Tighter controls on hazardous chemicals to impact space industry
Tuesday, 30 August 2022 12:30
Revision to practices on the authorisation and restriction of hazardous chemicals in the EU and the new ‘Essential Use’ concept are set to further impact space programmes, the space sector and its supply chains.
Maritime Launch to begin construction of Spaceport Nova Scotia
Tuesday, 30 August 2022 09:19
Nova Scotia is a step closer to becoming a global destination for commercial space launch as Maritime Launch Services (Nova Scotia) Ltd. (Maritime Launch or "the Company") (NEO: MAXQ, OTCQB: MAXQF) is approved to begin construction of Spaceport Nova Scotia - Canada's first commercial spaceport.
"Today is historic. Nova Scotia is the safest and most globally competitive location to launch s Sol 3571: We'll Take a Little Bit of Everything Please!
Tuesday, 30 August 2022 09:19
Today we planned a single sol plan cramming lots of science into a small plan, before driving in the afternoon. The workspace here has flat-lying bedrock, sometimes with visible laminations or with raised ridges, with some patches of rougher textured (chaotic looking) material overlying the bedrock and lots of float rocks. So - rather than choose between them - we are doing a bit of everything! UCL team maps moon's surface for NASA missions
Tuesday, 30 August 2022 09:19
UCL researchers are helping NASA prepare for its Artemis programme moon missions by creating high-resolution 3D models of potential landing sites. Professor Jan-Peter Muller and PhD student Alfiah Putri (both UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory) were commissioned by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to create a 3D model and image of a possible landing site known as Aristarchus - a crater 4 Thermophysical properties of lunar farside regolith with in-situ temperature measurement by Chang'E-4
Tuesday, 30 August 2022 09:19
Lunar regolith is a layer of loosely-packed rocky grains deposited on the lunar surface, whose physical and chemical properties are important for deciphering the geologic history and lunar spacecraft design.
Probing the thermal conductivity of the lunar regolith has drawn a lot of attention since the Apollo era. Early measurements focused on the Apollo regolith samples, but the experimenta Sol 3572: And Now for Something Completely Different? Or Not!
Tuesday, 30 August 2022 09:19
We are almost through Paraitepuy pass, an area between two large buttes that has made for tricky driving while dealing with communication challenges, sand and broken-up rocks. But the end is in sight as we near an area identified from orbit as probably containing hydrated magnesium sulfates, in contrast with the clay-bearing unit that we have been transitioning out of.
Before we get there Astra to sell electric thrusters to Airbus OneWeb Satellites
Tuesday, 30 August 2022 08:58
Astra Space announced Aug. 29 it won a contract from Airbus OneWeb Satellites to provide electric propulsion systems for the Arrow line of small satellites.
The post Astra to sell electric thrusters to Airbus OneWeb Satellites appeared first on SpaceNews.
NASA scrubs launch of giant Moon rocket, may try again Friday
Monday, 29 August 2022 21:44
NASA has scrubbed a test flight of its powerful new rocket, in a setback to its plan to send humans back to the Moon and eventually to Mars, but may shoot for another launch attempt on Friday.
"We don't launch until it's right," NASA administrator Bill Nelson said after an engine issue forced a cancellation of Monday's flight from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
"This is a very comp Direct-to-cell startups welcome Musk’s arrival
Monday, 29 August 2022 21:24
Startups developing constellations for providing connectivity directly to standard cellphones say they stand to benefit from SpaceX entering their market.
The post Direct-to-cell startups welcome Musk’s arrival appeared first on SpaceNews.
NASA continues to study issues that caused Artemis 1 launch scrub
Monday, 29 August 2022 20:08
NASA officials say they are keeping open the possibility of attempting another launch of the Artemis 1 mission as soon as Sept. 2 as they continue to study a pair of issues that scrubbed the initial launch attempt Aug.
New head of AFRL space vehicles looking for talent to help push technology forward
Monday, 29 August 2022 18:50
AFRL is looking to shore up its technical workforce and to partner with private companies, said Col. Jeremy Raley, head of the space vehicles directorate
The post New head of AFRL space vehicles looking for talent to help push technology forward appeared first on SpaceNews.
First in-situ temperature measurement of the thermophysical properties of lunar farside regolith
Monday, 29 August 2022 17:20
Lunar regolith is a layer of loosely-packed rocky grains deposited on the lunar surface, whose physical and chemical properties are important for deciphering the geologic history and formulating lunar spacecraft design. Probing the thermal conductivity of the lunar regolith has drawn a lot of attention since the Apollo era. Early measurements focused on the Apollo regolith samples, but the experimental data were available only at a few landing sites at the nearside.
The CE-4 spacecraft landed at 45.4446°S, 177.5991°E, on the floor of Von Kármán crater, on January 3rd, 2019. After landing, the Yutu-2 rover was released via the deployed two rails.
A centered error entropy-based sigma-point Kalman filter for spacecraft state estimation with non-Gaussian noise
Monday, 29 August 2022 17:06
A spacecraft attitude kinematics model, attitude measurement model, and filter algorithm are three important parts in spacecraft attitude determination, and a high-precision filtering algorithm is the key to attitude determination. The classical sigma-point Kalman filter (SPKF) is widely used in a spacecraft state estimation area with the Gaussian white noise hypothesis.
Although the SPKF algorithm performs well in ideal Gaussian white noise, the actual operating conditions of the spacecraft in orbit are complicated. Space environmental interference, solar panel jitter, and flicker noise will make the noise no longer meet the Gaussian distribution and present a heavy-tailed non-Gaussian situation, where the classical SPKF filtering method is no longer applicable, and there will be obvious accuracy degradation or even filtering divergence.
In a research paper recently published in Space: Science & Technology, a joint team from the Army Engineering University of PLA and Chinese Academy of Military Science, proposed a robust Centered Error Entropy Unscented Kalman Filter (CEEUKF) algorithm by combining the deterministic sampling criterion with the centered error entropy criterion.
NASA says Friday launch of giant Moon rocket possible
Monday, 29 August 2022 16:37
A test flight of NASA's powerful new Moon rocket may be possible on Friday, officials said, after the US space agency scrubbed Monday's launch because of an engine issue.
"Friday is definitely in play," Artemis 1 mission manager Mike Sarafin told reporters.
"They're still holding in the launch countdown configuration and we're preserving the option for Friday."
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Scientist sending yeast and algae to space on Artemis 1
Monday, 29 August 2022 15:12
When NASA's Artemis 1 lunar mission takes off on August 29, on board will be four science experiments—including one from Canada.
UBC pharmaceutical sciences professor Dr. Corey Nislow is sending yeast and algae cultures into space, in a pod not much bigger than a shoebox, to study the effects of cosmic rays and near zero gravity on living organisms.
When the spacecraft returns after its uncrewed 42-day orbit around the Moon, Dr. Nislow will get his samples back, along with the information they contain.
In this Q&A, he explains what the NASA project could mean for medical advances on Earth and in space.
What is it exactly that you're sending into to space, and why?
We chose to study Chlamydomonas reinhardtii—a single-cell green alga—and 6,000 yeast mutants.