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Even with regular exercise, astronaut's heart left smaller after a year in space
Benjamin Levine, M.D. (left) with long-distance swimmer, Benoit Lecomte. Credit: UT Southwestern Medical Center

With NASA preparing to send humans to Mars in the 2030s, researchers are studying the physical effects of spending long periods in space. Now a new study by scientists at UT Southwestern shows that the heart of an astronaut who spent nearly a year aboard the International Space Station shrank, even with regular exercise, although it continued to function well.

The results were comparable with what the researchers found in a long-distance swimmer who spent nearly half a year trying to cross the Pacific Ocean.

The study, published today in Circulation, reports that astronaut Scott Kelly, now retired, lost an average of 0.74 grams—about three-tenths of an ounce—per week in the mass of his heart's during the 340 days he spent in space, from March 27, 2015, to March 1, 2016. This occurred despite a weekly exercise regimen of six days of cycling, treadmill, or resistance work.

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Advances in space technologies were largely invisible to the public equity markets until July 2019, when Virgin Galactic announced its intent to go public through a merger with Social Capital Hedosophia, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC).

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WASHINGTON — In the wake of speculation that there would not be a National Space Council in the Biden administration, the White House confirmed March 29 that the council will be renewed. 

The administration’s decision to reestablish the council was first reported by Politico.

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WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last week received a detailed briefing on DoD space programs and national security threats in the space domain. This was Austin’s first high-level briefing on space issues since taking office.

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Why we need to get better at predicting space weather
A solar flare. Credit: Shutterstock/Color4260

The sun is the most important source of energy for sustaining life on Earth, but it gives us a lot more than just light and heat. It also gives us solar storms.

Disturbances on the sun, such as coronal mass ejections produced by solar flares that emanate from active sunspot regions, can cause solar storms. Solar flares and emit vast quantities of radiation and charged particles into .

These events can damage the Earth's communication and power infrastructures, resulting in power outages and reduced system functionality. Satellites, space stations and astronauts, aviation, GPS, power grids and more can be affected.

As our civilisation becomes more advanced, we become more vulnerable to the effects of solar storms. Now, as the sun's activity is on the increase, we need to get better at predicting solar weather.

Many people still remember the collapse of Canada's Quebec electrical grid on 13 March 1989, which lasted for nine hours and affected six million people. It caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and lost revenues.

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This screengrab made from SpaceX's live webcast shows the Starship SN10 prototype during a test flight after engines were ignite
This screengrab made from SpaceX's live webcast shows the Starship SN10 prototype during a test flight after engines were ignited just before the test was aborted

SpaceX is preparing for a possible launch of its prototype interplanetary Starship rocket from the company's facility in south Texas on Monday afternoon.

The company is hoping to finally perform a successful after the last three attempts ended in spectacular explosions.

"I have ordered the closure of Boca Chica Beach and Hwy 4 for the purpose of protecting and safety during SpaceX space flight activities on March 29," Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr said in a statement.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk also tweeted on Sunday about the "Possible Starship flight tomorrow afternoon.

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Proba-3 satellites form artificial eclipse

The longest corridor in ESA’s largest establishment was turned into a test site for one of the Agency’s most ambitious future missions, Proba-3. The two satellites making up this mission will line up so that one casts a shadow onto the other, revealing inner regions of the Sun’s ghostly atmosphere. But such precision formation flying will only be possible through a vision-based sensor system allowing one satellite to lock onto the other.

Image: Engine of Atlantis

Sunday, 28 March 2021 13:50
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Image: Engine of Atlantis
Credit: Airbus

The second European Service Module that will power the Orion spacecraft on a crewed flyby of the moon is fitted with a special engine at Airbus facilities in Germany.

This engine belonged to Space Shuttle Atlantis, and is one of five refurbished engines to be paired with the first five European Service Modules. Technicians carefully install the engine in Airbus' cleanroom.

ESM is the powerhouse of NASA's Orion spacecraft. It will provide critical functions such as the propulsion system to get astronauts to the moon, and the consumables astronauts need to stay alive.

ESM-2 will fuel the crewed Orion spacecraft during a flyby of the moon for Artemis 2 and is currently undergoing integration and other testing in Europe before it is delivered to NASA this summer.

Meanwhile in the United States, the first European Service Module is making its way to the as part of the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 1 mission test flight later this year. Next stop is fuelling, due to take place next week.

ESM is ESA's contribution to NASA's Artemis program and includes involvement from 10 European nations.

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Exploring the moon’s shadowed regions using beamed energy

In less than three years, astronauts will return to the moon for the first time since the Apollo Era. As part of the Artemis Program, the purpose is not only to send crewed missions back to the lunar surface to explore and collect samples. This time around, there's also the goal of establishing vital infrastructure (like the Lunar Gateway and a Base Camp) that will allow for "sustained lunar exploration."

A key requirement for this ambitious plan is the provision of , which can be difficult in regions like the South Pole-Aitken Basin—a cratered region that is permanently-shadowed. To address this, a researcher from the NASA Langley Research Center named Charles Taylor has proposed a novel concept known as "Light Bender." Using telescope optics, this system would to capture and distribute sunlight on the moon.

The Light Bender concept was one of 16 proposals that were selected for Phase I of the 2021 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, which is overseen by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). As with previous NIAC submissions, those proposals that were selected represent a broad range of innovative ideas that could help advance NASA's space exploration goals.

Measuring shoreline retreat

Sunday, 28 March 2021 09:45
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Annual mean shoreline change: Start Bay, Devon

Climate change is having an undeniable influence on coastal areas. A substantial proportion of the world’s sandy coastlines are already eroding owing to increased storm surges, flooding and sea level rise. With our coastal environments in constant change, Earth observation satellites are being used to better strengthen our knowledge of changing coastlines.

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London, UK (SPX) Mar 29, 2021
Scientists have long known that certain ingredients are needed to support life, especially water and key organic chemicals like carbon. In recent years, both ingredients have been found on giant asteroids and other celestial bodies. But, until now, no study had delivered conclusive evidence, based on extraterrestrial samples, to show how and when organic matter was made on the rocks that g
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Beer-Sheva, Israel (SPX) Mar 26, 2021
Surprisingly, exposure to a high background radiation might actually lead to clear beneficial health effects in humans, according to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Nuclear Research Center Negev (NRCN) scientists. This is the first large-scale study which examines the two major sources of background radiation (terrestrial radiation and cosmic radiation), covering the entire U.S. populatio
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Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Mar 29, 2021
The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology has conducted an international joint experiment with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) between the optical terminal (OSIRISv1) onboard the University of Stuttgart's Flying Laptop satellite and NICT's optical ground station equipped with newly developed optical bench with fine-pointing system. In February 2021, success in receivi
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Moscow (Sputnik) Mar 29, 2021
Humanity will mark the 60th anniversary of its first foray into space next month, with over 560 people from 41 countries reaching low Earth orbit, travelling beyond low Earth orbit, or even going to the Moon since cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's historic 12 April, 1961 flight. Cardiovascular disease was is the single most common cause of death among Soviet and Russian cosmonauts, a comprehensive
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Herndon VA (SPX) Mar 26, 2021
BlackSky has announced that its latest Gen-2 satellite, BlackSky 7, delivered first insights within 24 hours of launch. Within that time frame, the BlackSky operations team conducted satellite checkout and the satellite collected its first images. At the same time, those images were downlinked, processed and analyzed using BlackSky's Spectra AI suite of AI/ML algorithms to detect objects of inte
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