There's a pretty significant disadvantage to going really fast—if you get hit with anything, even if it is small, it can hurt. So when the fastest artificial object ever—the Parker Solar Probe—gets hit by grains of dust that are a fraction the size of a human hair, they still do damage. The question is how much damage, and could we potentially learn anything from how exactly that damage happens? According to new research from scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder (UCB), the answer to the second question is yes, in fact, we can.

Parker is cruising through the inner solar system on its orbit around the sun at a cool 180 km/s (400,000 mph). But the environment it is traveling through is anything but cool—the probe needs the help of a giant heat shield to ensure that the full force of a star doesn't entirely destroy its innards.

Our televisions and computer screens display news, movies, and shows in high-definition, allowing viewers a clear and vibrant experience. Fiber optic connections send laser light densely packed with data through cables to bring these experiences to users.

NASA and commercial aerospace companies are applying similar technologies to space communications, bringing optical speeds to the final frontier. Free-space optical communications leverages recent advancements in telecommunications to allow spacecraft to send high-resolution images and videos over laser links.

"Free-space" refers to the absence of the insulated, fiber optic cables that enable the terrestrial internet. Free-space laser communications flow freely through the vacuum of space, however atmosphere poses unique challenges to communications engineers.

NASA's Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will send data to and from ground stations and, eventually, in-space user missions over laser links.

"LCRD leverages the work done in the telecommunications industry for the past several decades. We're taking the concepts that they've created and applying them to space," said Russ Roder, product design lead for LCRD's optical module.

The Solar Orbiter space probe had a brief encounter with its home planet on Saturday morning when it circled the Earth for the first and last time while executing a gravity assist to slow itself down before setting off for the Sun.

Solar Orbiter launched in February 2020, and has already flown through the tail of a comet, flown by Venus and captured the most detailed photographs of the Sun ever taken.

On Saturday morning at 5.30 a.m. (CET) the spacecraft flew over the Earth at an altitude of 460 kilometers (285 miles), passing directly over North Africa and the Canary Islands.

According to the ESA, in order to execute the orbits the probe risked impact with the space debris the surrounds Earth. But according to Simon Plum, head of mission operations at the ESA control center in Darmstadt, the risk of collision was minimal.

In a worst case scenario of potential collision, he said, the probe could have initiated an evasive maneuver up to six hours before impact. However, Plum said, this had not been necessary and the orbiter was now on its way back into deep space.

Mars landing missions only succeed about half the time, a rate largely determined by the entry, descent and landing (EDL) phase, according to the researchers who designed Tianwen-1's control systems.  They published their guidance, navigation and control approach for Tianwen-1 on October 16 in Space: Science & Technology.

"The EDL phase, which begins at the Mars atmosphere interface and ends with a surface touchdown, is crucial for a Mars landing mission," said Xiaolei Wang, researcher professor at Beijing Institute of Control Engineering.

Wang explained that most failures occur during this phase, typically because the communication delay between Mars and Earth is too large to accommodate the time urgency of the EDL phase.

"The spacecraft must perform autonomous guidance, navigation and control (GNC) to provide reliable key event triggers, as well as accurate and reliable state estimates to implement accurate and reliable trajectory and attitude controls," Wang said.