Week in images: 26 - 30 July 2021
Friday, 30 July 2021 10:43
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Week in images: 26 - 30 July 2021
Discover our week through the lens
Nelson remains hopeful Congress will provide additional lunar lander funding
Friday, 30 July 2021 10:09 Write a comment
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says he remains confident that Congress will provide NASA with additional funding so it can select a second lunar lander developer but declined to comment on Blue Origin’s proposal to lower its costs to enable a contract.
Lift off for UK spaceflight as regulations passed
Friday, 30 July 2021 09:49 Write a comment
Another step towards space exploration from UK soil has been unlocked, with the passing of the spaceflight regulations, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced 29 July 2021.
The legislation provides the framework to regulate the UK space industry and enable launches to take place from British soil for the very first time. It will unlock a potential 4 billion pounds of market opportuniti Two more Artemis I deep space cubesats prepare for launch
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Two additional secondary payloads that will travel to deep space on Artemis I, the first flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, are ready for launch.
The Team Miles and EQUilibriUm Lunar-Earth point 6U Spacecraft (EQUULEUS) CubeSats are tucked into dispensers and installed in the Orion stage adapter - the ring that connects Orion to the SLS rocket. They are jo Inmarsat unveils the communications network of the future
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Inmarsat has unveiled plans for ORCHESTRA, the communications network of the future. In the largest ever transformation of its current world-class services, Inmarsat ORCHESTRA will bring together existing geosynchronous (GEO) satellites with low earth orbit satellites (LEO) and terrestrial 5G into an integrated, high-performance solution.
Whether for a ship in a crowded port, an aircraft p Space company in search for professionals
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Despite the exceptional economic situation caused by the pandemic, space industry is showing an upward trend. New ways of working, new ways of collaboration and new, hybrid events promote digital technologies for worldwide communication and data transmission and thus also increase the demand for future-oriented solutions.
Such as made possible by the space company TESAT in Backnang near St Redwire to demonstrate In-Space Additive Manufacturing on ISS for Lunar operations
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Redwire reports that it is launching new manufacturing hardware to the International Space Station (ISS) that will demonstrate additive manufacturing processes using lunar regolith simulant. This demonstration is critical to advancing the ability to develop a permanent presence for humankind on the Moon using in-situ resources.
This will be the first time that lunar regolith simulant has b Clays, not water, are likely source of Martian lakes
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Where there's water, there's life. That's the case on Earth, at least, and also why scientists remain tantalized by any evidence suggesting there's liquid water on cold, dry Mars. The Red Planet is a difficult place to look for liquid water: While water ice is plentiful, any water warm enough to be liquid on the surface would last for only a few moments before turning into vapor in Mars' wispy a Earthly rocks point way to water hidden on Mars
Friday, 30 July 2021 09:49 Write a comment
A combination of a once-debunked 19th-century identification of a water-carrying iron mineral and the fact that these rocks are extremely common on Earth, suggests the existence of a substantial water reservoir on Mars, according to a team of geoscientists.
"One of my student's experiments was to crystalize hematite," said Peter J. Heaney, professor of geosciences, Penn State. "She came up SwRI team zeroes in on source of the impactor that wiped out the dinosaurs
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The impactor believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs and other life forms on Earth some 66 million years ago likely came from the outer half of the main asteroid belt, a region previously thought to produce few impactors.
Researchers from Southwest Research Institute have shown that the processes that deliver large asteroids to Earth from that region occur at least 10 times more frequentl Airbus completes integration of 3rd Copernicus Sentinel-2
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Airbus has finished the integration of the Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite. It is the third of its kind and will now be shipped to Munich to undergo extensive environmental tests to prove its readiness for space. The test campaign will last until March 2022.
The data gathered by Sentinel-2 satellites are used for monitoring land use and changes, soil sealing, land management, agriculture, World's first re-progammable commercial satellite set to launch
Friday, 30 July 2021 07:04 Write a comment
The European Space Agency will on Friday launch the world's first commercial fully re-programmable satellite, paving the way for a new era of more flexible communications.
Unlike conventional models that are designed and "hard-wired" on Earth and cannot be repurposed once in orbit, the Eutelsat Quantum is based on so-called software-defined technology that allows users to tailor the communications to their needs—almost in real-time.
"When a satellite is launched, demand and markets can change over time," Elodie Viau, the agency's telecommunications and applications director, told AFP recently.
"A satellite that is not 'fixed' and can adapt to customers gives us better prospects."
A successful launch would pave the way for mass production of the satellites, which have so far been one-offs.
The Quantum will be part of the payload for an Ariane 5 rocket due to launch from the Guiana Space Centre in Latin America between 21:00 and 22:30 GMT on Friday.
In addition to the Quantum, to be operated by Paris-based Eutelsat, the rocket will also deploy a conventional satellite for Brazil's Embratel.
Because it can be reprogrammed while orbiting in a fixed position 35,000 kilometres (22,000 miles) above the Earth, the Quantum can respond to changing demands for data transmission and secure communications during its 15-year lifetime, ESA said.
Earth from Space: Malé, the Maldives
Friday, 30 July 2021 07:00 Write a comment
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Malé – the capital and most populous city in the Republic of Maldives.
New Russian lab briefly knocks space station out of position
Friday, 30 July 2021 06:45 Write a comment
Station loses attitude control after Nauka docking, Starliner launch delayed
Thursday, 29 July 2021 22:19 Write a comment
A Russian module that docked to the International Space Station July 29 started firing its thrusters hours later, briefly knocking the station out of its normal attitude and forcing NASA to delay a commercial crew test flight that was scheduled to launch July 30.