Copernical Team
Treating lunar soil to create fertilizer for growing plants on the moon
Sooner or later, settlers on the moon will have to become farmers. A new ESA Discovery project led by Norway's Solsys Mining is looking into the treatment of lunar soil to create fertilizer for growing plants.
The good news is that analysis of lunar samples returned to Earth in the past by moonwalkers and robots shows sufficient essential minerals are available for plant growth, apart from nitrogen compounds. The bad news is that lunar soil (or "regolith") compacts in the presence of water, creating problems for plant germination and root growth.
Hydroponic farming therefore offers a practical alternative; this type of agriculture involves feeding plant roots directly with nutrient-rich water, without the need for soil. The potential is still there however to put lunar regolith to work, on the basis of "in-situ resource utilization"—or living off the land.
The "Enabling Lunar In-Situ Agriculture by Producing Fertilizer from Beneficiated Regolith" project, led by Solsys Mining with Norway's Geotechnical Institute (NGI) and Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Space (CIRiS), involves studying a combination of mechanical, chemical and biological processes to extract mineral nutrients from the regolith.
SpaceX Dragon crewed flight to ISS pushed back 24 hours
US space agency NASA and SpaceX on Tuesday pushed back by 24 hours the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket that is to carry four astronauts to the International Space Station.
NASA's Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, Russia's Andrey Fedyaev and Sultan al-Neyadi of the United Arab Emirates had been scheduled to blast off for the ISS at 2:07 am (0707 GMT) Sunday.
Liftoff of the SpaceX Dragon Crew-6 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida has now been rescheduled for 1:45 am Monday, NASA officials said.
Shaping the future of space telecommunications
ESA is inviting everyone working on space-enabled telecommunications – whether they are based in a large firm, a small start-up company or an established research institution – to help shape the future by joining a conference.
Lockheed Martin gets $1BN contract for sea-based hypersonic strike capability
Lockheed Martin is partnering with the U.S. Navy to integrate hypersonic strike capability onto surface ships. The U.S. Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth more than $2 billion, if all options are exercised, to integrate the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) weapon system onto ZUMWALT-class guided missile destroyers (DDGs). CPS is a hypersonic boost-glide weapon system that enables long Low power Ka-band transmitters on Earth observation satellites
Axelspace Corporation has successfully developed a Ka-band radio for Earth observation microsatellites. The radio operates with less than half the power consumption of conventional radio. The collaborative research was jointly developed with Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech). With key collaborators Atsushi Shirane of the Laboratory for Future Interdisciplinary Research of Science and Pr New transmitter design for small satellite constellations improves signal transmission
Today, there are many emerging applications for small satellite constellations, ranging from space-borne networks to environmental monitoring. However, small satellites have special needs when it comes to transmitter (TX) technology. For one, they have stringent limitations on power consumption as they draw energy from solar panels and cannot easily dissipate generated heat. Moreover, small sate Vast acquires launcher to accelerate growth
To accelerate its mission to expand humanity across the solar system by developing long term human habitation in space, Vast has acquired space startup Launcher. Vast is building an artificial gravity station with many times the volume of the International Space Station in low Earth orbit. While steadily making progress toward this goal, Vast will be partnering with a global array of customers, SpaceX Endeavour's crew arrive at KSC ahead of launch
An international team of astronauts and scientists arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, ahead of a six-month science mission to the International Space Station set to blast off on Sunday.
Crew-6 comprises two NASA astronauts, mission commander Stephen Bowen and pilot Warren Hoburg, along with mission specialists Sultan Alneyadi from the United Arab Emirates and Andrey When data show up late: Sols 3746-3748
Today, I was heading for my computer when my colleagues went off to celebrate the end of the working week. Yes, that's right, planning started at 5 pm in my part of the world (the UK) today. That was one hour later than anticipated (and I would have missed all my colleagues going 'Have a good weekend!')
Why that late? Most days, we start an hour earlier, at 8 am in Pasadena California, not Better tools needed to determine ancient life on Mars
Current state-of-the-art instrumentation being sent to Mars to collect and analyze evidence of life might not be sensitive enough to make accurate assessments, according to a research team co-led by a Cornell University astronomer.
In a paper published in Nature Communications, visiting planetary scientist Alberto Fairen, and an international team of researchers, claim that ancient organic