Gilmour Space fires up for 2022 with Australia's largest rocket engine test
Tuesday, 11 January 2022 07:49
Rocket engineers at Gilmour Space Technologies have greeted the new year with a successful 110-kilonewton test fire of the most powerful rocket engine ever developed in Australia.
The 75-second test was a major milestone for Gilmour Space, which is developing Australian Made rockets that will, over the next five years, be capable of launching 300- to 4,000-kilogram satellites and payloads ASU instrument captures breathtaking 'first light' images
Tuesday, 11 January 2022 07:49
ASU scientists and engineers building the Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System (E-THEMIS) for NASA's Europa Clipper passed a major hurdle recently by capturing the first successful test images from this complex infrared camera, known as "first light" images.
Europa Clipper, a NASA mission to investigate Jupiter's moon Europa, is planned to launch in October 2024 and arrive at Jupiter in Elusive atmospheric molecule produced in a lab for the 1st time by UH
Tuesday, 11 January 2022 07:49
The previously elusive methanediol molecule of importance to the organic, atmospheric science and astrochemistry communities has been synthetically produced for the first time by University of Hawai?i at Manoa researchers. Their discovery and methods were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on December 30.
Methanediol is also known as formaldehyde monohydrate or me Advertising plays key role in satellite TV success, study shows
Tuesday, 11 January 2022 07:49
The pay television market in the United States was dominated by a handful of cable operators until the early 1990s with the entry of satellite TV, which has grown consistently ever since.
A new study from the University of Notre Dame documents the role of advertising to help explain satellite operators' continued success.
"Commercial Success through Commercials? Advertising and Pay T Russian company develops method for effective transfer of solar energy to Earth
Tuesday, 11 January 2022 07:49
Despite being one of the easiest and most accessible methods of gathering renewable energy, solar panels are unable to perform well in many spots of the world and in non-ideal weather conditions. In space, however, the effectiveness of solar panels increases significantly, prompting their wide use to power satellites and other spacecraft.
Russian Space Systems, a subsidiary of the Russian AFRL detects moonlet around asteroid with smallest telescope yet
Tuesday, 11 January 2022 07:49
On November 29, 2021, an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Starfire Optical Range (SOR)* telescope on Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque, New Mexico, recorded an image of asteroid (22) Kalliope, and its natural satellite Linus. A confirming image was taken four nights later. What is unique about these observations is the small size of the telescope used, only 1.5 meters in diameter. SOFIA makes case for continued operations
Tuesday, 11 January 2022 03:47
Officials with a NASA airborne observatory responded to a stinging rebuke in the latest astrophysics decadal survey by arguing that the facility, targeted for termination, is essential to the agency’s broader science program.
SpaceX goes all-in on Starship configuration for second-gen Starlink
Monday, 10 January 2022 21:44
SpaceX has dropped a plan to use Falcon 9 to launch the 30,000 satellites in its proposed second-generation Starlink broadband constellation, and is instead focusing on a configuration leveraging its upcoming Starship vehicle.
Biden nominates Navy admiral to run National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
Monday, 10 January 2022 17:39
President Biden has nominated U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth to be the next director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, the. Defense Department announced Jan. 10.
Defense Innovation Unit taps Lyten to develop high-performance batteries for small satellites
Monday, 10 January 2022 17:17
Lyten, a battery manufacturer based in California, has prototyped an advanced battery design for small satellites under a contract from the Defense Innovation Unit.
Chang'E-5 lander makes first onsite detection of water on moon
Monday, 10 January 2022 16:10
A joint research team led by Profs. Lin Yangting and Lin Honglei from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) observed water signals in reflectance spectral data from the lunar surface acquired by the Chang'E-5 lander, providing the first evidence of in-situ detection of water on the Moon.
The study was published in Science Advances on Jan. 7.
Researchers from the National Space Science Center of CAS, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics of CAS and Nanjing University were also involved in the study.
Many orbital observations and sample measurements completed over the past decade have presented evidence for the presence of water (as hydroxyl and/or H2O) on the moon. However, no in-situ measurements have ever been conducted on the lunar surface.
The Chang'E-5 spacecraft landed on one of the youngest mare basalts, located at a mid-high latitude on the Moon, and returned 1,731 g of samples.
What happens when someone dies in space? Space tourism brings new legal and moral issues
Monday, 10 January 2022 13:40
Commercial spaceflight companies such as Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are now offering exclusive opportunities for celebrities and civilians to travel to space.
Traditionally, astronauts have been subject to rigorous training and medical scrutiny before going to space, and the risk of death from natural causes was considered remote.
But in this new era of space tourism, it appears medical screening may not be carried out, and only minimal pre-flight training provided.
With a wide variety of people now going to space, and the prospect in the coming years of humans establishing bases on the Moon and beyond, it raises an important question: what happens if someone dies in space?
Under international space law, individual countries are responsible for authorizing and supervising all national space activity, whether governmental or private. In the United States, commercial tourist spaceflights require a license for launch to be issued by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Should someone die on a commercial tourist mission, there would need to be a determination as to the cause of death.
China's rover checks out that weird cube on the moon—surprise! It's a rock.
Monday, 10 January 2022 11:45
Back in early December 2021, China's Yutu 2 rover made headlines when it spied what looked like a curious cube-shaped object on the moon's surface. Of course, speculations ran rampant. And it didn't help matters any when the China National Space Administration (CNSA) nicknamed the object the "mystery hut."
An update today from Yutu's cameras reveals the true nature of this object. Yup, it's just a rock. And not very cube-shaped, either.
Several planetary geologists and astronomers had logically predicted the object was likely a just bright colored, blocky boulder sitting on the edge of a crater rim. Orbital images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter didn't show anything out of the ordinary—rocks and more rocks on a cratered lunar surface.
Cheops reveals a rugby ball-shaped exoplanet
Monday, 10 January 2022 07:35
ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops has revealed that an exoplanet orbiting its host star within a day has a deformed shape more like that of a rugby ball than a sphere. This is the first time that the deformation of an exoplanet has been detected, offering new insights into the internal structure of these star-hugging planets.
ESA reignites space-based solar power research
Monday, 10 January 2022 07:30
We urgently need solutions to tackle climate change on Earth. Meanwhile, the space sector is working hard to make space exploration more sustainable. ESA is targeting both ambitions by enabling European academia and industry to take further steps towards space-based solar power (SBSP).