Carnival of Space #332

Welcome to Carnival of Space #332!  If you’d like to know more about the CoS, visit the Carnival of Space page.

This week we start out WISE.  Then we wonder, did MRO find salt water?  Morpheus Project’s free-flight test and check out Kennedy Space Center – virtually.  We go from extreme environments to NASA vs. 6 year old to a lake on Mars?  Cassini finds Titan Seas (in Spanish) and an International Art Contest round out the first wave of articles around the blogosphere. NEW! Several articles were recently added about your Next Big Future.

NASA’s WISE Decision
Allen Versfeld | Urban Astronomer

NASA’s Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), originally built to map the sky in infrared, was repurposed to search for small Solar System objects after it completed its mission. It now continues that work to hunt for NEO’s, and is part of NASA’s Asteroid initiative to find a suitable asteroid, and bring it to Earth orbit so we can better understand how to deal with any impending asteroid impacts.

Is There Martian Salty Water At The Red Planet’s Equator? These Lines May Be The Smoking Gun
Elizabeth Howell | Universe Today

This picture above from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is one of a series showing changing dark lines on an equatorial hillside — which could be an indication of salty water, scientists said.

Foom! Morpheus Project Lander Roars In Free Flight Test
Elizabeth Howell | Universe Today

What an otherworldly experience, without having to leave Earth! The Morpheus Project wrapped up a successful free-flight test yesterday.

Visita el Centro Espacial Kennedy con Google Street View
Fran Sevilla | Vega 0.0

This article shows how to visit virtually the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) using the Google Street View tool. The article is written in Spanish.

You Can’t See the Stars if You Don’t Look Up.
Steve Shurtleff | Photos to Space

One six year old is not taking the proposed NASA budget cuts sitting down. He is actively working to make space a priority. Steve Shurtleff looks at why this is important and what brings out the dreamer in all of us.

Curiosity Rover Confirms Ancient Martian Lake
Paul Scott Anderson| The Meridiani Journal

Some exciting new results from the Curiosity rover mission on Mars were announced yesterday at this year’s American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. Basically, as previously suspected, Curiosity landed in…

Destellos desde Vega: Nuevos datos sobre los mares de Titán
Fran Sevilla | Vega 0.0

This article explains the new discoveries in Titan and in its seas, done by Cassini probe. The article is written in Spanish

Roadmap to Space Settlement 2014 International Student Art Contest
Jim Plaxo | Artsnova

Article on the National Space Society Roadmap to Space Settlement 2014 International Student Art Contest

Elon Musk Provides More Details of His Thinking on Mars Colonization and I Provide Background on Work to Develop Plants to Grow on Mars
Brian Wang | Next Big Future

Elon Musk compared the biological adaptations that could be required for humans or other organisms to live on Mars to the process of breeding cows to conform to our needs as a society. The problem is that modern cattle are the product of hundreds of generations of tweaking to various breeds, but future space explorers…

China Successfully Landed Robot Rover on Moon and it is the First of a New Wave of Moon Rovers
Brian Wang | Next Big Future

China landed its robot rover on the moon and there are many more moon missions that will follow over the next few years.

MIT Biosuit is a Non-Bulky Spacesuit that is More like a Diving Wetsuit for Space and the Basis for a Soft Exoskeleton for People with Cerebral Palsy
Brian Wang | Next Big Future

We are making progress towards Spanks in space. A new MIT spacesuit is more like a diving wetsuit instead of the old bulky Apollo spacesuits.

Watch for more until Carnival #333!