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Six Days of Waiting: NASA’s Orbiter Finally Captures the Moon Crater Left by a Falcon 9
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured images of a crater left by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage impact on the Moon. The crater, measuring approximately 60 feet across, was observed after a six-day wait to align the orbiter's position and lighting conditions. The impact provided scientists with a cross-section of the Moon's uppermost layers, and independent astronomers initially helped pinpoint the impact trajectory.
Voyager 2 Gets a Power Reprieve: NASA’s “Big Bang” Buys the Probe Another Year
NASA engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have implemented a power-saving procedure nicknamed the "Big Bang" for the Voyager 2 spacecraft. This initiative is expected to extend the operational life of its remaining science instruments by at least another year, preventing the loss of another instrument before the end of 2026. A similar procedure is planned for Voyager 1 in the coming months.
NASA’s Perseverance is about to out-drive every rover that ever reached Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover is set to break the record for the longest distance driven by any vehicle on another world, surpassing the mark set by the Opportunity rover. Perseverance has achieved this milestone primarily through its advanced auto-navigation system, which allows it to drive autonomously for most of its journey on Mars. This technology, enabled by a more modern processor compared to its predecessor Curiosity, allows Perseverance to cover ground more efficiently and expand the scope of its scientific investigations in Jezero Crater.
NASA's DART spacecraft changed a binary asteroid's orbit around the sun, in a first for a human-made object
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission successfully altered the orbit of the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos around its parent asteroid, Didymos, and consequently, the binary system's orbit around the sun. This marks the first time a human-made object has measurably changed the path of a celestial body's orbit around the sun, offering a promising demonstration for planetary defense strategies.