A good GRASP on the New Year
Monday, 04 January 2021 15:31
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NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins performs the Grasp experiment in the Columbus module of the International Space Station ahead of the New Year. The experiment studies how the central nervous system, specifically hand-eye coordination, adapts to microgravity.
Grasp stands for Gravitational References for Sensimotor Performance and seeks to better understand how the central nervous system integrates information from different senses, such as sight, sound and touch, to coordinate hand movements and determine what role gravity plays.
How does the experiment work? Mike dons virtual reality (VR) gear that is coupled with a laptop and driven by an audio/graphics system. The VR
Check out what's coming in 2021
Monday, 04 January 2021 14:44 Write a comment
Check out what's coming in 2021
Making methane on Mars
Monday, 04 January 2021 12:56 Write a comment
Among the many challenges with a Mars voyage, one of the most pressing is: How can you get enough fuel for the spacecraft to fly back to Earth?
Houlin Xin, an assistant professor in physics & astronomy, may have found a solution.
He and his team have discovered a more efficient way of creating methane-based rocket fuel theoretically on the surface of Mars, which can make the return trip all more feasible.
The novel discovery comes in the form of a single-atom zinc catalyst that will synthesize the current two-step process into a single-step reaction using a more compact and portable device.
SpinLaunch expands New Mexico test site
Monday, 04 January 2021 12:33 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — SpinLaunch expects to perform the first suborbital tests of a prototype of its centrifugal system for launching small satellites later this year from New Mexico.
The company, based in Long Beach, California, has said little about its efforts to develop a mass accelerator that would, in effect, serve as the first stage of a smallsat launch system, an approach the company argues will allow it to launch payloads at lower costs and higher frequencies than traditional launch vehicles.
Houston Spaceport aims to be first commercial space station builder
Monday, 04 January 2021 04:29 Write a comment
Houston Spaceport, the nation's 10th commercially licensed Spaceport, will be home to the world's first commercial space station builder, Axiom Space. The aerospace company announced plans to create a 14-acre headquarters campus to train private astronauts and begin production of its Axiom Station-the world's first free-flying, internationally available private space station that will serve as h Roscosmos Head reveals likely cause of crack in ISS module hull
Monday, 04 January 2021 04:29 Write a comment
While the crack has already been located and patched up by the space station's crew, a more permanent solution is expected once special repair equipment reaches the ISS in February.
The crack discovered in the hull of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) in October might have been caused by a micrometeorite impact, head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos Dmitry Rogo Space-bred seeds offer valuable opportunities
Monday, 04 January 2021 04:29 Write a comment
China's historic 23-day Chang'e 5 mission has not only obtained precious rocks and soil samples from the moon, but has also brought back a group of seeds that traveled the furthest in the nation's agricultural and forestry histories.
More than 30 kinds of seeds, including rice, oats, alfalfa and orchid, were placed inside the multi-module Chang'e 5 spacecraft and orbited around the moon fo Advantages of thin-film coating in aircraft coating
Monday, 04 January 2021 04:29 Write a comment
Aircraft and aeronautics are one of the essential industries for every developed country. It will cost very high, and heavy investment loads tend to make them secure from damaging and rusting. Even a single paint coating is very expensive for an aircraft.
Then the question is how to save them from rust, dust, and radiation particles. The innovation is a thin film coating that brings revolu UK eyes plan to send first rover to Moon in 2021
Monday, 04 January 2021 04:29 Write a comment
According to the report, the robot, designed by London-based Spacebit, is expected to join the NASA mission, landing on the lunar surface next summer, which will be the first step towards Britain having a rover on the Moon.
Britain is to launch a little "space spider" Asagumo probe to the Moon in 2021, the Telegraph reported.
The designers opted for multiple legs instead of wheels so Subscriptions to satellite alerts linked to decreased deforestation in Africa
Monday, 04 January 2021 04:29 Write a comment
Deforestation dropped by 18 percent in two years in African countries where organizations subscribed to receive warnings from a new service using satellites to detect decreases in forest cover in the tropics.
The carbon emissions avoided by reducing deforestation were worth between $149 million and $696 million, based on the ability of lower emissions to reduce the detrimental economic con Inmarsat confirms plans Global Xpress extension
Monday, 04 January 2021 04:29 Write a comment
Inmarsat this week marks the fifth anniversary of its Global Xpress (GX) network entering service worldwide. GX is the world's first and only globally available, high-speed broadband network, owned and managed by a single operator. It is already driving the digital transformation of major industries across the world, enhancing fundamentally the way maritime, aviation, government and humanitarian First glimpse of polarons forming in a promising next-gen energy material
Monday, 04 January 2021 04:29 Write a comment
Polarons are fleeting distortions in a material's atomic lattice that form around a moving electron in a few trillionths of a second, then quickly disappear. As ephemeral as they are, they affect a material's behavior, and may even be the reason that solar cells made with lead hybrid perovskites achieve extraordinarily high efficiencies in the lab.
Now scientists at the Department of Energ Spacety shares first images from small C-band SAR satellite
Monday, 04 January 2021 01:59 Write a comment
SAN FRANCISCO – Chinese startup Spacety released the first images from Hisea-1, a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite, launched Dec. 22 on China’s new Long March 8 medium-lift rocket.
Three days after launch, Spacety began receiving data from Hisea-1’s SAR payload built by the China Electronics Technology Group.
Lockheed Martin gets $4.9 billion contract to build three missile-warning satellites for U.S. Space Force
Monday, 04 January 2021 00:05 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $4.9 billion contract for the production of three geosynchronous Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared satellites, the Pentagon announced Jan. 4.
The satellites will be operated by the U.S.
Six space missions to look forward to in 2021
Sunday, 03 January 2021 15:30 Write a comment
Space exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth.
The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of the missions to keep an eye out for.
Artemis 1
Artemis 1 is the first flight of the Nasa-led, international Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024. This will consist of an uncrewed Orion spacecraft which will be sent on a three-week flight around the Moon. IT will reach a maximum distance from Earth of 450,000km—the farthest into space that any spacecraft that can transport humans will have ever flown.
Artemis 1 will be launched into Earth orbit on the first Nasa Space Launch System, which will be the most powerful rocket in operation. From Earth orbit, the Orion will be propelled onto a different path towards the Moon by the rocket's interim cryogenic propulsion stage.