Category Archives: technology

Curiosity takes first nighttime and ‘black light’ photos

Posted on by
Reply
Rock illuminated at night using the UV LEDs. The bright material (gypsum?) "glows" in the UV images. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

Rock illuminated at night using the UV LEDs. The bright material (gypsum?) “glows” in the UV images. Click for larger version. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

Addendum: press release is now available here.

The images being taken by the Curiosity rover on Mars have been amazing enough so far, but with one thing in common – they are all daytime images. Now, though, Curiosity has taken its first nighttime photos! These initial images were taken a couple of days ago, on sol 165. This is also the location where Curiosity will soon do its first drilling.

Continue reading →

NASA uses laser to beam Mona Lisa to the Moon

Posted on by
Reply
The Mona Lisa image, before being cleaned up by Reed-Solomon coding, and after.Credit: Xiaoli Sun / NASA Goddard

The Mona Lisa image, before being cleaned up by Reed-Solomon coding, and after.
Credit: Xiaoli Sun / NASA Goddard

Using lasers to communicate at planetary distances is something that may sound like sci-fi, but it is a real technology being developed by NASA as a means of communicating with spacecraft faster and more efficiently than can be done now.

Continue reading →

The next generation of robotic space explorers – powered by bacteria!

Posted on by

Illustration of how a tiny robotic explorer could use bacteria as a fuel source. Credit: NASA/Naval Research Laboratory

As technology advances, a lot of the gadgets and other things we use keep getting smaller, lighter and thinner. Now that trend may soon be taken to another extreme – small robotic space explorers which in turn use a miniscule power source – bacteria…

See Universe Today for the full article.