Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 06, 2023
This morning's plan started a bit uncertain as we waited for the SAM team to decide whether to proceed with further analysis of the Tapo Caparo drill sample. Just in case they decided against it, last Friday's team put together two options for our plan today - the second option requiring Rover Planner, MAHLI, and APXS activities to help wrap up this drill campaign. We started planning toda

Washington DC (UPI) Mar 08, 2023
The second attempt to launch Japan's next-generation H3 rocket failed on Tuesday as its second-stage engine did not ignite, forcing officials to command that it self-destruct. Liftoff of the Asian nation's new flagship launch vehicle occurred as scheduled at 10:37 a.m., Japanese standard time, from the Tanegashima Space Center, located on the island of Tanegashima, south of Kyushu. But mi

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 08, 2023
An ensemble of microscopes, medical-style equipment, and other 3D scanners is providing insights that could help human and robotic explorers survive the harsh environments of deep space, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Earth's atmosphere protects us from the threat of tiny meteors - micro-meteorites no bigger around than the thickness of a fingernail and traveli

Paris, France (SPX) Mar 08, 2023
Following humankind's successful first steps back toward the Moon with last year's Artemis mission - powered by the Airbus-built European Service Module - the company is now ready for a key role in another important new space venture: a flight to Jupiter that is set to start this spring. JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) is the first European spacecraft to go to Jupiter. Its primary goal

Washington DC (UPI) Mar 7, 2023
NASA's Artemis I mission was a resounding success, and the program managers behind it say it reaffirms their plan to send a crew back to the moon in 2024. NASA held a teleconference on Tuesday to discuss the findings from the unmanned mission that launched on Nov. 16 for a 25 day mission to orbit the moon. The message was twofold: The mission accomplished its objectives and there are st

St Petersburg FL (SPX) Mar 08, 2023
Lonestar Data Holdings Inc. has successfully closed its $5m Seed with this financing round being oversubscribed. The round has been led by Scout Ventures and joined by Seldor Capital, 2 Future Holding, The Veteran Fund, Irongate Capital, Atypical Ventures, and KittyHawk Ventures. Lonestar is scheduled to launch a series of data centers to the lunar surface in 2023. "We are thrilled to have

Washington DC (SPX) Mar 08, 2023
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are working together to develop a science instrument that will survive the harsh and unforgiving environment of the nighttime lunar surface on the far side of the Moon to attempt first-of-its-kind measurements of the so-called Dark Ages of the Universe. The instrument is named the Lunar Surface

Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 06, 2023
Quantum computers hold the promise of operating millions of times faster than conventional computers. But to communicate over long distances, quantum computers will need a dedicated quantum communications network. To help form such a network, a device has been developed by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech that can count huge numbers of single photons - quantum par

Tucson AZ (SPX) Mar 08, 2023
Mars' south polar layered deposits of H2O and CO2 ice record its climate history. A new study links the long-term global movement of Mars' water from midlatitude to pole to a function of the planet's orbital configuration with H2O ice deposition decreasing as a factor of obliquity, or spin-axis tilt. "No deposit yet analyzed provides a global water cycle record that can be tied to a specif