Debris On Mars
Our little Linux-copter that could, Ingenuity, is still operational and flying around on Mars. On its 26th flight on April 19, 2022, it took a photo of the backshell and parachute that helped Perseverance land back in February.
JWST: First Aligned Image
A few hours ago, NASA released the first public image of a mirror-aligned James Webb Space Telescope, a big bright star brilliantly glowing in the night, and with other celestial objects also visible. According to the NASA press release, they found “no critical issues and no measurable contamination or blockages to Webb’s optical path”. A […]
JWST: First Image
Behold, the first image to be sent back by the James Webb Space Telescope! It’s still aligning the mirrors and doing other calibration routines, and this picture of 18 points of light is really 18 pictures of a single star: HD 84406 about 260 light years away. This is a test photo for calibration purposes, […]
James Webb Telescope Safely Arrives At Destination
Today, a month after launching from Earth, the JWST has safely made its way to its L2 orbit, a million miles away. Everyone can let out a sigh of relief now, as our 10 billion dollar investment is on its way to being paid off. Throughout the journey, the telescope had to unfurl itself, and […]
James Webb Space Telescope Successfully Launches
Just a few hours ago, an Ariane 5 rocket blasting off from a spaceport near Kourou, French Guiana carried the James Webb Space Telescope (or JWST) to the stars. The JWST has been in development for decades, with NASA, the ESA, and the Canadian space agencies all taking part in its development. The idea for […]
Checking In With Ingenuity
I can’t help but admire the little Martian copter that could, Ingenuity. It was originally planned to only fly five times, and as of last week it has made sixteen flights. This isn’t the first time a NASA space robot outlived its expected mission lifetime, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers were supposed to only run […]
Ingenuity Helicopter Flies!
Today, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, brought to Mars as a hitchhiker on the Perseverance rover, successfully took flight on the surface of Mars. This is the first time humanity has flown an aircraft on another planet! Since the atmosphere of Mars is less than 1% of that of Earth’s, the little helicopter’s rotors needed to be […]
Martian Sights And Sounds
NASA released a video they downloaded from the Perseverance landing craft, edited into a gripping movie that they uploaded on Youtube. Watch! Perseverance is the first Martian probe equipped with onboard microphones, so we got our first sounds from another planet! Listen!
Landing The Perseverance Rover On Mars
NASA just successfully landed another robot on Mars! After the “seven minutes of terror”, where the spacecraft had to perform the EDL (entry, landing and descent) maneuver entirely using its programmed automation, the Perseverance rover successfully touched down on the Mars. After the spacecraft hit the Martian atmosphere, it oriented itself toward the landing site, […]