NASA's Perseverance captures challenging flight by Mars Helicopter
Friday, 19 November 2021 08:02
Video footage from NASA's Perseverance Mars rover of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's 13th flight on Sept. 4 provides the most detailed look yet of the rotorcraft in action.
Ingenuity is currently prepping for its 16th flight, scheduled to take place no earlier than Saturday, Nov. 20, but the 160.5-second Flight 13 stands out as one of Ingenuity's most complicated.
It involved flying Rocket Lab signs exclusive deal to use APL space radio technologies
Friday, 19 November 2021 08:02
Rocket Lab USA entered into an exclusive license agreement with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) to commercialize near and deep space capable small spacecraft telemetry and control radio technology. The Frontier-S by Rocket Lab software defined radio (SDR) enables affordable communications and radio navigation for planetary and other missions beyond low Earth orbit ( Bezos' Blue Origin hires lobbyist after 'Space Tax' proposed
Friday, 19 November 2021 08:02
This year, the company spent over $1.3 million on lobbying, in addition to $2 million in 2020. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin hired Mac Campbell from Capitol Counsel - a lobbyist who had relations with the Obama administration, CBS reported. Campbell was an assistant US trade representative while working under Obama and then served as the general counsel and deputy staff director of the Senate Finance Twin of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover begins terrain tests
Friday, 19 November 2021 08:02
OPTIMISM, the full-scale engineering model of Perseverance, begins a series of rigorous tests to assess the risk of potential driving hazards on the surface of the Red Planet.
On a recent day in November, the car-size rover rolled slowly forward, then stopped, perched on the threshold of a Martian landscape. But this rover, named OPTIMISM, wasn't on the Red Planet. And the landscape was a Highly specialized team to design vehicle for sustainable lunar surface mobility operations
Friday, 19 November 2021 08:02
Northrop Grumman, is teaming up with AVL, Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Michelin to design a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) to transport NASA's Artemis astronauts around the lunar surface. This team provides multi-disciplinary expertise that is ready to deliver an innovative solution to NASA for lunar surface mobility.
"Together with our teammates, we will provide NASA with an agile Ingenuity makes short hop to the north for Flight 16
Friday, 19 November 2021 08:02
With Flight 15, Ingenuity began the journey back towards "Wright Brothers Field" at "Octavia E. Butler Landing," the site where Perseverance touched down with Ingenuity in February. This flight was performed with the recently-increased rotor speed of 2,700 rpm. After reviewing the data from Flight 15, the Ingenuity team is prepared to attempt our Flight 16 no earlier than Thursday, Nov. 18. Curiosity continues to dine on Zechstein drill fines
Friday, 19 November 2021 08:02
The SAM and CheMin instrument teams decided that they did not require further analyses of the "Zechstein" drill sample. It is the turn of the arm-mounted MAHLI and APXS instruments to have their taste of the drilled fines. The Zechstein sample held within the drill bit assembly will be dumped out onto the ground, imaged by MAHLI and then analyzed by APXS to determine the composition.
The c The worlds next door: Looking for habitable planets around Alpha Centauri
Friday, 19 November 2021 08:02
A mission to discover new planets potentially capable of sustaining life around Earth's nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri, was announced this week by Sydney University.
The proposed telescope project will look for planets in the 'Goldilocks' zone around the star system just four light years away, where temperatures could allow for liquid surface water on rocky planets.
Work on the pro Alien organisms - hitchhikers of the galaxy
Friday, 19 November 2021 08:02
Scientists warn, without good biosecurity measures 'alien organisms' on Earth may become a reality stranger than fiction.
Published in international journal BioSciences, a team of scientists, including Dr Phill Cassey, Head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Adelaide, are calling for greater recognition of the biosecurity risks ahead of the space ind "Alien" invasions and the need for planetary biosecurity
Friday, 19 November 2021 08:02
The era of space exploration brings with it a new risk: invasion. The peril comes not from little green men arriving on flying saucers but, rather, from microbiological contamination of Earth from extraterrestrial environments and vice versa. Writing in BioScience, Anthony Ricciardi, of McGill University, and colleagues describe the dangers posed by such organisms and outline an approach to addr Space dust presents opportunities, challenges as Parker Solar Probe speeds towards Sun
Friday, 19 November 2021 08:02
Propelled by a recent swing past Venus, NASA's Parker Solar Probe is healthy and performing normally as it heads toward its next closest approach to the Sun on Nov. 21.
Parker Solar Probe will break its own distance and speed records on that approach - the 10th of 24 planned, progressively closer trips around the Sun - when it comes about 5.3 million miles (8.5 million kilometers) from the Earth from Space: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Friday, 19 November 2021 08:00
Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, is featured in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.
Moonshot: Japan recruits first new astronauts in 13 years
Friday, 19 November 2021 07:51
It's one small step for Japan, but one giant opportunity for would-be space cadets: the country is recruiting new astronauts for the first time in over a decade and applicants no longer have to hold a science degree.
Women are strongly encouraged to put themselves forward for the job, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said, as all seven of the nation's current astronauts are men.
Successful applicants, who must be Japanese, will be trained and sent on missions—potentially to the Moon, the Lunar Gateway or the International Space Station.
"We want to establish a (recruiting) system that matches the current time," JAXA's Kazuyoshi Kawasaki said at a media briefing.
"Previously we limited candidates to those with a natural science degree, but many of us agreed to make it not a requirement."
However, written exams will include university-level questions on science, technology, engineering and maths, with the applicants' English ability also tested.
JAXA said it will accept applications between December 20 and March 4—the first time it has offered positions for rookie astronauts in 13 years.
Interest in SPAC mergers declining
Thursday, 18 November 2021 22:12
While SPAC mergers dominated the space industry for much of the year, one expert sees warning signs of waning interest in this way of taking companies public.
Moon lighting: partial lunar eclipse to be longest since 1440
Thursday, 18 November 2021 20:29
The longest partial lunar eclipse in nearly 600 years, which will bathe the Moon in red, will be visible Thursday and Friday for a big slice of humanity.
The celestial show will see the Moon almost completely cast in shadow as it moves behind the Earth, reddening 99 percent of its face.
The spectacle will be visible for all of North America, as well as parts of South America, Polynesia, Australia and northeast Asia.
Space scientists say sky-watchers in those parts who are blessed with a cloud-free view will see a slight dimming of the Moon from 0602 GMT Friday as it enters Earth's penumbra—the outer shadow.
An hour later it will appear as if someone has taken a giant bite out of the lunar disc as it starts to pass into the umbra—the full shadow.
By 0845 GMT the Moon will appear red, with the most vivid coloring visible at peak eclipse 18 minutes later.