NASA begins testing robotics to bring first samples back from Mars
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:42
Testing has already begun on what would be the most sophisticated endeavor ever attempted at the Red Planet: bringing rock and sediment samples from Mars to Earth for closer study. The multi-mission Mars Sample Return campaign began when NASA's Perseverance rover landed on Mars this past February to collect Martian rock samples in search of ancient microscopic life.
Out of Perseverance's 4 Scientists envision what Mars would look like as an exoplanet
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:42
In science fiction movies and television shows, real-life locations on Earth, such as California's Redwood National Forest and the Sahara Desert, have long been used to represent alien worlds. But recently, in a Star Trek-style twist, a group of scientists, including researchers at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder, have been using a pl Sols 3326-3327: Backing away from the cliff
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:42
As we continue exploring Maria Gordon notch, we are planning a touch and go with lots of remote sensing activities between the "touch" and the "go."
MSL is parked near the base of the cliff to the west, and the science team is interested in investigating the bedrock in this area.
Unfortunately, none of the bedrock targets shown near the top of the image above are suitable for close A Rocket Lab to acquire SolAero Holdings for its space solar power products
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:42
Rocket Lab USA has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SolAero Holdings, Inc. (SolAero), a premier supplier of space solar power products and precision aerospace structures for the global aerospace market, for $80 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.
The acquisition aligns with Rocket Lab's growth strategy of vertical integration to deliv Solely European supply chain for space-qualified Alexandrite laser crystals on the horizon
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:42
The European Union wants to use the unique properties of Alexandrite crystals in Earth observation satellites in the future. To make the EU independent of non-European suppliers, the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH), Altechna Coatings, and Optomaterials work on a purely European supply chain for space-qualified Alexandrite laser crystals in the EU project GALACTIC. The project partners have mad Challenging Einstein's greatest theory with extreme stars
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:42
Researchers at the University of East Anglia and the University of Manchester have helped conduct a 16-year long experiment to challenge Einstein's theory of general relativity.
The international team looked to the stars - a pair of extreme stars called pulsars to be precise - through seven radio telescopes across the globe.
And they used them to challenge Einstein's most famous theo Super-bright stellar explosion is likely a dying star giving birth to a black hole or neutron star
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:42
In June of 2018, telescopes around the world picked up a brilliant blue flash from the spiral arm of a galaxy 200 million light years away. The powerful burst appeared at first to be a supernova, though it was much faster and far brighter than any stellar explosion scientists had yet seen. The signal, procedurally labeled AT2018cow, has since been dubbed simply "the Cow," and astronomers have ca Closing in on the first light in the Universe
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:42
Research using new antennas in the Australian hinterland has reduced background noise and brought us closer to finding a 13-billion-year-old signal
The early Universe was dark, filled with a hot soup of opaque particles. These condensed to form neutral hydrogen which coalesced to form the first stars in what astronomers call the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR).
"Finding the weak signal of thi Stellar "ashfall" could help distant planets grow
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:42
The world's first 3D simulation simultaneously considering dust motion and growth in a disk around a young star has shown that large dust from the central region can be entrained by and then ejected by gas outflows, and eventually fall back onto the outer regions of the disk where it may enable planetesimal formation.
This process can be likened to volcanic "ashfall" where ash carried up b NASA enters the Solar atmosphere for the first time
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:42
For the first time in history, a spacecraft has touched the Sun. NASA's Parker Solar Probe has now flown through the Sun's upper atmosphere - the corona - and sampled particles and magnetic fields there.
The new milestone marks one major step for Parker Solar Probe and one giant leap for solar science. Just as landing on the Moon allowed scientists to understand how it was formed, touching No decision yet on where to build OneWeb second-generation satellites
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 04:41
A week after a OneWeb executive told British officials that the company would move production of its second generation of satellites to the United Kingdom, another executive said the company has yet to decide where it will build those satellites.
Viasat-Inmarsat deal remains on track
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 03:49
Viasat’s acquisition of Inmarsat is moving ahead, company executives said, despite ongoing work to secure approval from the British government as well as a drop in share price that has cut a billion dollars from the value of the deal.
SPAC activity may pause but it will be back
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 02:36
The rate of space company mergers with special purpose acquisition corporations may be slowing, but the trend isn’t over, according to investors speaking at TechCrunch Space Sessions 2021.
U.S. military looking to build lasting relationships with commercial space industry
Tuesday, 14 December 2021 23:26
Government buyers are still trying to figure out how to work with private firms and attract suppliers that have not traditionally sought government contracts, officials said Dec. 14 at a TechCrunch conference.
Op-ed | How the U.S. can quickly build greater resiliency in space
Tuesday, 14 December 2021 21:00
The National Space Council directs the Department of Defense to “accelerate its transition to a more resilient national security space posture.”

