Measuring photosynthesis on Earth from space
Sunday, 21 February 2021 06:57
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As most of us learned in school, plants use sunlight to synthesize carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into carbohydrates in a process called photosynthesis. But nature's "factories" don't just provide us with food - they also generate insights into how ecosystems will react to a changing climate and carbon-filled atmosphere.
Because of their ability to make valuable products from organic compo Advisory committee releases strategic plan for US fusion, plasma program
Sunday, 21 February 2021 06:57 Write a comment
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) has adopted and endorsed a new report that lays out a strategic plan for fusion energy and plasma science research over the next decade. The report has been two years in the making, gathering an unprecedented level of input and support from across the U.S. fusion and plasma community.
Its strategic plan c Safety panel recommends NASA develops strategy for workforce and infrastructure
Saturday, 20 February 2021 23:30 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — As NASA’s management of its human spaceflight programs evolves to incorporate greater roles for companies, the agency needs to take a strategic look at its workforce and infrastructure requirements, a safety panel advised.
At the Feb.
NASA's Mars helicopter reports in
Saturday, 20 February 2021 16:49 Write a comment
Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have received the first status report from the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which landed Feb. 18, 2021, at Jezero Crater attached to the belly of the agency's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. The downlink, which arrived at 3:30 p.m. PST (6:30 p.m. EST) via a connection through the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, indicates that both the helicopter, which will remain attached to the rover for 30 to 60 days, and its base station (an electrical box on the rover that stores and routes communications between the rotorcraft and Earth) are operating as expected.
"There are two big-ticket items we are looking for in the data: the state of charge of Ingenuity's batteries as well as confirmation the base station is operating as designed, commanding heaters to turn off and on to keep the helicopter's electronics within an expected range," said Tim Canham, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter operations lead at JPL.
Space station launch honors 'Hidden Figures' mathematician
Saturday, 20 February 2021 16:32 Write a comment
A space station supply ship named after the Black NASA mathematician featured in the movie "Hidden Figures" rocketed into orbit Saturday, the 59th anniversary of John Glenn's historic launch.
Northrop Grumman's Cygnus capsule—dubbed the S.S. Katherine Johnson—should reach the International Space Station on Monday following its launch from Virginia's eastern shore.
Johnson died almost exactly a year ago at age 101.
"Mrs. Johnson was selected for her hand-written calculations that helped launch the first Americans into space, as well as her accomplishments in breaking glass ceiling after glass ceiling as a Black woman," Frank DeMauro, a Northrop Grumman vice president, said on the eve of liftoff.
NASA, Boeing update Starliner orbital flight test date
Saturday, 20 February 2021 01:50 Write a comment
NASA and Boeing now are targeting no earlier than Friday, April 2, for launch of the agency's Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 to the International Space Station.
As preparations continue for the second uncrewed flight test, teams remain focused on the safety and quality of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft and successful launch of the end-to-end test to prove the system is ready to begin flyin Northrop Grumman ready for next ISS supply run
Saturday, 20 February 2021 01:50 Write a comment
Northrop Grumman is set to launch the company's 15th resupply mission (NG-15) to the International Space Station under NASA's Commercial Resupply Service-2 contract. The NG-15 mission's Cygnus spacecraft will launch aboard the company's Antares rocket with nearly 8,000 pounds of scientific research, supplies and hardware for the crew aboard the station.
Liftoff of the Antares rocket is sch NASA's Perseverance rover beams back spectacular new images
Saturday, 20 February 2021 01:50 Write a comment
NASA on Friday released stunning new photographs from Perseverance, including one of the rover being gently lowered to the surface of Mars by a set of cables, the first time such a view has been captured.
The high-resolution still was extracted from a video taken by the descent stage of the spacecraft that had transported the rover from Earth.
At that moment, the descent stage was using NASA's Perseverance Rover Sends Sneak Peek of Mars Landing
Saturday, 20 February 2021 01:50 Write a comment
Less than a day after NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover successfully landed on the surface of Mars, engineers and scientists at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California were hard at work, awaiting the next transmissions from Perseverance.
As data gradually came in, relayed by several spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet, the Perseverance team were relieved to see the r America has sent five rovers to Mars -- when will humans follow?
Saturday, 20 February 2021 01:50 Write a comment
With its impeccable landing on Thursday, NASA's Perseverance became the fifth rover to reach Mars - so when can we finally expect the long-held goal of a crewed expedition to materialize?
NASA's current Artemis program is billed as a "Moon to Mars" mission, and acting administrator Steve Jurczyk has reiterated his aspiration of "the mid-to-end of the 2030s" for American boots on the Red Pl Life of a pure Martian design
Saturday, 20 February 2021 01:50 Write a comment
Early Mars is considered as an environment where life could possibly have existed. There was a time in the geological history of Mars when it could have been very similar to Earth and harbored life as we know it.
In opposite to the current Mars conditions, bodies of liquid water, warmer temperature, and higher atmospheric pressure could have existed in Mars' early history. Potential early Oregon experiments find that electrical sparks are possible on Mars
Saturday, 20 February 2021 01:50 Write a comment
Friction caused by dry Martian dust particles making contact with each other may produce electrical discharge at the surface and in the planet's atmosphere, according University of Oregon researchers.
However, such sparks are likely to be small and pose little danger to future robotic or human missions to the red planet, they report in a paper published online and scheduled to appear in th NASA missions make unprecedented map of Sun's magnetic field
Saturday, 20 February 2021 01:50 Write a comment
For decades after its discovery, observers could only see the solar chromosphere for a few fleeting moments: during a total solar eclipse, when a bright red glow ringed the Moon's silhouette.
More than a hundred years later, the chromosphere remains the most mysterious of the Sun's atmospheric layers. Sandwiched between the bright surface and the ethereal solar corona, the Sun's outer atmo Sounding rocket CLASP2 elucidates solar magnetic field
Saturday, 20 February 2021 01:50 Write a comment
Cooperative operations between a solar observation satellite and a sounding-rocket telescope have measured the magnetic field strength in the photosphere and chromosphere above an active solar plage region.
This is the first time that the magnetic field in the chromosphere has been charted all the way up to its top. This finding brings us closer to understanding how energy is transferred b Business support scheme to boost UK space industry has lift off
Saturday, 20 February 2021 01:50 Write a comment
The up to 10-week Business Accelerator programme, delivered in partnership with business growth experts from Entrepreneurial Spark and The University of Strathclyde, offers free virtual sessions to help companies with their sights set on space to make progress.
Businesses that may not have previously considered the opportunities presented by the space industry can also benefit. Pre-launch