Image: Heart of ESA vacuum testing

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 17, 2024
NASA, in partnership with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force, is initiating an innovative program aimed at fostering small satellite development skills among higher education institutions. This collaborative effort seeks to provide comprehensive systems engineering training to faculty and students, enhancing their proficiency in small satellite technology. As part of the University Na

Tokyo (AFP) Jan 17, 2024
Japan's "Moon Sniper" spacecraft will attempt a historic touchdown on the lunar surface this weekend using pinpoint technology the country hopes will lead to success where many have failed. With its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission, Japan wants to become the fifth nation to pull off a fiendishly tricky soft landing on the rocky surface. Only the United States, the Sovie

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 17, 2024
Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS) recently announced a registered direct offering that will raise approximately $4 million. This move underscores the company's ongoing efforts to strengthen its financial position and continue its expansion in the rapidly evolving space sector. Under the terms of the agreement, Momentus will sell 3,687,000 shares of common stock (or common stock equivalents) to

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jan 17, 2024
The China Manned Space Agency recently announced that the Tianzhou 7, the first spacecraft to visit China's Tiangong space station this year, is scheduled for an imminent launch. This event marks a significant step in China's ongoing space endeavors, as Tianzhou 7 is poised to become the 12th spacecraft to rendezvous with the Tiangong station. Equipped for the mission, the Long March 7 car

Davos, Switzerland (SPX) Jan 17, 2024
The Filecoin Foundation (FF) has recently made a significant stride in space communication technology by successfully deploying the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) in space, marking a first-of-its-kind mission. This groundbreaking initiative involved transmitting files to and from an orbiting satellite using a space-adapted version of the IPFS protocol. In collaboration with Lockheed Mar

Tokyo (AFP) Jan 17, 2024
Japan, whose unmanned "sniper" probe will attempt a lunar landing on Saturday, is one of many countries and private companies launching new missions to the Moon. It is a feat so far only achieved by four nations - the United States, the Soviet Union, China and most recently India - with spacecraft often losing communication or crash-landing. The modern lunar exploration programmes incl

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 17, 2024
Earth planning date: Friday, January 12, 2024: Cracking up - not Curiosity, but the rocks! It is all about the cracks and fractures in the workspace for this 4-sol plan. We have observed resistant, polygonal fractures/ridges in many recent bedrock blocks. There is much speculation among the team as to the origin of these features. Hypotheses have different implications for past environments, and

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 17, 2024
The powerful gravity fields of black holes can devour whole planets' worth of matter - often so violently that they expel streams of particles traveling near the speed of light in formations known as jets. Scientists understand that these high-speed jets can accelerate these particles, called cosmic rays, but little is definitively known about that process. Recent findings by researchers u

Boston MA (SPX) Jan 16, 2024
"Zwitterionic" might not be a word you come across every day, but for Professor Patrick Doyle of the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering, it's a word that's central to the technology his group is developing to remove micropollutants from water. Derived from the German word "zwitter," meaning "hybrid," "zwitterionic" molecules are those with an equal number of positive and negative charges.