PickNik Robotics wins Space Force contract for on-orbit capture
Thursday, 27 October 2022 11:58
PickNik Robotics has won a SpaceWERX contract to work on robotics for the US Space Force. In addition, the company recently won a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I contract for continued work on supervised autonomy for space robotics, as well as a Colorado Advanced Industries Accelerator (AIA) grant for space robotics.
"These three wins provide additional validation of Thermal control designs keep astronauts cool on space station
Thursday, 27 October 2022 11:58
For astronauts, staying cool and comfortable on China's Tiangong space station is no problem. The station orbits Earth in about 90 minutes at an altitude of 400 km. It experiences large fluctuations in temperature, ranging from 150 degrees Celsius when the station is exposed to the sun to minus 100 degrees Celsius when over the night side of the planet. So how to protect station residents from e NASA Lucy spacecraft captures moon images and 'Terminator Mosaic'
Thursday, 27 October 2022 11:58
NASA's Lucy spacecraft has captured new high resolution images of the Moon's Central Highlands surface taken while the spacecraft was between Earth and the Moon.
The Oct. 16 images were taken approximately 140,000 to 160,000 miles from the moon after Lucy flew by the Earth for its first of three gravity assists, the space agency said. They included a "Terminator Mosaic," as well as sing Trying to Avoid Nodules: Sols 3633-3634
Thursday, 27 October 2022 11:58
The long Sol 3631 drive went well, leaving the rover near exposures of nodule-rich bedrock. Because we have examined the chemical composition of nodules recently, a goal for today's planning was to find patches of bedrock that are relatively nodule-free in order to look for changes in the "background" bedrock.
So the Sol 3633 plan starts with a couple APXS integrations on "Balata," a bedro Arecibo Observatory scientists publish major study on near-earth asteroids
Thursday, 27 October 2022 11:58
The largest paper ever published on radar observations of near-Earth asteroids has been released, compiling years' worth of data from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
Using delay-Doppler radar observations collected from the observatory between December 2017 and December 2019, the study includes 191 asteroids' radar cross sections and Doppler-frequency broadening. This data can be u New technique to determine age will open new era of planetary science
Thursday, 27 October 2022 11:58
The coming decade is expected to bring a veritable bonanza for the science of planets: space missions are scheduled to bring back samples of rock from the moon, Mars, the Martian moon of Phobos, and a primitive asteroid. And scientists say there is a new technique for determining the age of rocks, meteorites, and even artifacts, that could help open up a new era of discovery.
A group with Webb offers never-before-seen details of early universe
Thursday, 27 October 2022 11:58
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope was specially designed to detect the faint infrared light from very distant galaxies and give astronomers a glimpse at the early universe. The nature of galaxies during this early period of our universe is not well known nor understood. But with the help of gravitational lensing by a cluster of galaxies in the foreground, faint background galaxies can be magnifi Solar Orbiter’s unprecedented view of the quiet corona
Thursday, 27 October 2022 11:00
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The ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission has experienced its second close encounter with the Sun. It is delivering more stunning data, and at higher resolution than ever before.
The moment of closest approach took place on 12 October at 19:12 UTC (21:12 CEST), when Solar Orbiter was just 29% of the Earth’s distance from the Sun. This movie comes from 13 October, when the spacecraft’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) returned the highest resolution movie of the quiet corona ever taken with any instrument.
Each pixel on this movie spans 105 km on the surface of the Sun. This means that
ESA astronauts help map Europe’s light pollution from space
Thursday, 27 October 2022 08:33
Discovery funding transforms ESA patents into commercial success
Thursday, 27 October 2022 06:46
Whether sending European spacecraft to distant frontiers, studying our home planet in greater detail than ever before, or designing new launch systems, ESA activities drive the development of new technologies.
Boeing’s Starliner charges approach $900 million
Thursday, 27 October 2022 00:09
Boeing announced Oct. 26 it will take yet another charge against earnings because of delays in the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew program, bringing the total losses recorded by the company to date on the program to nearly $900 million.
DIU selects startups for U.S. military weather modeling project
Wednesday, 26 October 2022 19:43
The Defense Innovation Unit and the U.S. Air Force announced Oct. 26 they selected five companies to help build weather models using data from satellites, aerial and terrestrial sensors.
The post DIU selects startups for U.S.
New Starlink dish kit enables services ‘on any moving land object’
Wednesday, 26 October 2022 18:15
SpaceX started taking pre-orders Oct. 25 for a flat panel antenna that enables land vehicles to use its Starlink broadband service while in motion.
The post New Starlink dish kit enables services ‘on any moving land object’ appeared first on SpaceNews.
The Incredible Adventures of the Hera mission – Tales of Terrific Technology
Wednesday, 26 October 2022 15:09
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Meet Hera, our very own asteroid detective. Together with two CubeSats – Milani the rock decoder and Juventas the radar visionary – Hera is off on an adventure to explore Didymos, a double asteroid system that is typical of the thousands that pose an impact risk to planet Earth.
Suitable for kids and adults alike, this episode of ‘The Incredible Adventures of Hera’ details the miniaturised James-Bond-style technology that Hera and its CubeSats will carry aboard with them to explore their asteroid target.
Quantum Space announces first cislunar mission
Wednesday, 26 October 2022 14:00
Quantum Space, a company founded earlier this year to develop spacecraft platforms in cislunar space, announced plans Oct. 26 for its first smallsat pathfinder mission that will collect space situational awareness data.
The post Quantum Space announces first cislunar mission appeared first on SpaceNews.