Spotlight on Ganymede, Juice's primary target
Friday, 14 April 2023 10:46
A key focus of ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) will be Ganymede: Jupiter's largest moon, and an ideal natural laboratory for studying the icy worlds of the Solar System.
b>Why focus on Ganymede? br> /b>
There are a handful of key reasons Juice will home in on Ganymede.
Firstly, Ganymede is thought to have a salty ocean beneath its icy shell. This ocean may be large enough Search for alien life extends to Jupiter's icy moons
Friday, 14 April 2023 10:46
Could vast, long-hidden oceans be teeming with alien life in our very own Solar System?
A new chapter in humanity's search for extraterrestrial life opens on Thursday as Europe's JUICE spacecraft blasts off on a mission to investigate the icy moons of Jupiter.
First discovered by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei more than 400 years ago, these ice-covered moons are so far from the Sun t Juno Marks 50 Orbits Around Jupiter
Friday, 14 April 2023 10:46
NASA's Juno mission completed its 50th close pass by Jupiter on April 8, 2023. Since the spacecraft arrived at the giant planet in 2016, its JunoCam imager has captured spectacular views of Jupiter, and its large moons Ganymede, Europa, and Io. Many of those images were processed by volunteers called citizen scientists.
To mark the 50th close pass, NASA teamed up with Google Arts and Cultu Ingenuity Mars Helicopter completes 50th flight
Friday, 14 April 2023 10:46
The history-making rotorcraft has recently been negotiating some of the most hazardous terrain it's encountered on the Red Planet.
NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has completed its 50th flight on Mars. The first aircraft on another world reached the half-century mark on April 13, traveling over 1,057.09 feet (322.2 meters) in 145.7 seconds. The helicopter also achieved a new altitude reco 'The Space Economy' - an Essential Guide for Investors and Entrepreneurs
Friday, 14 April 2023 10:46
Remarkable advances in private launch capability and space-based technologies are creating vast new opportunities for businesses and investors in low-Earth orbit - and beyond. A new book by Space Capital founder and managing partner Chad Anderson plumbs the depths of these new opportunities, while also explaining the challenges and risks that need to be considered.
"The Space Economy: Capi UCF will help researchers study metal asteroids for resources, clues to formation
Friday, 14 April 2023 10:46
AUniversity of Central Florida researcher will be using the newly constructed Two-meter Twin Telescope (TTT) in the Canary Islands, Spain, to study metal-rich M-type asteroids.
The work can inform the study of asteroids like 16 Psyche, an M-type, or metal, asteroid NASA is launching a mission in October 2023 to visit.
The M-type asteroids offer both high concentrations of metals that Lucy snaps its first views of Trojan Asteroid targets
Friday, 14 April 2023 10:46
Some of the asteroids NASA's Lucy mission will visit are still more than 330 million miles (530 million kilometers) away from the spacecraft, which is more than three times the average distance between Earth and the Sun. But despite the great distance and the comparatively small sizes of these asteroids, Lucy caught views of four of them recently.
From March 25 to 27, 2023, Lucy used its h Curiosity gets a major software upgrade
Friday, 14 April 2023 10:46
Years in the making, a major software update that has been installed on NASA's Curiosity rover will enable the Mars robot to drive faster and reduce wear and tear on its wheels. Those are just two of about 180 changes implemented during the update, which required the team to put Curiosity's science and imaging operations on hold between April 3 and April 7.
"The flight software is essentia NRO awards contract extensions to Hawkeye 360 and Maxar’s Aurora Insight for radio-frequency data
Thursday, 13 April 2023 22:05
HawkEye 360 and Maxar Technologies have been awarded contract extensions by the National Reconnaissance Office for commercial radio-frequency (RF) data.
The post NRO awards contract extensions to Hawkeye 360 and Maxar’s Aurora Insight for radio-frequency data appeared first on SpaceNews.
Saltzman: Space Force has to better define relationship with commercial industry
Thursday, 13 April 2023 20:08
As space technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, the role of commercial industry in national defense has become a hot topic, the chief of space operations of the U.S.
South Korea’s KSLV-2 rocket set to launch May 24
Thursday, 13 April 2023 20:04
South Korea’s homegrown KSLV-2 rocket is slated to launch May 24, carrying a 180-kilogram technology demonstration satellite and seven cubesats.
NOAA looks to update weather satellite and ground systems
Thursday, 13 April 2023 19:53
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is soliciting proposals for research and development on microwave weather sensors, ground systems and technology to reduce interference from 5G networks.
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover gets a major software upgrade
Thursday, 13 April 2023 19:28
The update brings loads of improvements, the most significant being new driving capabilities.
Years in the making, a major software update that has been installed on NASA's Curiosity rover will enable the Mars robot to drive faster and reduce wear and tear on its wheels.
A rocket-powered spaceplane completes a successful test flight
Thursday, 13 April 2023 18:31
Access to space is getting easier and more accessible as more and more platforms are coming online that can significantly decrease the cost of getting into Earth's orbit or even beyond. Now, another company has taken a step forward in making inexpensive, reusable access to space a reality. Dawn Aerospace, which operates out of the U.S., New Zealand, and the Netherlands, has successfully tested a prototype spaceplane.
This isn't Dawn's first success, as the company already has satellite propulsion systems in orbit on 15 different satellites. It isn't even its first successful space plane test—they had previously completed some testing using jet engines. However, it is the first time the company has successfully tested a rocket-powered plane.
The series of three tests happened at the end of March at the Glentanner Aerodrome in New Zealand, where the plane successfully fired its rocket engine. Clocking it at over 170 knots and 6,000 ft of altitude may not seem like much, but it is a first step for the technology.
Wobbling star found in Gaia-Hipparcos data confirmed to host exoplanet
Thursday, 13 April 2023 18:12
Data from ESA’s star-mapping Gaia spacecraft has allowed astronomers to image a gigantic exoplanet using Japan's Subaru Telescope. This world is the first confirmed exoplanet found by Gaia’s ability to sense the gravitational tug or ‘wobble’ a planet induces on its star. And the technique points the way to the future of direct exoplanet imaging.