NASA selects 2 missions to study Venus
Wednesday, 02 June 2021 23:40
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NASA has selected two new missions to Venus, Earth's nearest planetary neighbor. Part of NASA's Discovery Program, the missions aim to understand how Venus became an inferno-like world when it has so many other characteristics similar to ours - and may have been the first habitable world in the solar system, complete with an ocean and Earth-like climate.
These investigations are the final NASA to explore divergent fate of Earth's mysterious twin with Goddard's DAVINCI+
Wednesday, 02 June 2021 23:40 Write a comment
Although Earth and Venus are similar in size and location, they are very different worlds today. While Earth has oceans of water and abundant life, Venus is dry and fiercely inhospitable. Although it's somewhat closer to the Sun - about 70 percent of Earth's distance - Venus is much hotter, with temperatures at the surface high enough to melt lead. The scorched landscape is obscured by clouds of NASA selects two Venus missions for Discovery program
Wednesday, 02 June 2021 22:03 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — For the first time in more than three decades, NASA has announced it will send a robotic mission to Venus, selecting two proposals in the latest round of its Discovery program.
Launch executives see booming demand despite gloomy forecasts
Wednesday, 02 June 2021 21:12 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Demand for satellite launches likely will surge despite assertions to the contrary, industry executives said June 2.
“There’s a diverse and growing customer base for putting things into low-Earth orbit” and that trend will continue, said Chris Kemp, founder and CEO of small rocket startup Astra.
Satellite operators meet 120 MHz C-band clearing target
Wednesday, 02 June 2021 18:37 Write a comment
TAMPA, Fla. — Satellite operators have cleared a portion of C-band in a key step toward giving the spectrum to U.S. wireless companies in December.
Work has now started on installing filters on ground antennas across the United States, so wireless operators can use the lower 120 MHz of C-band for 5G without interfering with satellite broadcast customers.
Air Force to further study use of commercial rockets to deliver cargo around the world
Wednesday, 02 June 2021 18:20 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force plans to further study the potential use of commercial rockets to transport cargo around the world.
According to Air Force budget documents, a project named “rocket cargo” has been selected as one of the Air Force’s so-called Vanguard programs.
NASA Selects 2 Missions to Study ‘Lost Habitable’ World of Venus
Wednesday, 02 June 2021 17:05 Write a comment
NASA has selected two new missions to Venus, Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor. Rocket Lab continues to study “complex” Electron failure
Wednesday, 02 June 2021 16:14 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab said June 2 that it is continuing to study the “complex failure” on its most recent Electron launch, even after receiving approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to resume launches.
The company said in a statement that while the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation authorized the company to resume launches under its existing license, the company is continuing to investigate the cause of the May 15 launch failure of an Electron rocket carrying two BlackSky imaging satellites.
Russians end 7-hour spacewalk at International Space Station
Wednesday, 02 June 2021 16:08
DoD space agency to launch laser communications experiments on SpaceX rideshare
Wednesday, 02 June 2021 15:00 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — A pair of cubesats built by General Atomics for the Space Development Agency will seek to demonstrate optical communications between satellites, and from satellites to a military drone aircraft.
The satellites are scheduled to fly to a sun-synchronous orbit later this month aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission called Transporter-2.
Image: It's a wrap! Multi-layer satellite insulation
Wednesday, 02 June 2021 14:57 Write a comment
Multi-layer insulation (MLI) is the reason that satellites often look as though they've been covered in shiny Christmas wrapping.
Satellite surfaces are sheathed in MLI made up of layers of very thin, metal-coated plastic film, along with low-conducting 'spacer' material such as silk, nylon or glass-fiber netting.
In the airlessness of space, objects can be hot and cold at the same time, especially if one side is in sunshine and another is in shade. In such conditions, thermal radiation is the main driver of temperature change (rather than convection or conduction), and reflective MLI serves to minimize it.
Thermal control specialists aim to maintain the temperature of the satellite within set limits, to keep electronic and mechanical parts working optimally and to prevent any temperature-triggered structural distortion.
Placing MLI blankets on a satellite body is a skilled art in itself, with complex shapes needing to be created to fit around around edges or joints.
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NASA's Lucy in the cleanroom
Wednesday, 02 June 2021 14:39 Write a comment
L'Ralph is one of the Lucy spacecraft's three primary science instruments. The L'Ralph instrument is a multicolor camera which will gather information on the surface composition of the Trojan asteroids, including organics. The L'Ralph camera sits atop the spacecraft's Instrument Pointing Platform (IPP) that's used to aim Lucy's instruments in a specific direction—seen here in the clean room at Lockheed Martin in Denver, Colorado, in late January 2021.
Throughout its production, the Lucy spacecraft is maneuvered into different positions to accommodate the integration and test of various elements. The spacecraft is seen here in February 2021 on its rotation fixture in the Lockheed Martin clean room in Denver Colorado, as its Instrument Pointing Platform (left) with three core instruments was installed.
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Space junk: Houston, we have a problem
Wednesday, 02 June 2021 14:03 Write a comment
When we think of space, we think big and empty but when it comes to Earth's orbit, it's cluttered with millions of pieces of garbage that we call space junk.
The junk—or space debris—is made up of uncontrollable human-made items that remain in orbit long after they've served their original purpose. The scale of debris ranges from the very large including discarded stages from rocket and satellite launches, through to smaller metal pieces such as nuts and bolts, all the way down to particles such as paint flakes.
At its smallest, the space junk may only be one millimeter in size, but there are thousands of pieces bigger than a pizza box causing problems.
According to the latest European Space Agency statistical modeling, there are approximately 34,000 objects greater than 10 centimeters in orbit, but up to 128 million items between one millimeter and one centimeter floating around.
