Frida Space

With Soyuz-TMA14M, which had the same problem, they managed to deploy it once docked. However from what I understand it's no big deal, the Soyuz can perform without problems with just one solar panel.

Guys, National Geographic just said that today's announcement "will forever change the way we view the cosmos". I thought it was just going to be a new habitable exoplanet announcement? I mean, sure, great news, but there's already 30 of them, I don't think it should change our view of the cosmos? Is it something else, more serious??

If they manage to establish communications with Philae we might get a new CIVA panorama!

Doesn't look like it...

So the second solar panel didn't actually deploy?

They just tweeted "Planet-finding news from Kepler to be announced tomorrow." Sorta gave it away...

I hope you'll make the most out of this day! Very happy for you, it must have been a great experience

Yes, no huge deal. See Soyuz TMA-14M

It's a teleconference, no video. It will be available only @ www.nasa.gov/newsaudio - - - Updated - - - Yes, I agree on that.

...maybe because that's what the word "may" is for? Stating things which aren't 100% certain? True. My bet is on an exoplanet annuncement too, as that is the most obvious thing, but we can't rule out something K2-related or further details on the Pluto observations scheduled for October or the status of the reaction wheels or something.

It is but it's not great either. The subspacecraft longitude changed by less than 0.6 degrees between the two images. This is the blink comparison, as you can see a very minal difference.

For what my opinion can be worth, that's a strikingly comparison. Well done, really. - - - Updated - - - That's what I thought too, but multiple sources seem to be saying the opposite, that an underground ocean would help retaining primordial/radioactive decay heat. for the moment the only source I could find is this (paragraph #15), but I remembered reading the same thing on other places too. Not sure exactly how it works though.

What the...? Chris Russel, Dawn PI: "We found that summer is winter and winter is summer" ????

BIG BIG NEWS! Apparently (no images yet) Dawn has observed a haze above the bright spots! http://www.nature.com/news/mystery-haze-appears-above-ceres-bright-spots-1.18032 - - - Updated - - - Also in that release, Dawn is a bit smaller than thought, making it 4% denser.

Yes, I personally know two scientists on New Horizons, one of them is the Atmosphere studies lead, however I promised I wouldn't disturb them for all July as I knew they were going to be assaulted by the media and at the same time by science data. From what I understood from the press conferences, they plan on releasing new "raw" images weekly, with the major release on July 24th, however the transmission of images has stopped as of July 20th and will resume in mid September, so after a few releases I'm guessing they'll have finished all the images available so far. - - - Updated - - - Confirmed, next conference Friday:

Yes, the press release (have no link now, but it's no Nasa's homepage) says the dark area is likely billion of years old. Gotta love comparative planetary geology!

Wow!

Very nice. It looks like a sunset here on Earth!

No, just an image release. Next conference should still be this Friday IIRC. Plus, great news: the close up images have finally been published in "RAW" form. http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounter/view_obs.php?image=data/pluto/level2/lor/jpeg/029917/lor_0299175097_0x632_sci_3.jpg&utc_time=2015-07-14%3Cbr%3E10:19:38%20UTC&description=&target=PLUTO&range=0.1M%20km&exposure=150%20msec

After Lunar Flashlight, NEA Scout (which will visit a near-Earth asteroid) and BioSentinel (which will study DNA damage on microorganisms due to deep space radiation), NASA has approved a fourth mission, Lunar IceCube, which will work with Lunar Flashlight and study concentrations of water and other volatiles on the entire surface of the Moon (not only at the poles) as a function of time of day, latitude, and regolith age and composition. It will have only one instrument, BIRCHES, a 1,000,000-pixel infrared spectrometer which will be able to distinguish between liquid, solid and gaseous water. The spacecraft will use its electric propulsion system (the first iodine propellant to fly into space!) to let herself be naturally captured into lunar orbit after three months of manuevering around Earth. www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/lunar-icecube-wins-coveted-slot-on-exploration-mission-1

Nix definitely looks interesting, or at least not a uniform piece of rock tumbling like crazy through space.

Apparently there might be new images tomorrow (tuesday!)

Return to flight NET September:

Written version of Elon's comments will be posted to the SpaceX website. - - - Updated - - - Yay!