Copernical Team
China's Mars rover detects irregular wedges beneath red planet
Radars mounted on China's Mars rover Zhurong detected 16 irregular wedges buried underneath a vast plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars.
A collaborative team led by the researchers from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences identified from the radar data the polygonal wedges below a depth of 35 meters within the rover's journey of approximately 1 Beyond Gravity unveils reusable payload fairing concept
The introduction of a reusable payload fairing by Beyond Gravity represents a significant stride in addressing major industry challenges like affordability and environmental impact.
Beyond Gravity, a leading player in the international space sector, is pushing the envelope of innovation with its latest concept aimed at transforming space launches. Known for its expertise in payload fairing prod Ovzon and SSC close to sealing satellite communication contract worth $10M
Ovzon AB, a leading provider of satellite communication services, is currently in the final stages of negotiations with the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) for a significant order. This potential deal, estimated at approximately 10 million USD, involves the provision of SATCOM-as-a-Service, including Ovzon's innovative mobile satellite terminals, with a projected delivery timeline in 2024. NASA's Fermi Mission Nets 300 Gamma-Ray Pulsars ... and Counting
A new catalog produced by a French-led international team of astronomers shows that NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has discovered 294 gamma-ray-emitting pulsars, while another 34 suspects await confirmation. This is 27 times the number known before the mission launched in 2008.
"Pulsars touch on a wide range of astrophysics research, from cosmic rays and stellar evolution to the se NASA Orbiter snaps stunning views of Mars horizon
Astronauts often react with awe when they see the curvature of the Earth below the International Space Station. Now Mars scientists are getting a taste of what that's like, thanks to NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter, which completed its 22nd year at the Red Planet last month.
The spacecraft captured a series of panoramic images that showcases the curving Martian landscape below gauzy layer Boosting rocket reliability at the material level
The success of the SpaceX Falcon 9 reusable launch vehicle has been one of the most remarkable technological achievements of the last decade. Powered by SpaceX's Merlin engine, the Falcon 9 booster can be reused over 10 times, with minimal maintenance between flights.
Now there is a new generation of reusable rocket engines and vehicles that promise much larger payloads and greater reuse. Finnish team of researchers found out the composition of asteroid Phaethon
The asteroid that causes the Geminid shooting star swarm has also puzzled researchers with its comet-like tail. The infrared spectrum of rare meteorites helped to determine the composition of the asteroid. Asteroid Phaethon, which is five kilometers in diameter, has been puzzling researchers for a long time. A comet-like tail is visible for a few days when the asteroid passes closest to the Sun Solar activity likely to peak next year, new study suggests
Researchers at the Center of Excellence in Space Sciences India at IISER Kolkata have discovered a new relationship between the Sun's magnetic field and its sunspot cycle, that can help predict when the peak in solar activity will occur. Their work indicates that the maximum intensity of solar cycle 25, the ongoing sunspot cycle, is imminent and likely to occur within a year. The new research ap Aerocapture is a 'free lunch' in space exploration
When spacecraft return to Earth, they don't need to shed all their velocity by firing retro-rockets. Instead, they use the atmosphere as a brake to slow down for a soft landing. Every planet in the solar system except Mercury has enough of an atmosphere to allow aerobraking maneuvers, and could allow high-speed exploration missions. A new paper looks at the different worlds and how a spacecraft must fly to take advantage of this "free lunch" to slow down at the destination.
Aerocapture is an orbital transfer maneuver in which a spacecraft makes a single pass through a planetary atmosphere to decelerate and achieve orbit insertion. On the other hand, aerobraking uses a propulsive burn plus repeated dips into the atmosphere—i.e., atmospheric drag—to gradually slow the spacecraft and reduce the size of the orbit to achieve orbit insertion.
The new paper posted to the arXiv preprint server, by Athul Pradeepkumar Girija from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University, notes that one of the significant risks associated with aerocapture is the uncertainty in the atmospheric density.
If warp drives are impossible, maybe faster-than-light communication is still on the table?
I'm sure many readers of Universe Today are, like me, fans of the science fiction genre. From the light sabers of "Star Wars" to the neuralyzer of "Men in Black," science fiction has crazy inventions aplenty and once science fiction writers dream it, scientists and engineers try and create it. Perhaps the holy grail of science fiction creations is the warp drive from "Star Trek" and it is fair to say that many have tried to work out if it is even possible to travel faster than the speed of light. To date, alas, to no avail but if the warp drive eludes us, what about faster-than-light communication.
Let's start with the warp drive. The concept is a drive that can propel a spacecraft at speeds in excess of the speed of light. According to the "Star Trek" writers, the speed was described in factors of warp speed where they are converted to multiples of the speed of light by multiplication with the cubic function of the warp factor itself. Got it. Don't worry, it's not crucial to this article.