Who is on SpaceX's historic private spacewalk mission?
Tuesday, 10 September 2024 19:30
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Four US civilians are set to attempt the first-ever private spacewalk on Thursday—a risky endeavor usually reserved for trained astronauts from government agencies.
The ambitious mission, dubbed Polaris Dawn, is being carried out on a SpaceX capsule that launched early Tuesday from Florida.
Who are the select few to pioneer this new chapter of space exploration?
Jared Isaacman, billionaire
The driving force behind the mission is Jared Isaacman, a billionaire who serves as mission commander.
The 41-year-old American from Pennsylvania is the CEO of the digital finance company Shift4 Payments, which he founded in his family's basement when he was only 16.
Isaacman is a seasoned pilot who is qualified to fly military aircraft and holds several world records.
He had previously gone into space in 2021 as part of another SpaceX mission he chartered, Inspiration4, which was the first orbital spacecraft to feature no professional astronauts.
SpaceX successfully launches all-civilian crew for historic private spacewalk
Tuesday, 10 September 2024 19:24 Write a comment
SpaceX successfully launched the Polaris Dawn mission early Tuesday morning, marking the beginning of a multiday orbital expedition featuring the first-ever spacewalk conducted by private citizens. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 5:23 a.m. ET from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
"Liftoff of Polaris Dawn!" SpaceX announced on X, along with an image of the rocket ascending into the China expands global partnerships for Lunar Research Station
Tuesday, 10 September 2024 19:24 Write a comment
China's initiative to establish an international lunar research station has attracted new international partners, marking a significant step in global space collaboration.
At the opening of a two-day space conference in Tunxi, Anhui Province, on Thursday, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) signed a cooperation agreement with Senegal on the International Lunar Research Station ( Major leap for nuclear clock paves way for ultraprecise timekeeping
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The world keeps time with the ticks of atomic clocks, but a new type of clock under development - a nuclear clock - could revolutionize how we measure time and probe fundamental physics.
An international research team led by scientists at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder, has demonstrated key element NASA's carbon nanotube technology aids search for life on exoplanets
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NASA's development of a carbon nanotube material is poised to significantly enhance the search for exoplanets, some of which may harbor life. Originally devised in 2007 by a team led by John Hagopian and Stephanie Getty at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, this carbon nanotube technology is now being refined for potential use on NASA's upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). HWO will be t UAlbany physicists highlight ongoing progress in dark matter search
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Physicists at the University at Albany celebrated the latest advancements in the search for direct evidence of dark matter on Monday, as new findings from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) project were presented at two scientific conferences. Dark matter is thought to be a massive, yet unseen, component of the universe's structure.
The LUX-ZEPLIN detector, known as the most sensitive dark matter detecto Gilat secures $12M in orders for SkyEdge VSAT Platforms
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Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ, TASE: GILT), a global leader in satellite networking technologies and services, has announced that it secured over $12 million in orders from a prominent satellite operator. These orders are aimed at enhancing the operator's global satellite communication (SATCOM) network using Gilat's SkyEdge family of Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) platforms. The del SATIM partners with Capella Space to enhance AI-driven object detection in SAR imagery
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Capella Space Corp., a prominent provider of high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, has announced that SATIM, a leader in automatic object detection and classification software, is now a Capella Space Certified Analytics Partner. This partnership allows SATIM to utilize Capella's vast imagery archive to boost its advanced analytics capabilities, delivering enhanced actionable in NASA begins monitoring polar heat emissions in far-infrared spectrum
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NASA's latest climate-focused mission has commenced its study of far-infrared radiation emitted by the Arctic and Antarctic regions. The data collected by the Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-Infrared Experiment (PREFIRE) will play a critical role in predicting the impact of climate change on Earth's ice, oceans, and weather, aiding global efforts to prepare for environmental shifts.
PREFIR Satellites unlock new insights into aerosol layer heights over oceans
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A new study has shown that NASA's PACE satellite, equipped with the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), can precisely measure the height of aerosol layers above ocean surfaces. This capability is essential for improving our understanding of how aerosols influence weather patterns and climate and is a major advancement in atmospheric correction techniques used in satellite-based ocean color monitoring. Satellites enable accurate monitoring of groundwater use with OPENet
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Droughts across the Western U.S. have sparked a growing interest in developing groundwater management strategies. Farmers and water managers have long relied on groundwater meters to measure the amount of water used for irrigation, but these meters are not widely available. To address this, researchers at the Desert Research Institute (DRI) investigated whether OpenET, a satellite-based platform U.S. military investing in reentry vehicles for space-to-Earth cargo delivery
Tuesday, 10 September 2024 18:31
Using a space elevator to get resources from Ceres
Tuesday, 10 September 2024 16:47 Write a comment
Here at UT, we've had several stories that describe the concept of a space elevator. They are designed to make it easier to get objects off Earth and into space. That, so far, has proven technically or economically infeasible, as no material is strong enough to support the structure passively, and it's too energy-intensive to support it actively.
However, it could be more viable on other worlds, such as the moon. But what about worlds farther afield? A student team from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs looked at the use case of a space elevator on Ceres and found that it could be done with existing technology. The findings are published in the journal 2024 Regional Student Conferences.
Before we discuss why anyone would want to put a space elevator on Ceres, let's first examine the technologies that would make it possible. Every space elevator design has three different components: an anchor, a tether, and a counterweight.
