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Copernical Team
Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumb trick inspires robotic exploration system for caves on Mars and beyond
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House hunting on Mars could soon become a thing, and researchers at the University of Arizona are already in the business of scouting real estate that future astronauts could use as habitats. Researchers in the UArizona College of Engineering have developed technology that would allow a flock of robots to explore subsurface environments on other worlds.
"Lava tubes and caves would make perfect habitats for astronauts because you don't have to build a structure; you are shielded from harmful cosmic radiation, so all you need to do is make it pretty and cozy," said Wolfgang Fink, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at UArizona.
Atom-scale scan of space materials
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Hubble captures movie of DART asteroid impact debris
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The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a series of photos of rapid changes to the asteroid Dimorphos when it was deliberately hit by a 545-kilogram spacecraft on 26 September 2022. The primary objective of the NASA mission, called DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), was to test our ability to alter the asteroid’s trajectory as it orbits its larger companion asteroid, Didymos. Though Dimorphos poses no threat to Earth, data from the mission could help inform researchers how to potentially change an asteroid’s path away from Earth, if ever necessary.
Meet Carole Mundell, new Director of Science
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Carole Mundell is the new Director of Science, succeeding the current director Günther Hasinger.
Professor Mundell is an internationally renowned scientist with extensive experience in inclusive leadership, operational management, strategy and international science policy development.
She joined ESA from the University of Bath where she held the Hiroko Sherwin Chair in Extragalactic Astronomy, was founding Head of Astrophysics, and served as Head of the Department of Physics until becoming the first woman Chief Scientific Adviser at the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2018 and first Chief International Science Envoy in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office until 2021.
NASA's autonomous aircraft decision tech gets simulated urban test
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World View names Ian Thomas as Chief Revenue Officer
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Arralis Technologies acquired by ReliaSat
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Baby star near the black hole in the middle of our Milky Way: It exists after all
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IXPE unlocks mysteries of Tycho Supernova
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Removing traces of life in lab helps NASA scientists study its origins
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