Military building an appetite for commercial space services
Friday, 25 June 2021 15:59
The U.S. Space Force is eager to tap into the vibrant commercial market for space services enabled by increasingly capable small satellites and cheaper access to orbit.
Commercial services of particular interest to the military include imagery, analytics, weather data and broadband from low-Earth orbit constellations.
Report backs NASA proposal to change astronaut radiation exposure limits
Friday, 25 June 2021 15:58
WASHINGTON — A National Academies committee has endorsed a NASA proposal to change the radiation exposure limits the agency sets for its astronauts but cautioned that the revised limit is still insufficient for human Mars missions.
Connecting the Dots | Space after SPACs: Industry could be on the verge of new investment era
Friday, 25 June 2021 14:57
The SPAC investment trend injecting billions of dollars into early-stage space startups appears to have peaked, but in its wake could be larger capital infusions from institutional investors with deeper pockets.
Seven space companies plan to reap more than $3 billion in total later this year by merging with a SPAC — blank check firms that raise money on a public market before combining with businesses to fast-track investor exits.
Week in images: 21 - 25 June 2021
Friday, 25 June 2021 12:27
Week in images: 21 - 25 June 2021
Discover our week through the lens
Mars colonists are going to wish they had an atmosphere above them
Friday, 25 June 2021 11:10
There will be all sorts of risks for any future colonists on Mars, such as extreme weather and temperatures, radiation, and the human physiological problems associated with living in with decreased gravity. But another issue is that colonists on Mars will have to be on a constant lookout above their heads.
While Mars and Earth are both hit by space debris regularly—dust, small rocks and bigger meteoroids—on our planet, meteors usually vaporize in the atmosphere.
"On Mars however, with a surface pressure one 100th that of the Earth, the impactors generally make it to the surface," says the team from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
Virgin Galactic cleared to fly customers on SpaceShipTwo
Friday, 25 June 2021 10:42
WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration has granted permission to Virgin Galactic to fly customers, and not just employees, on its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle, a move that could allow the company’s founder to fly to the edge of space soon.
Earth from Space: Lake Mar Chiquita
Friday, 25 June 2021 07:00
The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over Lake Mar Chiquita – an endorheic salt lake in the northeast province of Córdoba, Argentina.
Study Looks More Closely at Mars' Underground Water Signals
Friday, 25 June 2021 05:24
A new paper finds more radar signals suggesting the presence of subsurface 'lakes,' but many are in areas too cold for water to remain liquid.
In 2018, scientists working with data from ESA's (the European Space Agency's) Mars Express orbiter announced a surprising discovery: Signals from a radar instrument reflected off the Red Planet's south pole appeared to reveal a liquid subsurface la Collection of starshade research helps advance exoplanet imaging by space telescopes
Friday, 25 June 2021 05:24
The open access Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems (JATIS) has published a special section on the latest science, engineering, research, and programmatic advances of starshades, the starlight-suppression technology integral to extra-solar and exoplanet detection.
Section topics range from starshade programs and missions, to various aspects of related technologies, AiRANACULU wins second NASA contract for advanced space communications system
Friday, 25 June 2021 05:24
AiRANACULUS, a private, Massachusetts-based technology company providing early stage research, development, prototyping and consulting services, announced it has been awarded a second NASA Small Business Innovation Research contract for development of an advanced space communications system to support upcoming missions to the Moon and Mars.
Under the new contract, AiRANACULUS will develop NASA to send mannequins to moon to prepare for crewed missions
Friday, 25 June 2021 05:24
NASA's upcoming Artemis I mission to the moon, planned for later this year, won't have a human crew, but the space agency is preparing three inanimate occupants of the Orion capsule to measure radiation and vibrations.
The Artemis I "crew" members, mannikins, will help NASA test radiation, vibration and impacts from landing before the space agency plans to send astronauts in an Orion ca Technical snags make US Astronauts' lunar landing in 2024 'less likely', GAO Says
Friday, 25 June 2021 05:24
NASA's 2024 deadline to return humans to the Moon looks increasingly unlikely due to reliance on technology that has yet to be fully developed, the General Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report on Thursday.
"A fast-tracked schedule to meet this ambitious date - along with some technical risks - mean that it's less likely a lunar landing will happen in 2024," a GAO press release expl Cosmic dawn occurred 250 to 350 million years after Big Bang
Friday, 25 June 2021 05:24
Cosmic dawn, when stars formed for the first time, occurred 250 million to 350 million years after the beginning of the universe, according to a new study led by researchers at University College London (UCL) and the University of Cambridge.
The study, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, suggests that the NASA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scheduled to British-built satellites will help fight climate change and save wildlife
Friday, 25 June 2021 05:24
Monitoring and tackling climate change and tracking endangered wildlife are among the exciting features of three UK-built satellites set to launch on a SpaceX rocket on Friday 25th June.
UK companies have received nearly 15 million pounds from the UK Space Agency, through the European Space Agency's Pioneer Partnership Programme, to develop the trio of satellites due to lift off from NASA' Solar System samples touch down in Leicester
Friday, 25 June 2021 05:24
Samples from other worlds will be examined by space scientists at the University of Leicester as they continue to study the building blocks of the Solar System.
Some of the first particles from asteroid Ryugu - returned by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) probe Hayabusa2 in 2020 - and samples from the Winchcombe meteorite, which fell to Earth earlier this year, will be scrutinised