NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Begins Launch Preparations

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Begins Launch Preparations

Designed and built by Lockheed Martin for NASA, Lucy will give humankind its first ever close-up look at Jupiter’s elusive Trojan asteroids. These celestial objects are important because scientists believe they could hold clues about how our solar system and the planets formed.

NASA’s Self-Driving Perseverance Mars Rover ‘Takes the Wheel’

NASA’s Self-Driving Perseverance Mars Rover ‘Takes the Wheel’

NASA’s newest six-wheeled robot on Mars, the Perseverance rover, is beginning an epic journey across a crater floor seeking signs of ancient life. That means the rover team is deeply engaged with planning navigation routes, drafting instructions to be beamed up, even donning special 3D glasses to help map their course.

Mars Rover Chassis Updates

Mars Rover Chassis Updates

In mid-April 2018, more than 20 freshly machined, large, shiny chunks of 7050 and 7075 aluminum that would make up the primary structure of the chassis were collected in a cleanroom in Building 18 at JPL, along with about a hundred smaller secondary parts.

LSST Camera Undergoing Testing & Fully Assembled in Cleanroom

LSST Camera Undergoing Testing & Fully Assembled in Cleanroom

Work on the camera for the future Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) has reached a major milestone with the completion and delivery of the camera’s fully integrated cryostat. With 3.2 gigapixels, the LSST camera will be the largest digital camera ever built for ground-based astronomy. It’s being assembled at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.