Copernical Team
SLS proceeding with Green Run Hot Fire
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NASA is targeting the final test in the Green Run series, the hot fire, for as early as Jan.17. The hot fire is the culmination of the Green Run test series, an eight-part test campaign that gradually brings the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) - the deep space rocket that will power the agency's next-generation human Moon missions - to life for the first time.
NASA conducted th China Focus: 400 mln km within 163 days, China's Mars probe heads for red planet
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China's Mars probe Tianwen-1 has traveled more than 400 million km by Sunday morning and is expected to enter Mars orbit next month, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
As of 6 a.m. on Sunday (Beijing Time), the Mars probe had flown in space for 163 days. It was about 130 million km from Earth and about 8.3 million km from Mars.
According to the CNSA, the pro Exolaunch integrates 30 small sat for SpaceX dedicated rideshare mission
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Exolaunch, the leading rideshare launch and deployment services provider for the NewSpace industry, begins its launch campaign to integrate 30 small satellites from the U.S. and Europe aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rideshare mission scheduled for no earlier than January 2021.
This is the first dedicated rideshare mission of SpaceX's SmallSat Rideshare Program and the first of several rideshares China to accelerate Launch activity in 2021
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China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the country's leading space contractor, says it plans to launch more than 40 missions this year, including some for the nation's space station program.
In a report read at the State-owned conglomerate's annual space programs meeting on Monday in Beijing, the company said the most important missions in 2021 will be sending the space station's maj Space economy hits $385B in 2020, with commercial revenues over $310B
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In its latest research product "The Space Economy Report 2020", Euroconsult estimates that the consolidated space economy, including both government space investments, as well as commercial space, totaled $385 billion in 2020, a record amount.
Commercial revenues of $315 billion in 2020 were down 2% from 2019's $319 billion evaluation, due partially to the Covid-19 pandemic affecting certa SpaceX, L3Harris pursue hypersonic missile defense system
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SpaceX has won a $150 million contract to launch the U.S. Department of Defense's first batch of hypersonic missile defense satellites, the second contract - for roughly the same amount - that has been awarded for their development.
SpaceX and Florida-based defense firm L3Harris Technologies are competing and collaborating on the project, which is designed for the rapid development of Frosty scenes in martian summer
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Frosty scenes in martian summer Remote sensing data sheds light on when and how asteroid Ryugu lost its water
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Last month, Japan's Hayabusa2 mission brought home a cache of rocks collected from a near-Earth asteroid called Ryugu. While analysis of those returned samples is just getting underway, researchers are using data from the spacecraft's other instruments to reveal new details about the asteroid's past.
In a study published in Nature Astronomy, researchers offer an explanation for why Ryugu isn't quite as rich in water-bearing minerals as some other asteroids. The study suggests that the ancient parent body from which Ryugu was formed had likely dried out in some kind of heating event before Ryugu came into being, which left Ryugu itself drier than expected.
NASA's first mission to the Trojan asteroids integrates its second scientific instrument
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NASA's Lucy mission is one step closer to launch as L'TES, the Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer, has been successfully integrated on to the spacecraft.
"Having two of the three instruments integrated onto the spacecraft is an exciting milestone," said Donya Douglas-Bradshaw, Lucy project manager from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "The L'TES team is to be commended for their true dedication and determination."
Lucy will be the first space mission to study the Trojan asteroids, leftover building blocks of the Solar System's outer planets orbiting the Sun at the distance of Jupiter. The mission takes its name from the fossilized human ancestor (called "Lucy" by her discoverers) whose skeleton provided unique insight into humanity's evolution. Likewise, the Lucy mission will revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the birth of our solar system more than 4 billion years ago.
L'TES, developed by a team at Arizona State University (ASU), is effectively a remote thermometer.
Making methane on Mars
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Among the many challenges with a Mars voyage, one of the most pressing is: How can you get enough fuel for the spacecraft to fly back to Earth?
Houlin Xin, an assistant professor in physics & astronomy, may have found a solution.
He and his team have discovered a more efficient way of creating methane-based rocket fuel theoretically on the surface of Mars, which can make the return trip all more feasible.
The novel discovery comes in the form of a single-atom zinc catalyst that will synthesize the current two-step process into a single-step reaction using a more compact and portable device.