Record-breaking laser demonstration completes mission
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 18:48
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NASA's TBIRD (TeraByte InfraRed Delivery) demonstration and its host spacecraft—the PTD-3 (Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-3)—have completed their technology demonstration. The TBIRD payload spent the past two years breaking world records for the fastest satellite downlink from space using laser communications.
NASA's PTD series leverages a common commercial spacecraft to provide a robust platform for effective testing of technologies with minimal redesign in between launches. After launch in May 2022 on the SpaceX Transporter 5 mission, the PTD-3 spacecraft entered low-Earth orbit, and shortly after, TBIRD began sending laser communications signals to an optical ground station in Table Mountain, California.
TBIRD's two-year demonstration showcased the viability of laser communications. Most NASA missions rely on radio frequency communication systems. However, laser communications use infrared light and can pack significantly more data in a single communications link.
Space Force awards $25 million contract for satellite data integration
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 18:43
Space Force eyes commercial antennas to boost satellite control capacity
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 17:49
Is Starlink Good for Gaming? What Player Experiences Reveal About SpaceX's Satellite Internet
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 16:24 Write a comment
With the exponential growth in the gaming industry, internet speed has become a necessity. Many gamers live in rural areas where internet connectivity is challenged due to poor infrastructure.
This has barred them from engaging in online games. For such people, SpaceX's satellite internet, known as Starlink, promises to change this narrative. But the question remains: is Starlink good for All The Stars Align for a Record-Breaking Breaking 75th IAC
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 15:40
All The Stars Align for a Record-Breaking 75th IAC
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 15:40Murine study suggests cosmic radiation in outer space may affect long-term cognition
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 15:40 Write a comment
During missions into outer space, galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) will penetrate current spacecraft shielding and thus pose a significant risk to human health.
Previous studies have shown that GCR can cause short-term cognitive deficits in male rodents. Now a study published in the Journal of Neurochemistry reveals that GCR exposure can also cause long-lasting learning deficits in female rodents.
The impact of GCR on cognition was lessened when mice were fed an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound called CDDO-EA.
Beyond its immediate implications for space exploration, the findings contribute to a broader understanding of radiation's long-term impact on cognitive health.
"Our study lays the groundwork for future causal delineation of how the brain responds to complex GCR exposure and how these brain adaptations result in altered behaviors," said co-corresponding author Sanghee Yun, Ph.D., of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
More information: S. Yun, F.C. Kiffer, et al. The longitudinal behavioral effects of acute exposure to galactic cosmic radiation in female C57BL/6J mice: implications for deep space missions, female crews, and potential antioxidant countermeasures, Journal of Neurochemistry (2024).
Nuking a huge asteroid could save Earth, lab experiment suggests
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 15:31 Write a comment
Humanity could use a nuclear bomb to deflect a massive, life-threatening asteroid hurtling towards Earth in the future, according to scientists who tested the theory in the laboratory by blasting X-rays at a marble-sized "mock asteroid".
The biggest real-life test of our planetary defenses was carried out in 2022, when NASA's fridge-sized DART spacecraft smashed into a 160-metre (525-feet) wide asteroid, successfully knocking it well off course.
But for bigger asteroids, merely crashing spaceships into them will probably not do the trick.
When the roughly 10-kilometer wide Chicxulub asteroid struck the Yucatan peninsula around 66 million years ago, it is believed to have plunged Earth into darkness, sent kilometers-high tsunamis rippling around the globe and killed three quarters of all life—including wiping out the dinosaurs.
NASA pilots use specialty suits to validate data
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 15:27 Write a comment
Welcome to NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX). We've been talking about this validation campaign and now are finally here. "Here" being one of three main locations where PACE-PAX validation efforts are taking place: NASA's Armstrong Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
PACE-PAX uses the unique vantage point of the ER-2 aircraft to gather data on small particles in the atmosphere and ultimately help verify the data gathered by the satellite in orbit.
NASA's ER-2 aircraft flies high in the sky—approximately 70,000 feet in altitude, where the pilot can see the curvature of Earth. At that high an altitude, pilots must be equipped with a uniform closer to that of an astronaut rather than a flight suit. In fact, while flying the ER-2, the pilot sports a pressurized suit that is essentially a spacesuit.
"The spacesuit is the last line of defense against the elements at altitude," said Kirt Stallings, an ER-2 research pilot. "If the aircraft cabin lost pressurization the spacesuit would automatically inflate protecting the pilot from the elements and allowing them to safely recover the aircraft.
Walking on the Moon in Cologne: Europe's lunar life simulator
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 13:39 Write a comment
A large, ordinary-looking warehouse in the German city of Cologne is the closest you can get to walking on the moon—without leaving Earth.
The facility known as LUNA, which was officially inaugurated on Wednesday, is the world's most faithful recreation of the lunar surface, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).
European astronauts will train inside the unique simulator and test equipment that will one day travel to the moon—including potentially on NASA's upcoming Artemis program, which plans to send humans there on a mission in a few years.
From the outside, it looks like a huge white hangar in a corner of the German Aerospace Center on the outskirts of Cologne.
China launches eight satellites using Smart Dragon 3 rocket
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 13:17 Write a comment
On Tuesday morning, China launched a Smart Dragon 3 carrier rocket from the coast of Haiyang in Shandong province, successfully deploying eight satellites into space. According to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the satellites were placed into their designated orbital positions shortly after the rocket's launch at 10:31 am from a launch service ship. This marks the fourth sea-bas New Glenn second stage completes successful hotfire test ahead of November launch
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 13:17 Write a comment
Blue Origin's New Glenn second stage (GS2) successfully completed a critical hotfire test Tuesday, marking a key step toward its first flight, set for November from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 36. The NG-1 mission will carry Blue Ring technology as its first payload.
The 15-second hotfire test was the first time the vehicle operated as a fully integrated system. This test was conducted A Striped Surprise
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 13:17 Write a comment
Last week, team scientists and the internet alike were amazed when Perseverance spotted a black-and-white striped rock unlike any seen on Mars before. Is this a sign of exciting discoveries to come?
It has now nearly been a month since the rover began its climb up the steep slopes leading to the crater rim, on the hunt for ancient rocks that could teach us about early Martian history. Whil Nuclear strategies tested at Sandia could avert asteroid disaster
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 13:17 Write a comment
Sandia National Laboratories is exploring a coordinated nuclear response to deflect potentially catastrophic asteroids, according to physicist Nathan Moore. His team is using Sandia's Z machine-the world's most powerful pulsed-power facility-to simulate asteroid deflection scenarios and gather critical data on how asteroids of different compositions respond to such methods.
"To most people Astronomers catch a glimpse of a uniquely inflated and asymmetric exoplanet
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 13:17 Write a comment
Astronomers from the University of Arizona, along with an international group of researchers, observed the atmosphere of a hot and uniquely inflated exoplanet using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The exoplanet, which is the size of Jupiter but only a tenth of its mass, is found to have east-west asymmetry in its atmosphere, meaning that there is a significant difference between the two edges