Austin TX (SPX) Jul 13, 2023
Scientists at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) have developed a radar technique that lets them image hidden features within the upper few feet of ice sheets. The researchers behind the technique said that it can be used to investigate melting glaciers on Earth as well as detect potentially habitable environments on Jupiter's moon Europa. The near-surface layers of ic

Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Jul 13, 2023
On the Moon, there are raw materials that humanity could one day mine and use. Various space agencies, such as the European Space Agency (ESA), are already planning missions to better explore Earth's satellite and find minerals. This calls for appropriate exploration vehicles. Swiss researchers led by ETH Zurich are now pursuing the idea of sending not just one solitary rover on an exploration t

Paris (AFP) July 13, 2023
Google launched its AI chatbot Bard in the European Union, Brazil and a dozen other countries on Thursday and unveiled new features as it expands access to its answer to Microsoft-backed ChatGPT. The US tech giant unveiled Bard in February but delayed its release in the European Union as the bloc plans to regulate artificial intelligence amid concerns about risks associated with the rapidly

Bochum, Germany (SPX) Jul 12, 2023
Thousands of satellites are currently orbiting the Earth, and there will be many more in the future. Researchers from Ruhr University Bochum and the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security in Saarbrucken have assessed the security of these systems from an IT perspective. They analysed three current low-earth orbit satellites and found that, from a technical point of view, hardly any mode

Beijing, China (SPX) Jul 12, 2023
During the latest Chinese Antarctica Research Expedition (CHINARE 39) which wrapped up in April, 2023, a high-resolution shallow ice radar system developed by the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR) with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was applied to measure the ice sheet surrounding Zhongshan Station, where an airport on the ice is planned. The obtained data demonstrate c

Vienna VA (SPX) Jul 13, 2023
Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR) ("Spire" or "the Company"), a global provider of space-based data, analytics and space services, was selected by OceanMind, a leader in marine enforcement and compliance, to extend its agreement in providing real-time automatic identification system (AIS) vessel-tracking data. Spire has been providing AIS data to OceanMind since 2019. OceanMind supports fish

NASA has canceled a mission to send a pair of smallsats to binary asteroids and will put the nearly completed spacecraft into storage for a potential future opportunity.

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This image shows ESA’s next exoplanet mission, Plato, in the Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF). In this room, the noise of a rocket taking off is simulated. The large room measures 11 by 9 metres and is 16.4 metres high. One wall is equipped with multiple noise horns, that have a similar design as ordinary speakers. Nitrogen is shot through the horns and can produce noise up to 156 decibels. During tests, no one is allowed into the room that is surrounded by a 0.5-m-thick layer of concrete to keep the noise in. Plato passed its test with

Washington (AFP) July 12, 2023
Jets of red gas bursting into the cosmos, and a glowing cave of dust: NASA marked a year of discovery by the James Webb Space Telescope Wednesday with a spectacular new image of Sun-like stars being born. The picture is of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the nearest stellar nursery to Earth, whose proximity at 390 light-years allows for a crisp close-up by the most powerful orbital observato

Santa Maria Madalena, Brazil (AFP) July 12, 2023
Awestruck by the oranges and blues of the Jewel Box star cluster, part of the Southern Cross constellation, Pedro Froes manages to get out a few words: "It's incredible." Froes is viewing the stars from a telescope in Desengano State Park, a rural patch of Brazil largely spared from light pollution, located some 260 kilometers (160 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro. Desengano is Latin Ameri