Real spacecraft/space mission
Today, on 4th July, Juno is performing Jupiter Orbit Insertion burn, putting the spacecraft into highly elliptical polar orbit around Jupiter.
Juno spacecraft, launched in August 2011 from Cape Canaveral on top of Atlas V rocket.
Learn more about Juno mission:
You can also check out the NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System app, where you can explore a detailed simulation of the Juno mission, as well as other NASA projects around the Solar System.
The Juno spacecraft will attempt to enter the orbit of Jupiter on July 4th, 2016, starting a 35 minute engine burn at 00:18 AM UTC (8:17 PM EDT, 5:17 PM PDT). Confirmation will be received at 11:53pm EDT. You can follow along in real time by downloading the NASA Eyes on the Solar System App, and by watching the webcast.
(Source: missionjuno.swri.edu)
Golden Eyes of James Webb Space Telescope unveiled.
For the first time in the telescope’s construction, the 18 gold-plated hexagonal mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope were revealed for the first time April 26.
Ever since the mirrors were shipped to Goddard for integration, they were protected with black coverings. Technicians assembled the primary mirror from November 2015 to February 2016, marking the most distinctive period of the spacecraft’s construction.
Each mirror measures 4.2 feet across, and the 18 together give the telescope a lens of over 20 feet. In order to enhance the Infrared spectrum of the telescope, a thin layer of Beryllium is added to each mirror segment, giving them a distinctive Gold tint.
The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled for an October, 2018 launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Center in South America.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has a webcam located in the assembly cleanroom for those who are curious to watch the telescope’s construction in real-time.
Hi guys,
it’s time for another update, a bit more exciting than the previous one. Last months were a bit busy for me, lots of freelance work, but also, lots of exciting work for future Space That Never Was projects! More detailed announcements coming next month, the first one very soon, on May 3. Until then, you can enjoy a little sneak peek included in the image attached to this post.
See you in a few days!
Fictional space DSEV Kronos 1
(2/4) Deep Space Exploration Vehicle “Kronos 1″ exploring the Saturn system.
Fictional space DSEV Kronos 1
(¼) Deep Space Exploration Vehicle “Kronos 1″ exploring the Saturn system.
Fictional space DSEV Kronos 1
Deep Space Exploration Vehicle “Kronos 1″ doing an engine burn to slow down near Phobos, in order to drop a crewed lander to its surface.
This is my another collaboration with Tobias Roetsch, please make sure to check out his art, which you can find in the links below:
Fictional space DSEV Kronos 1
(¾) Deep Space Exploration Vehicle “Kronos 1″ exploring the Saturn system. View from the front section laboratory modules, looking back at the centrifuge section.
Fictional space DSEV Kronos 1
(4/4) Deep Space Exploration Vehicle “Kronos 1″ exploring the Saturn system. View from the window on the centrifuge, looking back at the rear section of the Kronos spacecraft - front to back - communication module, lander bay, fuel tanks, radiators, and finally, the engine (hidden behind the radiation shield).
Glitched previews of a deep space exploration vehicle currently under construction in Low Earth Orbit. More unglitched transmissions coming soon.
launched eighteen years ago, the cassini orbiter is set to crash in to saturn next september, ending its mission to collect data, including these true colour images, on saturn and it’s moons and rings. saturn’s main rings, composed mostly of ice, are thought to have formed only a few hundred million years ago, long after the planet, and the solar system itself, were birthed some four and half billion years ago.
though a hundred and seventy million miles in diameter, the main rings are only half a mile thick, with the brighter bands showing areas of greater density, and the darker, less dense areas swept relatively clear by the gravity of saturns’ moons - clear enough, anyways, for the cassini orbiter to pass through one of the gaps basically unscathed.
there is no consensus on how the rings were created, but a medium sized moon, either shattered by a meteor or pulled apart by the planet’s gravity, would account for the entire mass of the rings. there is, however, more of a consensus that in about fifty million years, saturn’s gravity will have pulled in the rings and swallowed them up. (but at least mars should have a ring by then.)
saturn has over forty moons, including one found within a ring gap. these photos show the distant rhea and titan - the latter of which is larger than mercury and has its own atmosphere and hydrocarbon lake - and the inner most mimas and enceladus - the latter being notable for its encompassing liquid ocean of water and geothermal activity.
(via we-are-star-stuff)
