ThinKom antenna design offers flexible installation options for special-purpose aircraft
Wednesday, 17 March 2021 09:02
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ThinKom Solutions, Inc. has developed a new product variant of its VICTS aero satellite communication antennas enabling more flexible installation choices and allowing for smaller distributed and embedded phased-array applications.
The new product variant, which targets government and military beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) satellite communication markets, integrates the VICTS antenna, antenn Goddard's first liquid-fueled rocket
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It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow. Robert H. Goddard.
Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) is recognized as the father of American rocketry and as one of the pioneers in the theoretical exploration of space. Goddard dreamt of exploring the Earth's upper atmosphere and, ultimately, space using rocket propulsion. A Perseverance captures the sounds of driving on Mars
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As the Perseverance rover began to make tracks on the surface of Mars, a sensitive microphone it carries scored a first: the bangs, pings, and rattles of the robot's six wheels as they rolled over Martian terrain.
"A lot of people, when they see the images, don't appreciate that the wheels are metal," said Vandi Verma, a senior engineer and rover driver at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Jupiter's Great Red Spot feeds on smaller storms
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The stormy, centuries-old maelstrom of Jupiter's Great Red Spot was shaken but not destroyed by a series of anticyclones that crashed into it over the past few years.
The smaller storms cause chunks of red clouds to flake off, shrinking the larger storm in the process. But the new study found that these disruptions are "superficial." They are visible to us, but they are only skin deep on t Peering into a galaxy's dusty core to study an active supermassive black hole
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Researchers using NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will map and model the core of nearby galaxy Centaurus A.
Centaurus A is a giant of a galaxy, but its appearances in telescope observations can be deceiving. Dark dust lanes and young blue star clusters, which crisscross its central region, are apparent in ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light, painting a fairly subdued l Missing baryons found in far-out reaches of galactic halos
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Researchers have channeled the universe's earliest light - a relic of the universe's formation known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB) - to solve a missing-matter mystery and learn new things about galaxy formation. Their work could also help us to better understand dark energy and test Einstein's theory of general relativity by providing new details about the rate at which galaxies are m A brighter future for gravitational-wave astronomy
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Future gravitational-wave detectors on Earth will use laser light with even higher power than in current instruments. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute, AEI), the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH), and Leibniz University Hannover have now developed a new laser system for this purpose.
They combined the custom tailored light from Perseverance rover captures the sounds of driving on Mars
Wednesday, 17 March 2021 08:11 Write a comment
NASA's newest rover recorded audio of itself crunching over the surface of the Red Planet, adding a whole new dimension to Mars exploration.
As the Perseverance rover began to make tracks on the surface of Mars, a sensitive microphone it carries scored a first: the bangs, pings, and rattles of the robot's six wheels as they rolled over Martian terrain.
"A lot of people, when they see the images, don't appreciate that the wheels are metal," said Vandi Verma, a senior engineer and rover driver at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
NASA to revisit Artemis 1 launch date after Green Run test
Wednesday, 17 March 2021 02:02 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — NASA should be able to set a new date for the Artemis 1 launch within a few weeks of the Green Run static-fire test of the Space Launch System core stage, assuming that test goes as expected.
Lawmaker warns remote sensing industry could be challenged by security and privacy issues
Tuesday, 16 March 2021 23:24 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Satellite imaging providers last year welcomed new rules from the Commerce Department that streamlined the licensing process for private operators.
The revamped regulations were intended to help U.S. remote sensing companies compete in the booming global market for space-based data.
Thomas Pesquet: Biography and training
Tuesday, 16 March 2021 16:00 Write a comment
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Born in Rouen, France, aerospace engineer and commercial pilot Thomas Pesquet was selected for ESA’s Astronaut Corps in 2009. He was launched on his first flight to the International Space Station in November 2016, remaining in space until June 2017 as part of his Proxima mission. He will soon be launched for on his second long-duration mission to the International Space Station called Alpha. Thomas has been training with the Station’s international partners for the new mission, including learning about the Crew Dragon, he will be the first ESA astronaut to fly on this new commercial spacecraft.
A pocket guide to Mars: Now you can buy an atlas for the Red Planet
Tuesday, 16 March 2021 14:10 Write a comment
A pocket atlas of Mars has been published that uses geographic techniques developed for terrestrial maps to reveal a wealth of information about the surface of the Red Planet, as well as its climate and cloud cover. The atlas is being presented this week at the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
The 84-page atlas is currently available in English, Hungarian and Czech, and will be available in a digital format later this year. The atlas, which has been developed for use in astronomy clubs and schools, was funded by the Europlanet Society through its Central European Hub.
The main part of the atlas consists of a series of double spreads showing each of the 30 cartographic quadrangles into which the surface of Mars has been divided by the US Geological Survey. The landforms created by lava, wind, water, and ice are shown separately on a topographic base map, highlighting features such as dune fields, mountain peaks, volcanic calderas, caves, ancient dried-up lakes and deltas, and fault lines.
Ten years of safer skies with Europe's other satnav system
Tuesday, 16 March 2021 14:00 Write a comment
A Titan mission could refuel on site and return a sample to Earth
Tuesday, 16 March 2021 12:30 Write a comment
This decade promises to be an exciting time for space exploration. Already, the Perseverance rover has landed on Mars and begun conducting science operations. Later this year, the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), and Lucy spacecraft (the first mission to Jupiter's Trojan asteroids) will launch. Before the decade is out, missions will also be sent to Europa and Titan to extend the search for signs of life in our solar system.
Currently, NASA's plan for exploring Titan (Saturn's largest moon) is to send a nuclear-powered quadcopter named Dragonfly to explore the atmosphere and surface. However, another possibility that was presented this year as part of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program is to send a sample-return vehicle with Dragonfly that could fuel up using liquid methane harvested from Titan's surface.
Known as A Titan Sample Return Using In-Situ Propellants, this mission would present some serious advantages over conventional sample-return missions. Ordinarily, missions to distant celestial objects either need to bring along enough propellant for the return trip (which means a lot of added mass and higher costs), or to have a nuclear battery that can provide power for several years.
Aerojet not concerned about any changes to Artemis program
Tuesday, 16 March 2021 11:37 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Aerojet Rocketdyne doesn’t expect any potential changes to the Artemis program to have much of an effect on its business supplying engines for NASA’s Space Launch System.
Speaking at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference March 15, Dan Boehle, chief financial officer of Aerojet Rocketdyne, played down any impacts of possible changes to the Artemis program by the new Biden administration, including delaying a human return to the surface of the moon to later in the decade.