Copernical Team
Help is a long way away: The challenges of sending humans to Mars
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin stepped out a lunar lander onto the surface of the moon. The landscape in front of him, which was made up of stark blacks and grays, resembled what he later called "magnificent desolation."
When it comes to desolation, however, the moon may have nothing on Mars.
The red planet circles the sun at an average distance of about 140 million miles from Earth. When people eventually visit this world—whether that's in 20 years or 50—they may face a journey lasting 1,000 days or longer. The entire Apollo 11 mission, in contrast, lasted just a little over eight days. If future Mars astronauts get lonely, or if something more serious goes wrong, help is a long way away.
For researchers who study how human bodies and minds respond to the rigors of space travel, the scenario poses a lot of unknowns.
Source of hazardous high-energy particles located in the Sun
The source of potentially hazardous solar particles, released from the Sun at high speed during storms in its outer atmosphere, has been located for the first time by researchers at UCL and George Mason University, Virginia, U.S.
These particles are highly charged and, if they reach Earth's atmosphere, can potentially disrupt satellites and electronic infrastructure, as well as pose a radiation risk to astronauts and people in airplanes. In 1859, during what's known as the Carrington Event, a large solar storm caused telegraphic systems across Europe and America to fail.
Electronic Data Sheets: a common language for space
Designing and building equipment for space is hard enough; then comes the writing of its accompanying documentation. Creating a working space mission involves putting together a vast number of elements correctly, so such guidelines need to be clear and easy to understand. ESA is leading efforts to create standardised ‘Electronic Data Sheets’ for common use across the space industry.
Video: Suitcase-sized asteroid explorer
Video: Suitcase-sized asteroid explorer
Artificial "molecules" open door to ultrafast polaritonic devices
Researchers from Skoltech and the University of Cambridge have shown that polaritons, the quirky particles that may end up running the quantum supercomputers of the future, can form structures behaving like molecules - and these "artificial molecules" can potentially be engineered on demand. The paper outlining these results was published in the journal Physical Review B Letters.
Polariton NASA, LAPAN launch Ozonesonde from Indonesian site
Up, up, and ... back down! On Jan. 27, scientists on an island in Indonesia launched a weather balloon carrying an ozonesonde - an instrument that measures ozone throughout the layers of Earth's atmosphere. Ozonesondes collect valuable data that scientists use to understand Earth's atmosphere, improve air quality predictions, and validate satellite measurements.
The Indonesian space agency Microbes deep beneath seafloor survive on byproducts of radioactive process
February 26, 2021 - A team of researchers from the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography and their collaborators have revealed that the abundant microbes living in ancient sediment below the seafloor are sustained primarily by chemicals created by the natural irradiation of water molecules.
The team discovered that the creation of these chemicals is amplified signifi Scientists begin building highly accurate digital twin of our planet
To become climate neutral by 2050, the European Union launched two ambitious programmes: "Green Deal" and "DigitalStrategy". As a key component of their successful implementation, climate scientists and computer scientists launched the "Destination Earth" initiative, which will start in mid-021 and is expected to run for up to ten years. During this period, a highly accurate digital model of the NASA Awards Launch Service Contract for TROPICS Mission to Study Storm Processes
NASA has selected Astra Space Inc. to provide a launch service for the agency's Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of SmallSats (TROPICS) mission.
The TROPICS mission consists of a constellation of six CubeSats and will increase the scientific community's understanding of storm processes.
The launch service contract for the Russia launches its first Arctic monitoring satellite
A Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sunday carrying Russia's first satellite for monitoring the Arctic's climate, the Roscosmos space agency said.
Video published by the Russian space agency showed the Soyuz blaster launching against grey skies at 0655 GMT, carrying an Arktika-M satellite.
Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin wrote on Twitter later tha