched a new "eyes on" website that monitors when the radio antennas of the Deep Space Network are communicating with spacecraft. Deep Space Network Now includes information such as data rate, frequency, and accurate image...

I was looking at Europe's Cosmic Vision proposals last night when I found that some missions simply cannot use solar power. Despite suggestions that an ice giant orbiter (for Uranus in particular) could use solar panels, their size would be ridiculous. The only solution for Europe would be to...

A couple days ago, the news broke that geysers coming from Europa's subsurface have finally been observed, an event that has been predicted to occur on the icy moon. An ultraviolet Hubble image from December 2012 captured the event. It's not possible to be absolutely certain about the event, but...

There is an excellent article written for the Planetary Society, simply titled "Gravity assist". Although I knew how the technique worked (the transfer of orbital momentum between a planet and spacecraft), this gave me a better qualitative (and some quantitative) understanding of the process. I...

Members may notice that the number of pinned threads has decreased in this forum because I recently unpinned some. I would like to fill everybody in before I merge a few pinned threads, an action that may not be reversible. If people have issues with certain events, I will consider halting or...

Since a handful of members here appear to appreciate Japanese things a wee bit, I have a recommendation. Planetes (Greek word for planets, πλάνητες – wanderers) is a hard science fiction anime and manga. The cartoon was produced by Sunrise, and they make good :censored: as those interested...

There's a Kickstarter project that appeared a week ago for sending CubeSats to interplanetary and possibly interstellar space. A CubeSat would use a plasma propulsion system to constantly boost its apogee eventually and escape Earth's gravity. From the webpage's "Big Idea" section:

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, is a small mission to be launched aboard a Pegasus XL in 2017. The mission was selected by NASA on April 5, 2013. As seen in the animation posted above, it will provide a two year all-sky survey of...

For the fiscal year 2013, NASA had most of the proposed cuts to planetary science reversed[1][2], enabling it to pursue the Europa Clipper concept (or a similar) mission. Funds totaling $75 million have already been allocated to devise a potential mission.[3] I have been following the new...

I apologize for the quality, most of the photos were taken with my phone in not ideal lighting. I may upload more later if I visit the buildings again. One building controls the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera and has an Apollo 15 moon rock (along with walls filled with space race history...

I remember people inquiring about making Orbiter videos, and I've made a few tutorials recently. I may add more as time goes on or as I make new videos. My first tutorial about some effects used in Mars Spring Odyssey is explained at a more basic, visual level. Tutorial I: Mars Spring...