Desert RATS is a NASA team of engineers, geologists, astronauts, and technicians who go into the deserts of Arizona each summer to simulate missions to the Moon, Mars, and Near Earth Objects, which are small asteroids that are near Earth. This is the team that test drives the new Lunar Electric Rover and very futuristic space habitats.
This summer the women and men of Desert RATS are focusing on a mission to a Near Earth Object (NEO), so they are testing space suits, scientific procedures, and a space habitat that would orbit this NEO.
Their twitter handle is @DESERT_RATS and they are definitely a team to follow!
See what Desert RATS is doing this summer!
Read more about the philosophy of Desert RATS
(Image Credit: NASA)
I’m going to try something new on the Planetary Science Tumblelog today:
3D Thursday!
Space Missions take lots of pictures and they often take them close together. By overlapping two close images, we can make an anaglyph. Since Space is full of 3D stuff, we have lots to cover. Today PlanetSci will bring you two anaglyphs from Mars with NASA’s HiRISE Imager. So get out your red-cyan glasses!
This beautiful image shows Yardangs, which are created on Earth as wind carves sandstone into tall mounds. Even if you don’t have 3D specs, you should still check this picture out in 2D!
(Image Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
