Sentences with phrase «robotic spacecraft in»

«Of course, before the landing of the Luna 2 robotic spacecraft in 1959, there was concern that the Moon might be covered in low - density dust into which any future astronauts might sink,» said lead study author and Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Robert Nelson.

Not exact matches

A third, larger spacecraft in 2020 is to gather samples and then bring them back to Earth, the first haul of moon rocks since a Soviet robotic probe's return in 1976.

Earlier this year, the company unveiled Prospector X, a tiny robotic spacecraft that'll sit in low Earth orbit testing technologies for future asteroid prospecting missions, including water - powered propulsion and optical navigation systems.

Launched in October 1997, the Cassini mission to Saturn included a sophisticated robotic spacecraft that orbited the ringed planet and provided streams of data about its rings, magnetosphere, moon Titan and icy satellites.

The robotic spacecraft would cruise in deep space towards a near - Earth asteroid, using a technology called advanced Solar Electric Propulsion.

For example, Altius Space Machines, based in Louisville, Colorado, is developing a sticky robotic arm to help guide spacecraft together for docking, traditionally a complex and delicate operation.

«We can't see individual continents or people in this portrait of Earth, but this pale blue dot is a succinct summary of who we were on July 19,» said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. «Cassini's picture reminds us how tiny our home planet is in the vastness of space, and also testifies to the ingenuity of the citizens of this tiny planet to send a robotic spacecraft so far away from home to study Saturn and take a look - back photo of Earth.»

In a technology first, a team of NASA engineers has demonstrated fully autonomous X-ray navigation in space — a capability that could revolutionize NASA's ability in the future to pilot robotic spacecraft to the far reaches of the solar system and beyonIn a technology first, a team of NASA engineers has demonstrated fully autonomous X-ray navigation in space — a capability that could revolutionize NASA's ability in the future to pilot robotic spacecraft to the far reaches of the solar system and beyonin space — a capability that could revolutionize NASA's ability in the future to pilot robotic spacecraft to the far reaches of the solar system and beyonin the future to pilot robotic spacecraft to the far reaches of the solar system and beyond.

Things were not looking so good for alien life in 1976, after the Viking I spacecraft landed on Mars, stretched out its robotic arm, and gathered up a fist - size pile of red dirt for chemical testing.

Such engines, which harness heat to expand a gas and drive pistons, are not used widely today other than in pacemakers and long - distance robotic spacecraft.

The space agency wanted that spacecraft to provide advanced communications and imaging as well as robotic science exploration in support of NASA's plans to send astronauts to the vicinity of the Red Planet or its moons sometime during the 2030s.

Russia is set to launch a robotic spacecraft to the Mars moon Phobos today (Nov. 8), marking the nation's first attempt at an interplanetary mission in 15 years.

«Robotic spacecraft are usually radiation - hardened to protect against these kinds of events,» said Chris St. Cyr, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author on the study.

Now their multi-pronged plan calls for the robotic spacecraft Chang» e 5 to launch in the second half of 2017 atop a Long March - 5 rocket, land on the moon and collect several pounds of lunar samples, then hurl the specimens back to Earth.

The crew of the final Apollo mission lifted off from the moon's Sea of Serenity on 14 December 1972, and the last robotic Soviet spacecraft to make it to the surface was in 1976.

After collecting a multi-ton boulder from the asteroid, the robotic spacecraft will slowly redirect the boulder to an orbit around the moon, using the moon's gravity for an assist, where NASA plans to conduct a series of proving ground missions in the 2020s.

There, astronauts will be able to select, extract, collect and return samples from the multi-ton asteroid mass, and conduct other human - robotic and spacecraft operations in the proving ground that will validate concepts for NASA's journey to Mars.

And many asteroid experts seriously doubted that astronomers would be able to find a suitable 8 - meter, 500 - tonne asteroid that a robotic spacecraft could wrangle back to orbit the moon in time to meet NASA's schedule of sending astronauts to sample it in the early 2020s.

NASA would receive an additional $ 1 billion in 2011 both to get the new launcher on track and to bolster the agency's fleet of robotic Earth - monitoring spacecraft.

Outside the gravitational field of Earth, we could launch robotic spacecraft to other destinations in our solar system.

I hope we will begin to show some of the greater boldness that we showed in the 1960s and 1970s, with missions more like Voyager, Pioneer, and Apollo, using robotic spacecraft where appropriate, where the risk to life can be prevented, and confining our human missions to areas where we can make a special contribution.

Robotic spacecraft, such as Pioneer 10 and 11 and the Voyager probes, gave us our first close - ups of the gas giant planets in the outer solar system.

The use of robotics and advanced SEP technologies like this concept of an SEP - based spacecraft during a NASA mission to find, rendezvous, capture and relocate an asteroid to a stable point in the lunar vicinity offers more mission flexibility than would be possible if a crewed mission went all the way to the asteroid.

Ground - based radars using large antennas including the GBT could be used as a collisional hazard assessment tool and as a safety mechanism for spacecraft that encounter navigation or communication issues, in future robotic and human missions to the moon.

The robotic Phoenix spacecraft would scavenge parts off derelict satellites to use in new space operations on orbit.

He also said the delay in EM - 1 will not affect plans to use SLS to launch a robotic planetary spacecraft, Europa Clipper, to Jupiter's moon Europa.

The first United States mission in history to launch a robotic spacecraft to an asteroid, retrieve samples, and return those samples back to Earth for study just passed a big milestone in its development this -LSB-...]

The robotic New Horizons spacecraft is on track to arrive at Pluto in 2015.

«Orbital robotics and AI techniques in general can enable future spacecraft to repair satellites, remove space junk, extract resources from asteroids and comets, and so on,» said study co-author Yang Gao, a space roboticist at the University of Surrey in England.