NASA 'Fires Up' Artemis RS-25 Rocket Engines with New Components
Friday, 17 December 2021 04:49
NASA conducted a successful full-duration test Dec. 15 to begin a new series of testing for state-of-the-art RS-25 engines to help power the agency's Space Launch System (SLS), America's new deep-space rocket, on future missions to the Moon and Mars.
The first hot fire of the new series was conducted for a full-duration 500 seconds on the Fred Haise Test Stand (formerly A-1 Test Stand) at NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover Makes Surprising Discoveries
Friday, 17 December 2021 04:49
Scientists with NASA's Perseverance Mars rover mission have discovered that the bedrock their six-wheeled explorer has been driving on since landing in February likely formed from red-hot magma. The discovery has implications for understanding and accurately dating critical events in the history of Jezero Crater - as well as the rest of the planet.
The team has also concluded that rocks in Locked in stone: Research may answer the question of Mars' missing water
Friday, 17 December 2021 04:49
Rivers and streams once flowed across the surface of Mars, etching channels still evident on the planet's surface today. Water in lakes once lapped ancient shores.
All told, the geological evidence adds up to an ocean's worth of water, noted Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies Professor David Jenkins. But today, Mars' red sands appear bone-dry. Where did all that water go? To Seitah and Back
Friday, 17 December 2021 04:49
Six months ago, we began the dedicated investigation of the Jezero crater floor, and now in December 2021 we are more than halfway through this first science campaign. Since our first sampling experience at Roubion and our first sample pair from the Rochette rock, we have collected a second sample pair, this time from a region of the crater floor called Seitah at the Brac rock. As we now gear up ExoMars discovers hidden water in Mars' Grand Canyon
Friday, 17 December 2021 04:49
The ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has spotted significant amounts of water at the heart of Mars' dramatic canyon system, Valles Marineris.
The water, which is hidden beneath Mars' surface, was found by the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO)'s FREND instrument, which is mapping the hydrogen - a measure of water content - in the uppermost metre of Mars' soil.
While water is known to exi Advanced analysis of Apollo sample illuminates Moon's evolution, cooling
Friday, 17 December 2021 04:49
Sophisticated analysis of a rock sample taken from the Moon during the Apollo 17 mission revealed new information about the complex cooling and evolutionary history of the Moon. The findings, from University of Hawai'i (UH) at Manoa researchers, were published in Nature Communications.
Apollo 17 astronauts collected the rock sample troctolite 76535 from the Moon's surface in 1972, and it r IXPE Unfolds its Origami Boom for Science
Friday, 17 December 2021 04:49
NASA's newest X-ray observatory - the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE - extended its boom successfully Dec. 15, giving IXPE the ability to see high-energy X-rays. The mission, which launched on Dec. 9, is one step closer to studying some of the most energetic and mysterious places in the universe in a new way.
The IXPE observatory features thre Satellite Vu orders first satellite from SSTL
Friday, 17 December 2021 04:20
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) won a contract from British Earth observation startup Satellite Vu to build the first satellite in a constellation designed to provide thermal infrared imaging for climate change applications.
Interoperability demo planned between DARPA’s Blackjack and PredaSAR satellites
Thursday, 16 December 2021 23:01
PredaSAR won a $2 million contract from the U.S. Space Force to demonstrate interoperability between its satellites and the Blackjack military constellation.
Intelsat gets bankruptcy court approval to exit Chapter 11 in early 2022
Thursday, 16 December 2021 22:52
Intelsat is poised to exit Chapter 11 in early 2022, after its bankruptcy court approved a restructuring plan that cuts the satellite operator’s debt from about $16 billion to $7 billion.
Satellogic nearing completion of SPAC merger
Thursday, 16 December 2021 22:06
Earth observation company Satellogic expects to begin trading on the Nasdaq next week after completing a merger with special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC).
Opening a 50-year-old Christmas present from the Moon
Thursday, 16 December 2021 21:17
A pretty special gift unwrapping will soon take place – a piercing tool built by ESA will open a Moon soil container from Apollo 17 that has gone untouched for nearly 50 years. The opening will allow the extraction of precious lunar gases which may have been preserved in the sample.
Defense policy bill gives a budget boost to space programs
Thursday, 16 December 2021 21:06
The 2022 National Defense Authorization Act adds more than $645 million to Defense Department space programs above the Biden administration’s request.
Astronomers spy quartet of cavities from giant black holes
Thursday, 16 December 2021 20:04
Scientists have found four enormous cavities, or bubbles, at the center of a galaxy cluster using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This unusual set of features may have been caused by eruptions from two supermassive black holes closely orbiting each other.
Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the universe held together by gravity. They are a mixture of hundreds or even thousands of individual galaxies, enormous amounts of hot gas, and unseen dark matter. The hot gas that pervades clusters contains much more mass than the galaxies themselves, and glows brightly in X-ray light that Chandra detects. An enormous galaxy is usually found at the center of a cluster.
A new Chandra study of the galaxy cluster known as RBS 797, located about 3.9 billion light-years from Earth, uncovered two separate pairs of cavities extending away from the center of the cluster.
Pléiades Neo 4 satellite enters service without a hitch
Thursday, 16 December 2021 19:16
Pléiades Neo 4, the second of four planned high-resolution images satellites built and operated by Airbus Defense and Space, entered service Dec. 15 free from an issue that prompted an insurance claim for Pléiades Neo 3.