Six space missions to look forward to in 2021
Sunday, 03 January 2021 15:30
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Space exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth.
The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of the missions to keep an eye out for.
Artemis 1
Artemis 1 is the first flight of the Nasa-led, international Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024. This will consist of an uncrewed Orion spacecraft which will be sent on a three-week flight around the Moon. IT will reach a maximum distance from Earth of 450,000km—the farthest into space that any spacecraft that can transport humans will have ever flown.
Artemis 1 will be launched into Earth orbit on the first Nasa Space Launch System, which will be the most powerful rocket in operation. From Earth orbit, the Orion will be propelled onto a different path towards the Moon by the rocket's interim cryogenic propulsion stage.
Space Force’s small launch program looks to pick up pace after a year of delays
Sunday, 03 January 2021 15:12 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Small satellite launches by the U.S. Space Force slowed considerably in 2020 due to the pandemic and technical setbacks. Small rocket missions that slipped to 2021 include launches by Virgin Orbit, Rocket Lab and Space Vector.
Layers upon layers of rock in Candor Chasma on Mars
Sunday, 03 January 2021 14:30 Write a comment
In many ways, Mars is the planet that is most similar to the Earth. The red world has polar ice caps, a nearly 24-hour rotation period (about 24 hours and 37 minutes), mountains, plains, dust storms, volcanoes, a population of robots, many of which are old and no longer work, and even a Grand Canyon of sorts. The "Grand Canyon" on Mars is actually far grander than any Arizonan gorge. Valles Marineris dwarfs the Grand Canyon of the southwestern U.S., spanning 4,000 km in length (the distance between L.A. and New York City), and dives 7 kilometers into the Martian crust (compared to a measly 2 km of depth seen in the Grand Canyon). Newly released photos from the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) reveal a stunning look at eroding cliff faces in Candor Chasma, a gigantic canyon that comprises a portion of the Valles Marineris system.
China’s CASC targets more than 40 space launches in 2021
Sunday, 03 January 2021 13:34 Write a comment
HELSINKI — China’s main space contractor aims to conduct more than 40 orbital launches in 2021, including launching a space station module and human spaceflight missions.
Pace steps down from National Space Council
Sunday, 03 January 2021 12:04 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The top staff member of the National Space Council resigned last week as the council’s future in coordinating space policy remains uncertain.
In a Dec. 31 statement, Scott Pace announced he was resigning as executive secretary of the National Space Council to return to George Washington University, where he had served as director of its Space Policy Institute.
India aims for reusable rockets, advanced propulsion in decadal spaceflight plan
Sunday, 03 January 2021 11:36 Write a comment
HELSINKI — The Indian Space Research Organisation has outlined plans to develop reusable and heavy lift launchers, advanced propulsion and foster private space activities across the 2020s.
ISRO Chairman K Sivan announced the broad range of goals in a New Year’s message, underlining a major focus on research and development across the decade.
Ten companies bid for NASA small launch vehicle contract
Sunday, 03 January 2021 00:04 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — A NASA small launch vehicle competition attracted bids from 10 companies, but half of them were effectively disqualified because of deficiencies or other problems.
NASA announced Dec. 11 it was awarding contracts to Astra Space, Firefly Aerospace and Relativity Space for its Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) Demo 2 program.
Astronauts eat first radishes grown in space as 2020 ends
Friday, 01 January 2021 09:28 Write a comment
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station celebrated the New Year in part by eating radishes, the first vegetables grown in space besides leafy greens.
The space radishes were grown from seeds over the past 27 days in the microgravity of orbit as part of NASA's program to develop space agriculture.
The astronauts appreciated having fresh produce on the orbiting space labo Puerto Rico government supports rebuilding Arecibo
Thursday, 31 December 2020 21:24 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The governor of Puerto Rico says she backs rebuilding the Arecibo radio observatory, but a final decision on whether, and how, to reconstruct the giant telescope could take years.
Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced signed an executive order Dec.
Congress overrides Trump’s veto and passes the National Defense Authorization Act
Thursday, 31 December 2020 20:10 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 81-13 on Jan. 1 to override President Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021.
The New Year’s Day vote marked the first time Congress successfully overturned Trump’s veto.
GomSpace wins significant product order in North America
Thursday, 31 December 2020 10:12 Write a comment
GomSpace has seen out 2020 with the signing of a contract with an existing customer within the North American market in the geo-intelligence industry for the delivery of a software defined radio modules and antenna systems. The contract is worth 5,1 MSEK and will be fully delivered in 2021.
GomSpace has over the years built a strong product portfolio and in-orbit track record with its soft Novel public-private partnership facilitates development of fusion energy
Thursday, 31 December 2020 10:12 Write a comment
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is collaborating with private industry on cutting-edge fusion research aimed at achieving commercial fusion energy. This work, enabled through a public-private DOE grant program, supports efforts to develop high-performance fusion grade plasmas.
In one such project PPPL is working in coordination with MIT's Pl Sustained teleportation of quantum information achieved in test
Thursday, 31 December 2020 10:12 Write a comment
For the first time, scientists successfully demonstrated sustained, long-distance teleportation of quantum information.
The breakthrough, described this month in the journal PRX Quantum, suggests a viable quantum internet could soon be a reality.
"Quantum teleportation is essential for many quantum information technologies, including long-distance quantum networks," according to Silence please! Why radio astronomers need things quiet in the middle of a WA desert
Thursday, 31 December 2020 10:12 Write a comment
A remote outback station about 800km north of Perth in Western Australia is one of the best places in the world to operate telescopes that listen for radio signals from space.
It's the site of CSIRO's Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) and is home to three telescopes (and soon a fourth when half of the Square Kilometre Array, the world's largest radio telescope, is built there). Primordial black holes and the search for dark matter from the multiverse
Thursday, 31 December 2020 10:12 Write a comment
The Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) is home to many interdisciplinary projects which benefit from the synergy of a wide range of expertise available at the institute. One such project is the study of black holes that could have formed in the early universe, before stars and galaxies were born.
Such primordial black holes (PBHs) could account for