Spectrum Scientifics Blog

NASA has a series of unmanned probes either in position, in planning, or on the launch pad. Typically, most folks do not hear about these probes until they land. Here is an update on a few of the more prominent NASA space probes and how to find out more about them:

PHOENIX MARS LANDER: Phoenix continues to dig into the soil on Mars, having made a splash with its discovery of water on Mars. The Phoenix controllers hope that the probe will survive until January if they are lucky. It is possible that the probe could last longer, as earlier probes did, but the Phoenix is in a particularly harsh environment and is not expected to survive.

Phoenix’s homepage can be found here. In addition, Phoenix also has a Facebook Page with regular Twitter updates and the latest pictures.

LCROSS LUNAR IMPACTOR: With a name like that its not too hard to figure out what NASA plans for this probe, but the LCROSS actually stands for Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite. LCROSS is designed to hit a shadowed region of our Moon, and hit is hard, to determine if there is any water (in Ice or Vapor state). Indications are that the impact will be large enough that high-power amateur telescopes might be able to see the impact. Time will tell if this turns out to be true or not. LCROSS is being launched in tandem with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The launch date has been scheduled for February 27th, 2009.

LCROSS has a website here. Like Phoenix, LCROSS also has a Facebook page with occasional twitter updates (hey! Its still sitting on the pad, what do you want?).

LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER: Launched in tandem with LCROSS, the LRO is set to photograph the surface of the Moon as well as scout out potential landing spots for a future base. LRO’s mission is a bit of an odd duck. You would think that the Moon, being our closest neighbor, would be very well mapped. But in fact due to the probes sent to Mars in the past decade we actually have better surface images of Mars than we do of our own Moon. LRO will remedy that astronomical shortcoming. Its images might be good enough to see the equipment left behind by the Apollo missions.

LRO’s website can be found here. LRO also has a Facebook page. Enjoy LRO’s many Facebook applications. As of this writing it just added LOLcats. Hey, who are we to say that a Space Probe can’t enjoy funny cat photos?

Cassini-Huygens: This Probe is still going strong. After sending us some of the most incredible photos of Saturn and its Moons it still is in operation and is making its way to a second flyby of Saturn’s Moon Enceladus, with flyby’s of Titan planned for later in the year. Cassini has a schedule going until until at least 2010.

Cassini’s NASA homepage can be found here. Cassini also has a Facebook page but it seems fairly new. Look it up and friend the poor probe. Its not used to these social networking sites just yet.

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Filed under: Astronomy, NASA