This month Stardome are sharing two new blogs from their astronomy educators to catch you up on the Martian space race (three Mars missions in a single month!) and some of the incredible unmanned space missions happening right now.
Space missions: unmanned machines with awesome teams
When we think of space missions, we often think of gravity-free astronauts floating in space craft, but the reality is many missions are unmanned and the human factor comes from the Earth-based crew.
In this blog our astronomy educator John Rowe shares fascinating details about some of these unmanned missions and the questions they’re trying to answer.
You’ll find out about a Chinese mission to the moon, a Japanese mission to sample an asteroid, some incredibly length missions to Mercury and the Sun, exoplanet-hunting by NASA and a galactic census mapping the Milky Way. Read the full article here https://www.stardome.org.nz/space-missions-unmanned-machines-with-awesome-teams .
Martian space race
Why did three Mars missions launch in a single month? Turns out there’s a very good reason for the Mars mission season. In this blog, written by Stardome’s astronomy educator Josh Kirkley, you’ll find out why there’s a Mars rush hour every couple of years and which three countries have spacecrafts heading for the red planet right now. We’re in for some incredible discoveries! Read the full article here https://www.stardome.org.nz/busy-month-for-mars-misdsions .
Space News Updates
Both these articles featured in Stardome’s popular ‘Space News’ e– newsletter this month. To receive more articles like this straight to your inbox and keep up to date with our public shows and events sign up to Space News here. https://www.stardome.org.nz/astronomy/space-news .
Stay safe and don’t forget to keep looking up, and for more information on Auckland planetarium shows please go to www.stardome.org.nz .
