Copernical Team
How heavy is dark matter
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Scientists have calculated the mass range for Dark Matter - and it's tighter than the science world thought.
Their findings - due to be published in Physics Letters B in March - radically narrow the range of potential masses for Dark Matter particles, and help to focus the search for future Dark Matter-hunters. The University of Sussex researchers used the established fact that gravity act NASA's Artemis Base Camp on the Moon will need light, water, elevation
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American astronauts in 2024 will take their first steps near the Moon's South Pole: the land of extreme light, extreme darkness, and frozen water that could fuel NASA's Artemis lunar base and the agency's leap into deep space.
Scientists and engineers are helping NASA determine the precise location of the Artemis Base Camp concept. Among the many things NASA must take into account in choos Welding underway on Orion indended for landing astronauts on the Moon
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At NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, technicians from Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin have welded together three cone-shaped panels on Orion's crew module for the Artemis III mission that will land the first woman and next man on the Moon.
The crew module's primary structure, the pressure vessel, is comprised of seven machined aluminum alloy pieces that are welded tog NASA spacewalk partially hooks up new science platform
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Two NASA astronauts were unable to complete work during a spacewalk Wednesday on hooking up Europe's new Bartolomeo science platform outside the International Space Station.
Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover spent 6 hours, 56 minutes on the spacewalk. The assignment was the first spacewalk for Glover, the first Black astronaut to live and work aboard the space station.
Nearly halfwa Purported phosphine on Venus more likely to be ordinary sulfur dioxide,
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In September, a team led by astronomers in the United Kingdom announced that they had detected the chemical phosphine in the thick clouds of Venus. The team's reported detection, based on observations by two Earth-based radio telescopes, surprised many Venus experts. Earth's atmosphere contains small amounts of phosphine, which may be produced by life. Phosphine on Venus generated buzz that the NASA's Perseverance Rover 22 days from Mars landing
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NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is just 22 days from landing on the surface of Mars. The spacecraft has about 25.6 million miles (41.2M km) remaining in its 292.5-million-mile (470.8M km) journey and is currently closing that distance at 1.6 miles per second (2.5 kilometers per second).
Once at the top of the Red Planet's atmosphere, an action-packed seven minutes of descent aw On nights before a full moon, people go to bed later and sleep less
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For centuries, humans have blamed the moon for our moods, accidents and even natural disasters. But new research indicates that our planet's celestial companion impacts something else entirely - our sleep.
In a paper published Jan. 27 in Science Advances, scientists at the University of Washington, the National University of Quilmes in Argentina and Yale University report that sleep cycles A CubeSat will test out water as a propulsion system
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Novel propulsion systems for CubeSats have been on an innovative tear of late. UT has reported on propulsion systems that use everything from solid iodine to the Earth's own magnetic field as a way of moving a small spacecraft. Now, there is a potential solution using a much more mundane material for a propellant—water.
Water has plenty of advantages going for it as a propellant. Most obviously, it is not volatile or toxic, making it much easier to handle than conventional rocketfuel. One design flaw holding back the adoption of regular rocket fuel into widespread use in CubeSats is their explosive potential. CubeSats are usually housed next to larger, more expensive satellites in the payloads of rockets. If the rocket fuel loaded into a small CubeSat were to ignite unintentionally, it could completely destroy the much larger, more expensive telescope.
Video: EDRS: the space data highway
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The European Data Relay System, or EDRS, uses cutting-edge laser technology to greatly reduce the time it takes for information to be sent from low-Earth orbiting spacecraft—such as the Earth observing Sentinel satellites—to Earth.
The system makes Earth observation information available in almost real-time, which can help disaster management workers and the emergency services accelerate their responses to natural crises.
Known as the "space data highway," it currently consists of an extensive network of European ground stations and control centres, and two sister satellites: EDRS-A and EDRS-C. Both are in geostationary orbit at an altitude of around 36 000 km, far higher than low-Earth orbiting spacecraft, which typically have an altitude of below 1000 km.
Thanks to the orbital position of the system's satellites, low-Earth orbiting spacecraft lie within the field of view of EDRS for extended periods. At the same time, EDRS has a permanent connection to its own ground stations located on European soil.
Traditionally, when a low-Earth orbiting satellite sends information to Earth, it must wait until it has a direct line of sight to a ground station. This can lead to delays of up to 90 minutes.
Instead, the EDRS satellites relay data from spacecraft within their field of view, allowing people on Earth to receive Earth observation information in almost real-time.
Spacewalking astronauts improve station's European lab
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Spacewalking astronauts installed a high-speed data link outside the International Space Station's European lab on Wednesday and tackled other improvements.