How can space support green financial innovation?
Wednesday, 21 April 2021 08:21
Write a comment
Space technologies and satellite applications are set to boost green financial innovation in Europe, creating jobs and boosting prosperity.
Satellites highlight a 30-year rise in ocean acidification
Wednesday, 21 April 2021 08:00 Write a comment
Oceans play a vital role in taking the heat out of climate change, but at a cost. New research supported by ESA and using different satellite measurements of various aspects of seawater along with measurements from ships has revealed how our ocean waters have become more acidic over the last three decades – and this is having a detrimental effect on marine life.
ISS sets its research scope on longer space missions
Wednesday, 21 April 2021 07:55 Write a comment
Detect harmful radiation, pilot a rover module, learn better sleep and body maintenance: astronauts aboard the International Space Station are preparing for future missions even further afield—from the Moon to, one day, Mars.
The latest arrival of four more astronauts to the ISS, due to blast off aboard a SpaceX rocket from Florida on Thursday, will open the door for new experiments aimed at priming humans for long-distance space travel.
"We're trying out technologies for exploration," said Remi Canton, director of Cadmos, the division of France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) undertaking 12 new experiments.
Whether it is humans revisiting the Moon for the first time since 1972 or eventually travelling as far as the Red Planet, the challenges are overwhelming.
Firstly, how can engineers ensure that astronauts and their equipment are protected from the flow of particles thrown out by solar storms and cosmic rays?
Science without gravity at the International Space Station
Wednesday, 21 April 2021 07:54 Write a comment
In two decades orbiting the Earth the International Space Station has become a cutting-edge cosmic laboratory, with astronauts researching everything from black holes to disease and even gardening in microgravity.
The ISS, which orbits about 250 miles above Earth, is as large as a football field inside and divided up like a beehive into spaces where the crew can carry out experiments with guidance from researchers on the ground.
Often, the astronauts are also the guinea pigs.
More than 3,000 scientific tests have been carried out at the ISS since its manned missions began in 2000.
"From a science perspective, there have been some major discoveries," said Robert Pearlman, space historian and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space".
Reprogrammable satellite design finalised
Wednesday, 21 April 2021 07:28 Write a comment
The design for a series of telecommunications satellites that can be completely repurposed after launch has just been completed.
Lockheed Martin removes Momentus from NASA technology demonstration mission
Wednesday, 21 April 2021 06:47 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Six months after including it on the team that was a NASA technology contract, Lockheed Martin has quietly dropped in-space transportation company Momentus from that project.
Lockheed was one of 14 companies that received Tipping Point awards from NASA in October 2020 to demonstrate key technologies needed for sustainable lunar exploration.
Noosphere Ventures aims to build an integrated space powerhouse: Q&A with managing partner Max Polyakov
Tuesday, 20 April 2021 23:54 Write a comment
Ukrainian entrepreneur Max Polyakov, with his Silicon Valley-based investment vehicle Noosphere Ventures Partners, is on a mission to build out a vertically integrated space business.
A year after Noosphere founded satellite imagery venture Earth Observation Data Analytics (EOSDA) in 2016, Polyakov got into the launch business by snapping up Firefly Aerospace out of bankruptcy.
Congested orbits a top concern for U.S. Space Command
Tuesday, 20 April 2021 23:22 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The rapidly growing number of satellites orbiting the Earth is causing apprehension, the commander of U.S. Space Command said April 20.
Gen. James Dickinson told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that congestion in space mostly fueled by commercial activity could create safety problems if it’s not managed.
NASA completes launch readiness review for Crew-2 mission
Tuesday, 20 April 2021 20:23 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The next commercial crew mission to the International Space Station passed its final review before its scheduled April 22 launch, with weather the only major issue.
At an April 20 briefing, NASA said the Crew-2 mission passed its launch readiness review, the final major review before launch.
AE Industrial Partners’ American Pacific Corp. invests in Frontier Aerospace
Tuesday, 20 April 2021 19:25 Write a comment
SAN FRANCISCO – AE Industrial Partners subsidiary American Pacific Corp. announced a multimillion-dollar investment in Frontier Aerospace, a space propulsion startup based in Simi Valley, California. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Private equity firm AE Industrial Partners has become well known in the space industry since last year when it founded Redwire, a space structures firm growing rapidly through acquisitions that plans to become a publicly traded company through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition corporation.
Astronauts flying reused SpaceX rocket, capsule for 1st time
Tuesday, 20 April 2021 17:55 Write a comment
Astronauts' mental health risks tested in the Antarctic
Tuesday, 20 April 2021 15:57 Write a comment
Astronauts who spend extended time in space face stressors such as isolation, confinement, lack of privacy, altered light-dark cycles, monotony and separation from family. Interestingly, so do people who work at international research stations in Antarctica, where the extreme environment is characterized by numerous stressors that mirror those present during long-duration space exploration.
To better understand the psychological hurdles faced by astronauts, University of Houston professor of psychology Candice Alfano and her team developed the Mental Health Checklist (MHCL), a self-reporting instrument for detecting mental health changes in isolated, confined, extreme (ICE) environments. The team used the MHCL to study psychological changes at two Antarctic stations. The findings are published in Acta Astronautica.
"We observed significant changes in psychological functioning, but patterns of change for specific aspects of mental health differed. The most marked alterations were observed for positive emotions such that we saw continuous declines from the start to the end of the mission, without evidence of a 'bounce-back effect' as participants were preparing to return home," reports Alfano.
Canada budgets for next-generation EO satellites and ground systems
Tuesday, 20 April 2021 13:37 Write a comment
VICTORIA, British Columbia — The Canadian government will fund upgrades to aging ground-based infrastructure for receiving satellite data as well as provide seed money to begin planning for the country’s next generation of Earth observation satellites.
The commitments were in the 2021 federal government budget tabled in the House of Commons on April 19 by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Video: Orbital debris threatens satellites
Tuesday, 20 April 2021 13:25 Write a comment
The launch of Sputnik, humankind's first satellite, in 1957 marked the dawn of a new era for the people of Earth.
Decades later, our planet is now surrounded by spacecraft carrying out extraordinary work to study our changing climate, save lives following disasters, deliver global communication and navigation services and help us answer important scientific questions.
But these satellites are at risk. Accidental collisions between objects in space can produce huge clouds of fast-moving debris. These clouds can spread and damage additional satellites with cascading effect, eventually making the most useful orbits around Earth no longer safe for spacecraft or people.
Satellites today have to carry out collision avoidance maneuvers to avoid possible impact with debris. These are costly, and hundreds of collision avoidance alerts are already issued every week.
And this is nothing compared to what is coming. Several companies have begun to launch mega-constellations into low-Earth orbit to provide global internet access. They have great benefits, but could be a source of huge disruption if we do not change our behavior.
Our current methods for avoiding collisions in space will become inadequate in just a few years—and even compliance with space debris mitigation guidelines may no longer be enough.
Mars: How Ingenuity helicopter made the first flight on another planet
Tuesday, 20 April 2021 12:22 Write a comment
Imagine that you are flying a model helicopter or a drone. You are there with the auto controls. You switch them on. The rotors start to turn, gradually increasing their spin. You watch, then push the control for lift. Your helicopter rises, hovers, then at the next command moves forward. Oops, it didn't go high enough. You quickly move the joystick and the drone rises to fly above the obstruction. Finally it's in the air, moving at speed above sand dunes, hills and valleys—sending back pictures as the landscape unfolds.
Now imagine that you are flying your drone on a planet 180 million kilometers away. It takes 20 minutes for your command to reach the planet—and the pictures you see of what is happening are 20 minutes old. You cannot take evasive or corrective action if anything goes wrong. If it went wrong, it would be too late. This is the type of situation that Nasa's engineers did not wish to experience on the maiden flight of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars on April 19.