Mapex

Archive for June, 2010

NASA Television will broadcast live the repositioning of a Soyuz spacecraft docked to the International Space Station on Monday, June 28.

This ALOS satellite image over the county of Hordaland in western Norway illustrates the region’s diverse landscape of fjords, mountain plateaus and fertile valleys.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently approved the name Rachmaninoff for an intriguing double-ring basin on Mercury. This basin, first imaged in its entirety during MESSENGER’s third Mercury flyby, was quickly identified as a feature of high scientific interest, because of its fresh appearance, its distinctively colored interior plains, and the extensional troughs on its floor. The basin’s name honors the Russian composer, pianist and conductor, Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943). IAU names craters on Mercury after “deceased artists, musicians, painters and authors who have made outstanding or fundamental contributions to their field and have been recognized as art historically significant figures for more than 50 years.” The process of proposing a new crater name includes gathering fundamental information about the crater, such as the crater’s central latitude, central longitude, and diameter. Justification is provided as to why the crater is of sufficient scientific importance to be named, and details are provided about the name choice, including sources that support the worthy contributions made by that individual. Ten newly named craters join 42 others named since MESSENGER’s first Mercury flybyin January 2008. Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

The Task Force on Space Industry Workforce and Economic Development has launched an interactive website to encourage public comment on ways to promote economic growth and sustainability in Florida’s Space Coast region as it adapts to changes in America’s space program.

ESA’s Venus Express is helping planetary scientists investigate whether Venus once had oceans. If it did, it may even have begun its existence as a habitable planet similar to Earth.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency?s Hayabusa spacecraft streaked across the sky like a saber of light through the clouds as it re-entered Earth?s atmosphere over the Woomera Test Range in Australia. In Kingoonya, the spacecraft?s re-entry was visible to the human eye for only 15 seconds. Image Credit: NASA/Ed Schilling

NASA has selected Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., to launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission.

NASA has selected Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., to launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures a complex network of gas clouds and star clusters within our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. This region of energetic star birth is one of the most active in the nearby Universe.

Young engineers and scientists from all over the world will gather this summer in Denmark to study navigation by satellite, devising new scientific and technical improvements, products and services. A jury of experts from several European universities and Stanford University will select the best proposals.