The Wire - Titan's beach, back to the moon and space research for the people

Home

News

Home

News

News from Space

Titan's beach, back to the moon and space research for the people

| Print |

E-mail

Written by staff
Wednesday, 21 September 2005
>the sirens of Titan’s beach If it looks like a shoreline, acts like a shoreline and appears in radar to be like a shoreline, then it’s probably a shoreline. At least that’s the way current thinking is trending, now that recent Cassini radar images of Titan reveal what appear to be long shoreline features, which corroborate the images sent back earlier in the year by the Huygens probe. >back to the future... or the moon NASA has officially announced its bold new plan to go to the moon by 2020. Been there, done that? Well, this time the long-term goal is to establish outposts and relay stations for eventual Mars shots, according to NASA. The new craft designed for the job will look a lot like an Apollo capsule, but it will be three times larger and carry a whopping, minivan-like four astronauts at once. Innovators that they are, NASA will be “building on the best of Apollo and shuttle technology,” according to a NASA release. That’s a bold statement, considering Apollo was 40 years ago, and the first shuttle launched in 1981. >for the people Back in the 21st century, Malaysia will be choosing its first astronaut (to be carried to the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz vehicle in 2007) by text-message vote, according to a recent BBC article. After reviewing candidates online, Malaysian citizens will be able to use their cell phones to express their preference. What will they do aboard the ISS? Again according to the BBC: “...a research programme to send the country’s favourite foods into orbit” has been announced, so that they may “taste them in zero gravity.”

< Prev		Next >

dig, dug

After a rough start, the Phoenix Mars Lander is successfully analyzing dirt samples dug up from...

clumping

While the robot arm on the Phoenix Mars Lander has successfully delivered dirt to the lander, at...

scoops and dumps

On June 2, NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft lifted its first scoop of Martian soil as a test of...

greetings from the Martian arctic

On May 25, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander successfully touched down in the Martian arctic in...

now with a pulsating carbon surface

Hidden right in the familiar Big Dipper, astronomers have discovered a new type of white dwarf...

ATV in space enounters rough patch

No, not an All Terrain Vehicle—an Automated Transfer Vehicle, which was launched by the...

and in this corner; taken too literally

and in this corner

Iran has launched a rocket into space from its own space center...

bright comet

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has probed the bright core of Comet 17P/Holmes, which...

extrasolar system

Astronomers have discovered a fifth planet circling 55 Cancri, a star beyond our solar system,...

the goddess who flew to the moon

On Monday, Nov. 5, China’s Chang’e 1 satellite successfully entered lunar orbit, only...

walking; now with more black holes

walking

Space Shuttle astronauts recently completed installing a new solar power...

massive darkness

news from space

we’ll take two
The National Security Space Office has issued a...

the dark side of Iapetus

the dark side of Iapetus

“The side of Iapetus that faces forward in its...

burst; ion power

burst

A recently detected burst of radio waves has stumped scientists, who have...

hollow Mars

NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered entrances to seven possible caves on the...

the Victoria era; the inconvenient polar ice

the Victoria era NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has descended into...

crashing in Kazakhstan

A Russian Proton-M rocket carrying a Japanese communications satellite malfunctioned after...

aqua vitae

aqua vitae

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, while observing a young solar...

galactic dominion

As if detailed satellite maps of the Earth weren’t enough, or a virtual globe that you can...

Music
Seacoast CD bestsellers this week introducing The Buoy in Kittery Foreside; Funky Divas of Gospel and Rock My Soul Deerhunter; Hauschka; The Walkmen; Ocean a royal flush

Film
Student Bodies Quantum of Solace 976-EVIL

Boing Boing

NY Times: The Los Angeles of Ry Cooder and Mister Jalopy

Near The Burgess Shale

Homes with Tails: Homeowners providing their own fiber