by Jonathan Nally | Aug 21, 2020 | Astronomy, News, Space missions
Above: Artist’s impression of Hayabusa2 nearing Earth in December 2020. Image ©Akihiro Ikeshita. AUSTRALIA HAS GIVEN the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) official approval to land the sample-return module of its Hayabusa2 spacecraft on Australian soil in...
by Jonathan Nally | Jul 31, 2020 | Astronomy, Planets, Space missions
NASA’S LATEST AND MOST AMBITIOUS MISSION to Mars was successfully launched in the early hours of Friday, July 31 (Sydney time), ascending on an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Carrying a rover called...
by Jonathan Nally | Jul 15, 2020 | Features, News, Space missions
ABOVE: An artist’s impression of Hayabusa2 returning to Earth in December 2020. Courtesy JAXA. THE LANDING DATE FOR THE HAYABUSA2 MISSION’S sample-return capsule has been announced. The craft will touch down within the Woomera Prohibited Area in South Australia on...
by Jonathan Nally | Jan 9, 2020 | News, Space missions
NASA’s buoyant robot roams under the sea-ice near Australia’s Casey research station. Photo: NASA/JPL/SETI Institute/Australian Antarctic Division. A PROTOTYPE OF A ROBOT designed to explore underneath the ice crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa, has been tested at...
by Jonathan Nally | Dec 20, 2019 | News, Planets, Space missions
Above: The aeroshell and heat shield for the Mars 2020 mission. Image courtesy Lockheed Martin. The contraption in the foreground of this image looks a bit like the Jupiter 2 spaceship from the TV series Lost in Space, but it is in fact part of the aeroshell for the...
by Jonathan Nally | Sep 23, 2019 | Features, News, Space missions
Above: An artist’s impression of a future lunar base. Courtesy NASA. The federal government has committed to investing $150 million into Australian businesses and locally developed technologies to support NASA’s lunar exploration campaign. The five-year...
