Washington DC (UPI) Feb 19, 2021
Three virtual anti-jamming tests of wideband global satellite communications satellites were a success, the U.S. Air Force announced this week. The Space and Missile Systems Center, headquartered at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., said the tests will provide advanced anti-jamming support for the Wideband Global SATCOM, the system that provides satellite communications to U.S. fighte

Toronto, Canada (SPX) Feb 19, 2021
Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (NGen), the industry-led organization leading Canada's Advanced Manufacturing Supercluster, has co-funded a private sector consortium led by MDA that will enable the integration of artificial intelligence, industry 4.0, data sharing, and collaborative robotics into highly flexible, adaptable manufacturing environments. MDA along with partners Promark El

London, UK (SPX) Feb 19, 2021
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

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 19, 2021
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

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 19, 2021
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

Eugene OR (SPX) Feb 19, 2021
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

Vienna, Austria (SPX) Feb 19, 2021
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

Washington (AFP) Feb 20, 2021
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

Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 19, 2021
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

Washington (AFP) Feb 19, 2021
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