News

The Canadian Space Agency released two more requests for proposals (RFP’s) today bringing the total to 10 RFP’s released in the just over a week. The two new RFP’s are for a Miniaturized Drill Prototype for Lunar Exploration and a Combined Active and Passive Vision System for Localisation, Navigation and Visual Servicing.

On Thursday between 3:50 – 3:55 p.m eastern time, assuming all goes well, Canada’s Canadarm2 on the International Space Station will capture the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV). The Japanese HTV is an unmanned spacecraft used to resupply the Kib Japanese Experiment Module and the rest of the International Space Station (ISS). You can watch the event on the Canadian Space Agency web site or …

The first of three images of ESO’s GigaGalaxy Zoom project — a new magnificent 800-million-pixel panorama of the entire sky as seen from ESO’s observing sites in Chile — has just been released online. The project allows stargazers to explore and experience the Universe as it is seen with the unaided eye from the darkest and best viewing locations in the world.

A lunar or Martian rover appears to be among the priorities that will eventually be outlined in Canada’s Long-Term Space Plan, a planning tool the Canadian Space Agency says it has been working to complete during the past year. That information emerged from a series of CSA tenders – collectively worth at least $9.75 million – issued these past few weeks on Merx, a Canadian …

Given that the Canadian Space Agency President Steve MacLean and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. have recently signed an agreement on “Civil Space Cooperation” it might be worthwhile for Canadian’s to do some research to update our communal sense of who we’ve decided to maintain cooperation with.

This composite image of the Hydra A galaxy cluster shows 10-million- degree gas observed by Chandra in blue and jets of radio emission observed by the Very Large Array in pink. Optical data from the Canada- France-Hawaii telescope and the Digitized Sky Survey shows galaxies in the cluster.

This past weekend Armadillo Aerospace assured itself a share of the level two Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge (NGLLC) Prize money by successfully doing two 180-second rocket powered flights within two hour and fifteen minute time period, as well as using a simulated lunar surface as a landing pad.

On his way up the mountain Parazynski managed to capture two GigaPan panoramas – stunningly huge images that are likely to be the highest images of their kind ever taken on the surface of the Earth.

This image was taken by Lunar Orbiter III on 22 February 1967 at 5:24:14 GMT at an altitude of 54.27 km above the lunar surface. High resolution frame 3 clearly shows the Surveyor 1 spacecraft sitting on the lunar surface complete with a long shadow.