A robot made of ice could adapt and repair itself on other worlds
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 14:06
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Some of the most tantalizing targets in space exploration are frozen ice worlds. Take Jupiter's moon Europa, for instance. Its warm, salty subsurface ocean is buried under a moon-wide sheet of ice. What's the best way to explore it?
Maybe an ice robot could play a role.
Though the world's space agencies—especially NASA—are getting better and better at building robots to explore places like Mars, those robots have limitations. Perhaps chief among those limitations is the possibility of breakdown. Once a rover on Mars—or somewhere even more distant—breaks down, it's game over. There's no feasible way to repair something like MSL Curiosity if it breaks down while exploring the Martian surface.
But what if the world being explored was a frozen one, and the robot was made of ice? Could icy robots perform self-repair, even in a limited fashion? Could they actually be manufactured and assembled there, even partly?
Director General’s annual press conference 2021
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 13:37 Write a comment
Join our start-of-year press conference with ESA Director General Jan Wörner and future Director General Josef Aschbacher plus other ESA Directors when they meet online on Thursday, 14 January 2021. The event starts at 09:30 GMT / 10:30 CET. Watch live on #ESAwebTV.
Blue Origin preparing for next New Shepard flight
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 12:30 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Blue Origin is gearing up for the next test flight of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle as soon as Jan. 14.
Temporary flight restrictions published by the Federal Aviation Administration Jan. 12 will close airspace above Blue Origin’s West Texas test site from Jan.
Image: Underwater astronaut training
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 12:29 Write a comment
Prepping for a spacewalk typically means diving underwater to rehearse and fine-tune operations.
In 2016, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst performed such an underwater rehearsal for the ColKa high speed radio, the brown box imaged above, that will be installed this month on the International Space Station.
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover will integrate the small fridge-sized device outside the European Columbus module during a spacewalk scheduled this year. ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen will be at NASA's mission control directing the spacewalkers as Capcom. The Columbus Ka-band terminal, nicknamed "ColKa," will enable faster communication with Europe.
Orbiting the planet every 90 minutes means the Space Station is constantly making and breaking short links with ground stations on Earth as it passes over them at a height of 400 km.
With Colka, a European telecommunications satellite in geostationary orbit can pick up data sent from the Columbus module. This satellite is part of the European Data Relay System and will be able to directly relay the signals from Columbus to European soil via a ground station in Harwell, in the U.K.
NASA and Japan finalize Gateway agreement
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 11:18 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — NASA and the Japanese government have completed an agreement outlining Japan’s contributions to the lunar Gateway as NASA works to wrap up international contributions to the outpost.
NASA announced Jan. 12 it signed an agreement with the Japanese government governing Japan’s contributions to the Gateway.
Spain’s chilly blanket
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 10:54 Write a comment
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The heavy snowfall that hit Spain a few days ago still lies heavy across much of the country as this Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite image shows. Exotrail aims for more in orbit space mobility
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
Exotrail reports full success of first-ever cubesat mission equipped with Hall-effect electric propulsion technology. Through an In-Orbit Demonstration mission launched to Low Earth Orbit on 7th of November 2020 onboard a PSLV rocket, Exotrail nominally ignited its ExoMGTM Hall-effect electric propulsion system on the first attempt.
Small satellite constellations will now be able to quickl Prepping for a spacewalk to install Colka on ISS external hull
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
Prepping for a spacewalk typically means diving underwater to rehearse and fine-tune operations.
In 2016, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst performed such an underwater rehearsal for the Colka high speed radio, the brown box imaged above, that will be installed this month on the International Space Station.
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover will integrate the small fridge-si New solar arrays to power International Space Station Research
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
As the International Space Station orbits Earth, its four pairs of solar arrays soak up the sun's energy to provide electrical power for the numerous research and science investigations conducted every day, as well as the continued operations of the orbiting platform.
The space station is the springboard to NASA's Artemis missions to the Moon, a platform to test advanced technologies for h Cargo Dragon undocks from Station and heads for splashdown
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
With NASA astronaut Victor Glover monitoring aboard the International Space Station, an upgraded SpaceX cargo Dragon spacecraft undocked from the International Docking Adapter on the station's space-facing port of the Harmony module at 9:05 a.m. EST.
It is the first undocking of a U.S. commercial cargo craft from the complex. Previous cargo Dragon spacecraft were attached and removed from DARPA's Operational Fires Ground-Launched Hypersonics program enters new phase
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
DARPA's Operational Fires (OpFires) program, which is developing a ground-launched intermediate-range hypersonic weapons system, is advancing to a new phase. Phase 3b will involve full-scale missile fabrication, assembly, and flight testing from a launch vehicle.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control was awarded this new contract modification after leading a successful Phase 3a integra NASA readies Astrobee flying robots for serious space science
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station are preparing new Astrobee flying robots to enhance science on the orbiting laboratory - a technology that could be vital to future deep space exploration.
The cube-shaped machines float in the microgravity of orbit and use jets of compressed air to maneuver. Astrobees can be operated by the space station crew or by people on Earth China makes progress in developing rocket engines for space missions
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
China is creating a new line of rocket engines for its upcoming space missions, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced Tuesday.
According to the state-owned satellite and rocket maker, progress has been made in key technologies for a hydrogen/oxygen high-thrust staged combustion cycle engine, which will serve the country's heavy-lift carrier rockets. NASA, Japan formalize Gateway Partnership for Artemis Program
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
NASA and the Government of Japan have finalized an agreement for the lunar Gateway, an orbiting outpost that commercial and international partners will build together. This agreement strengthens the broad effort by the United States to engage international partners in sustainable lunar exploration as part of the Artemis program and to demonstrate the technologies needed for human missions to Mar Why do some regions on the dwarf planet Ceres appear blue
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
This month marks the 220th anniversary of the discovery of the first asteroid. During the night of 1-2 January 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi, the director of Palermo Astronomical Observatory, noticed a 'star' on the shoulder of the bull-shaped constellation, Taurus. But the position of the star was changing each night. Piazzi had discovered Ceres, the largest body in the vast space between the planets M