Chinese scientists complete rice, Arabidopsis life-cycle experiments in space
Wednesday, 07 December 2022 11:49
Chinese scientists have completed the life-cycle growth experiments of rice and Arabidopsis in the Chinese space station and successfully obtained their seeds, said the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on Monday.
With the safe landing of the Shenzhou-14 spaceship's return capsule at the Dongfeng landing site Sunday night, the seeds of rice and Arabidopsis, which have undergone a 120-day l Mars megatsunami may have been caused by Chicxulub-like asteroid impact
Wednesday, 07 December 2022 11:49
A Martian megatsunami may have been caused by an asteroid collision similar to the Chicxulub impact - which contributed to the mass extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs on Earth 66 million years ago - in a shallow ocean region, according to a study published in Scientific Reports.
Previous research has proposed that an asteroid or comet impact within an ocean in the Martian northern lowla Measuring times in billionths of a billionth of a second
Wednesday, 07 December 2022 11:49
How fast do electrons inside a molecule move? Well, it is so fast that it takes them just few attoseconds (1 as = 10-18 s or one billionth of billionth of a second) to jump from one atom to another. Blink and you missed it - millions of billions of times. So measuring such ultrafast processes is a daunting task.
Scientists at the Australian Attosecond Science Facility and the Centre for Qu Webb telescope promises new age of the stars
Wednesday, 07 December 2022 11:49
The James Webb Space Telescope lit up 2022 with dazzling images of the early universe after the Big Bang, heralding a new era of astronomy and untold revelations about the cosmos in years to come.
The most powerful observatory sent into space succeeds the Hubble telescope, which is still operating, and began transmitting its first cosmic images in July.
"It essentially behaves better th NASA Researcher's AI 'Eye' could help robotic data-gathering
Wednesday, 07 December 2022 11:49
When it comes to making real-time decisions about unfamiliar data - say, choosing a path to hike up a mountain you've never scaled before - existing artificial intelligence and machine learning tech doesn't come close to measuring up to human skill. That's why NASA scientist John Moisan is developing an AI "eye."
Moisan, an oceanographer at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility near Chincoteague, China's two meteorological satellites put into operation
Wednesday, 07 December 2022 11:49
Two meteorological satellites, along with their ground application systems, have officially started operation, said the China Meteorological Administration on Thursday.
The trial operation of the two satellites, Fengyun-3E (FY-3E) and Fengyun-4B (FY-4B), began in June this year. They will provide observation data and application services to global users.
The FY-3E, launched on July 5 Kilometer-scale modeling better reflects the relationship between land and precipitation
Wednesday, 07 December 2022 11:49
The technique referred to as "dynamical downscaling", which involves the use of regional climate models to dynamically infer the effects of large-scale climate processes at local scales, has proved to be an effective way to simulate precipitation at high resolution. Moreover, with advancements in supercomputing capabilities, dynamical downscaling is now progressing to the kilometer scale. ESA plasma sampler headed to the Moon and ISS
Wednesday, 07 December 2022 11:46
An innovative ESA-backed instrument to sample the space weather environment in-situ is set to join the International Space Station. Norway’s multi-Needle Langmuir Probe, m-NLP, due to be fitted to the European-made Bartolomeo platform on the ISS, a ‘front porch’ open to space, will map the ionospheric plasma surrounding the Station in unprecedented high resolution, performing almost 10 000 measurements per second continuously along its orbit.
China is considering expanding its Tiangong space station
Wednesday, 07 December 2022 11:26
China is already considering adding modules to its recently-completed Tiangong space station complex, according to a senior space official.
Mynaric, Redwire, BigBear.ai partner for DARPA’s laser communications program
Tuesday, 06 December 2022 23:35
Mynaric selected a cybersecurity tool from Redwire and BigBear.ai for an inter-satellite laser communications terminal being developed for DARPA
The post Mynaric, Redwire, BigBear.ai partner for DARPA’s laser communications program appeared first on SpaceNews.
Space Force procurement chief emphatic about the ‘need for speed’
Tuesday, 06 December 2022 22:32
Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, told an audience of space entrepreneurs that he is trying to drive a sense of urgency in military procurements.
Mangata Networks gets funds for Scottish satellite manufacturing hub
Tuesday, 06 December 2022 21:58
Mangata Networks, the U.S.-based startup founded by a former OneWeb executive, said Dec. 5 it signed a $100 million financing deal to build a manufacturing facility in Scotland for its multi-orbit broadband constellation.
Defense, Commerce Departments select companies to prototype space traffic management solutions
Tuesday, 06 December 2022 20:01
The Office of Space Commerce and the Department of Defense announced Dec. 6 they have selected six commercial firms to prototype space traffic data platforms
The post Defense, Commerce Departments select companies to prototype space traffic management solutions appeared first on SpaceNews.
Maybe we don't see aliens because they're waiting to hear a signal from us first
Tuesday, 06 December 2022 17:20
We've had a long-running series here at UT on potential solutions Fermi paradox—why aren't we able to detect any alien life out there in the Universe? But more possible solutions are being developed all the time. Now, another paper adds some additional theory to one of the more popular solutions—that aliens are just too busy to care about us.
The paper, released on arXiv, was written by Amri Wandel of the Racah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It makes two basic assumptions. First, aliens don't really care about planets with life on them. Second, they would care if they could detect intelligent life on one.
For the first assumption to be valid, it would help if the occurrence of "biotic" (i.e., having biology) planets is widespread. In that case, even advanced civilizations might not have enough resources to devote to fully exploring those planets, especially in the form of an actual probe.
Proposing a new idea for spacecraft propulsion that involves dynamic soaring
Tuesday, 06 December 2022 15:30
A team of researchers from McGill University and the Tau Zero Foundation is proposing a new idea for faster spacecraft propulsion that involves dynamic soaring. In their paper published in the journal Frontiers in Space Technology, the group outlines the idea of dynamic soaring as it applies to a speedy way to move through space and other possible uses for it.
Over the past several decades, as human-built space vehicles have made their way to many of the planets and moons in our solar system, it has become clear that a means is required for creating spacecraft that can get to distant destinations in space much faster.