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Carnival of Space 269

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1. The Meridiani Journal – The Curiosity rover has confirmed what previous evidence from orbit seemed to indicate – that a river once ran through Gale crater.

Elevation map showing the ancient streambed called Peace Vallis, where it cut through the rim of Gale crater and emptied into the crater floor. The rover’s landing site is marked by the +. Click for larger image. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

2. Centauri Dreams looks at ways to represent interstellar distances, with particular emphasis on a major extension to the Sagan Planet Walk in Ithaca, NY, one that takes us all the way to Hawaii (and Alpha Centauri)

3. Weird Warp – 5 Innovations of the Space Program We Take for Granted. Smoke Detectors, water filters and three others

4. Amy Shitateitel – A look at the real cost of Curiosity compared with other areas of US spending. Next time someone argues with you that NASA is a waste of money, these are the stats you need to prove them wrong.

5. Chandra blog -In July 2012, an event took place that gives us a chance to talk about several important aspects of Chandra observations involving coordination with other observatories, how they are done, and how they fit into the bigger picture of astronomical research.

6. Chips are happy to see this Seagull ….. CCD Chips that is

7. In Links Through Space the OUTER SPACE series this week we propose light reading about space. Strange objects in space and I don’t mean cosmic blobs or black holes in terminal phase, but rather things that humans have sent or brought with them into Space.

8. Tranquility Base blog – Back in the 1960s, there were 17 astronauts trained by the U.S. Air Force’s military space program. After this program was cancelled in 1969, seven astronauts were transferred to NASA, eventually flying on the space shuttle. What happened to the other ten?

9. The Electric Solar Wind Sail (E-sail) is a relatively straightforward system for propellantless propulsion around the solar system by using the solar wind. Here are details of the ESTcube-1 test of a 10 meter long wire that will be the first test in space of this new technology. It will go up in 2013 and then a 100 meter long system on another cubesat will go up in 2014. Then a satellite with more longer wires will try to get away from the Earth’s magnetosphere to actually capture the solar wind

10. The first Spacex tests of the Grasshopper reusable rocket have begun with a modest flight and landing of 6 feet altitude. Next up with 100 feet of flight and other progressive tests

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