Mission Commander Thrives as 'Space Gardener'
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27
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NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins' enthusiasm for learning to grow plants in space has proven fruitful for the agency's Vegetable Production System (Veggie).
The Expedition 64 crew member, who arrived at the International Space Station in November 2020 aboard NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 for a six-month science mission, has tended to multiple plant experiments on station. Astronaut Kate Rubins had alrea Space Traffic Management
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Those familiar with air traffic management architectures understand the constraints of aircraft flying in the atmosphere, vehicle dynamics and command and control techniques. Unfortunately, space traffic has many more degrees of freedom and much less control capability. Add to this the completely uncontrolled nature of space debris and the reality that most debris objects cannot be tracked and m NASA and Boeing Evaluating Launch Date for Orbital Flight Test-2
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27 Write a comment
NASA and Boeing are evaluating a new target launch date for the CST-100 Starliner's Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) to the International Space Station after winter storms in Houston, and the recent replacement of avionics boxes, set the program back about two weeks. NASA also is weighing the volume of verification and validation analysis required prior to the test flight and the visiting vehicle s NASA Awards Mars Ascent Propulsion System Contract for Sample Return
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NASA has awarded the Mars Ascent Propulsion System (MAPS) contract to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation of Elkton, Maryland, to provide propulsion support and products for spaceflight missions at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Coupled with the successful touchdown of the Mars Perseverance rover, this award moves NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) one China's Tianwen-1 probe to land on Mars in May or June
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27 Write a comment
China's Mars probe Tianwen-1 is traveling at a speed of 4.8 km per second in the Mars orbit, and is expected to land on the red planet in May or June, a senior space expert said on Thursday.
The probe is functioning normally and has sent home China's first high-definition images of Mars, which contain a large quantity of scientific information, said Bao Weimin, director of the Committee of Volcanoes might light up the night sky of this planet
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On Earth, plate tectonics is not only responsible for the rise of mountains and earthquakes. It is also an essential part of the cycle that brings material from the planet's interior to the surface and the atmosphere, and then transports it back beneath the Earth's crust. Tectonics thus has a vital influence on the conditions that ultimately make Earth habitable.
Until now, researchers hav Earth has a hot new neighbour - and it's an astronomer's dream
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27 Write a comment
A newly discovered planet could be our best chance yet of studying rocky planet atmospheres outside the solar system, a new international study involving UNSW Sydney shows.
The planet, called Gliese 486b (pronounced Glee-seh), is a 'super-Earth': that is, a rocky planet bigger than Earth but smaller than ice giants like Neptune and Uranus. It orbits a red dwarf star around 26 light-years a A super-Earth is discovered which can be used to test planetary atmosphere models
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During the past 25 years astronomers have discovered a wide variety of exoplanets, made of rock, ice and gas, thanks to the construction of astronomical instruments designed specifically for planet searches. Also, using a combination of different observing techniques they have been able to determine a large numher of masses, sizes, and hence densities of the planets, which helps them to estimate MAROON-X embarks on its exoplanet quest
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Astronomers using the recently installed instrument MAROON-X on Gemini North have determined the mass of a transiting exoplanet orbiting the nearby star Gliese 486. As well as putting the innovative new instrument through its paces, this result, when combined with data from the TESS satellite, precisely measures key properties of a rocky planet that is ideal for follow-up observations with the n Space Force sounding rocket launches experiment to study Earth’s ionosphere
Thursday, 04 March 2021 01:53 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — A three-stage suborbital sounding rocket on March 3 launched an Air Force Research Laboratory experiment from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
This was the first sounding rocket launch by California-based Space Vector Corp.
NASA hikes prices for commercial ISS users
Thursday, 04 March 2021 00:45 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — NASA has sharply increased the prices it charges commercial users of the International Space Station for cargo and other resources, a move that has left some companies confused and frustrated.
NASA announced Feb.
DoD space agency to award multiple contracts for up to 150 satellites
Wednesday, 03 March 2021 20:40 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s Space Development Agency will solicit bids for an upcoming procurement of up to 150 satellites to be launched in late 2024, agency director Derek Tournear said March 4.
S. Korea’s Kencoa Aerospace expands space business in U.S. with new capital
Wednesday, 03 March 2021 19:08 Write a comment
SEOUL, South Korea — Kencoa Aerospace Corp., a South Korean aircraft assembler and parts supplier that has NASA, SpaceX and Blue Origin as clients, is planning to expand its U.S. parts manufacturing plant in Georgia.
The company raised 30 billion won ($26.6 million) in February by issuing convertible bonds to domestic institutional investors and will use a third of the newly raised fund for the expansion of its Eastman, Georgia-based affiliate, Kencoa Aerospace LLC, said a Kencoa investor relations manager.
Organic materials essential for life on Earth are found for the first time on the surface of an asteroid
Wednesday, 03 March 2021 14:56 Write a comment
New research from Royal Holloway, has found water and organic matter on the surface of an asteroid sample returned from the inner Solar System. This is the first time that organic materials, which could have provided chemical precursors for the origin of life on Earth, have been found on an asteroid.
The single grain sample was returned to Earth from asteroid Itokawa by JAXA's first Hayabusa mission in 2010. The sample shows that water and organic matter that originate from the asteroid itself have evolved chemically through time.
The research paper suggests that Itokawa has been constantly evolving over billions of years by incorporating water and organic materials from foreign extra-terrestrial material, just like the Earth. In the past, the asteroid will have gone through extreme heating, dehydration and shattering due to catastrophic impact. However, despite this, the asteroid came back together from the shattered fragments and rehydrated itself with water that was delivered via the in fall of dust or carbon-rich meteorites.
Testing instruments for Artemis astronauts
Wednesday, 03 March 2021 14:55 Write a comment
NASA's Artemis program will establish a sustainable presence at the Moon as we prepare to venture on to Mars. To empower the success of these missions, terrestrial engineers must furnish astronauts with the tools they need to make new discoveries on their journeys.
To ensure that these instruments will work in the vacuum of space or on the rocky plains of a distant celestial body, NASA must test them in analog environments that mimic these settings. Examples of these environments include thermal vacuum chambers—where engineers can subject tools to extreme temperatures and pressures—or the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, an enormous swimming pool at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston—where astronauts can practice for spacewalks on the International Space Station.
These testing environments aren't always custom-built to match their counterparts in space. Engineers and scientists also take their instruments into the field, finding places on Earth analogous to areas of scientific interest on the lunar surface or the Red Planet.