ITS: SpaceX’s bold vision for crewed exploration of the solar system
It has long been known that SpaceX’s long term goal is the colonization of Mars. Everyone from the engineers to their CEO, Elon Musk, dreams of a world away from home. In September of 2016, we got a glimpse of how SpaceX is going to get there. At last, the long rumored Interplanetary Transport System …
Helo, Mars!
Objective Apply trigonometric ratios to the NASA Mars Helicopter Scout so that flight data such as climb angle and average speed can be calculated given initial flight parameters. Vocabulary • Slope: The angle the rille wall makes to the horizontal. • Above Ground Level (AGL): The altitude as measured from the local area. • Altitude: …
Remembering Gene Cernan
Gene Cernan passed away in Houston, Texas, on January 16, 2017. He was the second American to walk in space and the last human to leave his bootprints on the surface of the Moon. Cernan flew to space three times as a member of the Gemini 9, Apollo 10 and Apollo 17 missions. According to a …
Remembering John Glenn
John Glenn passed away in Columbus, Ohio, on December 8, 2016. He was the last surviving member of the Mercury Seven – the first ever group of astronauts NASA picked in 1958. Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth. He also served as a U.S. senator for 25 years. In 1998, he flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery …
Word Find • March 2017
Do your best to find these words scattered throughout the 14th issue of RocketSTEM magazine. This article appeared in the 14th issue of RocketSTEM magazine. Author RocketSTEM Staff
NGC 6357: A cosmic ‘winter’ wonderland
Although there are no seasons in space, this cosmic vista invokes thoughts of a frosty winter landscape. It is, in fact, a region called NGC 6357 where radiation from hot, young stars is energizing the cooler gas in the cloud that surrounds them. This composite image contains X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and …
India lofts 104 satellites to set single-launch record
In a record-breaking flight, ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) successfully orbited the 714 kg Cartosat-2 Series satellite along with 103 co-passenger satellites on February 15 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. PSLV-C37 lifted off at 9:28 am IST, as planned, from the First Launch Pad. After a flight of 16 minutes …
Why did Schiaparelli crash during landing?
Contact with the ExoMars Schiaparelli lander was lost during its attempt to make it to the surface last October. It was later discovered that the lander had crashed into the surface of the Red Planet. A large volume of data recovered from the Mars lander shows that the atmospheric entry and associated braking occurred exactly …
Skimming an alien atmosphere
After the smooth arrival of ESA’s latest Mars orbiter, mission controllers are now preparing it for the ultimate challenge: dipping into the Red Planet’s atmosphere to reach its final orbit. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is on a multiyear mission to understand the tiny amounts of methane and other gases in Mars’ atmosphere that could …
Record number of missions at the Red Planet
So, the ‘Great Galactic Ghoul’ strikes again? This tongue-in-cheek entity is invoked by NASA scientists and engineers when missions experience difficulties, especially at Mars. After a seven month journey for ESA’s first ExoMars mission, contact with its Schiaparelli Lander was lost just before its scheduled touch-down on 19th October last year, although its Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) successfully entered into orbit around the Red Planet and is functioning well. However, rather than the work of a cosmic ‘gremlin’, the …
SpaceX set to debut Falcon Heavy this year
After a ‘very fast fire’, a four-month hiatus, a complicated anomaly, and a general shaking of confidence, SpaceX was finally able to launch – and land – their Falcon 9 rocket once again last month. This is the first of 27 missions for 2017, a slate of launches that will not only introduce the final version of …
Dawn’s rich harvest as Ceres gives up secrets
Last June, the NASA-JPL Dawn mission team received the Robert J. Collier Trophy from the U.S. National Aeronautic Association (NAA), at a presentation in Arlington, Virginia. It was presented to them ‘In recognition of the extraordinary achievements of orbiting and exploring proto-planet Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, and advancing the nation’s technological capabilities in pioneering …
‘Hidden Figures’ no longer as film shines light on black women who sent NASA to space
Hollywood has made a lot of movies about space and NASA, but none quite like this. The new film Hidden Figures, to be released December 25, reveals the work of three African-American women who were the brains behind NASA’s most critical missions. Taraji Henson stars as Katherine Johnson, a math genius from rural West Virginia who calculated trajectories …
Glittering prizes within Pluto data
It is exactly one year since New Horizons hurtled through the Pluto system at 49,600 km/h, after a journey of nearly nine and a half years, its array of scientific instruments gathering precious data on this hitherto mysterious world and its family of moons. We shared in the thrill of the flyby and then watched in …
Mining the sky
Prospecting for treasure within the solar system The current cost of space travel, on a price per mass basis, is astronomically high. All puns aside, this is a major economic barrier that must be overcome. If we are to send humans to Mars, or anyplace really, we’re going to have to lower the cost of space travel. Companies …
Nearest star has planet in habitable zone
Earth-mass world spotted in orbit around Proxima Centauri Astronomers using ESO telescopes and other facilities have found clear evidence of a planet orbiting the closest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri. The long-sought world, designated Proxima b, orbits its cool red parent star every 11 days and has a temperature suitable for liquid water to exist …
OSIRIS-REx is bringing home a piece of an asteroid
Upon first hearing the name OSIRIS-REx, a picture of an unknown carnivorous dinosaur may come to mind. But OSIRIS-REx (Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer) is actually an acronym that names an upcoming asteroid exploration mission. The spacecraft will travel to an asteroid target in a near-Earth orbit, perform scientific experiments, and become the first U.S. mission that …
Word Find • September 2016
Do your best to find these words scattered throughout the 13th issue of RocketSTEM magazine. This article appeared in the 13th issue of RocketSTEM. Author RocketSTEM Staff
Juno is unlocking Jupiter’s secrets
A spacecraft named Juno hopes to unlock more secrets about the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, by studying the planet from its core all the way out to its large magnetic field. The mission’s objective is to help us better understand the origins of our solar system by studying how Jupiter formed. Jupiter is …
The Jovian system
The Jovian system encompasses Jupiter, its rings and moons. Jupiter was reputedly discovered by the Babylonians approximately 2,800 years ago. Its moons were discovered by Galileo, in 1610, observed through a refracting telescope. The planet Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet in our Solar System counting out from the Sun, with an average orbital distance …