Replay: Cosmic Kiss news conference
Thursday, 09 September 2021 12:00Watch the full replay of ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer’s pre-launch news conference at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany.
Held in both English and German on 9 September 2021, the conference covers ESA’s vision for human and robotic exploration as well as the science and operations Matthias will support on the International Space Station during his six-month Cosmic Kiss mission.
Cosmic Kiss is Matthias’s first space mission. He will be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA as a member of US Commercial Crew-3 alongside @NASA astronauts Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron.
While in
Korean consortium invested $50 million in US launch startup Relativity Space
Thursday, 09 September 2021 11:51The $50 million invested by a South Korean consortium was part of $650 million Relativity Space raised in a Series E funding round in June.
Moon rock class in session
Thursday, 09 September 2021 09:43School is also back in session for ESA astronaut Andrea Mogensen (right) and NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins. Together with European Astronaut Centre engineer Robin Eccleston (far left), the trio are taking part in this year’s Pangaea field training campaign to become better field scientists.
With all eyes set on the Moon, the three-week campaign has increasingly focussed on lunar geology. Now in its fourth edition, the course kicked off this week with background lessons by top planetary scientists on identifying rock samples of interest for exploration.
In this image Andreas and his fellow students use a microscope to analyse samples.
Later,
Astronauts smell smoke, burning on Russia's ISS module
Thursday, 09 September 2021 07:49A smoke alarm sounded Thursday in Russia's segment of the International Space Station (ISS) and astronauts smelled "burning" on board, Russia's space agency and NASA said. The incident, which the Russian space agency Roscosmos said happened at 01:55 GMT ahead of a scheduled spacewalk, is the latest in a string of problems to spur safety concerns over conditions on the Russian segment. "A
Volcano analysis in real time
Thursday, 09 September 2021 07:49Explosive volcanic eruptions often announce themselves: The dynamic of gas and magma flows inside the mountain change noticeably before eruptions and cause, among other things, the rising and lowering of the volcano's surface, which is recorded by satellites. To better analyse and interpret such changes, an interdisciplinary team led by Binayak Ghosh and Mahdi Motagh from the German Research Cen
MIT-designed project achieves major advance toward fusion energy
Thursday, 09 September 2021 07:49It was a moment three years in the making, based on intensive research and design work: On Sept. 5, for the first time, a large high-temperature superconducting electromagnet was ramped up to a field strength of 20 tesla, the most powerful magnetic field of its kind ever created on Earth. That successful demonstration helps resolve the greatest uncertainty in the quest to build the world's first
Western US faces future of prolonged drought even with stringent emissions control
Thursday, 09 September 2021 07:49Seasonal summer rains have done little to offset drought conditions gripping the western United States, with California and Nevada seeing record July heat and moderate-to-exceptional drought according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Now, new research is showing how drought in the region is expected to change in the future, providing stakeholders with crucial inform
JWST gets mid-December launch date
Thursday, 09 September 2021 06:54NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is finally scheduled to launch Dec. 18 on an Ariane 5 from French Guiana after years of development delays.
Safeguarding clean water for spaceflight missions
Thursday, 09 September 2021 03:32By all appearances, the universe beyond Earth is a vast, lonely, and sterile space. Yet, wherever humans may travel, an abundance of microbial life will follow. In a first study of its kind, lead author Jiseon Yang at the Arizona State University Biodesign Institute, Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics, and her colleagues characterized different bacterial populations isolated o
York Space Systems tackled Exotrail electric propulsion system for its Cislunar mission
Thursday, 09 September 2021 03:32On 16 August, Exotrail signed a contract with US-based aerospace company YORK SPACE SYSTEMS for the delivery of one ExoMGTM - cluster2, a product configuration from Exotrail high thrust and flexible electric propulsion product family, for delivery by Q2 2022. ExoMGTM - cluster2 system will be integrated onboard YORK SPACE SYSTEMS S-Class platform for a satellite mission aiming to orbit the
Researchers enlist robot swarms to mine lunar resources
Thursday, 09 September 2021 03:32With scientists beginning to more seriously consider constructing bases on celestial bodies such as the moon, the idea of space mining is growing in popularity. After all, if someone from Los Angeles was moving to New York to build a house, it would be a lot easier to buy the building materials in New York rather than buy them in Los Angeles and lug them 2,800 miles. Considering the distan
The Sun's 11-year cycle cannot explain global warming
Thursday, 09 September 2021 03:32The Earth's global climate system fluctuates in 11-year and 3, 5-year cycles find Yizhak Feliks, Justin Small and Michael Ghil. The study was published in Climate Dynamics on July 15th. The 11-year near-periodicity recalls that of the solar cycle, which climate-sceptics for decades have argued plays a major role in global warming. But the fluctuations between the Earth's climate system and
Milky Way is not homogeneous
Thursday, 09 September 2021 03:32In order to better understand the history and evolution of the Milky Way, astronomers are studying the composition of the gases and metals that make up an important part of our galaxy. Three main elements stand out: the initial gas coming from outside our galaxy, the gas between the stars inside our galaxy - enriched with chemical elements -, and the dust created by the condensation of the metal
New ALMA receivers achieve first light, set record for observational capabilities
Thursday, 09 September 2021 03:32new set of receivers installed on antennas at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have achieved first light. With it, they set a new record for the longest wavelengths visible with the radio array. The achievement has opened a window on the Universe previously inaccessible at the telescope, thanks to an international team of engineers, including engineers from the National Ra
D-Orbit UK signs contract with ESA for development of debris removal technology
Thursday, 09 September 2021 03:32The UK branch of D-Orbit signed a euro 2,197M contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) for phase 1 of the development and in-orbit demonstration of a "Deorbit Kit" as part of ESA's Space Safety Programme (S2P). The decommissioning kit proposed by D-Orbit is a self-contained suite of equipment that can be tailored to space vehicles of any size to enable them to perform a propulsive de