Nine ventures join first SoCal-UK Space Accelerator
Monday, 08 July 2024 18:00
A handy attachment could make lunar construction a breeze
Monday, 08 July 2024 17:59
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Moving large amounts of regolith is a requirement for any long-term mission to the moon or Mars. But so far, humanity has only sent systems capable of moving small amounts of soil at a time—primarily for sample collection. Sending a large, dedicated excavator to perform such work might be cost-prohibitive due to its weight, so why not send a bulldozer attachment to a mobility unit already planned for use on the surface?
That was the thought process of an interdisciplinary team of engineers from NASA and the Colorado School of Mines. They came up with the Lunar Attachment Node for Construction and Excavation—or LANCE.
LANCE is an attachment to NASA's Chariot rover prototype, which was originally designed to be the primary mobility system for astronauts returning to the moon. However, it was designed in 2007, when the original NASA Lunar Architecture plan was to establish a permanent lunar base in 2019.
Swarms of orbiting sensors could map an asteroid's surface
Monday, 08 July 2024 17:10 Write a comment
It seems like every month a new story appears announcing the discovery of thousands of new asteroids. Tracking these small body objects from ground and even space-based telescopes helps follow their overall trajectory. But understanding what they're made of is much more difficult using such "remote sensing" techniques.
To do so, plenty of projects get more up close and personal with the asteroid itself, including one from Dr. Sigrid Elschot and her colleagues from Stanford, which was supported by NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts back in 2018. It uses an advanced suite of plasma sensors to detect an asteroid's surface composition by utilizing a unique phenomenon—meteoroid impacts.
The project, known as the Meteroid Impact Detection for Exploration of Asteroids (MIDEA), has an architecture that has become more prominent as of late—a swarm of smallsats coordinated around a mothership. In this case, the smallsats are plasma sensors with one specific purpose: to detect characteristics of the plume of debris from the asteroid after a meteoroid hits it.
CubeSat propulsion technologies are taking off
Monday, 08 July 2024 17:08 Write a comment
CubeSats are becoming ever more popular, with about 2,400 total launched so far. However, the small size limits their options for fundamental space exploration technologies, including propulsion. They become even more critical when mission planners design missions that require them to travel to other planets or even asteroids.
A team from Khalifa University of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi recently released a review in Aerospace of the different CubeSat propulsion technologies currently available—let's look at their advantages and disadvantages.
The paper breaks propulsion systems into four categories: Chemical, Kinetic, Electrical, and "Propellant-less." Chemical systems are the traditional rockets most people think of when launching satellites—they burn chemicals together and expel gas created by the fire to produce thrust. Kinetic systems use things like cold gas, where instead of reacting two chemicals together, they simply push gas molecules out to propel themselves in the opposite direction.
SpaceX Secures NASA Contract for COSI Space Telescope Launch
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"NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the COSI (Compton Spectrometer and Imager) mission."
The firm-fixed-price contract is valued at approximately $69 million and includes launch services and associated mission costs. The COSI mission is scheduled to launch in August 2027 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 roc 'Ready to come out?' Scientists reemerge after year 'on Mars'
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The NASA astronaut knocks loudly three times on a what appears to be a nondescript door, and calls cheerfully: "You ready to come out?"
The reply is inaudible, but beneath his mask he appears to be grinning as he yanks the door open - and four scientists who have spent a year away from all other human contact, simulating a mission to Mars, spill out to cheers and applause.
Anca Selariu, Lunar Impact Flux Insights
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Scholars have revisited the anchor points and historical construction of lunar crater chronology. Initially, the stratification of the Moon's near side relied on remote sensing data from ground-based telescopes and lunar orbiters before lunar samples were returned. As illustrated in Fig. 1, six manned missions and four robotic missions have brought back various samples, including basalts and vol Europe's Earth Return Orbiter Advances to Next Development Stage
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ESA's Earth Return Orbiter (ERO), the pioneering spacecraft designed to capture and return samples from Mars, has achieved a significant milestone, completing its critical design review (CDR). This essential phase confirms the performance, quality, and reliability of the spacecraft's systems, enabling the next steps in its development.
A CDR is a crucial stage in any spaceflight project, e Garnet Presence in the Deep Lunar Mantle Confirmed
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The current understanding of the Moon's interior reveals a central metallic core, a mantle rich in minerals like olivine and pyroxene, and an outer crust layer. This model has been developed through analyses of lunar samples and seismic data from past Moon missions. Despite extensive studies, the debate about the presence of garnet in the deeper lunar mantle remains unresolved. A critical questi NASA Radar Monitors Close Approaches of Two Large Asteroids
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The Deep Space Network's Goldstone planetary radar recently tracked two significant asteroid flybys, observing asteroids 2024 MK and 2011 UL21 as they passed by Earth.
Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California monitored these asteroids during their close approaches. One asteroid was found to have a small moon, while the other was discovered just 13 days be Parker Solar Probe Achieves 20th Close Encounter with the Sun
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NASA's Parker Solar Probe successfully made its 20th close approach to the Sun on June 30, 2024. The probe came within 4.51 million miles (7.26 million kilometers) of the Sun's surface, equaling its previous distance record.
"The close approach (known as perihelion) occurred at 3:47 UTC (11:47 p.m. EDT on June 29), with Parker Solar Probe moving 394,736 miles per hour (635,266 kilometers p Milky Way's Warp Reveals Shape of Dark Matter Halo
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A research team led by Dr. HUANG Yang from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) has developed a novel "motion picture" method for measuring the precession rate of the Milky Way's disk warp. Utilizing this innovative approach, the team observed the precession direction and rate of the Milky Way's warp using a sample of Cepheid variable stars of various Quantum Detectors Poised to Reveal Dark Matter Mysteries
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A major scientific enigma may be closer to resolution as researchers harness cutting-edge quantum technology.
Approximately 80% of the universe's matter is dark, eluding direct observation but detectable through its gravitational effects. Despite ongoing efforts, these dark matter particles remain unseen.
Scientists from Lancaster University, the University of Oxford, and Royal Hollo NASA's CURIE CubeSat to Study Space Weather on Ariane 6 Rocket
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NASA's CURIE (CubeSat Radio Interferometry Experiment) will be a rideshare payload on the ESA's (European Space Agency) first flight of the Arianespace Ariane 6 rocket, aimed at exploring the main factors influencing space weather. The launch is scheduled for July 9 from Europe's Spaceport, the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.
Designed by Dr. David Sundkvist and his team at th RuggON's Vehicle-Mounted Computer Offers Global Connectivity
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RuggON, a leading provider of rugged computing solutions, has unveiled the Iridium Connected VORTEX, a robust Vehicle-Mounted Computer (VMC) designed for seamless global connectivity. Equipped with a specialized antenna and an integrated satellite-communications module, the Vortex ensures reliable data and message exchange even in the most isolated locations, beyond the reach of conventional 5G