Category Archives: Multiple media

Video: Touring the Atlantis Chaos region of Mars

Take a ride over the surface of the Atlantic Chaos region of Mars via images taken from orbit by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft : Fly Over Mars In This Breathtaking New Animation – Popular Science –

From the ESA video caption:

Explore the Atlantis Chaos region of Mars, in the Red Planet’s southern hemisphere. The video showcases a myriad of features that reflect a rich geological history. The tour takes in rugged cliffs and impact craters, alongside parts of ancient shallow, eroded basins. See smooth plains scarred with wrinkled ridges, scarps and fracture lines that point to influence from tectonic activity. Marvel at ‘chaotic’ terrain – hundreds of small peaks and flat-topped hills that are thought to result from the slow erosion of a once-continuous solid plateau. This entire region may once have played host to vast volumes of water – look out for the evidence in the form of channels carved into steep-sided walls.

Read more about this region here: [Space in Images – 2015 – 07 – Ancient Atlantis]

RocketSTEM Magazine – July 2015: “Kerbal, New Horizons, Al Worden, Lunar Rover & More”

Check out the latest issue of RocketSTEM‘s magazine: Issue #12 • July 2015 – RocketSTEM

7a18e1e2-3d7e-4bf5-ad02-bdcadb34a04a[1]

68 pages of inspiration await!
Kerbal, New Horizons, Al Worden, Lunar Rover & More

Space is hard. The past nine months have been difficult ones for rocketry. Multiple failures of Russian launch vehicles, the loss of SpaceShipOne during a test flight, the Antares rocket with the Orb-3 mission falling back to the launch pad in a fireball, and most recently, the disintegration of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a resupply mission to the International Space Station.

In this issue of RocketSTEM we bring you both success and failure. The success of the previously untested Lunar Rover sent to the Moon that carried the Apollo 15 astronauts further than any moonwalker before. And, of course, the failures of the above mentioned rocket launches.

But rather than tell you how hard it is to build and launch a spacecraft, we invite you to try for yourself. Kerbal Space Program is a game that is simple enough for a kid, yet advanced enough for engineers at NASA, JPL, and SpaceX to enjoy playing it too.

Download the game and run your own space agency. Just don’t be discouraged when your first rocket explodes upon launch.

Space Arts: Astrophotographer Scott Nammacher + UK Space Agency awarding creative arts grants

Scott Nammacher is a prolific astrophotographer who is profiled in this article:  White Plains artist keeps eye on universe – Lohud.com.

Check out the wonderful gallery of astronomical images on his website: Starmere

===

The UK Space Agency is sponsoring a Announcement of Opportunity: Arts and Creative Technology – Publications – GOV.UK.

From the announcement document (pdf):

The upcoming flight of Tim Peake to the International Space Station has boosted interest in human spaceflight in the UK. The current scheme, however, looks beyond this one mission: the Agency is seeking original ideas which give new perspectives on science, technology and exploration in a sociocultural context.

Awards are available from £10k up to a maximum of £50k. The Agency expects to make between 1 and 5 awards.

What we are looking for

Creative work which responds to space science and technology in new and interesting ways. Funding may be matched from other sources or be used to fund one part of a larger project.

Proposals are welcome in these areas:

• Visual arts
• Video games
• Creative technology + immersive media

Some examples of effective work in this field could include: Elizabeth Price’s SUNLIGHT; Superflux’s Mangala For All ; Helen White’s Solar Wind Chime. (NB these are illustrative only of the breadth and diversity of possible approaches.)

New batch of Rosetta images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Lots more images have been released by the ESA Rosetta team: NAVCAM image bonanza: close orbits and comet landing –  Rosetta/ESA’s comet chaser

The 1776 images cover the period between 23 September and 21 November 2014, corresponding to Rosetta’s close study of the comet down to distances of just 10 km from the comet centre – 8 km from the surface – and the images taken during and immediately following the landing of Philae on the comet.

NavCam_view_during_comet_landing_node_full_image_2[1]

The Hatmehit region on the small lobe of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as seen by Rosetta’s navigation camera around the time of Philae’s first touchdown, flight over the comet and final touchdown at 15:35, 16:35 and 17:35 GMT (onboard spacecraft time) on 12 November 2014. The distance between the spacecraft and comet centre over this period was between 17.4 and 17.8 km; apparent changes in the image scale are due to projection effects as the comet rotated underneath the spacecraft. The first landing site can be found in the first image, in the bottom left corner of the frame. The images have been contrast enhanced.

The images are part of today’s NavCam data release: NAVCAM image bonanza: close orbits and comet landing

This animation shows the trajectory of the probe during this period: