NASA Discoveries, R&D, Moon to Mars Exploration Plans Persevere in 2020
Sunday, 20 December 2020 15:21
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“NASA has impressed the nation with our resilience and persistence during the pandemic,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. Jupiter and Saturn cheek-to-cheek in rare celestial dance
Sunday, 20 December 2020 15:19 Write a comment
The solar system's two biggest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, came within planetary kissing range in Monday's evening sky, an intimacy that will not occur again until 2080.
This "great conjunction", as it is known to astronomers, occurred fortuitously on the winter solstice for those in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of summer in the global south.
The two planets were, in fact, more than 730 million kilometres (400 million miles) apart. But because of their alignment in relation to Earth, they appeared to be closer to each other than at any time in almost 400 years.
Optimal "conjunction" took place at 1822 GMT.
The best viewing conditions on Monday were in clear skies and close to the Equator, while people in Western Europe and along a vast swathe of Africa had to train their sight to the southwest.
But hundreds of space fans also gathered in Kolkata to watch—through a telescope at a technology museum in the city, or from surrounding rooftops and open areas.
How to get people from Earth to Mars and safely back again
Sunday, 20 December 2020 15:04 Write a comment
There are many things humanity must overcome before any return journey to Mars is launched.
The two major players are NASA and SpaceX, which work together intimately on missions to the International Space Station but have competing ideas of what a crewed Mars mission would look like.
Size matters
The biggest challenge (or constraint) is the mass of the payload (spacecraft, people, fuel, supplies etc) needed to make the journey.
We still talk about launching something into space being like launching its weight in gold.
The payload mass is usually just a small percentage of the total mass of the launch vehicle.
For example, the Saturn V rocket that launched Apollo 11 to the Moon weighed 3,000 tons.
But it could launch only 140 tons (5% of its initial launch mass) to low Earth orbit, and 50 tons (less than 2% of its initial launch mass) to the Moon.
Mass constrains the size of a Mars spacecraft and what it can do in space.
Major changes coming over the horizon for the global space industry
Sunday, 20 December 2020 14:50 Write a comment
The attention of the world has recently been captured by the return of Japan's Hayabusa-2 asteroid mission, the activities of Elon Musk's SpaceX venture, and China's Chang'e 5 moon landing, yet a quiet revolution is taking place in the global space industry. This revolution started in the 2010s and its full impact on global space industry should be measured over the next decade.
In the next 10 years, the entry into service of constellations of small satellites should reshape the face of the global space industry.
Instruments installed on Euclid spacecraft
Sunday, 20 December 2020 13:00 Write a comment
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Instruments installed on Euclid spacecraft How to photograph Monday's Winter Solstice from your phone
Sunday, 20 December 2020 12:43 Write a comment
Another great photo opportunity occurs Monday after sundown: the Winter Solstice and the sighting of the "Christmas Star."
You can use a smartphone to capture what is promised to be the closest visible conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 800 years. The planets are expected to appear as one large star, lighting up the sky.
"Shooting a night sky is one of the most amazing things you can witness," says travel photographer Austin Mann.
You don't need a fancy DSLR or mirrorless camera to capture the light show. Mann and other photographers say you can get a great shot on a smartphone.
The 2020 and 2019 editions of the iPhone (11 and 12 series) offer "Night Mode," for making dark shots more possible for smartphone photographers, while the Google Pixel introduced "Night Sight," in the Pixel 4 and 5 series.
Samsung doesn't have an official name for night sky photos, but says it too can do awesome night photos on recent Galaxy S edition phones, and shows off examples on its website.
Mann recommends going to your location shortly after sunset, which is generally between 4:20 and 4:45 in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Chang’e-5 orbiter embarks on extended mission to Sun-Earth Lagrange point
Sunday, 20 December 2020 12:39 Write a comment
HELSINKI — China’s Chang’e-5 orbiter is heading for a gravitationally stable point in space on an extended mission after delivering fresh lunar samples to Earth.
Lockheed Martin To Acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne
Sunday, 20 December 2020 04:14 Write a comment
Lockheed Martin has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AJRD) for $56 per share in cash, which is expected to be reduced to $51 per share after the payment of a pre-closing special dividend.
This represents a post-dividend equity value of $4.6 billion and a total transaction value of $4.4 billion including the assumption of net cash. Steampunk in Orbit
Sunday, 20 December 2020 04:14 Write a comment
December 18, 2020 - Since their introduction in 1999, CubeSats have made a dramatic mark in space, widely used for technology demonstrations, earth sensing, telecom and other missions. But their full potential has been held back by the lack of a good propulsion solution.
That's about to change, thanks to a breakthrough engine design which Howe Industries has submitted to the National Scien Hughes selected by OneWeb for Ground system development and production under new $250 million contract
Sunday, 20 December 2020 04:14 Write a comment
Hughes Network Systems has been chosen by OneWeb, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband satellite communications company, to develop and manufacture essential ground system technology for the new LEO constellation. In a three-year contract valued at approximately $250 million, Hughes will produce the gateway electronics for the OneWeb system as well as the core module that will be used in every us Exotrail secures French government support to develop propulsion technologies for small GEO satellites
Sunday, 20 December 2020 04:14 Write a comment
The French Armament General Directorate, through the Defence Innovation Agency, is supporting Exotrail to develop technologies allowing small satellites to operate in geostationary orbit. Under the RAPID programme, a funding framework operated by the Defence Innovation Agency, Exotrail will mature its technologies and extend their product portfolio to provide thrust vectoring and cold gas propul UP42 to Offer Smart Satellite Data from Australia's LatConnect 60 on the UP42 Geospatial Marketplace
Sunday, 20 December 2020 04:14 Write a comment
UP42 has announced that image data and information from the planned LatConnect 60 constellation of mid-inclined orbit remote sensing satellites will be available on the UP42 developer platform for Earth observation data and analytics.
In early 2022, LatConnect 60 will launch its first two "smart" small satellites equipped with onboard Artificial Intelligence (AI) for data pre-processing an Graduate student's BADASS code has astronomical benefits
Sunday, 20 December 2020 04:14 Write a comment
An astro-statistics course University of California, Riverside, graduate student Remington O. Sexton took three years ago taught him techniques that led him to develop free, open-source code benefiting astronomers everywhere.
Called BADASS, which stands for Bayesian AGN Decomposition Analysis for SDSS Spectra, the code in its current form fits astronomical spectra of active galactic nuclei Lockheed Martin to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne for $4.4 billion
Sunday, 20 December 2020 00:27 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The largest U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin announced Dec. 20 it has inked a deal to acquire rocket engine and missile manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne for $4.4 billion.
James Taiclet, Lockheed Martin’s president and CEO, said the acquisition gives the company a larger footprint in space and hypersonic technology.
Op-ed | Protecting our assets from space debris
Saturday, 19 December 2020 19:25 Write a comment
On Nov. 2, the United States and its International Space Station partner nations celebrated 20 years of humans continuously living and working in outer space. Much has changed in the space environment over the past two decades, but one thing is clear: congestion in space — especially the explosive growth in space debris — has created an increasingly dangerous environment for our astronauts and satellites in orbit.