Space Archives - Keith Shields

Six and a Half Years of Curiosity

About six and a half years ago on August 6, 2012, I got up early to watch NASA TV as they broadcast the landing of the Curiosity Rover on Mars. I remember the significant tension of this particular landing because NASA was employing some new technology that had never been used before. They used the…

Exploring New Frontiers

Have you heard the news? It’s raining on the moon. Man in the T.V. said, It’s raining on the moon. Even the scientists Can’t believe it’s true They’re showing diagrams And little moon cartoons Where we are Is everything we know All we’ve got Is the love we show[1] We live in a time when…

TESS

If I were to go back to school to take more courses, I think I might take a few courses in orbital mathematics. The number of interesting orbits around masses in space has captured my imagination. Take for example the orbit of the latest NASA orbital space telescope, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). The following…

Cassini

Recently I wrote a sad lament for the Schiaparelli Lander, even as I praised those who had successfully inserted the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) into a near-perfect orbit around Mars. This orbiting communications relay and atmospheric laboratory will serve NASA scientists for the next several years and will eventually support a European Space Agency (ESA)…

A Robotic Spacecraft Dies

This week was supposed to be a week of good news for the Schiaparelli lander. It was expected that by this time, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) would be relaying information from Schiaparelli to Earth and science experiments would be about to begin on the surface of Mars. The European Space Agency (ESA) did have…

Schiaparelli

(Click on this thumbnail picture for a larger image.) This week in solar system navigation, the Schiaparelli Lander was given the necessary software to allow it to land on Mars. Descent and soft touchdown on Mars will be guided by the commands that were uploaded on October 7th. The fact that such commands can be…

Last Man on the Moon

“If you begin to think you’re something you’re not, you’re looking in the wrong mirror.” – Eugene Cernan I have been watching the Mark Craig directed documentary, Last Man on the Moon (2014). It is great educational entertainment for an Apollo junkie like me. It describes the career path of Eugene (Gene) Cernan as he…

Failure is an Option

“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” – Elon Musk I stared at this quote for the last few minutes as the cursor blinked on and off on my laptop screen. I have been wondering if I agree with the entire quote. Does it represent reality? Should…

Akatsuki Update

On April 1, JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, gave a brief update on the status of their Akatsuki spacecraft now in orbit around Venus. You might recall that this is the exploration vehicle that missed its exit on the way to Venetian orbit and, instead, ended up in orbit around the sun.[1] This orbit…

The Future of Space Exploration

Jupiter and Europa The 15th to 18th centuries were a time of unprecedented exploration of our world. Europeans, with a healthy sense of curiosity, and driven by a desire to conquer new worlds, were the primary instigators. Today, we live in a similar time of exploration as countries and private corporations turn their eyes to…