Exotrail demonstrates miniature Hall-effect thruster in orbit
Monday, 11 January 2021 14:00
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SAN FRANCISCO – French startup Exotrail announced Jan. 12 that its miniature Hall-effect thruster ignited in orbit, and propelled a NanoAvionics R2 cubesat a few hundred meters.
“This is the smallest Hall thruster ever flown and the first time a Hall thruster flew on a satellite of less than 100 kilograms,” Exotrail CEO David Henri told SpaceNews.
Reconstructing the solar system's original architecture
Monday, 11 January 2021 13:19 Write a comment
As the solar system was developing, the giant planets (Jupiter and Saturn) formed very early, and as they grew, they migrated both closer to and further away from the sun to stay in gravitationally stable orbits.
The gravitational effect of these massive objects caused immense reshuffling of other planetary bodies that were forming at the time, meaning that the current locations of many planetary bodies in our solar system are not where they originally formed.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists set out to reconstruct these original formation locations by studying the isotopic compositions of different groups of meteorites that all derived from the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter). The asteroid belt is the source of almost all of Earth's meteorites, but the material that makes up the asteroid belt formed from sweeping of materials all over the solar system.
Madrid snowbound
Monday, 11 January 2021 12:35 Write a comment
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This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image of Madrid in Spain appears to have been taken in black and white. In fact, it is a true-colour image – but the heaviest snowfall in 50 years has blanketed the region, turning the landscape white. Energy from solar wind favors the north
Monday, 11 January 2021 12:32 Write a comment
Using information from ESA's Swarm satellite constellation, scientists have made a discovery about how energy generated by electrically-charged particles in the solar wind flows into Earth's atmosphere—surprisingly, more of it heads towards the magnetic north pole than towards the magnetic south pole.
The sun bathes our planet with the light and heat to sustain life, but it also bombards us with dangerous charged particles in the solar wind.
Image: Frosty scenes in Martian summer
Monday, 11 January 2021 12:29 Write a comment
The CaSSIS camera onboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured remnant frost deposits in a region near Sisyphi Tholus, in the high southern latitudes of Mars (74ºS/246ºE).
This image was taken during the early morning of a midsummer day in the southern hemisphere. At these high latitudes, carbon dioxide ice and frost develop. Frost can be seen within polygonal cracks in the terrain, a feature that indicates the presence of water ice embedded in the soil. The black spots observed throughout the scene are due to dark soil being pushed through cracks in the carbon dioxide ice as it sublimates—turns directly from solid ice to vapor—in the summer months.
The scale is indicated on the image.
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The obliquity of Mars: Periodic bedding in Tithonium Chasma
Monday, 11 January 2021 12:28 Write a comment
Earth's seasons are caused by the tilt of our planet's rotational axis to the orbital plane or obliquity. Mars' obliquity is currently about 25 degrees, which is not much different from Earth's 23 degrees. However, numerical calculations by scientists at the Paris Observatory and Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggest that this near-agreement is a coincidence.
Under the influence of gravitational torques from other planets, Mars' obliquity varies chaotically, probably reaching values greater than 60 degrees and lower than 10 degrees. By contrast, Earth's obliquity appears to have been limited to small variations from its current value because of the stabilizing gravitational influence of the Moon. If the calculations are correct, then for most of the Solar System's history, the obliquity of Mars was greater than 25 degrees. This would produce warmer summers and colder winters than on present-day Mars. On Earth, a recent 1 degree rise in obliquity is believed to have triggered ice sheet retreat from the current location of New York City to Greenland. The climatic consequences of 50 degree changes in obliquity on Mars remain unknown.
It is possible, though unproven, that higher obliquity triggered partial melting of some of Mars' water ice.
Pool preps
Monday, 11 January 2021 12:08 Write a comment
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Prepping for a spacewalk typically means diving underwater to rehearse and fine-tune operations.
In 2016, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst performed such an underwater rehearsal for the Colka high speed radio, the brown box imaged above, that will be installed this month on the International Space Station.
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover will integrate the small fridge-sized device outside the European Columbus module during a spacewalk scheduled this year. ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen will be at NASA’s mission control directing the spacewalkers as Capcom. The Columbus Ka-band terminal, nicknamed ‘Colka’, will enable faster communication with Europe.
Orbiting the planet every
Ariane 6 launch complex – December 2020
Monday, 11 January 2021 12:00 Write a comment
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Tour the Ariane 6 launch complex at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana NASA to upgrade space station solar arrays
Monday, 11 January 2021 11:59 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — NASA will start an upgrade this year of the solar arrays of the International Space Station to ensure the station has sufficient power to continue operating at least through the end of the decade.
Energy from solar wind favours the north
Monday, 11 January 2021 08:40 Write a comment
Using information from ESA’s Swarm satellite constellation, scientists have made a discovery about how energy generated by electrically-charged particles in the solar wind flows into Earth’s atmosphere – surprisingly, more of it heads towards the magnetic north pole than towards the magnetic south pole.
Iceye to launch three SAR satellites on SpaceX rideshare flight
Monday, 11 January 2021 04:35 Write a comment
SAN FRANCISCO – Iceye is preparing to send three Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites into orbit on the SpaceX Falcon 9 small satellite rideshare mission scheduled for launch Jan. 21.
With the upcoming launch, Iceye seeks to expand its constellation to include six SAR satellites.
Rolls-Royce and UK Space Agency launch study into nuclear-powered space exploration
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16 Write a comment
The UK Space Agency and Rolls-Royce are joining forces for a unique study into how nuclear power and technologies could be used as part of space exploration.
This new research contract will see planetary scientists work together to explore the game-changing potential of nuclear power as a more plentiful source of energy, capable of making possible deeper space exploration in the decades to Researchers realize efficient generation of high-dimensional quantum teleportation
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16 Write a comment
In a study published in Physical Review Letters, the team led by academician GUO Guangcan from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) made progress in high dimensional quantum teleportation. The researchers demonstrated the teleportation of high-dimensional states in a three-dimensional six-photon system.
To transmit unknown quantum st Autonomous in-space assembly and manufacturing moves closer to reality
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16 Write a comment
COSM Advanced Manufacturing Systems will begin working on final development and build of electron beam 3D metal printing systems for a variety of future in-space, lunar, and Martian applications. The work is funded by a SBIR contract from NASA to support the Artemis program's return to the Moon.
The technology advanced by COSM uses an electron beam to deposit metal from a spool of wire int Space Force joins U.S. Intelligence Community
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16 Write a comment
The U.S. Space Force was designated the 18th member of the U.S. Intelligence Community in a ceremony featuring John Ratcliffe, National Intelligence director, the branch announced on Monday.
The new service branch, founded in 2019, joins a group of government intelligence agencies and subordinate organizations that work separately and collectively to conduct intelligence activities in s