september

NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity to keep flying through September (at least)

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Ingenuity‘s flying days have been extended once again. The miniature Martian chopper now has clearance to continue flying until at least September, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced today (March 15). As part of this extension, Ingenuity will also sport some special upgrades that will allow the 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) drone to do even more … Read more

Readers Respond to the September 2021 Issue

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ZERO-SUM SPACE? In “Lifting the Venus Curse,” Robin George Andrews writes about discoveries that expand our understanding of our close planetary neighbor Venus. Enormous sums of money are tossed about in that quest as if they were almost insubstantial. But explorations of outer space do more to satisfy our curiosity than advance the human condition … Read more

Feast Your Eyes on The Annual Family Portraits Hubble Took of Our Solar System Giants

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Every year, Hubble takes a little time to turn its electronic eyes closer to home. Rather than staring into vast distances across space and time, it focuses on our very own Solar System; specifically, the heavyweight planets that lurk out past the asteroid belt – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.   That’s not because they’re … Read more