Tuning in for a precision landing on Mars on Feb 18
Monday, 15 February 2021 09:32
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On 18 February 2021, NASA will initiate the most precise landing ever attempted on the Red Planet. A spacecraft with the Perseverance rover on board will enter the Martian atmosphere at around 21:38 (CET) at just under 19,500 kilometres per hour. Within seven crucial minutes, the spacecraft will decelerate to zero using its heat shield, parachute and braking thrusters to set the rover - suspende Perseverance rover lands on Mars this week
Monday, 15 February 2021 09:32 Write a comment
After a seven-month journey, NASA's Perseverance rover prepares to touch down on Mars on Thursday after first negotiating a risky landing procedure that will mark the start of its multi-year search for signs of ancient microbial life.
The Mars 2020 mission, which set off late from Florida in late July, includes the largest ever vehicle to be dispatched to the Red Planet.
Built at NASA's Tianwen 1 enters Mars' polar orbit
Monday, 15 February 2021 09:32 Write a comment
China's Tianwen 1 robotic probe entered orbit above Mars' polar regions on Monday, moving closer to the red planet, the China National Space Administration said.
The spacecraft activated its 3,000-Newton-thrust orbital-control engine at 5 pm to conduct an orbital plane change maneuver to enter polar orbit with a perigee of about 265 kilometers above the red planet, the administration said Slingshot Aerospace names Melanie Stricklan CEO and Gets Laser-Focused on Space Initiatives
Monday, 15 February 2021 09:32 Write a comment
Slingshot Aerospace, Inc., a leader in situational awareness technology, has announced that the company's Co-founder Melanie Stricklan has been named Chief Executive Officer effective immediately as the company gets laser-focused on space. Co-founder and former CEO David Godwin will remain active within the company as Chairman of the Board where he will focus on expanding corporate development a ISRO opens its doors to private firms
Monday, 15 February 2021 09:32 Write a comment
India's premier space organisation, which is directly overseen by the PM's office, is one of just six space agencies around the world to boast full launch capabilities, the capacity to carry out extraterrestrial missions, and operate large fleets of artificial satellites.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), credited with finding evidence of water on the Moon and successful Mars Ceramic chips inside meteorites hint at wild days of the early solar system
Monday, 15 February 2021 09:32 Write a comment
A new analysis of ceramic chips embedded in meteorites suggests the formation of our solar system was not as quiet and orderly as we once thought.
A new study from University of Chicago scientists builds evidence that the baby solar system likely witnessed wild temperature swings and changing conditions-contradicting the decades-old theory that the solar syst NASA's TESS discovers new worlds in a river of young stars
Monday, 15 February 2021 09:32 Write a comment
Using observations from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has discovered a trio of hot worlds larger than Earth orbiting a much younger version of our Sun called TOI 451. The system resides in the recently discovered Pisces-Eridanus stream, a collection of stars less than 3% the age of our solar system that stretches across one-third of the Portugal joins ESA's Boost!
Monday, 15 February 2021 09:30 Write a comment
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Portugal joins ESA's Boost! SpaceX launches Starlink satellites, but booster landing fails
Monday, 15 February 2021 05:40 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — SpaceX launched another set of Falcon 9 satellites Feb. 15, but suffered a rare failed landing of the rocket’s first stage during the mission.
The Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:59 p.m.
Biotech fit for the Red Planet: New method for growing cyanobacteria under Mars-like conditions
Monday, 15 February 2021 05:10 Write a comment
NASA, in collaboration with other leading space agencies, aims to send its first human missions to Mars in the early 2030s, while companies like SpaceX may do so even earlier. Astronauts on Mars will need oxygen, water, food, and other consumables. These will need to be sourced from Mars, because importing them from Earth would be impractical in the long term. In Frontiers in Microbiology, scientists show for the first time that Anabaena cyanobacteria can be grown with only local gases, water, and other nutrients and at low pressure. This makes it much easier to develop sustainable biological life support systems.
"Here we show that cyanobacteria can use gases available in the Martian atmosphere, at a low total pressure, as their source of carbon and nitrogen.
U.S. Army satellite to bring imagery directly to troops on the ground
Sunday, 14 February 2021 23:00 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — A Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle scheduled to fly next month will carry a cubesat that will be used by the U.S. Army to assess the benefits of having dedicated imaging satellites for battlefield surveillance.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter gets an upgrade to capture new perspectives of the moon
Sunday, 14 February 2021 13:23 Write a comment
Eleven years into its mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is starting to show its age, but a recent software update promises to give the spacecraft a new lease on life. As NASA's eye in the sky over the moon, the LRO has been responsible for some of the best Lunar observations since the days of Apollo. This new upgrade will allow that legacy to continue.
Launched in June 2009, the LRO quickly succeeded in mapping over 98% of the moon's surface at a resolution of 100 meters per pixel. The orbiter is also famous for taking incredible high-resolution images of the Apollo landing sites, in which landers, rovers, tire tracks and astronaut footprints are clearly visible.
In 2016, the LRO found evidence that the moon is geologically active as a result of tidal forces from the Earth, and also because the moon is shrinking as its core cools.
Image: At the rim of a crater
Sunday, 14 February 2021 13:04 Write a comment
This image features the southeast wall of a small crater located a few hundred kilometers to the north of the giant Hellas impact basin on Mars. The complete crater itself is about 12 km in diameter; this image shows a 5 x 10 km area.
The Color and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) onboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter took the image on 19 October 2020.
When viewed with CaSSIS' color filters, the image shows exceptional diversity in color. This diversity is related to the presence of various minerals that reflect light differently at different wavelengths. The light-toned deposits highlight the bedrock exposures of the area, which probably contain ancient clay-rich minerals that would have formed in the presence of water. Also visible are wind-blown sandy deposits that form ripples on the floor of the crater. Their distinctive tan color implies that they contain iron-oxide minerals.
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Comet or asteroid: What killed the dinosaurs and where did it come from?
Sunday, 14 February 2021 10:00 Write a comment
It forever changed history when it crashed into Earth about 66 million years ago.
The Chicxulub impactor, as it's known, left behind a crater off the coast of Mexico that spans 93 miles and runs 12 miles deep. Its devastating impact brought the reign of the dinosaurs to an abrupt and calamitous end by triggering their sudden mass extinction, along with the end of almost three-quarters of the plant and animal species living on Earth.
The enduring puzzle: Where did the asteroid or comet originate, and how did it come to strike Earth? Now, a pair of researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian believe they have the answer.
In a study published today in Nature's Scientific Reports, Harvard University astrophysics undergraduate student Amir Siraj and astronomer Avi Loeb put forth a new theory that could explain the origin and journey of this catastrophic object.
Intelsat reveals plan to reorganize and trim debt
Sunday, 14 February 2021 01:57 Write a comment
SAN FRANCISCO – Intelsat SA announced a reorganization plan Feb. 12 to reduce the Luxembourg-based communications satellite fleet operator’s debt from nearly $15 billion to $7 billion.
Creditors responsible for approximately $3.8 billion of Intelsat’s debt have approved Intelsat’s plan and the company is seeking approval from additional creditors, according to a Plan of Reorganization filed Feb.