Beijing (XNA) Apr 26, 2023
China's Chang'e 5 robotic mission created history when it brought back samples from the lunar surface in 2020, and now, Chinese space scientists have set their sights on another celestial body - Mars. According to Wu Yanhua, chief designer of China's deep-space exploration programs, the nation plans to bring Martian soil back to Earth around 2030. The mission has been named Tianwen 3, whic

Beijing (XNA) Apr 26, 2023
China has gifted lunar samples retrieved by the Chang'e 5 mission to Russia and France to boost lunar research, according to the China National Space Administration. The administration announced on Monday that 1.5 grams of lunar samples were presented to Russia during President Vladimir Putin's visit to China in February 2022. In return, Russia gave China a reciprocal amount from the 1970

Beijing (XNA) Apr 26, 2023
China published on Monday the first global panoramic images of Mars taken by the country's Tianwen 1 mission. The color images include the Robinson projection, Mercator projection, azimuthal projection and orthographic projection of the Eastern and Western hemispheres of Mars, with a spatial resolution of 76 meters. The images were jointly released by the China National Space Adminis

Bristol UK (SPX) Apr 26, 2023
A new study has uncovered intriguing insights into the liquid core at the centre of Mars, furthering understanding of the planet's formation and evolution. The research, led by the University of Bristol and published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US, reveals the first-ever detections of sound waves travelling into the Martian core. Measurements from

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 26, 2023
As NASA works toward sending astronauts to the Moon through Artemis missions, one of the agency's primary goals is to establish a long-term presence on the lunar surface. Resources like oxygen are crucial building blocks for making that vision a reality. In addition to using oxygen for breathing, it can also be used as a propellant for transportation, helping lunar visitors stay longer and ventu

Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 26, 2023
As the blog for sols 3807-3809 noted, we have cleared the canyon! The accompanying Left Navcam image shows the view back down the canyon, showing all those tricky rocks we had to climb over. You can even spot some wheel tracks further back down if you peer vey closely. We don't exactly have free-wheeling territory up ahead in our drive direction, but it is a little flatter. This hopefully

Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 26, 2023
One of six instruments aboard the agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, CRISM produced global maps of minerals on the Red Planet's surface. NASA switched off one of its oldest instruments studying Mars on April 3, a step that's been planned since last year. Riding aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, CRISM, or the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, revealed minerals such

Beijing (XNA) Apr 26, 2023
China has big plans to advance its space exploration and development, but whether those plans can become a reality depends on the capability of the country's carrier rockets, or more specifically, rocket engines. China has some of the world's best rocket engines, ranging from huge ones lifting the Long March 5 heavy-lift rocket to small models elevating a craft from the lunar surface, but

Washington DC (SPX) Apr 26, 2023
When a lander descends toward the moon - or a rocky planet, asteroid, or comet - the exhaust plume of the rocket interacts with the surface, causing erosion and kicking up regolith particles. The resulting blanket of dusty debris can create a dangerous brownout effect, limiting visibility and potentially damaging the spacecraft or nearby equipment. In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing,

Maxwell AFB AL (SPX) Apr 26, 2023
On April 20, 2023, a new SpaceX rocket called Starship exploded over the Gulf of Mexico three minutes into its first flight ever. SpaceX is calling the test launch a success, despite the fiery end result. As a space policy expert, I agree that the "rapid unscheduled disassembly" - the term SpaceX uses when its rockets explode - was a very successful failure. b>The most powerful rocket eve