Lucy preparing for its first asteroid flyby
Friday, 20 October 2023 09:49
NASA's Lucy spacecraft is preparing for its first close-up look at an asteroid. On Nov. 1, it will fly by asteroid Dinkinesh and test its instruments in preparation for visits in the next decade to multiple Trojan asteroids that circle the Sun in the same orbit as Jupiter.
Dinkinesh, less than half a mile, or 1 kilometer, wide, circles the Sun in the main belt of asteroids located between NASA's innovative rocket nozzle paves way for deep space missions
Friday, 20 October 2023 09:49
NASA recently built and tested an additively-manufactured - or 3D printed - rocket engine nozzle made of aluminum, making it lighter than conventional nozzles and setting the course for deep space flights that can carry more payloads.
Under the agency's Announcement of Collaborative Opportunity, engineers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, partnered with Eleme Record-breaking fast radio burst offers path to weigh the Universe
Friday, 20 October 2023 09:49
In a paper published in Science, a global team led by Macquarie University's Dr Stuart Ryder and Swinburne University of Technology's Associate Professor Ryan Shannon, report on their discovery of the most ancient and distant fast radio burst located to date, about eight billion years old.
The discovery smashes the team's previous record by 50 per cent. It confirms that fast radio bursts ( Patterns in Sun's layers has implications for longstanding solar mystery
Friday, 20 October 2023 09:49
Astronomers at ARC are one step closer to understanding an enduring solar mystery by capturing the most detailed representations to date of the magnetic field of the 'quiet Sun' - and discovering something unexpected in the process.
The researchers from the Astrophysics Research Centre (ARC) at the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen's have collected groundbreaking data with the US Welcome to the Drillhole Family, 'Sequoia': Sols 3982-3983: Welcome
Friday, 20 October 2023 09:49
Earth planning date: Wednesday, October 18, 2023: The target 'Sequoia' has been successfully drilled! The image today is one of my favourites - the shadow of the rover mast, and the perfectly drilled target in the background... it doesn't get much better than that! Curiosity stays in place for a little while longer for CheMin analysis of the drilled material, and no drive meant we had more power 
Earth from Space: Panama Canal
Friday, 20 October 2023 07:00
Image:
Like shining jewels in the water, ships passing through the Panama Canal, which cuts across Central America, have been captured in this Copernicus Sentinel-1 image. U.S. Space Force seeks to work closer with allies in face of shared threats
Thursday, 19 October 2023 21:35
UK funds surveillance satellite replacement lost in Virgin Orbit failure
Thursday, 19 October 2023 20:54
NASA's Lucy spacecraft preparing for its first asteroid flyby
Thursday, 19 October 2023 20:25
China rolls out rocket for Shenzhou-17 mission to Tiangong
Thursday, 19 October 2023 20:14
Blue Origin reveals its orbital maneuvering vehicle: Blue Ring
Thursday, 19 October 2023 18:24
The Jeff Bezos-founded aerospace company, Blue Origin, recently announced its new and upcoming Swiss army knife-style spacecraft platform, Blue Ring, which comes after very little public discussion by Blue Origin regarding this project. For example, a January 2023 story broke when Blue Origin briefly announced a job posting for Blue Ring Senior Program Manager on its Careers page, but the job was pulled less than 24 hours later. Overall, Blue Origin has been quite mum about Blue Ring.
While the most recent announcement was brief, it conveyed how the goal of Blue Ring will be to provide a multitude of services, including logistics, refueling, and transportation, and is slated to be part of a new Blue Origin business unit called In-Space Systems.
Growing plants in space
Thursday, 19 October 2023 16:30
As NASA plans missions to the moon and Mars, a key factor is figuring out how to feed crew members during their weeks, months, and even years in space.
Astronauts on the International Space Station primarily eat prepackaged food, which requires regular resupply and can degrade in quality and nutrition. Researchers are exploring the idea of crews growing some of their food during a mission, testing various crops and equipment to figure out how to do this without a lot of extra hardware or power.
Picking the right plants
The first step in this research is identifying which plants to test. NASA started a project in 2015 with the Fairchild Botanical Garden in Miami called "Growing Beyond Earth." The program has recruited hundreds of middle and high school science classes across the U.S. to grow different seeds in a habitat similar to one on the space station.
A patch for the stars
Thursday, 19 October 2023 14:19
Image:
Marcus Wandt in Axiom Space flightsuit