Category: Space

Posted Aug 6, 2012 | Original Source: Justin Moore / NASA

This infographic by NASA explains the recent Mars Curiosity landing.

Posted Aug 5, 2012 | Original Source: NASA

Within the next hour, NASA’s largest Mars rover ever is set to land on the red planet. Known as the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) or “Curiosity”, here’s how it compares to previous rovers:

Posted Jul 29, 2012 | Original Source: Margot Trudell

Two charts showing every mission to the moon. The first one covers the 1950’s and 60’s and the second one the 1970’s to today.

Posted Jul 17, 2012 | Original Source: (1) space-facts.com (2) Alan Taylor

If a single pixel on your screen equalled about 300 km, the eight planets (sorry Pluto!) would look something like this.

Here’s another chart comparing the size of all major solar system objects. I’ve turned it on its side so that it fits better on the page…

Posted Jun 29, 2012 | Original Source: Andrew Phillips, Madeline Farbman, Nagasree Ketineni, Erik Brynildsen, Robert Hotz

A color-coded, graphical representation of every shuttle mission from 1981 to 2011.

Posted Jun 28, 2012 | Original Sources: (1) ??? (2-4) Karl Tate

Earlier, I posted a chart comparing famous sci-fi spaceships. These three compare the size of actual spacecraft, including those currently in use and those being developed.

Posted Jun 20, 2012 | Original Source: XKCD

Prior to 1992, the only planets we knew of for certain were the nine (now eight) in our own solar system. However, in recent years, we have discovered many circling other stars. In fact, as of June 2012, we know of 778 extra-solar planets (+8 of our own = 786 total). Here they all are, shown to scale.

Posted Oct 19, 2011 | Original Source: ??? If you know, email me.

The Apollo 11 landing site and the area explored by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin was no larger than a football field. Click for a better view:

Posted Sep 20, 2011 | Original Source: abstrusegoose.com

If you saw the movie Contact, you’ll know that radio and TV signals are leaking out into space. So what are all the aliens out there watching? Click for a better view:

Posted Aug 26, 2012 | Original Sources: (1) Space.com (2) The National Post (3) Bryan Christie

Three very similar charts, showing every space mission to Mars, successful and unsuccessful, from 1960 to the future. Each includes fly-by’s, orbiters, landers, and rovers…