Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jul 08, 2022
After analyzing data gathered when NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected a sample from asteroid Bennu in October 2020, scientists have learned something astonishing: The spacecraft would have sunk into Bennu had it not fired its thrusters to back away immediately after it grabbed dust and rock from the asteroid's surface. It turns out that the particles making up Bennu's exterior are so l

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 08, 2022
Perseverance is currently stopped for sampling at Skinner Ridge rock. Sampling activities constitute an important aspect of Perseverance's mission, and the rover's strategic path is developed around sampling stops. During these stops, the rover must remain stationary for at least twelve sols in order to conduct proximity science and activities related to abrasion and coring. But being parked in

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 10, 2022
Both the CheMin and SAM instruments have dined on the Avanavero drill samples and have decided their appetites are sated. CheMin has completed X-ray diffraction mineralogical analysis of the Avanavero drill sample, and SAM their Evolved Gas Analysis. Both instrument teams are satisfied with their analyses and SAM are not opting to do a Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry run. Now it is th

Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jul 10, 2022
NASA's microwave oven-sized CubeSat dubbed CAPSTONE is flying solo, blazing an unusual yet efficient deep space route to the Moon. The CubeSat is heading toward an unique orbit intended in the future for Gateway, a lunar space station built by the agency and its commercial and international partners that will support science and human exploration under Artemis. During the next four months,

Beijing (XNA) Jul 10, 2022
Though China now has more than 1.7 kilograms of lunar soil gathered from its historic Chang'e 5 mission, the government practices a prudent policy when it comes to distributing these valuable samples to researchers. Professor Wang Zaicong, a senior researcher at the School of Earth Sciences of the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, Hubei province, said his team received 200 milligra

Maxwell AFB AL (The Conversation) Jul 10, 2022
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson recently expressed concerns over China's aims in space, and in particular, that China would, in some way, claim ownership over the Moon and stop other countries from exploring it. In an interview with a German newspaper, Nelson cautioned, "We must be very concerned that China is landing on the Moon and saying: 'It's ours now and you stay out.'" China immediately de

Boca Raton LA (SPX) Jul 10, 2022
Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP), a global leader in satellite solutions, primarily serving the United States and Allied aerospace and defense industries, has announced the successful completion of CAPSTONE's first TCM burn (TCM-1). As the first statistical maneuver of the mission, TCM-1 is designed to clean up expected dispersions from the launch vehicle injection - enabling CAPSTONE to

Madrid, Spain (SPX) Jul 10, 2022
Nitriles, a class of organic molecules with a cyano group, that is, a carbon atom bound with a triple unsaturated bond to a nitrogen atom, are typically toxic. But paradoxically, they are also a key precursor for molecules essential for life, such as ribonucleotides, composed of the nucleobases or 'letters' A, U, C, and G joined to a ribose and phosphate group, which together make up RNA. Now, a

Beijing (XNA) Jul 10, 2022
A joint research team of Chinese and Australian astronomers has detected a binary star system ejecting a common envelope, a key process of the binary star evolution, which could be of great importance to studies of the expansion of the universe and dark energy. This is the first time that scientists have observed direct evidence of the key process of the evolution of the common envelope of

Northrop Grumman won a sole-source award for a satellite called ROOSTER, short for Rapid On-orbit Space Technology Evaluation Ring

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