Talking to the moon: Europe pitches lunar satellites plan
Thursday, 20 May 2021 15:15
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The European Space Agency presented a vision Thursday to put satellites in orbit around the moon that would facilitate future missions to Earth's closest neighbor.
Video: Bringing connectivity to the moon
Thursday, 20 May 2021 15:05 Write a comment
As international teams across the world forge plans to revisit the moon, ESA is elaborating how best to facilitate this exploration.
As part of its moonlight initiative, the agency is encouraging European space companies to put a constellation of telecommunications and navigation satellites around the moon.
To succeed, the proposed lunar missions will require reliable navigation and telecommunication capabilities. Building these independently would be costly, complex and inefficient.
If this work were outsourced to a consortium of space companies, each individual mission would become more cost-efficient.
Having one system dedicated to lunar telecommunications and navigation could reduce design complexity, liberating missions to concentrate on their core activities.
Because missions could rely on this dedicated telecommunications and navigation service, they would be lighter. This would make space for more scientific instruments or other cargo.
An accurate and reliable telecommunications and navigation service would enable missions to land wherever they wanted. Radio astronomers could set up observatories on the far side of the moon.
Rovers could trundle over the lunar surface more speedily. It could even enable the teleoperation of rovers and other equipment from Earth.
Infographic: Moonlight - Navigation for the Moon
Thursday, 20 May 2021 13:09 Write a comment
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Infographic: Infographic: Moonlight - Navigation for the Moon Virgin Galactic schedules next SpaceShipTwo test flight for May 22
Thursday, 20 May 2021 12:52 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic will attempt its next SpaceShipTwo suborbital test flight as soon as May 22 after resolving concerns about the maintenance of its carrier aircraft.
The company said in a May 20 statement that the VSS Unity suborbital spaceplane will make a powered flight to the edge of space May 22, pending weather conditions and final technical checks, from Spaceport America in New Mexico.
Op-ed | Beijing’s Troubling Space Ambitions
Thursday, 20 May 2021 12:35 Write a comment
On May 14, China became the second country in the world to land and operate a rover on the surface of Mars. China’s Mars landing follows the April 28 launch of the first components of its next space station.
NASA AI technology could speed up fault diagnosis process in spacecraft
Thursday, 20 May 2021 12:08 Write a comment
New artificial intelligence technology could speed up physical fault diagnosis in spacecraft and spaceflight systems, improving mission efficiency by reducing down-time.
Research in artificial intelligence for spacecraft resilience (RAISR) is software developed by Pathways intern Evana Gizzi, who works at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. With RAISR, artificial intelligence could diagnose faults real-time in spacecraft and spaceflight systems in general.
"The spacecraft reporting a fault is like a car with a check engine light on," Gizzi said. "You know there is an issue, but can't necessarily explain the cause. That's where the RAISR algorithm comes in, diagnosing the cause as a loose gas cap."
Right now, the ability to make inferences about what is happening that go beyond traditional 'if-then-else' fault trees is something only humans can do, Gizzi said.
Moonlight: bringing connectivity to the Moon
Thursday, 20 May 2021 11:00 Write a comment
Video:
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As international teams across the world forge plans to revisit the Moon, ESA is elaborating how best to facilitate this exploration.
As part of its Moonlight initiative, the agency is encouraging European space companies to put a constellation of telecommunications and navigation satellites around the Moon.
To succeed, the proposed lunar missions will require reliable navigation and telecommunication capabilities. Building these independently would be costly, complex and inefficient.
If this work were outsourced to a consortium of space companies, each individual mission would become more cost-efficient.
Having one system dedicated to lunar telecommunications and navigation could reduce design complexity, liberating missions
ESA advances its plan for satellites around the Moon
Thursday, 20 May 2021 11:00 Write a comment
A bold proposal to create a commercially viable constellation of lunar satellites has taken a step closer.
Deep space communication and navigation
Thursday, 20 May 2021 10:58 Write a comment
Deep space communication and navigation
China delays mission while NASA congratulates on Mars images
Thursday, 20 May 2021 09:17 Write a comment
Join ESA, NASA and JAXA for the Earth observation COVID-19 hackathon
Thursday, 20 May 2021 09:10 Write a comment
Do you have ideas on how Earth observation data can solve some of the challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic? If so, ESA, NASA and JAXA invite you to join a virtual Earth Observation Dashboard Hackathon taking place on 23-29 June. Registration for the hackathon opens today.
Moon mission delays could increase risks from solar storms
Thursday, 20 May 2021 06:36 Write a comment
Planned missions to return humans to the Moon need to hurry up to avoid hitting one of the busiest periods for extreme space weather, according to scientists conducting the most in-depth ever look at solar storm timing.
Scientists at the University of Reading studied 150 years of space weather data to investigate patterns in the timing of the most extreme events, which can be extremely dangerous to astronauts and satellites, and even disrupt power grids if they arrive at Earth.
The researchers found for the first time that extreme space weather events are more likely to occur early in even-numbered solar cycles, and late in odd-numbered cycles—such as the one just starting. They are also more likely during busy periods of solar activity and in bigger cycles, mirroring the pattern for moderate space weather.
The findings could have implications for the NASA-led Artemis mission, which plans to return humans to the moon in 2024, but which could be delayed to the late 2020s.
Professor Mathew Owens, a space physicist at the University of Reading, said: "Until now, the most extreme space-weather events were thought to be random in their timing and thus little could be done to plan around them.
China launches latest marine research satellite
Thursday, 20 May 2021 04:35 Write a comment
A Long March 4B rocket carrying the Haiyang 2D (HY-2D) satellite takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China, on May 19, 2021. [Photo by Wang Jiangbo/chinadaily.com.cn]
China launched its latest oceanographic research satellite, the HY-2D, on a Long March 4B carrier rocket from the Gobi Desert on Wednesday morning, according to the China National Space Administration. Did Earth's early rise in oxygen help multicellular life evolve
Thursday, 20 May 2021 04:35 Write a comment
Scientists have long thought that there was a direct connection between the rise in atmospheric oxygen, which started with the Great Oxygenation Event 2.5 billion years ago, and the rise of large, complex multicellular organisms.
That theory, the "Oxygen Control Hypothesis," suggests that the size of these early multicellular organisms was limited by the depth to which oxygen could diffuse Nelson uses Chinese Mars landing as a warning to Congress
Thursday, 20 May 2021 01:31 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated China for successfully landing a rover on Mars, but also used the milestone to warn Congress of China’s competitive threat to American leadership in human spaceflight.
In a statement May 19, hours after the China National Space Administration (CNSA) released the first images taken by the Zhurong rover since its May 14 landing on Mars, Nelson congratulated China for being only the second country, after the United States, to land a spacecraft on Mars and operate it there for more than a brief period.