London, UK (SPX) Apr 20, 2023
Lunar exploration is undergoing a renaissance. Dozens of missions, organised by multiple space agencies - and increasingly by commercial companies - are set to visit the Moon by the end of this decade. Most of these will involve small robotic spacecraft, but NASA's ambitious Artemis programme, aims to return humans to the lunar surface by the middle of the decade. There are various reasons

Gottingen, Germany (SPX) Apr 20, 2023
Stars that contain comparatively large amounts of heavy elements provide less favourable conditions for the emergence of complex life than metal-poor stars, as scientists from the Max Planck Institutes for Solar System Research and for Chemistry as well as from the University of Gottingen have now found. The team showed how the metallicity of a star is connected to the ability of its planets to

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 20, 2023
A vital subsystem for NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was recently delivered to Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado, and installed in the spacecraft's Wide Field Instrument (WFI). Called the Simplified Relative Calibration System (sRCS), this component will allow astronomers to measure the total light output of cosmic objects like galaxies and supernovae with extreme accuracy. When Roma

Paris (ESA) Apr 20, 2023
Now in its fifth year in space, NASA's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) remains a rousing success. TESS's cameras have mapped more than 93% of the entire sky, discovered 329 new worlds and thousands more candidates, and provided new insights into a wide array of cosmic phenomena, from stellar pulsations and exploding stars to supermassive black holes. Using its four cameras, TE

Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 20, 2023
Curiosity is carefully and patiently driving up a local canyon, named Marker Band valley, across a variably tilting surface that is scattered with horizontally banded bedrock and patches of sand. Can you imagine how fun and challenging it would be to scramble up the pass over this bumpy, uneven, and sandy terrain? As the rover continues her ascent up Marker Band valley, the rocks continue

Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 20, 2023
To quote our project scientist, Ashwin, it was clear when we assessed our downlink that Curiosity had almost literally taken "two steps forward and one steps back" during the drive in our previous plan. It has been tricky for our intrepid Mars explorer as we have tried to pick our way through this small canyon as we exit marker band valley. There are abundant large blocks that we are tryin

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Apr 20, 2023
A planetary scientist at NAU is part of a Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission to travel to Mars and survey the planet's two moons, including collecting a sample from one and returning it to Earth. Christopher Edwards, an associate professor in the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, received a six-year, $650,000 grant for the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) miss

Washington DC (SPX) Apr 20, 2023
To help guide NASA's efforts over the next decade, the agency has released its Planetary Defense Strategy and Action Plan. For three decades, NASA has engaged in studying near-Earth objects (NEOs), asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun and come within 30 million miles of our planet's orbit. While NEOs have the potential to help planetary scientists better understand the birth and formati

Huntsville AL (SPX) Apr 20, 2023
Technicians at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, apply the first round of spray foam as part of the thermal protection system to the launch vehicle stage adapter (LVSA) of NASA's SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for Artemis III. The cone-shaped element connects the rocket's core stage to its upper stage called the interim cryogenic propulsion stage and partially enclose

Colorado Springs CO (SPX) Apr 20, 2023
Phantom Space Corporation (Phantom), a space applications company providing small-class launch services to commercial and government clients has announced the selection of Arnhem Space Centre (ASC) on the Gove Peninsula in Australia's Northern Territory for a dedicated launch site. The Arnhem Space Centre expands Phantom's space launch capabilities with direct access to very low-inclinatio