* Mid-West USA High Altitude Balloon Launch on February 16
* Amateur Radio Participates in ISS Plasma Thrust Shadow Experiment
* CubeSats Form Asteroid Mining Exploration Fleet
* PCSAT normal(?) operations resume
* AMSAT-UK to provide Amateur Radio payload for ESEO satellite
* OSCAR-11 ANNUAL REPORT 2012
* UKube-1 to launch in June 2013
* Five new CubeSats hope for 2013 launch
* ARISS News
* Satellite Shorts From All Around
Here is an animation of the flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14. On February 15th, the 45 meter diameter asteroid will pass just 27,700 kilometers (17,200 mi) above the Earth’s surface.
The simulation was made with NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System program by Adrian Wenz of BINARY SPACE. It shows the flyby from the viewpoint of the asteroid and includes the positions of a number of satellites.
Here is a NASA video showing an animation of NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite imagery from Feb. 7 to Feb. 9 as two large weather systems came together and created “a blizzard of historic proportions in New England. On Feb. 9 at 4 a.m. hundreds of thousands of people were without power in Massachusetts alone.”
NASA’s Curiosity rover has, for the first time, used a drill carried at the end of its robotic arm to bore into a flat, veiny rock on Mars and collect a sample from its interior. This is the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars.
The fresh hole, about 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) wide and 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) deep in a patch of fine-grained sedimentary bedrock, can be seen in images and other data Curiosity beamed to Earth Saturday. The rock is believed to hold evidence about long-gone wet environments. In pursuit of that evidence, the rover will use its laboratory instruments to analyze rock powder collected by the drill.
“The most advanced planetary robot ever designed is now a fully operating analytical laboratory on Mars,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. “This is the biggest milestone accomplishment for the Curiosity team since the sky-crane landing last August, another proud day for America.”
