The geological context of the Mars 2020 landing site through the eyes of DLR
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 11:58On Thursday, 18 February 2021, at approximately 21:55 CET, NASA's control centre in Pasadena should receive the radio signal indicating that the Perseverance rover has been gently lowered onto the surface of Mars by a 'sky crane' as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission. Perseverance's new home will be the floor of a former lake in the Jezero impact crater. There, the mobile laboratory, which is the
Biotech fit for the Red Planet
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 11:58NASA, in collaboration with other leading space agencies, aims to send its first human missions to Mars in the early 2030s, while companies like SpaceX may do so even earlier. Astronauts on Mars will need oxygen, water, food, and other consumables. These will need to be sourced from Mars, because importing them from Earth would be impractical in the long term. In Frontiers in Microbiology, scien
HKU planetary scientists discover evidence for a reduced atmosphere on ancient Mars
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 11:58Both Earth and Mars currently have oxidising atmospheres, which is why iron-rich materials in daily life develop rust (a common name for iron oxide) during the oxidation reaction of iron and oxygen. The Earth has had an oxidising atmosphere for approximately two and a half billion years, but before that, the atmosphere of this planet was reducing - there was no rust. The transition from a
Airbus space technology reaches Mars
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 11:58When NASA's Perseverance rover lands on the surface of the Red Planet next Thursday, key Airbus technology will be on board: the MEDA meteorological station will provide scientists with valuable Mars weather data and the High Gain Antenna System will ensure a high-speed comms link with Earth for the duration of the MARS2020 mission. Perseverance will use seven scientific instruments to stu
China publishes technical requirements for key civilian BDS products
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 11:58China has published six documents detailing technical requirements and test methods for key civilian products using the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS). The documents have been issued to facilitate the construction of a certification system for key BDS-3 products, according to the China Satellite Navigation Office. Technical requirements and test methods were drafted for c
Scientists manipulate magnets at the atomic scale
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 11:58Fast and energy-efficient future data processing technologies are on the horizon after an international team of scientists successfully manipulated magnets at the atomic level. Physicist Dr Rostislav Mikhaylovskiy from Lancaster University said: "With stalling efficiency trends of current technology, new scientific approaches are especially valuable. Our discovery of the atomically-driven
Emerging robotics technology may lead to better buildings in less time
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 11:58Emerging robotics technology may soon help construction companies and contractors create buildings in less time at higher quality and at lower costs. Purdue University innovators developed and are testing a novel construction robotic system that uses an innovative mechanical design with advances in computer vision sensing technology to work in a construction setting. The technology w
Placing cosmological constraints on quantum gravity phenomenology
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 11:58A description of gravity compatible with the principles of quantum mechanics has long been a widely pursued goal in physics. Existing theories of this 'quantum gravity' often involve mathematical corrections to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (HUP), which quantifies the inherent limits in the accuracy of any quantum measurement. These corrections arise when gravitational interactions ar
Robots sense human touch using camera and shadows
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 11:58Soft robots may not be in touch with human feelings, but they are getting better at feeling human touch. Cornell University researchers have created a low-cost method for soft, deformable robots to detect a range of physical interactions, from pats to punches to hugs, without relying on touch at all. Instead, a USB camera located inside the robot captures the shadow movements of hand gestures on
Collective worm and robot 'blobs' protect individuals, swarm together
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 11:58Individually, California blackworms live an unremarkable life eating microorganisms in ponds and serving as tropical fish food for aquarium enthusiasts. But together, tens, hundreds, or thousands of the centimeter-long creatures can collaborate to form a "worm blob," a shape-shifting living liquid that collectively protects its members from drying out and helps them escape threats such as excess
3D model shows off the insides of a giant permafrost crater
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 11:58Researchers from the Oil and Gas Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and their Skoltech colleagues have surveyed the newest known 30-meter deep gas blowout crater on the Yamal Peninsula, which formed in the summer of 2020. The paper was published in the journal Geosciences. Giant craters in the Russian Arctic, thought to be the remnants of powerful gas blowouts, first att
Falling to Earth takes a long time
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 10:00Explore the Jezero neighbourhood
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 08:14Flyover movies, elevation maps, 3D views and detailed colour scenes: ESA’s Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter missions have provided imagery of Jezero Crater and the surrounding region in support of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing on 18 February 2021.
Mars 2020 on track for landing
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 01:23WASHINGTON — NASA’s Mars 2020 spacecraft is operating “perfectly” ahead of its Feb. 18 landing on Mars that will be a key milestone for the agency’s future Mars exploration plans.
The spacecraft is scheduled to land the rover Perseverance on the surface of Jezero Crater on Mars at about 3:55 p.m.
LinQuest wins $200 million support services contract from U.S. Space Command
Monday, 15 February 2021 22:39WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Command awarded LinQuest Corp. a $200 million contract for advisory and support services, the Defense Department announced Feb. 16.
The contract is for work performed at U.S. Space Command headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, between now and February 2030.