Week in images: 11 - 15 January 2021
Thursday, 14 January 2021 14:20
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Week in images: 11 - 15 January 2021
Discover our week through the lens
Mars is still an active world—here's a landslide in Nili Fossae
Thursday, 14 January 2021 14:05 Write a comment
Since the 1960s and '70s, scientists have come to view Mars as something of a "dead planet." As the first close-up images from orbit and the surface came in, previous speculation about canals, water and a Martian civilization were dispelled. Subsequent studies also revealed that the geological activity that created features like the Tharsis Mons region (especially Olympus Mons) and Valles Marineris had ceased long ago.
However, in the past few decades, robotic missions have found ample evidence that Mars is still an active place. A recent indication was an image taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which showed relatively fresh landslides in a crater near Nili Fossae. This area is part of the Syrtis Major region and is located just north of the Jezero Crater (where the Perseverance rover will be landing in six weeks).
The landslide was captured as a part of a larger image acquired by the MRO's Context Camera (CTX) on September 21, 2018.
Metal Fuels. We research. You benefit.
Thursday, 14 January 2021 13:00 Write a comment
Video:
00:07:30
Did you know that in microgravity we are preparing one of the most promising fuels for the future?
Microgravity is helping to find answers and models to refine the processes needed to efficiently burn solid fuel like iron dust. Are we witnessing the raise of a new "Iron Age"? Could we use metal powders instead of petrol to fuel our cars?
Solid fuels are used for burning a match, lighting a sparkler on New Year's Eve as well as the fuel inside the boosters of Ariane and of other rockets. But metals such as iron can also burn, in
ESA kids app now available
Thursday, 14 January 2021 12:35 Write a comment
ESA kids app now available
OneWeb raises $400 million
Thursday, 14 January 2021 12:07 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Broadband satellite company OneWeb announced Jan. 15 it has raised $400 million from SoftBank and Hughes Network Systems, allowing the company to continue deployment of its constellation.
The new round includes $350 million from SoftBank, who was the biggest shareholder in OneWeb before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2020.
SLS core stage ready for Green Run test firing
Thursday, 14 January 2021 11:18 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — NASA officials expressed confidence that a key test of the Space Launch System scheduled for Jan. 16 will go well, keeping open the chances that the vehicle will make its long-delayed debut before the end of the year.
Tanezrouft Basin
Thursday, 14 January 2021 09:00 Write a comment
Image:
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Tanezrouft Basin – one of the most desolate parts of the Sahara Desert. Earth from Space: Tanezrouft
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Video:
00:02:50
In this week's edition of the Earth from Space programme, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Tanezrouft Basin – one of the most desolate parts of the Sahara Desert.
See also Tanezrouft Basin to download the image.
Citizen scientists help create 3D map of local stellar neighborhood
Thursday, 14 January 2021 02:21 Write a comment
Is our solar system located in a typical Milky Way neighborhood? Scientists have gotten closer to answering this question, thanks to the NASA-funded Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project, a "citizen science" collaboration between professional scientists and members of the public.
Scientists tapped into the worldwide network of 150,000 volunteers using Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 to find new exam Low-orbit, crewed equatorial space control stations
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Many think the idea of a military crewed space station is new. It is not. The Russian Almaz ("Diamond") was a highly secret Soviet military space station program that began in the early 1960s. In fact, three crewed military reconnaissance stations were launched between 1973 and 1976.
These were referred to as Salyut 2, Salyut 3 and Salyut 5. To camouflage their real mission the three stati Skynet 6A passes Preliminary Design Review
Thursday, 14 January 2021 02:21 Write a comment
Airbus has successfully completed the first key phase of the Skynet 6A project with the achievement of the Preliminary Design Review (PDR). The project now has permission to move into the next phase leading to the Critical Design Review (CDR).
Airbus was awarded the Skynet 6A contract in July 2020 and teams across its sites in Stevenage, Portsmouth and Hawthorn have been working on the pro NASA advancing global navigation satellite system capabilities
Thursday, 14 January 2021 02:21 Write a comment
NASA is developing capabilities that will allow missions at high altitudes to take advantage of signals from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) constellations - like GPS commonly used in the U.S. These signals - used on Earth for navigation and critical timing applications - could provide NASA's Artemis missions to the Moon with reliable timing and navigation data. NASA's Space Communicat China releases 4 new BDS technical standards
Thursday, 14 January 2021 02:21 Write a comment
China has newly released four national technical standards for the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), according to the China Satellite Navigation Office.
This is a major move forward of China in standardizing and ensuring the development and industrial application of the BDS through drafting national standards, said the office.
The four newly-released technical standards are f Orion Ready to Fuel Up for Artemis I Mission
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The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis I mission is taking one more step closer to its flight to the Moon. On Jan. 14, the spacecraft was lifted out of the stand in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida where engineers have meticulously outfitted it with thousands of components and tested its systems and subsystems to ensure it can a InSight 'Mole' payload ends operations on Mars
Thursday, 14 January 2021 02:21 Write a comment
The heat probe developed and built by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and deployed on Mars by NASA's InSight lander has ended its portion of the mission. Since Feb. 28, 2019, the probe, called the "mole," has been attempting to burrow into the Martian surface to take the planet's internal temperature, providing details about the interior heat engine that drives the Mars' evolution and geology.