NASA pursues greener, more efficient spacecraft propulsion
Tuesday, 15 June 2021 06:39
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NASA and the space industry will conduct several missions over the next year to test more efficient, environmentally friendly spacecraft, including a non-toxic propellant and solar power.
The rapid expansion of private spaceflight, along with planned missions to the moon and Mars, has prompted a need for easier handling of spacecraft and their fuel, Jeff Sheehy, NASA's chief engineer fo The sun's clock
Tuesday, 15 June 2021 06:39 Write a comment
Not only the very concise 11-year cycle, but also all other periodic solar activity fluctuations can be clocked by planetary attractive forces. This is the conclusion drawn by Dr. Frank Stefani and his colleagues from the Institute of Fluid Dynamics at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and from the Institute of Continuous Media Mechanics in Perm, Russia.
With new model calcul Lunar samples record impact 4.2 billion years ago
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An international team of researchers led by The Open University (OU) has provided the first sample-based evidence, which they argue reflects the age of the Serenitatis Basin - one of the oldest craters on the Moon.
The formation and ages of the lunar basins and craters, created during large collisional impact events during the first ~500 million years of the Solar System history, have fasc NASA is returning to Venus to learn how it became a hot poisonous wasteland
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NASA is finally headed back to Venus. On June 2, 2021, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced that the agency had selected two winners of its latest Discovery class spacecraft mission competition, and both are headed to the second planet from the Sun.
I'm a planetary scientist and a self-confessed Venus evangelist, and here's why I'm so excited that humanity is going back to Venus. Mars rover to move south after testing
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China's Mars rover Zhurong will continue moving southward to explore the Red Planet, focusing on key scientific issues, such as potential locations of water and ice, as well as volcanic activities, according to a project leader.
Liu Jianjun, chief designer of the Tianwen 1 mission's scientific system, said on Saturday that mission planners decided the rover would move south out of scientif Dark matter is slowing the spin of the Milky Way's galactic bar
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The spin of the Milky Way's galactic bar, which is made up of billions of clustered stars, has slowed by about a quarter since its formation, according to a new study by researchers at University College London (UCL) and the University of Oxford.
For 30 years, astrophysicists have predicted such a slowdown, but this is the first time it has been measured.
The researchers say it gives Boundary of heliosphere mapped for the first time
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For the first time, the boundary of the heliosphere has been mapped, giving scientists a better understanding of how solar and interstellar winds interact.
"Physics models have theorized this boundary for years," said Dan Reisenfeld, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and lead author on the paper, which was published in the Astrophysical Journal today. "But this is the first tim Drive to destruction
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Drive to destruction First-of-its-kind study finds lightning impacts edge of space in ways not previously observed
Monday, 14 June 2021 19:15 Write a comment
Solar flares jetting out from the sun and thunderstorms generated on Earth impact the planet's ionosphere in different ways, which have implications for the ability to conduct long range communications.
A team of researchers working with data collected by the Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) at the Arecibo Observatory, satellites, and lightning detectors in Puerto Rico have for the first time examined the simultaneous impacts of thunderstorms and solar flares on the ionospheric D-region (often referred to as the edge of space).
In the first of its kind analysis, the team determined that solar flares and lightning from thunderstorms trigger unique changes to that edge of space, which is used for long-range communications such the GPS found in vehicles and airplanes.
The work, led by New Mexico Tech assistant professor of physics Caitano L.
Hanwha, KAI and LIG Nex1 to lead South Korea’s private-sector-driven satellite development
Monday, 14 June 2021 18:39 Write a comment
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has taken yet another step toward having a domestic satellite industry that is driven by the private sector.
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), a state-funded university that has developed several satellites, has agreed to share its spacecraft-manufacturing technologies and know-how with three major South Korean aerospace companies.
Op-ed | Making space for ESG
Monday, 14 June 2021 14:55 Write a comment
SpaceNews recently highlighted the growing recognition that companies can use space-based data and services to demonstrate their implementation of the environmental component of Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) principles.
It is fantastic to see the space industry supporting ESG objectives by providing data and monitoring for Earth-based environmental sustainability efforts.
NASA approves development of asteroid-hunting Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope
Monday, 14 June 2021 13:18 Write a comment
NASA has approved the Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope (NEO Surveyor) to move to the next phase of mission development after a successful mission review, authorizing the mission to move forward into Preliminary Design (known as Key Decision Point-B). The infrared space telescope is designed to help advance NASA's planetary defense efforts by expediting our ability to discover and characterize most of the potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth's orbit, collectively known as near-earth objects, or NEOs.
"NEO Surveyor will have the capability to rapidly accelerate the rate at which NASA is able to discover asteroids and comets that could pose a hazard to the Earth, and it is being designed to discover 90 percent of asteroids 140 meters in size or larger within a decade of being launched," said Mike Kelley, NEO Surveyor program scientist at NASA Headquarters.
What mission could detect oceans at Uranus' moons?
Monday, 14 June 2021 13:14 Write a comment
Exploration of ocean worlds has become a hot topic of late, primarily due to their role as a potential harbor for alien life. Moons that have confirmed subsurface oceans garner much of the attention, such as Enceladus and Europa. But they may not be the only ones. Uranus' larger moons—Miranda, Ariel and Umbriel could potentially also have subsurface oceans even farther out into the solar system. We just haven't sent any instruments close enough to be able to check. Now, a team led by Dr. Corey Cochrane at NASA's Jet Propulsion laboratory has done some preliminary work to show that a relatively simple flyby of the Uranian system with an averagely sensitive magnetometer could provide the data needed to determine if those larger moons harbor subsurface oceans. This work is another step down the path of expanding what we think of as habitable environments in the solar system.
Call for ideas to augment satnav with imaging sensors & 3D maps
Monday, 14 June 2021 12:01 Write a comment
Busy urban centres represent key areas of demand for satellite navigation services, but dense concentrations of high buildings mean that satnav signal reception may sometimes fall short. So ESA is issuing a call for ideas to make up for such service gaps through the use of imaging and 3D mapping technology – ahead of a dedicated workshop on 6 July.
Juice moves into Large Space Simulator
Monday, 14 June 2021 12:00 Write a comment
The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer has moved into the ‘Large Space Simulator’ at ESA’s test centre, ready for grueling environmental tests at a range of temperatures.