There might be many planets with water-rich atmospheres
Monday, 15 March 2021 07:55
An atmosphere is what makes life on Earth's surface possible, regulating our climate and sheltering us from damaging cosmic rays. But although telescopes have counted a growing number of rocky planets, scientists had thought most of their atmospheres long lost.
However, a new study by University of Chicago and Stanford University researchers suggests a mechanism whereby these planets could Skoltech and MIT explore human landing system architectures for Moon landings
Monday, 15 March 2021 07:55
Researchers from Skoltech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have analyzed several dozen options to pick the best one in terms of performance and costs for the 'last mile' of a future mission to the Moon - actually delivering astronauts to the lunar surface and back up to the safety of the orbiting lunar station. The paper was published in the journal Acta Astronautica.
Ever sin NASA Partners with Companies to Test Satellite Fixtures for Robotic Grappling
Monday, 15 March 2021 07:55
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, has chosen three companies to participate in a new partnership to test and evaluate satellite servicing technologies.
Altius Space Machines of Broomfield, Colorado, Honeybee Robotics of Brooklyn, New York, and Orbit Fab of San Francisco will provide cooperative robotic grapple fixtures and data to be studied by NASA's Exploration a LMT collaborates with Dimetor to enable connectivity in VLL airspace
Monday, 15 March 2021 07:55
Mobile innovator LMT and software company Dimetor have partnered to explore the integration of drones into VLL (very low level) airspace. This builds on earlier collaboration where the two companies succeeded in validating the viability of BVLOS drone flights using mobile networks. The current collaboration entails investigative research into the theoretical and practical possibilities of using Gamma Ray Observatory discovers origin of highest-energy cosmic rays in galaxy
Monday, 15 March 2021 07:55
A long-time question in astrophysics appears to finally be answered, thanks to a collection of large, high-tech water tanks on a mountainside in Mexico. The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) data shows that the highest-energy cosmic rays come not from supernovae, but from star clusters.
"The origin of the highest-energy cosmic rays in the galaxy has been an open question in astrophysics The March Council edition of ESA Impact is online
Monday, 15 March 2021 07:35
The March Council edition of ESA Impact is online
NASA astronaut may have extended stay on ISS
Sunday, 14 March 2021 23:48
WASHINGTON — A NASA astronaut flying to the International Space Station in April could spend up to a year on the station, an extended stay that he said he was “enthusiastic” about.
NASA announced March 9 that Mark Vande Hei would fly on the Soyuz MS-18 mission to the space station, launching April 9.
Veteran scientist Stefanie Tompkins takes the helm at DARPA
Sunday, 14 March 2021 20:23
WASHINGTON — Stefanie Tompkins on March 15 assumed the top post at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Tompkins is DARPA’s 23rd director.
She is a former military intelligence officer in the U.S.
With SpaceX partnership, ISS enters its 'Golden Age'—but what comes next?
Sunday, 14 March 2021 18:10
After 20 years of continuous habitation, the International Space Station has entered its "Golden Age" and is abuzz with activity—thanks in large part to the return of US rocket launches via commercial partner SpaceX.
But though the near- future of this symbol of post-Cold War cooperation is assured, NASA wants to begin disengaging by the end of the decade, leaving a gap that the private sector and China hope to fill.
Air Force enlists Viasat to help integrate commercial and military satellite networks
Sunday, 14 March 2021 16:44
WASHINGTON — The incompatibilities between government and commercial satellite networks have been a nagging problem the U.S. Air Force spent years trying to solve.
In an effort to come up with solutions, the Air Force Research Laboratory signed a seven-year $50.8 million contract last month with the global satellite communications company Viasat.
How Speedcast is navigating the perfect storm: Q&A with CEO Joe Spytek
Sunday, 14 March 2021 16:40
Speedcast is emerging from bankruptcy into a very different satellite communications market.
Bankruptcies, acquisitions and an ongoing pandemic are continuing to reshape an industry in the midst of major technological and financial disruption.
But while COVID-19 disproportionally drags on verticals such as energy, maritime and aero — helping push satcom players like Speedcast, Intelsat and Global Eagle Entertainment into restructuring — it is also accelerating digitalization trends that promise new opportunities for connectivity providers that can ride out the storm.
How do you become an astronaut? Just ask Playmobil’s ROBert…
Sunday, 14 March 2021 16:15
In a series of exciting video stories featuring the Playmobil toy system, the ever-knowledgeable robot host ROBert is assisted by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano to explain how you can become an astronaut and what it’s like to live in space.
Relativity Space wins U.S. military contract for 2023 launch
Sunday, 14 March 2021 16:02
WASHINGTON — Relativity Space was selected to launch a small U.S. military payload to orbit in 2023 using a 3D-printed rocket.
The company in a statement March 15 said it received its first Defense Department contract to launch a DoD Space Test Program mission.
Image: Lomonosov crater on Mars
Sunday, 14 March 2021 14:08
At first glance this captivating scene peering through wispy clouds and down onto a dune field is reminiscent of a satellite view of one of Earth's deserts, but this is in fact a beautiful landscape on Mars.
This spectacular dune field sits in the center of Lomonosov crater, deep in the northern hemisphere of Mars (65ºN, 351ºE). It was imaged by the CaSSIS camera on the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) on 2 December, 2020. The image was taken as part of a campaign to track the evolution of the dune field throughout the year.
At this time, northern winter was coming to an end on Mars and the frost over these areas had begun to sublimate. The darker spots indicate areas where frost has sublimated and the darker basaltic sand is visible. The crests of the dunes indicate the average wind direction, in this case, the wind comes predominantly from the bottom left to the top right of the image. To the right, darker, more basaltic rich and frost-free sediments are visible. It is also in the right of the image that bright white clouds stand out against the darker sediments on the ground.