This half-lit view of Enceladus bears a passing resemblance to similar views of Earth’s own natural satellite, but the similarities end there. Earth’s rocky moon is covered in dark, volcanic basins and brighter, mountainous highlands – both exceedingly ancient. The surface of icy Enceladus is uniformly bright, far brighter than Earth’s moon. Large areas of Enceladus’ surface are characterized by youthful (on geologic timescales), wrinkled terrains.
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The Chang'e 3 lander captured the four images for this mosaic of the Yutu rover driving southward on December 23, 2013. Yutu’s right solar panel is angled downward to catch the glancing sunlight at a better angle.
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According to IRNA, Hossein Dehghan (حسین دهقان, the guy on Rouhani’s left) told the Majlis (fa|en) that Iran would launch a Simorgh rocket (the thingy on Rouhani’s right) during the festivities to mark Iran’s revolution, which should run from 1-11 February.
While North Korea has not made an announcement, vehicle traffic at North Korea’s Sohae launch site has raised the prospect of a North Korean launch, possible in advance of the late Kim Jong Il’s birthday on 16 February.
Widefield image of the Mars’ Tharsis volcanic region, captured on June 29, 2014 during Mars Express’ 13,323rd orbit of Mars. Olympus Mons is at center. Across top center from left to right are Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Arsia Mons. Noctis Labyrinthus can be seen near the horizon at top left.
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30 YEARS AGO TODAY: On January 24, 1986, NASA’s Voyager 2 space probe made its closest approach to planet Uranus.
By Christmas Eve, though, Kelly called down to the ground support team to report new problems with the plants. It seemed the high fan speed was drying out the crop too much, and Kelly said he thought they needed more water. He was told, though, that the next scheduled watering was not until Dec. 27.
“I think that would be too late,” Kelly told the ground team. “You know, I think if we’re going to Mars, and we were growing stuff, we would be responsible for deciding when the stuff needed water. Kind of like in my backyard, I look at it and say ‘Oh, maybe I should water the grass today.’ I think this is how this should be handled.”
NASA was just opening bidding for the second round of contracts to deliver food, water, scientific research and other supplies to the station. Sierra Nevada modified the Dream Chaser to remove the six passenger seats and some of the life support systems to create room for 5,500 kg of pressurized and unpressurized cargo.
With a gentle return profile of just 1.5 gs and a runway landing, the company also offered NASA and its researchers the ability to get sensitive cargo back from the station in as few as two or three hours.
Cover of a Super 8 film packet for Apollo 11: Man On The Moon, official NASA footage distributed by Columbia Pictures. (Robby’s Super-8)
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