Copernical Team
ESA Tests Guidance Systems for Hera Asteroid Mission
As ESA's Hera spacecraft undergoes pre-flight testing, its Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) system is also being finalized for space operations around a binary asteroid system.
The GNC system is being validated through virtual maneuvers conducted in Spain and Germany. At GMV's headquarters in Madrid, Hera's On-Board Computer is tested using a model asteroid for realistic proximity ope Asteroid Dinkinesh Has Dual Moons, Researchers Discover
When NASA's Lucy spacecraft flew past its first official target, Dinkinesh, in November 2023, researchers discovered that the asteroid, known as "Dinky," was accompanied by a satellite asteroid named "Selam." Further data from Lucy revealed that Selam is not a single moon but a contact binary-two moons fused together.
The Lucy team, including University of Maryland Professor Jessica Sunshi Western geologists test instrument for Mars rover mission in search for life
The search for life beyond Earth drives space exploration, and the discovery of clay minerals on Mars continues to captivate scientists. Clay formation, linked to rocks interacting with water, provides insights into the past habitability of Mars.
Western planetary geologists Livio Tornabene and Gordon Osinski lead an international team to study clay formation on Mars. Supported by a three- Galactic Energy Completes Second Sea-Based Launch Mission
Galactic Energy, a private rocket maker in Beijing, completed the second sea-based launch mission of its Ceres 1 carrier rocket on Wednesday afternoon.
The company said in a news release that the rocket blasted off at 4:12 pm from a mobile launch platform - a modified deck barge - in the Yellow Sea off the eastern province of Shandong and then sent four satellites into an orbit about 850 k MDA Space Partners with Starlab Space in Commercial Space Station Venture
Starlab Space LLC, the joint venture between Voyager Space, Airbus, and Mitsubishi Corporation, has announced that MDA Space Ltd. (TSX:MDA) has joined as a strategic partner and equity owner. This partnership expands the venture's reach into Canada.
MDA Space, known for its human-rated space robotics and the developer of the Canadarm robotics family, will provide external robotics, robotic NASA to measure moonquakes with help from InSight Mars mission
The technology behind the two seismometers that make up NASA's Farside Seismic Suite was used to detect more than a thousand Red Planet quakes.
The most sensitive instrument ever built to measure quakes and meteor strikes on other worlds is getting closer to its journey to the mysterious far side of the moon.
New technique offers more precise maps of the moon's surface
Successful engine test boosts Vega-C toward return-to-flight
Virtual flying lessons for Hera asteroid mission
As ESA’s Hera spacecraft for planetary defence goes through pre-flight testing, the system that will steer it around its target binary asteroid system is also undergoing its final checks for space.
Fly across Nili Fossae with ESA’s Mars Express
Video:
00:03:29
Mars’s surface is covered in all manner of scratches and scars. Its many marks include the fingernail scratches of Tantalus Fossae, the colossal canyon system of Valles Marineris, the oddly orderly ridges of Angustus Labyrinthus, and the fascinating features captured in today’s video release from Mars Express: the cat scratches of Nili Fossae.
Nili Fossae comprises parallel trenches hundreds of metres deep and several hundred kilometres long, stretching out along the eastern edge of a massive impact crater named Isidis Planitia.
This new video features observations from Mars Express's High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). It first flies northwards towards and