How do you test a helicopter bound for Mars?
Friday, 23 April 2021 13:04
The Ingenuity helicopter may be the first vehicle ever to fly on Mars, but Mars was not the first place it has ever flown. Before packaging it up and blasting it to the Red Planet, engineers at JPL gave the helicopter a trial run in a special wind tunnel designed with help from researchers at Caltech.
To simulate flying on a planet where the atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earth's, a custom wind tunnel was built inside of an 85-foot-tall, 25-foot-diameter vacuum chamber at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA. Pressure in the chamber was pumped down to approximate the Martian atmosphere, while an array of 441 pairs of individually controllable fans blew on the helicopter to simulate forward flight in the enclosed space.
The fan array was designed and built by JPL engineers with input from Caltech's Chris Dougherty and Marcel Veismann, who are currently Ph.D. students working with Mory Gharib, Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Bioinspired Engineering and Booth-Kresa Leadership Chair of Caltech's Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST). Dougherty and Veismann had previously overseen design and assemblage of a similar array of 1,296 pairs of fans for the Real Weather Wind Tunnel at CAST, which opened in 2017.
Two pilots, rocket scientist, oceanographer flying SpaceX
Friday, 23 April 2021 12:28
SpaceX's third crew has an attack helicopter pilot, a former Air France pilot, a Japanese rocket scientist and an oceanographer.
SpaceX launches 3rd crew with recycled rocket and capsule
Friday, 23 April 2021 12:27
Week in images: 19 - 23 April 2021
Friday, 23 April 2021 12:27
Week in images: 19 - 23 April 2021
Discover our week through the lens
Op-ed | Blank checks c/o the stars: Market analysis given short shrift as companies cash in on SPAC spree
Friday, 23 April 2021 12:18
An enduring streak of large private investments not seen the space industry’s six decades of existence has taken hold in the past several years.
By Northern Sky Research’s count, the space sector has garnered close to $32 billion in investments since the current wave of financing started in 2014 when Google paid $500 million for Skybox.
Ozmens' SNC Launches Sierra Space, an independent commercial space company
Friday, 23 April 2021 11:09
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), the global aerospace and national security leader, announced the creation of Sierra Space, a new commercial space company. The new company's "space-as-a-service" business model will leverage cutting-edge technologies, such as Dream Chaser spaceplanes and expandable LIFE habitats, within the fast-growing new space economy, which is projected to grow to $1.4T by 20 M-42 will measure radiation on the Moon
Friday, 23 April 2021 11:09
A long-term stay on the Moon would subject the human body to a high level of radiation, as radiation in space is generally many times stronger than it is on Earth. Before humans return to the Moon, the German Aerospace Center will send a small measuring device, the M-42 radiation detector, to Lacus Mortis to record radiation levels on the surface. It will travel there on board the commercial Per Rocket to lift space station core moves to launch tower
Friday, 23 April 2021 11:09
The Long March 5B carrier rocket which will launch the core capsule of China's space station was moved on Friday morning to the launch tower at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the southernmost island province of Hainan, according to the China Manned Space Agency.
The agency said in a brief statement that the rocket with the core capsule inside will begin pre-launch examinations. Astronaut Kate Rubins: Fresh food in space is rare, desired
Friday, 23 April 2021 11:09
Astronaut Kate Rubins, who returned from a mission almost a week ago, has urged more research into growing produce while in orbit.
"We don't get a lot of fresh food in space and so, you know, it's pretty funny to get very excited about a spinach salad, but I think that's the best thing in the world," Rubins said during a phone press conference with reporters Wednesday from Johnson Space DLR develops an unmanned stratospheric aircraft
Friday, 23 April 2021 11:09
Earth observation and global communications - these two terms immediately bring satellites to mind. Constructing these satellites and placing them in orbit is costly and, at the end of their missions, their remains are sometimes left behind to become space debris. Aircraft or helicopters, however, are also not ideal for these tasks.
Their deployment is limited by factors of time and locat Radar satellites can better protect against bushfires and floods
Friday, 23 April 2021 11:09
New research led by Curtin University has revealed how radar satellites can improve the ability to detect, monitor, prepare for and withstand natural disasters in Australia including bushfires, floods and earthquakes.
The research used Synthetic Aperture Radar data obtained by the European Space Agency Sentinel-1 satellite, amongst others, to evaluate Australia-specific case studies. SpaceX in orbit on route to ISS
Friday, 23 April 2021 11:09
SpaceX launched its third crew to the International Space Station an hour before sunrise Friday, recycling a rocket and spacecraft for the first time. The Crew-2 mission, the first involving a European, blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:49 am Eastern Time (0949 GMT). "Endeavour launches once again - four astronauts from three countries on Crew-2, now making their way to the one and only International Space Station Mars 2020 used key systems at AFRL for pre flight testing
Friday, 23 April 2021 11:09
On February 18, 2021, NASA's rover Perseverance touched down on the surface of Mars to begin searching for evidence of past life. The success of this touchdown would not have been possible without the work of a team of researchers who operate unique erosion testing equipment in a windowless bunker at Wright-Patterson's Air Force Research Lab. And this is not the only Dayton connection to this pa Mars has right ingredients for present-day microbial life beneath its surface, study finds
Friday, 23 April 2021 11:09
As NASA's Perseverance rover begins its search for ancient life on the surface of Mars, a new study suggests that the Martian subsurface might be a good place to look for possible present-day life on the Red Planet.
The study, published in the journal Astrobiology, looked at the chemical composition of Martian meteorites - rocks blasted off of the surface of Mars that eventually landed on Scientists propose new formation mechanism for solar coronal rain
Friday, 23 April 2021 11:09
Rain is a common phenomenon on Earth. There is a similar phenomenon on the Sun, called coronal rain. It is related to the coronal heating and magnetic field, and plays a fundamental role in the mass cycle between the hot, tenuous corona and the cool, dense chromosphere.
Coronal rain usually takes place in post-flare loops and the non-flaring active region coronal loops. It is generally cla