You are browsing the archive for Ryan Anderson.
15 October 2009
Mars Art: HiRISE Dust Devils and Dusty Dunes
It’s been a while since I posted any “Mars art” but I just came across this Bad Astronomy post and had to share. The short explanation of the photo is that dust devils spiraling across these sand dunes have removed the red dust but left behind dark sand in artistic swirls. For a more detailed description, check out Bad Astronomy, and to take a closer look at the image itself, …
MSL: Mars Action Hero
MSL is like James Bond. Want to know why? Check out my new post over at ScientificBlogging. I’ve submitted it to their University Science Writing Competition, so head on over and check out my entry, and while you’re there take a look at the many other excellent entries. As I understand it, the folks at ScientificBlogging will select finalists, and then voting will open up. And if I am lucky …
13 October 2009
Carnival of Space #124
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. – Oscar Wilde In fact, some of us have managed not only to look at the stars, but to blog about them. Luckily, there is a nice one-stop-shop for space-related blogs from the past week: the 124th Carnival of Space, hosted this week at We Are All In the Gutter. Go check it out!
9 October 2009
Bomb the Moon!
With 23 minutes left before LCROSS impacts the south pole of the moon, I want to direct you to a post by Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society blog, showing photos of the crater formed back when Apollo 14 smashed its upper stage booster into the moon. Yes, that’s right, we’ve been smashing things into the moon for quite a while now. So all the people freaking out about NASA …
7 October 2009
To the Moon! Zoom, Bang!
As I write this, there is a NASA spacecraft on an unstoppable collision course with the moon. Early on Friday morning it will impact a crater near the moon’s south pole at 9000 km/hr, causing an explosion that will excavate 350 tons of lunar rocks, blasting them up into space and leaving a 66 foot-wide crater. Of course, this is all intentional. The LCROSS mission will use the upper stage …
6 October 2009
Mars Science Laboratory Instruments: MARDI
Next up in my series of posts about the instruments on MSL is the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI). Once again, this camera is made by MSSS just like MastCam and MAHLI, and it shows. Like the other two, MARDI is a color camera, and it shoots high-def 1600×1200 pixel images. MARDI is special because it points straight down, and it can take pictures at 4.5 frames per second. That means …
5 October 2009
Carnival of Space #123
One… Two… Three… Carnival of Space #123! This week the Carnival is hosted over at Weird Warp. As always, check it out for all the spacey goodness you can handle.
30 September 2009
Mars Science Laboratory Instruments: MAHLI
Last time, I talked about the MastCam color cameras on MSL, so it only makes sense to continue with one of the other cameras: the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). MAHLI will serve the same role on MSL that the microscopic imager on the current MER rovers does: it will provide detailed photos of the soil and rock surfaces acessible by the robotic arm. MAHLI is made by the same …
29 September 2009
Dueling Mars Movies
Last week and this week, Dwayne day posted two very nice reviews of the dueling Mars movies of 2000, a.k.a. Mission to Mars and Red Planet. Now, I know, neither was the greatest movie, but Dwayne’s reviews do a nice job of discussing what was done well in addition to what was done…less well. Take a look, and feel free to discuss these cinematic masterpieces in the comments! And in …
27 September 2009
Welcome to Mars! … I mean, Syndey
Last week a dust storm swept its way from the Australian outback and blanketed Sydney with orange dust. The dust storm was pretty large for Earth: 500km x 1000 km, and unusual in that it managed to reach Sydney instead of petering out in the outback. The Big Picture has a great series of photos of the storm, many of which look remarkably martian (if you ignore the water and …
