Cassini misses, Dextre's ready

In July 2005, a group of NASA scientists got very interested in Enceladus, a small moon of Saturn. At that time, the Cassini spacecraft flew over the surface of Enceladus' south pole, and discovered a dozen or so warm geysers spraying water vapor and ice crystals. That was surprising because moons as small as Enceladus, which is just 300 miles wide, do not usually generate enough internal heat to create such activity. The existence of the plumes hinted that there might be a liquid water ocean beneath the surface, and the possibility of liquid water always brings the possibility for life.

Last Wednesday, the Cassini spacecraft flew into the mysterious icy plumes erupting from Enceladus. The flyby, however, turned out to be a bust. Passing only 125 miles from the base of the plume, an "unexplained software hiccup" prevented the spacecraft's Cosmic Dust Analyzer from transmitting data to the onboard computer. Flybys planned for later in 2008 may be able to repeat the plume fly-through to try to collect the observations missed this time around. link

Much closer to Earth, in the International Space Station, astronauts have just completed assembling Dextre, a special purpose dexterous manipulator (SPDM). Dextre is a robot with two large arms that will allow it to transport objects, use tools, and install and remove equipment on the outside of space station. Sensors allow Dextre to "feel" objects and automatically react to movements or changes. Astronauts will operate Dextre from inside the space station, looking through Dextre's four mounted cameras. The robot is designed to function with spacewalking astronauts, or to work independently on tasks that previously would have required a spacewalk. link