#Space
NASA and Firefly Blue Ghost Lunar Mission Wrap Up Briefing
https://plus.nasa.gov/scheduled-video/nasa-and-firefly-final-update-on-blue-ghost-moon-mission/
Odds are that if this holds up it will increase the chances of the full Starlink build out, with all of the known and suspected consequences of that. But also: "'Stranding all or part of rural America with worse Internet so that we can make the world's richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington.'"
Webb telescope images of exoplanets "stunned researchers" directly observing the key chemical of carbon dioxide in planets outside of our solar system for the first time.
Curiosity rover updates: three new posts by Deborah Padgett, Sharon Wilson Purdy, and Ashley Stroupe:
Even the Best-Laid Plans https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4475-4476-even-the-best-laid-plans/ Bumping Back to Business https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4477-4478-bumping-back-to-business/ What IS That Lumpy, Bumpy Rock? https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4479-4480-what-is-that-lumpy-bumpy-rock/
Photographer’s Once-in-a-Lifetime Shots of the Lunar Eclipse and Aurora https://petapixel.com/2025/03/17/photographers-once-in-a-lifetime-shots-of-the-lunar-eclipse-and-aurora/ #totalunareclipse #capturetheatlas #northernlights #lunareclipse #Inspiration #Spotlight #Features #danzafra #nightsky #eclipse #Travel #alaska #aurora #night #space #moon #sky
A pair of U.S. astronauts stuck for more than nine months on the International Space Station will be returned to Earth on Tuesday evening, NASA said. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/03/17/world/science-health/stranded-us-astronauts-nasa/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #sciencehealth #nasa #spacex #rockets #space #astronauts
"[T]he NASA of over 50 years ago is beating SpaceX at their own game.
[…] the current design can only take “40–50 tons to orbit,” with no obvious way to correct this.
Starship is an embarrassment, not just for SpaceX, but for the US. It’s not a revolution; it is a nightmare of twisted monopolistic privatisation and the idiotic inefficiency that comes alongside that. It’s pathetic and dangerous, and we can do so much better."
https://www.planetearthandbeyond.co/p/spacex-has-finally-figured-out-why
“In everyone’s pocket right now is a computer far more powerful than the one we flew on Voyager. I don’t mean your cell phone — I mean the key fob that unlocks your car.”
— Rich Terrile, JPL scientist and member of the Voyager imaging team
After more than nine months on the International Space Station, two astronauts are a step closer to returning home following Friday’s launch of a crew swap mission. Phys.org has more:
"Over 50 years ago, NASA was able to get its Saturn V, a rocket nearly as large as Starship, to fly without ever having a failed launch over its 13-launch, six-year operational lifespan. This was a rocket designed with computers less powerful than a Casio watch, built with far less accurate techniques and materials, with check systems and procedures infinitely less sophisticated than anything today. Yet, engineers were able to ensure it never had a launch failure, even during testing.
"Technologically speaking, the Saturn V was a caveman rocket, yet it was infinitely more useful and reliable than the high-tech Starship."
Just a few sols after successfully sealing the challenging Green Gardens core, Perseverance roved on to the Broom Point workspace to collect another sample called Main River.
Check out this post by Denise Buckner, Postdoctoral Fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/navigating-a-slanted-river/
Unfortunately life in space is all but paradisaical. And that's not all; life after space is even worse:
"Your blood volume shrinks […], which can lead to clots. Fluids also don’t come down, or drain, as easily."
"The brain becomes waterlogged"
"[…] reconditioning is similar to the intense physiotherapy that anyone who has come out of a coma"
Now, imagine how coming back (if lucky) from a 34 month mission to "Occupy Mars 
" would be…
NASA and Space X successfully launched a rocket carrying a multinational crew, including Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, following a postponement earlier in the week. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/03/15/world/science-health/iss-launch/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #sciencehealth #space #spacex #nasa #jaxa #iss
A couple years ago #NASA had an article answering a common question about how many digits of pi they use for their calculations. While pi can be computed (with ever-increasing amount of effort) to almost any number of digits, for navigation of space probes they only need 16. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/how-many-decimals-of-pi-do-we-really-need/ #PiDay #space #math #astronomy #tech
Solar System passed through a vast wave of gas and dust. The creatures inhabiting Earth 14 million years ago saw a different sky.
https://www.news-cafe.eu/?go=news&n=13588
#news #universe #space #cosmos #solarsystem #earth #esa #science #research
Here it is: The first clear image of an eclipse of the Sun by the Earth, taken from the surface of the Moon.
This is what last night's lunar eclipse looked like from the Blue Ghost lander's perspective on the Moon. Amazing!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fireflyspace/54386246629/in/dateposted/ #space #science #art #tech
