UK working with global partners to clear up dangerous space debris
Wednesday, 27 October 2021 03:39
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From developing our space tracking capabilities and promoting international efforts in space sustainability, to finding novel ways of removing space debris - the UK is leading the way to ensure the Earth's orbit can continue to be used now and in the future.
Orbital congestion and space debris remains one of the biggest global challenges facing the space sector. There are currently an esti Searching for Earth 2.0? Zoom in on a star
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 21:02 Write a comment
Astronomers searching for Earth-like planets in other solar systems have made a breakthrough by taking a closer look at the surface of stars.
A new technique developed by an international team of researchers—led by Yale astronomers Rachael Roettenbacher, Sam Cabot, and Debra Fischer—uses a combination of data from ground-based and orbiting telescopes to distinguish between light signals coming from stars and signals coming from planets orbiting those stars.
A study detailing the discovery has been accepted by The Astronomical Journal.
"Our techniques pull together three different types of contemporaneous observations to focus on understanding the star and what its surface looks like," said Roettenbacher, a 51 Pegasi b postdoctoral fellow at Yale and lead author of the paper.
Verizon announces intent to use Amazon’s planned Project Kuiper constellation
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 20:19 Write a comment
Verizon Communications is working with Amazon to develop solutions for its proposed Project Kuiper megaconstellation, with the aim of using the satellites to extend connectivity services to more rural and remote communities across the United States.
ULA sets new target launch date for Space Test Program STP-3 mission
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 20:16 Write a comment
United Launch Alliance is targeting a Nov. 22 liftoff for the U.S. Space Force STP-3 mission aboard an Atlas 5 rocket.
UK funds studies to remove two spacecraft from LEO
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 16:36 Write a comment
The UK Space Agency has awarded study contracts for a mission to remove two spacecraft from low Earth orbit by 2025.
You can help train NASA's rovers to better explore Mars
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 16:21 Write a comment
Members of the public can now help teach an artificial intelligence algorithm to recognize scientific features in images taken by NASA's Perseverance rover.
Artificial intelligence, or AI, has enormous potential to change the way NASA's spacecraft study the universe. But because all machine learning algorithms require training from humans, a recent project asks members of the public to label features of scientific interest in imagery taken by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover.
Called AI4Mars, the project is the continuation of one launched last year that relied on imagery from NASA's Curiosity rover. Participants in the earlier stage of that project labeled nearly half a million images, using a tool to outline features like sand and rock that rover drivers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory typically watch out for when planning routes on the Red Planet.
SpaceX needs to tame toilet trouble before weekend launch
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 14:11 Write a comment
SpaceX is taming some toilet troubles in its capsules before it launches four more astronauts.
Pathfinding experiment to study origins of solar energetic particles
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 14:02 Write a comment
A joint NASA-U.S. Naval Research Laboratory experiment dedicated to studying the origins of solar energetic particles—the Sun's most dangerous form of radiation—is ready for launch.
UVSC Pathfinder—short for Ultraviolet Spectro-Coronagraph Pathfinder—will hitch a ride to space aboard STPSat-6, the primary spacecraft of the Space Test Program-3 (STP-3) mission for the Department of Defense. STP-3 is scheduled to lift off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket no earlier than Nov. 22, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Announcement of opportunity to fly payloads on ESA’s Space Rider
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 12:37 Write a comment
ESA is offering the opportunity for payloads to ride on board the first return flight, and future flights, to low orbit of its reusable Space Rider. Applications should reach ESA by 30 November.
Hedron, formerly Analytical Space, raises $17.8 million
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 09:00 Write a comment
Hedron, the company formerly called Analytical Space, raised $17.8 million in a Series A fundraising round.
Rogozin says Crew Dragon safe for Russian cosmonauts
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 08:47 Write a comment
The head of Roscosmos says he is now satisfied that SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is safe enough to carry Russian cosmonauts, clearing a major obstacle for an agreement to exchange seats between Soyuz and commercial crew vehicles.
A world without access to space
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 08:33 Write a comment
Over the last several years we have been yelling and screaming about the existential threat of space debris on our ability to conduct space commerce, but the world is not listening. Instead, several organizations continue to add new spacecraft to the near-Earth space environment while totally ignoring the ultimate consequences.
Just over the past 18 months the population of low-orbiting ac NASA Mars Rover and Helicopter models to go on national tour
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 08:33 Write a comment
Catch Mars mania as a traveling exhibit visits more than a dozen towns across the U.S. with lifelike models of NASA's Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter.
While NASA's Perseverance rover and Ingenuity Mars Helicopter are hard at work exploring Mars hundreds of millions of miles from Earth, their "twin" models will be visiting museums as part of the "Roving With Perseverance" roadsh NASA awards $15M for asteroid hunting telescopes on Maui
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 08:33 Write a comment
The University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA) received a $15 million NASA grant to continue its world-leading efforts to discover Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) and Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs).
IfA's Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) atop Haleakala currently finds nearly as many NEOs and PHAs as the rest of the world's observatories combined, International workshop seeks to turn plans for crewed lunar observatory into reality
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 08:33 Write a comment
Karan Jani, research assistant professor of physics and astronomy, co-chaired the first international workshop focused on gravitational wave detection on the moon. The workshop builds on Jani's recent studies that make the case for building a crewed, lunar-based observatory.
"We are at the dawn of a new space age, with the moon at the center of our campaign for the next several years," Jan