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This web game shows that landing a Falcon 9 rocket is pretty much impossible
You thought the carrier landing stage in Top Gun was a nightmare to pull off? Then get ready to scream obscenities you didn't know you knew at MIT Media Lab's SpaceX Falcon 9 Lander. This 8-bit web-game combines all of the pulse pounding excitement of landing a multi-million dollar prototype spacecraft with the rage-inducing control scheme from a 1983 Yugo. The goal of the game is simple, get the rocket to set down gently on an ocean-going platform using only the WASD keys before its limited fuel supply runs out. Now try it without giving yourself a coronary.
NASA wants to send your names to Mars with the InSight lander
Most of us -- even those who think they have a chance to live there -- might never get the chance to set foot on Mars. But, hey, we can at least send our names to the red planet, courtesy of NASA. The space agency is sending a silicon microchip with the InSight lander when it takes off in 2016, and it will contain all the names of everyone who signs up for a "boarding pass" on the project's website. The InSight lander was designed to drill deep into the surface of Mars to study the planet's interior for the first time. It'll take a number of instruments with it to accomplish that, including a seismometer to monitor Martian earthquakes.
NASA's InSight lander goes through rigorous tests for Mars mission
Within the next seven months, NASA will subject the InSight lander to a series of tests to ensure it can survive a grueling trip to the red planet. Before it lifts off in March 2016, it will have to undergo two thermal vacuum tests, which will expose it to extreme temperatures and atmospheric pressures that it will experience on Mars. For the first one, it will be in "cruise configuration" -- wherein the lander is tucked inside an aeroshell capsule -- a form it will assume during its six-month trip to its destination. The lander will also be tested for electronic interference between its various parts, as well as for its ability to endure vibrations that simulate a rocket launch.
The Big Picture: Scientists pick a landing site for their historic comet probe
You're not just looking at an unassuming piece of rock -- if anything, it's a piece of history. That's Site J, the European Space Agency's long-awaited choice of landing spot for Philae, the first probe built to reach a comet's surface. Scientists chose the seemingly uneventful location because it should offer the best chances of studying the comet's nucleus and other material without worrying about impurities. It should also guarantee that Philae both stays in touch with its Rosetta mothership and maintains just enough power to get its job done. You'll likely have to wait until touchdown on November 11th to get a closer look, but this at least serves as a good preview. [Image credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA]
European Space Agency eyes potential landing sites for comet probe
Now that the Rosetta spacecraft is orbiting its target comet, the European Space Agency is finalizing the plans for the ship's Philae lander ahead of a historic touchdown on November 11th. The team has picked five potential landing sites that meet its requirements, all of which should keep Philae in contact with its mothership, minimize terrain hazards and offer just enough sunlight to maintain power. Don't expect a quick decision-making process after that, though. The ESA won't rank its candidates until around September 12th, after Rosetta has had time to double-check the sites, and there isn't going to be a firm commitment until October 12th. Mind you, it's easy to understand the agency's trepidation -- choosing the wrong landing spot could either limit the amount of potential research or destroy Philae outright. [Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab]
Watch Morpheus take off and land itself (Update: success!)
The brains behind the Morpheus lander have made significant progress since its ill-fated, but spectacularly fiery first voyage. But then, that's what makes rocket launches fun to watch: like a NASCAR race, anything can happen. This time, Morpheus is doing a completely autonomous free flight, with the entire series of planned maneuvers under computer control. If the weather holds, you'll be able to watch it via the UStream link below in half an hour or so, and hopefully it'll run as smoothly as the SpaceX Dragon launch did a few weeks ago. Update: The test flight went flawlessly, and Morpheus returned to its pad. After the dust cleared, it had landed on a dime. Miss the live feed? There should be a highlight video available a little later, we'll let you know once it's posted. Update 2: Kennedy Space Center has posted a video of the test, watch the lander pick out a spot and return safely to the Earth after the break.
NASA's Morpheus lander skips the inferno, actually lands (video)
The last time NASA's methane-fueled Morpheus lander took to the skies without training wheels (read: a tether), it didn't go too well. Unless crashing and burning was the plan all along, that is. The Morpheus team have been beavering away since that incident over a year ago, and in a recent test at the Kennedy Space Center, have shown the craft is, in fact, capable of landing. While the video proof doesn't feature much drama and spectacle as a result, we guess it means Morpheus can at least begin setting its sights on locations slightly more exotic than a Florida car park.
NASA details mission to discover whether Europa moon is habitable
With potential oceans flowing below its icy surface, NASA thinks Jupiter's Europa moon is promising candidate to harbor organic life. As such, the space agency and its JPL laboratory are looking to send a lander there within a decade, and have detailed what it wants it to explore in a new paper. Key goals include measuring the organic content of surface and near-surface chemistry, exploring mineralogy, measuring the thickness and salinity of the oceans and ice, imaging surface formations and looking at microscopic ice and non-ice grains. Researchers also looked at potential landing sites, and were torn between a more interesting, active site like "Thera Macula" and a more stable location with ancient geology. NASA's Juno mission, launched in August 2011, is expected to help settle such issues when it probes Europa from orbit starting in 2016. Though it'd be hard to top Curiosity's setdown, a Europa landing could be even more dramatic, considering the moon is over 10 times farther away than Mars and never gets above minus 370 degrees Fahrenheit.
A Tour of Astrobotic Technology's lunar rover lab at Carnegie Mellon (video)
Things are buzzing late Monday afternoon at Carnegie Mellon's Planetary Robotics Lab Highbay. Outside, in front of the garage door-like entrance, a trio of men fills up a kiddie pool with a garden hose. Just to their left, an Enterprise rent-a-truck backs up and a handful of students raise two metal ramps up to its rear in order to drive a flashy rover up inside. I ask our guide, Jason Calaiaro, what the vehicle's final destination is. "NASA," he answers, simply. "We have a great relationship with NASA, and they help us test things." Calaiaro is the CIO of Astrobotic Technology, an offshoot of the school that was founded a few years back, thanks to Google's Lunar X Prize announcement. And while none of the handful of vehicles the former student showcases were made specifically with the government space agency in mind, given the company's history of contractual work, we could well see them receive the NASA stamp of approval in the future. Asked to take us through the project, Calaiaro tells us, quite confidently, that the trio of vehicles behind us are set to "land on the moon in 2015," an ambitious goal set to occur exactly three weeks from last Friday.%Gallery-168976%
Morpheus lander crashes, burns and explodes in untethered flight test, NASA remains optimistic (video)
As noisy as we found Project Morpheus' tethered flight test, its untethered follow-up was far, far louder. Yesterday, the experimental lander suffered a hardware component failure, which NASA says "prevented it from maintaining stable flight." This caused it to crash into the ground and well, explode. On the upside, the space agency says that these kinds of failures were anticipated, stating that they are a normal part of the development process and will be used to build better systems moving forward. You didn't think Curiosity made its touchdown on Mars without learning from a few mistakes, did you? Click onwards to check out the test -- and its aftermath -- in 5, 4, 3, 2, er...
NASA's Morpheus lander detects hazards, noisily passes tethered flight test (video)
While it's not landing on Mars any time soon, NASA took a breather from Curiosity's adventures to showcase the Morpheus Lander. The prototype went through its first (tethered) flight test at the Kennedy Space Center just before the weekend, showcasing its methane-powered rocket system. It's this rocket setup which could make the Morpheus Lander a strong candidate for future landings. It's both safer than rocket fuel and NASA suggests that methane gas discarded from the International Space Station could be enough to top up the lander's fuel tanks without necessitating a visit back to Earth. Morpheus' built-in guidance system also reduces the amount of input needed from mission control -- the pod has been practicing hard on its own hazard field near the Space Center. After passing the test with its training wheels on, the first free flight descent has been tentatively penned in for later today. Crank the volume low -- it gets loud -- and watch Morpheus test those right rockets after the break.
GENIE rocket system does smooth VTOL, lateral flight, cheap trips to Mars (video)
NASA can't just park up in the middle of space and rely on Robotnaut 2 for its entertainment. Actually, it probably can, but at some point the urge to explore new worlds will become too strong to resist. That's when it'll need a suborbital rocket guidance system like the GENIE ("Guidance Embedded Navigator Integration Environment"), which transforms a flood of sensory data into reliable and autonomous maneuvers. Fortunately, the system's economics make a whole lot more sense than its name, which is why NASA is depending on technology like this to control the next generation of affordable and reusable space craft. The test flight shown after the break can only boost GENIE's chances: it took a Xombie rocket up to 160 feet and then made it fly laterally for another 160 feet before landing with a degree of swagger that makes the previous flight in 2010 look plain rickety.
NASA looks to send landers to Europa in 2020, wants to break the ice
There's still a lot of mystery surrounding Jupiter's moon Europa, but researchers at NASA seem fairly certain that there's a watery ocean lurking beneath its icy exterior. Their theories may finally be put to the test later this decade, thanks to a concept mission crafted by astronomers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. According to Space.com, JPL researchers have come up with a plan that would send a pair of landers to Europa by 2026, in the hopes of finding out whether the rock has ever supported life forms. The endeavor certainly wouldn't be easy, since Jupiter blankets its moon in heavy radiation, but researchers think they can mitigate these risks by sending in an extra lander as backup, and by keeping the mission short and sweet. Under the plan, each 700-pound robot would use a mass spectrometer, seismometers and a slew of cameras to search for any organic chemicals that may be lodged within the moon's ice. Neither craft will sport a protective shield, so they'll only stay around the planet for about seven days, so as to avoid any radiation damage. At this point, the mission is still in the concept phase, though the JPL is hoping to launch both landers by 2020. JPL researcher Kevin Hand was quick to point out, however, that this would be a "habitability mission," and that NASA doesn't expect to find any signs of current life on Europa. Lars von Trier was unavailable for comment.
Purdue University grad students give NASA lander tech a boost, do it for the experience
We just learned of NASA's end-of-decade plans to rocket astronauts into deep space for exploratory missions to Mars and beyond. Now, we're getting a peek at the Purdue University-designed lander tech that'll plant our space fleet's feet firmly on terra incognita. What originally started as a senior research project for grad students Thomas Feldman and Andrew Rettenmaier, has now blossomed into a joint research endeavor for the federal space agency's Project Morpheus -- a think tank for trips to heretofore unexplored celestial bodies. The in-development propulsion tech, now undergoing testing at the university's Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories, is required to "meet stringent design and performance" standards, but most importantly, needs to lift the fuel-depleted lander post-descent. You'd think scientific work of this magnitude would come with a hefty paycheck, but the student team behind it all's just doing it for the hands-on knowledge. Sure beats your summer internship at that magazine, huh?
NASA successfully tests autonomous lunar lander navigation system, codename GENIE (video)
Robonaut2 may have fantastic biceps, but raw muscle won't put a man humanoid on the moon -- that takes rockets. Rockets like the one in this RR-1 prototype lander, recently outfitted with a Guidance Embedded Navigator Integration Environment (GENIE) system to let the craft safely descend to the lunar surface. On June 23rd, NASA and partner Armadillo Aerospace put the system to the test, hoping it could figure out the complex algorithms necessary to process volumes of data from the laser altimeter, GPS and inertial sensors, and quickly enough to steer the rocket engine accordingly... but the machine performed like a charm. See its first solo flight in an inspiring, flame-filled video after the break, and skip to 4:12 for the good stuff.
Mars Phoenix lander goes silent, NASA ends mission
The inevitable has happened. Our friend, the loved and loving Mars Phoenix lander has gone quietly into that long, good night once and for all. Even though we joyfully joined the lander on its adventures as it Tweeted from beyond the stratosphere, and thrilled at its explorations, pitfalls, and pratfalls, try not to feel the familiar sting of humanity at the thought of our little robotic buddy facing that call to interminable sleep we all must answer one day. Let's rest easy knowing that the NASA-spawned craft served dutifully and fearlessly right up to the end, when it was overpowered by a horde of space zombies and turned into an undead killing machine. We'll miss you, pal.
