Copernical Team
Enhancing fusion reactor control through combined plasma management techniques
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Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are advancing fusion technology by integrating two established plasma control methods-electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) and resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP). This combination has shown promising results in improving plasma management, crucial for generating electricity through fusion.
The t NASA and FAA Unite to Advance Wildland Fire Management Technologies
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NASA has teamed up with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to form a research transition team dedicated to advancing wildland fire management technologies. This collaboration is responding to an increase in frequency and scale of wildland fires, as noted by the U.S. Forest Service.
The Wildland Fire Airspace Operations research transition team will explore and test innovative techno Lastest satellite advances China's remote-sensing capabilities
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China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC), a prominent player in the nation's space industry, has announced plans to deploy the initial satellite of an extensive remote-sensing network within the next few months, according to a project manager.
Zhang Chuan of CASIC Space Engineering Development, a subsidiary leading the initiative in Beijing, stated that the inaugural satellite of Earth from Space: Seychelles
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The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over part of the Seychelles, an island republic in the western Indian Ocean. China's Shenzhou-18 mission docks with space station
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A spaceship carrying three astronauts from China's Shenzhou-18 mission safely docked at Tiangong space station Friday, state-run media reported, the latest step in Beijing's space program that aims to send astronauts to the Moon by 2030.
The crew took off in a capsule atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's northwest at 8:59 pm local time !1259 GMT) Thursday.
By early Friday the spacecraft had "successfully docked" with the space station, state-run news agency Xinhua reported, citing the China Manned Space Agency.
The mission is led by Ye Guangfu, a fighter pilot and astronaut who was previously part of the Shenzhou-13 crew in 2021.
ESA opens ideas factory to boost space innovation in Austria
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A centre to innovate the design and manufacture of space hardware has today opened in Vienna. Driving commercialisation in space, it is the first of its kind of ESA-backed disruptive innovation centres outside ESA’s own premises.
NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications demonstration transmits data over 140 million miles
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Riding aboard NASA's Psyche spacecraft, the agency's Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration continues to break records. While the asteroid-bound spacecraft doesn't rely on optical communications to send data, the new technology has proven that it's up to the task. After interfacing with the Psyche's radio frequency transmitter, the laser communications demo sent a copy of engineering data from over 140 million miles (226 million kilometers) away, 1.5 times the distance between Earth and the sun.
Hera mission plans Mars flyby en route to asteroid study
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ESA's Hera mission, aimed at planetary defense, will utilize a Mars flyby in March next year to gain velocity as it heads towards the Didymos binary asteroid system. During this maneuver, Hera will approach Mars within 6,000 km-closer than Mars' moons' orbits-and adjust its trajectory to closely observe Mars' moon Deimos and the Martian surface itself.
The flyby details were discussed at t China launches 3-member crew to its space station as it seeks to put astronauts on the moon by 2030
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China launched a three-member crew to its orbiting space station on Thursday as part of its ambitious program that aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030.
The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China atop a Long March 2-F rocket at 8:59 p.m. (1259 GMT).
The spacecraft's three-member crew will relieve the Shenzhou-17 team, which has been staffing China's Tiangong space station since last October.
The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup
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A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this decade to 2040.
The mission would be the first to try to return rock samples from Mars to Earth so scientists can analyze them for signs of past life.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during a press conference on April 15, 2024, that the mission as currently conceived is too expensive and too slow. NASA gave private companies a month to submit proposals for bringing the samples back in a quicker and more affordable way.
As an astronomer who studies cosmology and has written a book about early missions to Mars, I've been watching the sample return saga play out.