Day: March 2, 2025

‘America First’ on the moon? US must ‘dominate’ in space, acting NASA chief says during lunar landing

NeRD

As a private lunar lander closed in on the moon early Sunday morning (March 2), poised to make history with the first fully successful landing, NASA’s acting chief Janet Petro was excited. And why not? NASA and its commercial partner Firefly Aerospace were just 24 minutes away from what became the successful landing of the Blue Ghost moon lander on the plain of Mare Crisium — a historic soft landing for a privately built spacecraft. The probe is carrying 10 instruments to study the moon for NASA as the agency’s…

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Pikoy Galaxy Projector review

NeRD

We test all sorts of star projectors, and with so many coming to the market now (thanks to TikTok and Instagram campaigns), it’s hard to know what to choose. Specifications Size: 4.1 x 4.1 x 3.9 inches (105 x 105 x 100 millimeters) Weight: 0.95 pound (430 grams) Laser: Yes, Class 1 Control: On-body, remote control Rotation: Yes Sleep timer: Yes Speaker: Yes (built-in sounds only) Projection surface: Not specified (but large) Although we have compiled a guide of the best star projectors, new models crop up all the time.…

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Is it time to revisit what NASA’s Viking lander found on Mars in 1976?

NeRD

Back in 1976, the dual NASA Viking landers came to full stop on the Red Planet. Their life detection experimental findings still reverberate within the scientific community – fueling the on-going discussion on a key question: Is there life on Mars? Fast forward to today, a new paper tackles and reconsiders the results of the Viking Biology experiments. Perchlorate finding The most significant change since those 1970’s experiments were conducted was the discovery of high levels of perchlorate on Mars. Perchlorate, plus abiotic oxidants, explains the Viking results and there…

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Touchdown! Carrying NASA Science, Firefly’s Blue Ghost Lands on Moon

NeRD

First image captured by Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander, taken shortly after confirmation of a successful landing at Mare Crisium on the Moon’s near side. This is the second lunar delivery of NASA science and tech instruments as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. Credit: Firefly Aerospace Carrying a suite of NASA science and technology, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 successfully landed at 3:34 a.m. EST on Sunday near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, a more than 300-mile-wide basin located in the…

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