Exploring comet thermal history: Burnt-out comet covered with talcum powder
Monday, 05 April 2021 12:55
The world's first ground-based observations of the bare nucleus of a comet nearing the end of its active life revealed that the nucleus has a diameter of 800 meters and is covered with large grains of phyllosilicate; on Earth large grains of phyllosilicate are commonly available as talcum powder.
Engine explosion blamed for latest Starship crash
Monday, 05 April 2021 11:33
WASHINGTON — SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said an engine on the company’s latest Starship prototype suffered a “hard start” that caused the vehicle to explode when attempting to land on a test flight last week.
Guangzhou moves to establish Chinese commercial space cluster
Monday, 05 April 2021 10:51
HELSINKI — Guangzhou is developing a major space cluster in the city by hosting new projects including the new headquarters for the space business of Geely Technology Group.
406 Day: celebrating Galileo saving lives
Monday, 05 April 2021 10:30
Today is 406 Day – the annual campaigning day to spread awareness of the importance of emergency beacons, and the satellites that pick up their signals, including Europe’s Galileo constellation. As well as letting people across the world find their way, Galileo also serves to detect SOS messages and relay them to authorities, contributing to saving many lives.
Germany’s space agency selects Lockheed Martin’s traffic management software
Monday, 05 April 2021 08:20
WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin’s space traffic management software will be used by Germany’s space agency, the company announced April 6.
The German Space Agency at DLR — which operates the German space situational awareness center along with the German Air Force — selected Lockheed Martin’s iSpace, a system that is used by the U.S.
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter survives first night alone on Mars
Monday, 05 April 2021 07:31
NASA's Ingenuity mini-helicopter has survived its first night alone on the frigid surface of Mars, the US space agency said, hailing it as "a major milestone" for the tiny craft as it prepares for its first flight.
The ultra-light aircraft was dropped on the surface on Saturday after detaching from the belly of the Perseverance rover, which touched down on the Red Planet on February 18.
Detached from the Perseverance, Ingenuity had to rely on its own solar-powered battery to run a vital heater to protect its unshielded electrical components from freezing and cracking during the bitter Martian night, where temperatures can plunge as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius).
Making it through the frigid Martian night was "a major milestone for the small rotorcraft," NASA said in a statement Monday.
Op-ed | Exporting is the final frontier for UK space and other high-tech industries
Monday, 05 April 2021 07:00
The good news is that the industries in which the UK excels are ready to strike new partnerships, forge new alliances, and create new opportunities.
NASA's Mars Helicopter Survives First Cold Martian Night on Its Own
Monday, 05 April 2021 05:36
NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has emerged from its first night on the surface of Mars.
Evening temperatures at Jezero Crater can plunge as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius), which can freeze and crack unprotected electrical components and damage the onboard batteries required for flight. Surviving that first night after being deployed from where it was attac More potential air leak locations found at ISS
Monday, 05 April 2021 05:36
Russian cosmonauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) have identified another three possible air leak locations in the Russian Zvezda module, a space industry source told Sputnik.
"This week, the cosmonauts found another three possible air leak locations in the intermediate chamber of the Zvezda module," the source said, adding that on Friday and Saturday, the Russian crew patc NASA's Curiosity team names Martian hill that serves as mission gateway
Monday, 05 April 2021 05:36
The team of scientists and engineers behind NASA's Curiosity rover named a hill along the rover's path on Mars in honor of a recently deceased mission scientist. A craggy hump that stretches 450 feet (120 meters) tall, "Rafael Navarro mountain" is located on Mount Sharp in northwest Gale Crater.
The inspiration for the name is award-winning scientist Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez; he died on Jan Skoltech team used mass spectrometry to study composition of meteorites
Monday, 05 April 2021 05:36
Scientists from Russia and Germany studied the molecular composition of carbonaceous chondrites - the insoluble organic matter of the Murchison and Allende meteorites - in an attempt to identify their origin. Ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry revealed a wide diversity of chemical compositions and unexpected similarities between meteorites from different groups. The research was published i Raindrops also keep fallin' on exoplanets
Monday, 05 April 2021 05:36
One day, humankind may step foot on another habitable planet. That planet may look very different from Earth, but one thing will feel familiar - the rain.
In a recent paper, Harvard researchers found that raindrops are remarkably similar across different planetary environments, even planets as drastically different as Earth and Jupiter. Understanding the behavior of raindrops on other plan NASA's Curiosity team names Martian hill that serves as mission 'gateway'
Sunday, 04 April 2021 20:49
The team of scientists and engineers behind NASA's Curiosity rover named a hill along the rover's path on Mars in honor of a recently deceased mission scientist. A craggy hump that stretches 450 feet (120 meters) tall, "Rafael Navarro mountain" is located on Mount Sharp in northwest Gale Crater.
Op-ed | Space Settlement Act should guide Nelson’s NASA tenure
Sunday, 04 April 2021 18:41
As former U.S. lawmaker Bill Nelson awaits Senate confirmation of his nomination to lead NASA, it is perhaps time to recall a policy he voted for some 30 years ago.
As chairman of a House space subcommittee, Nelson presided over consideration of the Space Settlement Act of 1988, which was added as a provision to the NASA Authorization Act, and ultimately signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.
With Air Force funding, Numerica deploys telescopes to monitor space in broad daylight
Sunday, 04 April 2021 16:08
WASHINGTON — Numerica, a company that operates a network of ground-based telescopes to track objects in deep space, is deploying new sensors that can observe orbiting satellites in broad daylight.
The telescopes were funded with $3 million the company won in 2019 at a pitch day event hosted by the U.S.