Major asteroid sample brought to Earth in NASA first
Sunday, 24 September 2023 19:48
A seven-year space voyage came to its climactic end Sunday when a NASA capsule landed in the desert in the US state of Utah, carrying to Earth the largest asteroid samples ever collected.
Scientists have high hopes for the sample, saying it will provide a better understanding of the formation of our solar system and how Earth became habitable.
"Touchdown of the Osiris-Rex sample return c FAA proposes rule to reduce space debris as SpaceX launches 22 satellites into orbit
Sunday, 24 September 2023 19:48
SpaceX launched 22 satellites for its Starlink "constellation" into low-Earth orbit late Saturday night as the Federal Aviation Administration proposed a new rule to reduce space debris from commercial flights.
The satellites were launched by a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The first stage booster landed on a barge NASA's first asteroid samples land on Earth after release from spacecraft
Sunday, 24 September 2023 16:55
NASA's first asteroid samples fetched from deep space parachuted into the Utah desert Sunday to cap a seven-year journey.
In a flyby of Earth, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft released the sample capsule from 63,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) out. The small capsule landed four hours later on a remote expanse of military land, as the mothership set off after another asteroid.
"We have touchdown!" Mission Recovery Operations announced, immediately repeating the news since the landing occurred three minutes early.
NASA team simulates a glimpse of our galaxy in gravitational waves
Sunday, 24 September 2023 11:15
Astronomers using simulated data have produced a glimpse of the sky as it would appear in gravitational waves, cosmic ripples in space-time generated by orbiting objects. The image shows how space-based gravitational wave observatories expected to launch in the next decade will enhance our understanding of our galactic home.
Since 2015, ground-based observatories have detected about a hund HawkEye 360 announces RFIQ product for a deeper look at RF activity
Sunday, 24 September 2023 11:15
HawkEye 360 has announced its RFIQ product which introduces flexible spectrum collection options. Customers can use RFIQ unprocessed in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) data to analyze signal characteristics or survey RF activity over large regions of the Earth. HawkEye 360 collects the broadest range of RF frequencies among commercial RF sensing satellite operators, with coverage as low as 70 MHz and NASA readies for dramatic return of asteroid sample to Earth
Sunday, 24 September 2023 08:50
The climactic end of a seven-year voyage comes Sunday when a NASA capsule is due to land in the Utah desert, carrying to Earth the largest asteroid samples ever collected.
Scientists have high hopes for the sample, saying it will provide a better understanding of the formation of our solar system and how Earth became habitable.
The Osiris-Rex probe's final, fiery descent through Earth's atmosphere will be perilous, but the US space agency is hoping for a soft landing, around 9:00am local (15H00 GMT), in a military test range in northwestern Utah.
Office of Space Commerce touts progress on civil space traffic coordination system
Saturday, 23 September 2023 00:52
NASA Scientists to Discuss Oct. 14 'Ring of Fire' Solar Eclipse
Friday, 22 September 2023 18:03
NASA will host a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Sept. 26, to discuss the upcoming annular solar eclipse. The annular eclipse will cross the U.S. from Oregon to Texas on Saturday, Oct. 14, with a partial solar eclipse visible throughout the contiguous U.S. Satellogic relocating to the United States in search of government growth
Friday, 22 September 2023 17:45
Opinion: As space exploration and colonization expand, off-Earth resources will create a booming market
Friday, 22 September 2023 16:22
The drive to explore deeper into space and establish colonies on other planets has intensified over the last decade, and with it the importance of space resources extraction.
Obtaining valuable resources and minerals, even in extreme environments, has long been attractive to humans. We have a history of facing hazards in search of valuable resources. From the gold rush in the 1800s to the recent surge in space resources, humans have been willing to take risks to find and collect scarce and profitable materials.
With advances in space technology, we're on the edge of the next gold rush—but not on Earth. Based on recent scientific and engineering breakthroughs and commercial interests, off-Earth mining is expected to begin in the next decade.
Potential mining sites include the moon, Mars and its moons, asteroids and even comets. Market predictions for lunar mining, particularly lunar water, project a multibillion-dollar industry by 2050. Although theoretical, these forecasts signal a worthwhile market, with Australia as a potential leader.
The motivation for off-Earth mining is multifaceted: access to an unlimited wealth of valuable space resources, the spirit of discovering new planets and the development of spin-off technologies to be used back on Earth.
Solar sails could reach Mars in just 26 days
Friday, 22 September 2023 16:02
A recent study submitted to Acta Astronautica and currently available on the arXiv preprint server explores the potential for using aerographite solar sails for traveling to Mars and interstellar space, which could dramatically reduce both the time and fuel required for such missions.
This study comes while ongoing research into the use of solar sails is being conducted by a plethora of organizations along with the successful LightSail2 mission by The Planetary Society, and holds the potential to develop faster and more efficient propulsion systems for long-term space missions.