Washington DC (UPI) Dec 7, 2021
NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity completed its 35th flight over the weekend, setting a new altitude record of 46 feet in the thin Martian atmosphere. The 4-pound chopper's previous record was 39 feet, according to NASA's Ingenuity flight log. The helicopter was deployed from NASA's Perseverance rover that landed on the Martian surface in February 2021. Saturday's Ingenuity flight

Beijing, China (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
If human beings want to survive on the other planets for a long time, they must first find or set up a safe, stable, and long-term shelter. Lunar lava tubes are geological structures of the moon discovered in recent years. They take the shape of hollow pipe-shaped caves formed on the surface of the planet by volcanic activity. Because a lunar lava tube has a hard basalt roof, its internal

Houston TX (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
Orion continues its journey back to Earth on day 22 of the 25.5-day Artemis I mission with flight controllers and engineers continuing to test the spacecraft and its systems in preparation for future flights with humans aboard. Engineers conducted the second part of the propellant tank slosh development flight test, called propellant slosh, which is scheduled during quiescent, or less acti

Nashville TN (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
In the Mojave Desert, the sun beats down on the ground and makes pockets of low pressure. Cool air rushes into these areas, where it warms and rises, creating vortices that pick up dust. These types of dust devils aren't limited to Earth: They are found on Mars at sizes reaching 1,600 meters in diameter. Dust devils could play a large role in the Martian climate, and they are crucial to un

Huntsville AL (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
Dynetics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Leidos, has announced it has submitted a bid on the Human Landing System (HLS) Sustaining Lunar Development (SLD) contract for NASA's Artemis Mission. Northrop Grumman will join the Dynetics team in this pursuit. "We're excited to enter the competition to support NASA's Sustaining Lunar Development efforts, adding Northrop Grumman to our team," said L

Washington DC (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
The English poet William Blake famously implored readers to "see the world in a grain of sand." In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, scientists from the University of Campinas, in Brazil, and the University of California, Los Angeles, have been doing just that - studying the "granular" dynamics of how crescent-shaped sand dunes are formed. Known as barchans, these formations are common

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 08, 2022
NASA's Perseverance rover snagged two new samples from the Martian surface on Dec. 2 and 6. But unlike the 15 rock cores collected to date, these newest samples came from a pile of wind-blown sand and dust similar to but smaller than a dune. Now contained in special metal collection tubes, one of these two samples will be considered for deposit on the Martian surface sometime this month as part

Houston TX (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
For the eighth year, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Inc. (CASIS) and U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) have partnered to solicit transport phenomena and fluid dynamics research leveraging the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory. NSF will provide up to $3.6 million for multiple projects to utilize the space station's research facilities for fundam

Sendai, Japan (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
A research group has demonstrated that spontaneously excited plasma waves may be the solution to a long-associated problem with magnetic nozzle plasma thrusters, turning conventional thinking on its head. Details of their research were published in the journal Scientific Reports on December 5, 2022. In magnetic nozzle radio frequency thrusters, sometimes referred to as helicon thrust

Beijing (XNA) Dec 08, 2022
Kuaizhou 11, the newest model of carrier rocket developed by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, carried out its first successful flight on Wednesday morning, lifting an experimental satellite into space, according to the company. The rocket blasted off at 9:15 am at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert and soon deployed the Xingyun Transport VDES