Well, while folks have been innundated with a vast array of goings on about the world, as luck would have it, June 2004 (plus/minus a couple of weeks) are reasonably big news in all things scientific.
For starters, our two intrepid (literally) Mars Rovers are about to take the big leap in different ways. The Spirit Rover is expected to reach the base of the Columbia Hills within a couple of weeks. The Opportunity Rover should be rolling into Endurance Crater sometime in the next few days. (Courtesy Martian Soil) For that matter, not only have the rovers blown past their original 90-day mission, but now there is also some talk about wintering over and reactivating the rovers next spring and keeping them around until next winter. (Courtesy Eternal Golden Braid)
Elsewhere about Mars, the Mars Odyessy Orbiter completed its 10,000th orbit of the red planet on May 22nd.
On June 11th, The Cassini-Huygens probe will encounter its first Saturnian moon, Phoebe. On June 30th the probe will be crossing the plane of Saturn's rings, slipping between the F and G rings as a prelude to a July 1st orbital insertion. (Courtesy Vodka Guy)
Elsewhere, we should start seeing forward motion on man's return to space with the release of the Aldridge Report on June 14th.
Closer to home, June 2004 will see the launch of the Aura satellite to study the Earth's atmospheric chemistry. Additonally, the Genesis probe, which spent almost three years collecting particles of the solar wind headed home on May 1st, and should arrive here on September 8th.
Similarly in a bevy of projects in place and on the drawing board to find other planets that can harbor life, the Spitzer Infrared space telescope has discovered organic molecules in the protoplanetary nebulae. Along related lines, the June 8th transit of Venus across the face of the sun (the last one was in 1882) provided a nice naked-eye example of the technique that the Kepler Telescope (scheduled for launch in October 2007) will use to search for planets. It also appears that the Hubble Space Telescope may get a new lease on life through robotic repairs.
Additionally, as mentioned in an earlier post, the first quantum encryption system has gone online. This being good.
Well, that's it for this round of science wrap-ups, so keep yer eyes peeled.
Launched by Bravo Romeo Delta at June 8, 2004 07:47 PM