Kamuela HI (SPX) May 27, 2021
Current and former astronomers from the University of Hawai?i Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have wrapped up a massive collaborative study that set out to determine if most solar systems in the universe are similar to our own. With the help of W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea in Hawai?i, the 30-year planetary census sought to find where giant planets tend to reside relative to their host stars.

Potsdam, Germany (SPX) May 27, 2021
What is happening deep beneath the surface of ice planets? Is there liquid water, and if so, how does it interact with the planetary rocky "seafloor"? New experiments show that on water-ice planets between the size of our Earth and up to six times this size, water selectively leaches magnesium from typical rock minerals. The conditions with pressures of hundred thousand atmospheres and tem

Denver CO (SPX) May 27, 2021
Lockheed Martin and General Motors Co. are teaming up to develop the next generation of lunar vehicles to transport astronauts on the surface of the Moon, fundamentally evolving and expanding humanity's deep-space exploration footprint. NASA's Artemis program is sending humans back to the Moon where they will explore and conduct scientific experiments using a variety of rovers. NASA sought

Washington DC (SPX) May 27, 2021
The Republic of Korea has become the 10th country to sign the Artemis Accords, which establish a practical set of principles to guide space exploration cooperation among nations participating in NASA's 21st century lunar exploration plans. Minister of Science and ICT Lim Hyesook signed the Artemis Accords for the country during a ceremony held May 24 in Seoul. South Korea, whose official n

Moffett Field CA (SPX) May 27, 2021
Productivity pundits know lots of tricks to make the most of your day, so you can schedule enough time for important tasks while guarding against overload. Planning a day of work for a Martian rover puts a lot of the same strategies into practice. When the Mars 2020 Perseverance's driving and science activities begin, dozens of mission personnel will start each planning session with a mass

Altadena CA (SPX) May 27, 2021
Honeybee Robotics and mPower Technology report that the companies have been selected to provide an innovative lunar charging solution for NASA. As electric vehicle charging stations are popping up across the globe, the Moon may soon join in the trend. NASA has selected five commercial teams to develop designs for vertically deployable solar array systems for the lunar surface as part of the Vert

Las Cruces NM (SPX) May 22, 2021
Virgin Galactic has completed its third spaceflight and the first ever spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico. The flight, which took place May 22nd, sees New Mexico become the third US state to launch humans into space. VSS Unity achieved a speed of Mach 3 after being released from the mothership, VMS Eve, and reached space, at an altitude of 55.45 miles before gliding smoothly to

Livermore CA (SPX) May 27, 2021
Nearly 40 years ago, scientists first predicted the existence of helium rain inside planets composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, such as Jupiter and Saturn. However, achieving the experimental conditions necessary to validate this hypothesis hasn't been possible - until now. In a paper published by Nature, scientists reveal experimental evidence to support this long-standing predicti

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) May 27, 2021
Moon dust isn't like the stuff that collects on a bookshelf or on tables - it's ubiquitous and abrasive, and it clings to everything. It's so bad that it even broke the vacuum NASA designed to clean the Moon dust off Apollo spacesuits. With NASA's return to the Moon and its orbit, it will need to manage the dust, which is dangerous for people too. The first step is knowing how much is arou

London, Canada (SPX) May 27, 2021
With Elon Musk keen to settle on Mars, and NASA planning its own human missions, there's more to it than finding a safe place to land on the red planet. When it's no longer just robots, rovers and drones arriving, accessing the untapped abundance of ice that lies beneath the Martian surface will be key for astronauts too. Expertly checking both boxes, planetary geologists at Western have n