4-Billion-Pixel Panorama From Curiosity Rover Brings Mars to Your Computer Screen

4-Billion-Pixel Panorama From Curiosity Rover Brings Mars to Your Computer Screen
Wired, 28 March 2013
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/03/4-billion-pixel-mars-panorama/

In the meantime, we can enjoy this mosaic created by photographer Andrew Bodrov of Estonia, whose previous panorama let you stand on Mars next to Curiosity. The entire image stretches 90,000 by 45,000 pixels and uses pictures taken by the rover’s two MastCams. The best way to enjoy it is to go into fullscreen mode and slowly soak up the scenery — from the distant high edges of the crater to the enormous and looming Mount Sharp, the rover’s eventual destination.

The Artist Who Helped Invent Space Travel

The Artist Who Helped Invent Space Travel
IO9, 11 March 2013
http://io9.com/the-artist-who-helped-invent-space-travel-452436111

Bonestell's paintings not only anticipated 20th century space exploration, they helped to bring it about. So realistic were his depictions of other worlds that visiting them no longer seemed fantasy. His artwork looked like picture postcards taken by some future astronaut.

DIYRockets Motor Challenge

3D Printed Rocket Engine
Open Space University, 8 March 2013
http://www.openspaceuniversity.org/?_escaped_fragment_=rocketchallenge/c22xk#!rocketchallenge/c22xk

DIYROCKETS Challenges YOU to Collaboratively Design an Open Source 3D Printed Rocket Engine that Could Carry Nano-Satellites into Space

The purpose of the competition is to promote innovation and cost effectiveness in small payload delivery through the development of open source collaboratively designed 3D printed rocket engines. This competition focuses on promoting innovation and lowering costs through the collaborative design process, understanding the business cases, and exploring the possibilities of 3D printing for the space industry.

Saturn V “moon rocket” engine firing again after 40 years, sort of

Saturn V “moon rocket” engine firing again after 40 years, sort of
Ars Technica, 24 January 2013
http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/01/saturn-v-moon-rocket-engine-firing-again-after-40-years-sort-of/

...Earlier today, NASA test fired an F-1 engine's gas generator segment at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. This is the second F-1 gas generator firing this year; an earlier test took place on January 10...

...

The gas generator itself was no slouch, producing about 31,000 lbs of thrust when lit. In the full-up engine, this thrust was used to drive a turbine that produced about 55,000 bhp, which in turn drove the turbopumps that kept the thirsty engine fed with the three tons per second of RP-1 and LOx...

Water Alchohol Resistojet Propulsion System Developed

WARP speed ahead!
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, 19 January 2013
http://www.sstl.co.uk/Blog/January-2013/WARP-speed-ahead

One such technology is the WARP DRiVE (Water Alchohol Resistojet Propulsion system), a novel new propulsion system that will help the cubesat to perform manoeuvres. STRaND-1 is the first cubesat to have two types of propulsion system. As well as the WARP DRiVE, it will be equipped with a pulsed plasma thruster system which will provide full-axis control with low power, mass and volume requirements.

WARP DRiVE works by pushing water alcohol out of a tiny hole (just 0.2mm across) to produce thrust. The main advantage of this system is that it’s much smaller than regular space propulsion systems measuring in at about the same width as a drinks coaster. The WARP DRiVE will also provide more thrust than other similar systems whilst maintaining a comparable specific impulse (the efficiency of the propulsion system).

Deep Space Industries Claims Asteroid Mining Coming

Deep Space Industries Claims Asteroid Mining Coming
Deep Space Industries, 22 January 2013
http://deepspaceindustries.com/

Deep Space Industries believes the human race is ready to begin harvesting the resources of space both for their use in space and to increase the wealth and prosperity of the people of planet Earth.

Our philosophy is to drive towards the achievement of this guiding Vision while securing a strong reputation as a credible, nimble and profitable commercial space operations, mining and manufacturing firm, with a no-nonsense, high integrity can do attitude.

Our Mission is clear: DSI will build on the incredible heritage of the first age of space exploration and harness the power of a new age of information to locate, explore, harvest and utilize the vast numbers of asteroids in Earth’s community. We will do so by being creative and practical – taking small steps to begin with, and giant leaps when we can – to supply our customers and provide a new and hopeful future for humanity.

NASA Beams Mona Lisa to Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at the Moon

NASA Beams Mona Lisa to Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at the Moon
NASA, 19 January 2013
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/mona-lisa.html

s part of the first demonstration of laser communication with a satellite at the moon, scientists with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) beamed an image of the Mona Lisa to the spacecraft from Earth. The iconic image traveled nearly 240,000 miles in digital form from the Next Generation Satellite Laser Ranging (NGSLR) station at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., to the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) instrument on the spacecraft. By transmitting the image piggyback on laser pulses that are routinely sent to track LOLA's position, the team achieved simultaneous laser communication and tracking.