Copernical Team
African spaceports cut rocket fuel costs
Space is big business once again, Mars rovers and putative moon landings aside, there is an enormous need for geostationary satellites. With increasing traffic there is also a need for new sites for spaceports that might offer reduced energy costs and simpler launching of new satellites. Writing in the International Journal of Aerospace System Science and Engineering, a team from the Obasanjo Space Center in Abuja, Nigeria, suggest that African spaceports offer a scientifically and economically viable option.
Rocket propellant is the main constituent of launch weight largely irrespective of payload. Indeed fuel accounts for 90 percent of the launch cost. As such, any measures that might be put in place to reduce fuel requirements can offer substantial savings. A launch site close to The Equator would offer several benefits in terms of reducing fuel costs. Obviously, a stationary object on the equator is moving at almost 1700 kilometers per hour relative to a "fixed" reference in space because of the rotation of the earth. If you launch from north or south of the equator, this boost is lower. Halfway to the pole and the speed boost is only 1200 km/h.
New ESA telescope in South America to search for asteroids
- ESA’s second Test-Bed Telescope has seen ‘first light’.
- It will help spot asteroids in space that could pose a risk to Earth.
- This telescope is the latest step towards ESA’s planned Flyeye telescope network.
- It is hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.
More patrols, fewer boaters for SpaceX splashdown Saturday
The astronauts flying SpaceX back to Earth this week urged boaters to stay safe by staying away from their capsule's splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
NASA and SpaceX are promising more Coast Guard patrols and fewer pleasure boaters for Wednesday afternoon's planned splashdown off the Florida panhandle coast near Tallahassee—the company's second return of a crew.
‘Campfires’ offer clue to solar heating mystery
Computer simulations show that the miniature solar flares nicknamed ‘campfires’, discovered last year by ESA’s Solar Orbiter, are likely driven by a process that may contribute significantly to the heating of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona. If confirmed by further observations this adds a key piece to the puzzle of what heats the solar corona – one of the biggest mysteries in solar physics.
New ESA telescope in South America to search for dangerous asteroids
- ESA’s second Test-Bed Telescope has seen ‘first light’.
- It will help spot asteroids in space that could pose a risk to Earth.
- This telescope is the latest step towards ESA’s planned Flyeye telescope network.
- It is hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.
ALMA discovers rotating infant galaxy with help of natural cosmic telescope
Using the Atacama ALMA array, astronomers found a rotating baby galaxy 1/100th the size of the Milky Way at a time when the Universe was only seven percent of its present age. Thanks to assistance by the gravitational lens effect, the team was able to explore for the first time the nature of small and dark "normal galaxies" in the early Universe, representative of the main population of the firs On a changing planet, NASA goes Green
NASA is responsible for collecting much of the data that people use to explain humanity's environmental impact on Earth, from documenting climate change and its impacts on ice, sea level and weather patterns, to monitoring the health of forests and the movement of freshwater.
But NASA doesn't just report the data. It also acts on it.
NASA facilities across the United States are each AFRL Inspire to feature special guest speaker from Space Operations Command
Wright-Patterson AFB OH (SPX) Apr 23, 2021
AFRL Inspire, a two-hour special event with eight TEDx-style talks, will be livestreamed from the Air Force Institute of Technology's Kenney Hall Auditorium April 28 beginning at 2 p.m. EDT. Inspire showcases the innovative ideas and passionate people AFRL has to offer as they provide entertaining and thought-provoking talks, share personal stories and North Korea's satellites in orbit not transmitting data
North Korean satellites launched into orbit are either unstable or not fully operational, and a reconnaissance satellite launched in February 2016 is not relaying data, a South Korean analyst said.
Song Geun-ho, a professor at Korea Defense Language Institute at South Korea's Joint Forces Military University, said in a new report on North Korea's space program that Pyongyang's claims of vi Northrop Grumman designs protected Tactical SATCOM Payload Prototype for the Space Force
Northrop Grumman Corporation has been selected by the U.S. Space Force's (USSF) Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) to proceed with its ongoing Protected Tactical SATCOM (PTS) Rapid Prototype program, with a flight demonstration of the company's PTS payload set to occur in 2024.
Selected for the initial award through the Space Enterprise Consortium, this continuation enables Northrop Gr