by Iona Brockie | Sampling Engineer - NASA/JPL
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 25, 2022 Have you ever wondered how a coring bit grabs and holds onto a rock core? As we drill, the bit teeth cut a 27mm diameter circle in the rock and leave the 13mm diameter center intact. As we dig deeper, that cylinder of rock is fed into the sample tube that was loaded inside the bit. When the drill reaches its target depth, typically 66mm, the core is fully in

Medford MA (SPX) Jan 21, 2022
Asteroids fly through our solar system all the time, but it's rare for us to take notice of them. But that's changed this week, as an asteroid passes within 1,231,184 miles of Earth on January 18. The asteroid, dubbed 7482 (1994 PC1), was first seen in 1994 and is about two-thirds of a mile wide. One likely reason Americans are paying more attention is because many millions have watched th

Washington (AFP) Jan 24, 2022
The James Webb Space Telescope has arrived at its cosmic parking spot a million miles away, bringing it a step closer to its mission to unravel the mysteries of the Universe, NASA said Monday. At around 2:00 pm Eastern Time (1900 GMT), the observatory fired its thrusters for five minutes to reach the so-called second Lagrange point, or L2, where it will have access to nearly half the sky at

London, UK (SPX) Jan 21, 2022
OneWeb, the low Earth orbit satellite communications company, and Hughes Network Systems LLC has announced a strategic six-year Distribution Partner agreement to provide low Earth orbit (LEO) connectivity services across India. The arrangement between OneWeb and Hughes Communications India Private Ltd. (HCIPL), a joint venture between Hughes and Bharti Airtel Limited, follows the Memorandum of U

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 21, 2022
After a few sols of challenges that prevented us from getting close-up MAHLI imaging of this dark outcrop in front of us, today we were finally able to plan the contact science that we were hoping for. Yesterday there was a small rock under the right rear rover wheel, so we had to kick that rock to the curb to get into a stable position for using the rover arm. This morning's downlink data

After spending most of 2020 and all of 2021 struggling with the expendable H3’s novel LE-9 main engine, officials with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) told reporters last week that the H3 will not be ready to launch by the end of March as previously hoped.

Switzerland’s RUAG Space said Jan. 24 it is teaming up with a software provider to run artificial intelligence solutions on its Lynx, which it says is the most powerful commercially available onboard satellite computer.

Spacecraft operating closer to Earth are adopting state-of-the-art onboard processors. Upcoming missions will require even greater computing capability.

The post Living on the edge: Satellites adopt powerful computers appeared first on SpaceNews.

Mark Fernandez, principal investigator for Spaceborne Computer-2, sees a promising future for space-based computing.

The post Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s space station computer is in demand appeared first on SpaceNews.