China to carry out scientific exploration during manned lunar mission
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:44
The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on Monday released an announcement to solicit proposals for payloads of the country's manned lunar mission, which will be used for scientific exploration on the moon's surface.
To make full use of the mission's resources and promote lunar exploration and scientific research, the lunar lander will carry scientific payload for relevant exploration activit It's all still Rock and Roll to Us: Sols 3889-3891
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:44
Earth Planning Date: Friday, July 14, 2023: In human spaceflight, it's a tradition to wake the crew up with a "wake-up song" to let them know "Wake up, it's time to get to work!" For decades, this tradition has also been adopted by the Mars rover teams, with the tactical team at JPL choosing wake-up songs to play in the downlink room at the start of the planning day for us Earth-based "crew memb SwRI team identifies giant swirling waves at the edge of Jupiter's magnetosphere
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:44
A team led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has found that NASA's Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter frequently encounters giant swirling waves at the boundary between the solar wind and Jupiter's magnetosphere. The waves are an important process for transferring energy and mass from the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emitted by th NASA space laser provides answers to a rainforest canopy mystery
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:44
We know less about the rainforest canopy, where most of the world's species live than we do about the surface of Mars or the bottom of the ocean. However, that is about to change thanks to GEDI-a NASA space laser that has provided a detailed structure of the world's rainforests for the first time ever.
"Tropical forests are mainly unstratified especially in Amazonia and regions with lower Australia says mystery beach object may come from space launch
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:44
A bulky barnacle-encrusted cylinder has baffled authorities since washing up on an Australian beach, with the country's space agency suggesting Tuesday it could be debris from a foreign rocket launch.
The object, which measures some two metres (six feet) high with cables dangling from the top, was recently spotted near remote Jurien Bay, a coastal region two hours' drive north of state capi China's Shenzhou XVI astronauts conduct fluid physics experiments
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:44
China's Shenzhou XVI astronauts recently worked with researchers on the ground in a number of in-orbit experiments including fluid physics experiments and cold atom interferometer set-up, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
In the microgravity environment of space, fluid physics research has a wide range of applications, such as spacecraft thermal managemen Electron launches seven smallsats in latest step towards reusability
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 09:39
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket placed seven smallsats for three customers into orbit July 17 on a launch that also brought the company a step closer to reusing the rocket’s booster.
New strategy to keep pace with our changing world
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 09:03
Fuelled largely by climate change, our planet is being subjected to environmental changes that are having an unprecedented global impact on humans, animals and plants. Shockingly, in certain locations these changes are occurring at a rate never before witnessed.
To keep pace with the challenges we face, ESA is embarking on a new Earth observation science strategy – and has reached out to the scientific community at this early stage in the process to help guide the Agency’s scientific agenda for the coming years.
Mystery object that washed up on the Australian coast could be space junk, officials say
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 07:20
Authorities were investigating on Tuesday whether a cylindrical object about the size of a small car that washed up on a remote Australian beach is space junk from a foreign rocket.
A car-sized object that washed ashore in western Australia is thought to be space junk
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 07:20Authorities were investigating on Tuesday whether a cylindrical object about the size of a small car that washed up on a remote Australian beach is space junk from a foreign rocket.
Young space firms are driving acquisition activity
Monday, 17 July 2023 22:12
Young space companies made more acquisitions than their older peers over the last 12 months, according to analysis from British investment firm Seraphim Space.
NASA's first new wind tunnel in 40 years will turn science fiction to fact
Monday, 17 July 2023 18:12
Flying cars. Space tourism. Safe reentry for astronauts coming back from Mars.
These technologies are still science fiction, but some won't be for much longer, according to Charles "Mike" Fremaux, NASA Langley Research Center's chief engineer for intelligent flight systems.
To test these concepts, particularly in regard to public and military safety, NASA Langley is building its first new wind tunnel in over 40 years. The NASA Flight Dynamic Research Facility, a project Fremaux has been pursuing for 25 years, will replace two smaller wind tunnels that are around 80 years old. The center's most recent and largest, the National Transonic Facility, was built in 1980.
"These facilities are really kind of tailor-made for doing a lot of that work," he said at a presentation at the Virginia Air & Space Science Center in Hampton on Tuesday. The talk was part of NASA Langley's Sigma Series community lectures.
"That's not our traditional wheelhouse. We haven't tested anything with a propeller on it in decades."
That's because many new craft will depend on electric vertical takeoff and landing, or "eVTOL," technology.
LightRidge acquires space electronics supplier Trident Systems
Monday, 17 July 2023 17:44
LightRidge Solutions, a company that owns space and airborne sensor businesses, announced July 17 it has acquired space electronics supplier Trident Systems.
China has begun launching its own satellite internet network
Monday, 17 July 2023 17:13
Since 2019, Elon Musk and SpaceX have led the charge to create high broadband satellite internet services. As of May 2023, the Starlink constellation consisted of more than 4,000 satellites operating in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and roughly 1.5 million subscribers worldwide. Several competitors began launching constellations years before Starlink began, and several companies have emerged since. This includes HughesNet, OneWeb, and Amazon's Kuiper Systems. But Starlink's latest challenger could be its most fearsome yet: a company in China backed by the Beijing government.
On Sunday, July 9, a prototype internet satellite was launched aboard a Long March 2C carrier rocket from China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia. The satellite has since entered a predetermined orbit, where it will conduct several tests to validate the broadband satellite technology.
New NASA Artemis instruments to study volcanic terrain on the moon
Monday, 17 July 2023 17:09
As part of NASA's regular cadence of robotic lunar missions through Artemis, the agency has selected a new scientific payload to establish the age and composition of hilly terrain created by volcanic activity on the near side of the moon.
The DIMPLE instrument suite, short for Dating an Irregular Mare Patch with a Lunar Explorer, will investigate the Ina Irregular Mare Patch, discovered in 1971 by Apollo 15 orbital images. Learning more about this mound will address outstanding questions about the evolution of the moon, which in turn can provide clues to the history of the entire solar system.
DIMPLE is the result of the third annual proposal call for PRISM (Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon), which sends science investigations to the moon through a NASA initiative called CLPS, or Commercial Lunar Payload Services. This PRISM call was the first that allowed proposers to choose and justify a particular landing site for conducting high-priority lunar science investigations.
"This commercial payload delivery initiative is helping to provide a burst of lunar science and exploration," said Nicola Fox, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington.