Shuttle transport over Houston. 

Jupiter under attack!

Nice to have a big brother hanging around to take a few hits for you.

 oldslabsides wrote: 
I know. Now I have to call everyone and cancel the voyager enters interstellar space party.

 Manbird wrote: 
party pooper.

So much for color-coded wiring. 

A picture of a camera... on Mars

The left eye of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this image of the camera on the rover's arm, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), during the 30th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Sept. 5, 2012). MAHLI is one of the tools on a turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm. When this image was taken, the arm had raised
the turret to about the same height as the camera on the mast. The Mastcam's left eye has a 34-millimeter focal length lens.

The image shows that MAHLI has a thin film or coating of Martian dust on it. This dust accumulated during Curiosity's final descent to the Martian surface, as the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft's descent stage (or sky crane) engines were disrupting the surface nearby.

The reddish circle near the center of the Mastcam Sol 30 image is the window of MAHLI's dust cover, with a diameter a little less than a soda can's diameter. Inside the lens, each of the nine glass lens elements and the front sapphire window are bonded or cemented in place by a red-colored silicone RTV (room temperature vulcanizing) material. This is a space-qualified "glue" that holds the lens elements in place. When the MAHLI is viewed from certain angles, this material gives one the impression that the inside of the lens is red.

The mechanism at the right in this image is Curiosity's dust removal tool, a motorized wire brush.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V has delivered NASA’s Radiation Belt Storm Probes into space.

After a 13-minute ascent, the Centaur’s engine has shut down, and the vehicle has entered a 55-minute coast phase. The engine is scheduled to reignite at 5:14 a.m. EDT.

 Beaker wrote: 
Wrong, wrong-wrong, wrong, wrong.

 shmgeggie wrote: 
Well, yes, but I guess they could also be volcanic ejecta deposits ("airborne" ash and suchlike) mixed with flows of lava - the area top right looks to be capped with something a little more substantial - much like a stratigraphic volcano back here.
 
Funnily enough, we were in Yellowstone not so long ago....
 


 
It's going to be a fascinating few years.

 shmgeggie wrote: 
It is.

The photo was posted to the rover's Facebook page, but with an incorrect link to where the information was supposed to be. The NASA rover site didn't have the article yet, but I expect it will appear soon.

PS: link fixed.

 hobiejoe wrote: 
I'm pretty sure that's the main target of the expedition. If they're going to find evidence of life, that's a pretty likely spot, since the layered beds probably formed under water.

 RichardPrins wrote: 
Wow, that is extraordinary. Any links that might shed any light on the bedding planes visable in the background?

 Proclivities wrote: 

Some people are too smart for their own good.

Dr. Crowley may be one of them.

 RichardPrins wrote: 
Lovely bit of disinformation.  The sad thing is that there are probably millions of people who believe - or wish to believe - such notions - even after having them disproved.

 RichardPrins wrote: 
infuckingcredible.

 RichardPrins wrote: 
If I didn't know the far wrong, I'd think it's a spoof. I hate to say it, but this is how the dumb take us to a whole new level of stupidity.

 RichardPrins wrote: 
Winter is right.  GAAH !!