Copernical Team
NASA cans lunar rover after spending $450 million building it
NASA announced Wednesday that cost overruns and delays have forced it to cancel a planned moon rover it already spent $450 million to develop, marking a significant setback for the agency's lunar exploration program.
The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) was intended to explore the lunar south pole in search of ice and other resources, paving the way for planned crewed missions by American astronauts under the Artemis program later this decade.
"Decisions like this are never easy," said Nicky Fox, NASA's associate administrator of the science mission directorate.
"But in this case, the projected remaining expenses for VIPER would have resulted in having to either cancel or disrupt many other missions.
How NASA and SpaceX will bring down the space station when it's retired
SpaceX will use a powerful, souped-up capsule to shove the International Space Station out of orbit once time is up for the sprawling lab.
The next full moon is the buck or thunder moon
The next full moon will be Sunday morning, July 21, 2024, appearing opposite the sun (in Earth-based longitude) at 6:17 AM EDT. For the International Date Line West and the American Samoa and Midway time zones this will be late Saturday night. For Line Islands Time this will be early Monday morning. The moon will appear full for about three days around this time, from Friday evening through Monday morning, making this a full moon weekend.
The Maine Farmers' Almanac began publishing "Indian" names for full moons in the 1930s and these names are now widely known and used. According to this almanac, as the full moon in June the Algonquin tribes of what is now the northeastern United States called this the Buck moon. Early summer is normally when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. They also called this the Thunder moon because of early Summer's frequent thunderstorms.
Europeans called this the Hay moon for the haymaking of early summer, and sometimes the Mead moon (although this name was also used for the previous full moon).
Soracom Launches Global Preview of Skylo Integration
Soracom, Inc., a leader in advanced Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity, has announced the progression of its integration with Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) service operator Skylo from Private Beta to a global initial rollout for select customers. During the keynote at Soracom Discovery 2024, Soracom CTO and co-founder Kenta Yasukawa and Skylo CEO and co-founder Parth Trivedi revealed that qua Blackline Unveils AlertLink for Enhanced Safety and Emergency Response
Blackline Safety Corp. (TSX: BLN), a global leader in connected safety technology, has introduced the new AlertLink feature for its acclaimed EXO and G7 devices.
AlertLink provides proximity-based warnings to improve employee safety by offering advance alerts about potential dangers, facilitating quicker evacuations and incident responses. The feature was developed following feedback from Axelspace Unveils AxelLiner Laboratory for In-orbit Space Component Demonstrations
Axelspace Corporation has introduced AxelLiner Laboratory (AL Lab), an expansion of its AxelLiner service initiated in 2022. AL Lab is designed for the in-orbit demonstration of space components, with sales launching soon.
A new memorandum was also signed between Axelspace and ASPINA Shinano Kenshi Co., Ltd., a partner since 2020 in developing a reaction wheel for microsatellites. The comp University of Freiburg Launches Major Initiative in Earth and Planetary Geodynamics
The University of Freiburg has announced the establishment of a new tenure track professorship in Earth and Planetary Geodynamics within the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources. This development is supported by a 1.71 million euro grant from the Volkswagen Foundation. This tenure track professorship is part of a broader initiative to integrate Earth system sciences with planetary scienc Max Planck develops key components for Roman Space Telescope
Engineers and scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), under the leadership of Oliver Krause, have successfully developed and delivered critical optical elements for the Coronagraph Instrument (CGI) of the Roman Space Telescope to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the USA. The fully assembled CGI has now reached NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre (GSFC), where it will Astronomers spot a "highly eccentric" planet on its way to becoming a hot Jupiter
Hot Jupiters are some of the most extreme planets in the galaxy. These scorching worlds are as massive as Jupiter, and they swing wildly close to their star, whirling around in a few days compared to our own gas giant's leisurely 4,000-day orbit around the sun.
Scientists suspect, though, that hot Jupiters weren't always so hot and in fact may have formed as "cold Jupiters," in more frigid NASA Halts VIPER Project to Refocus Lunar Exploration Efforts
NASA has decided to discontinue the VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) project after a thorough internal review. The decision was made due to escalating costs, launch delays, and potential future financial risks.
Initially slated for a late 2023 launch, the VIPER project was postponed to late 2024 to allow for additional preflight testing of the Astrobotic lander. Howe