NASA's Mars Sample Return mission is in trouble—but it's a vital step to sending humans to the red planet
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 16:00
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NASA recently asked the scientific community to help come up with innovative ideas for ways to carry out its Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. This was in response to a report by an independent board that deemed that its US$11 billion (£8.7 billion) price tag was too expensive and its 2040 timeline too far in the future.
In brief, the ambitious plan was to collect rock samples cached inside containers by NASA's Perseverance rover and deliver them to laboratories on Earth. Perseverance has been exploring Mars' Jezero Crater, thought to have once hosted an ancient lake, since 2021. The mission would deliver the samples by sending a lander that carries a rocket (NASA's Sample Retrieval Lander) down to the surface of Mars.
Perseverance would then deliver the cached rock samples to the lander, with small drone helicopters delivered on the lander as a back up. Perseverance's samples would then be launched into Mars' orbit using the lander's rocket. A spacecraft already in Martian orbit, the Earth Return Orbiter, would then intercept these samples and deliver them to Earth.
Ariane 6 gets its wings
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 15:56 Write a comment
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Ariane 6's boosters are connected to the rocket's central core Portal Space Systems unveils plans for highly maneuverable spacecraft
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 12:00
Orbital congestion reaching critical levels, warns new report
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 12:00
Smiles all round: Vega-C to launch ESA solar wind mission
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 11:30 Write a comment
ESA ensures a ride into space for its Smile mission, with Arianespace signing up to launch the spacecraft on a Vega-C rocket
Airbus outlines plans for future high-resolution imaging satellites
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 09:21
Q&A: How to catch a glimpse of a new star about to appear in the night sky
Monday, 29 April 2024 18:33 Write a comment
If you peer up at the constellation Corona Borealis—the Northern Crown—over the next several months, you may catch a glimpse: Astronomers predict that sometime this year, a new star will appear in the night sky, growing as bright as the North Star, then vanishing in a matter of days.
The source of that pinprick of light is a stellar system roughly 3,000 light-years from Earth called T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB. There, two stars circle each other, interacting in ways that—like clockwork—produce a powerful eruption of energy about once every 80 years—an event called a recurrent nova.
NASA's Hubble pauses science due to gyro issue
Monday, 29 April 2024 17:50 Write a comment
NASA is working to resume science operations of the agency's Hubble Space Telescope after it entered safe mode April 23 due to an ongoing gyroscope (gyro) issue. Hubble's instruments are stable, and the telescope is in good health.
The telescope automatically entered safe mode when one of its three gyroscopes gave faulty readings. The gyros measure the telescope's turn rates and are part of the system that determines which direction the telescope is pointed. While in safe mode, science operations are suspended, and the telescope waits for new directions from the ground.
This particular gyro caused Hubble to enter safe mode in November after returning similar faulty readings.
America's 'big glass' dominance hangs on the fate of two powerful new telescopes
Monday, 29 April 2024 15:40 Write a comment
More than 100 years ago, astronomer George Ellery Hale brought two Pasadena institutions together to build what was then the largest optical telescope in the world. The Mount Wilson Observatory changed the conception of humankind's place in the universe and revealed the mysteries of the heavens to generations of citizens and scientists alike. Ever since then, the United States has been at the forefront of "big glass."
In fact, the institutions, Carnegie Science and Caltech, still help run some of the largest telescopes for visible-light astronomy ever built.
But that legacy is being threatened as the National Science Foundation, the federal agency that supports basic research in the U.S., considers whether to fund two giant telescope projects. What's at stake is falling behind in astronomy and cosmology, potentially for half a century, and surrendering the scientific and technological agenda to Europe and China.
In 2021, the National Academy of Sciences released Astro2020. This report, a road map of national priorities, recommended funding the $2.5 billion Giant Magellan Telescope at the peak of Cerro Las Campanas in Chile and the $3.9 billion Thirty Meter Telescope at Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
SpaceX lines up pair of Space Coast launches for the weekend
Monday, 29 April 2024 15:30 Write a comment
SpaceX has launches set for Saturday and Sunday from the Space Coast.
First up from is a Falcon 9 on the Galileo L12 mission carrying global navigation satellites for the European Commission from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A targeting 8:34 p.m. Saturday with a backup Sunday at 8:30 p.m.
The first-stage booster is flying for a record-tying 20th time, but will be expended getting the payload to medium-Earth orbit.
Space Launch Delta 45's weather squadron forecasts a 75% chance for good conditions Saturday, which improves to 80% on Sunday.
The second launch this weekend is planned for Sunday when a Falcon 9 carrying 23 Starlink satellites aims to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 targeting the opening of a four-hour window from 5:50-9:50 p.m. with a backup Monday during a four-hour window that opens at 5:25 p.m.
The first-stage booster is flying for the 13th time and will attempt a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic.
These mark the 31st and 32nd launches of 2024 from the Space Coast, all but two of which have been by SpaceX.
SpaceX ties record with 20th Falcon 9 booster re-use in Galileo L12 launch
Monday, 29 April 2024 11:52 Write a comment
SpaceX has tied its own record with the 20th use of a Falcon 9 booster with its latest and final mission, the launch of a European Union Galileo L12 navigation and positioning satellite.
The booster powered a successful lift-off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as scheduled at 8:34 p.m. EDT on Saturday, sending the satellite into medium-Earth orbit.
It was the 20th mis