The European Space Agency has created a short film of the Korolev crater using an image mosaic made from single orbit observations from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on Mars Express. These images combines data from the HRSC nadir and color channels, with the former aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, as if looking straight down. Next, the mosaic was combined with topography information from the stereo channels of HRSC to generate a three-dimensional landscape.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has observed the Sun continuously for over 10-years and collected 425 million high-resolution images of the star. All of these images consist of 20-million gigabytes of data, providing researchers with the data necessary for countless new discoveries about the workings of the Sun and how it influences the solar system.
NASA’s JPL is currently exploring an innovative robotic concept called SPARROW (Steam Propelled Autonomous Retrieval Robot for Ocean Worlds) that would would use steam propulsion to hop across of icy terrains like that on Jupiter’s moon Europa. This moon is speculated to have massive subsurface oceans of salty water under a thick ice crust.
NASA’s Viking 1 lander first captured an incredible image of what a sunset looked like on Mars way back in 1976. Robots that came after Viking 1 have since transmitted multiple views of Martian sunrises and sunsets, including the one you see above. Geronimo Villanueva, a planetary scientist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, decided to take things one step further.
Photo credit: Space Perspective
Space Perspective aims to welcome passengers aboard Spaceship Neptune early next year, a pressurized capsule that will be carried to the edge of space by a giant balloon. The capsule will have enough room for a pilot and eight passengers, complete with plush seats, a bar, toilet and large floor-to-ceiling windows to help guests take in the breathtaking views.