KSAT to support Intuitive Machines' missions to the Moon
Friday, 11 June 2021 05:57
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Intuitive Machines (IM) has entered a long-term agreement with Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) where KSAT will support every stage of IM's missions to the Moon, from launch and early operations, through transit, including lunar operations. IM will use KSAT services for its 2022 IM-1 mission to the Moon, and future missions.
"Our first mission has a very unique orbit for the first 24 ho Connecting a star's chemical composition and planet formation
Friday, 11 June 2021 05:57 Write a comment
Researchers from Penn's Department of Physics and Astronomy have developed a new method for better understanding the relationship between a star's chemical composition and planet formation. The study was led by recent graduate Jacob Nibauer for his senior thesis with Bhuvnesh Jain and was co-supervised by former Penn postdoc Eric Baxter.
The researchers found that the majority of stars in NASA to collaborate on ESA's new Venus mission
Friday, 11 June 2021 05:57 Write a comment
On June 10, 2021, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced the selection of EnVision as its newest medium-class science mission. EnVision will make detailed observations of Venus to understand its history and especially understand the connections between the atmosphere and geologic processes. As a key partner in the mission, NASA provides the Synthetic Aperture Radar, called VenSAR, to make hig Photos show Chinese rover on dusty, rocky Martian surface
Friday, 11 June 2021 05:50 Write a comment
ESA selects Venus mission
Friday, 11 June 2021 00:52 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The European Space Agency has selected a Venus orbiter as its next medium-class science mission, just a week after NASA announced the section of two Venus missions of its own.
ESA announced June 10 that EnVision will be the agency’s next M-class, or medium-class, science mission.
SOFIA operations continue despite cancellation threat
Friday, 11 June 2021 00:18 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Despite facing the threat of cancellation for the second straight year, a NASA airborne observatory is continuing with regular operations.
NASA’s fiscal year 2022 budget request, released May 28, included a proposal to end the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a modified Boeing 747 equipped with a 2.5-meter telescope to perform infrared observations.
Analysis: DoD space budget ‘clear winner’ in 2022 proposal
Thursday, 10 June 2021 21:58 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — In the Biden administration’s 2022 budget proposal, the Pentagon is requesting $15.3 billion for investments in space technology, an increase of $1.8 billion over what Congress enacted in 2021, according to a new report by the consulting firm Avascent.
Venus hotter than ever: 3rd new robotic explorer on horizon
Thursday, 10 June 2021 18:51 Write a comment
![Venus hotter than ever: 3rd new robotic explorer on horizon](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/2021/venus-hotter-than-ever.jpg "This image made available by NASA shows the planet Venus made with data produced by the Magellan spacecraft and Pioneer Venus Orbiter from 1990 to 1994. On Thursday, June 10, 2021, the European Space Agency said it will launch a Venus-orbiting spacecraft in the early 2030s. Named EnVision, the orbiter will attempt to explain why Venus is so "wildly different" from Earth, even though the two planets are similar in size and composition. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP")
U.S. Space Force to launch ‘space domain awareness’ satellite on Pegasus rocket
Thursday, 10 June 2021 18:42 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — A U.S. Space Force mission scheduled to launch June 13 on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket is a monitoring satellite intended to provide “space domain awareness,” chief of space operations Gen.
Sunrise special: Solar eclipse thrills world's northern tier
Thursday, 10 June 2021 16:17 Write a comment
The top of the world got a sunrise special Thursday—a "ring of fire" solar eclipse.
This so-called annular eclipse began at the Canadian province of Ontario, then swept across Greenland, the North Pole and finally Siberia, as the moon passed directly in front of the sun.
An annular eclipse occurs when a new moon is around its farthest point from us and appearing smaller, and so it doesn't completely blot out the sun when it's dead center.
The upper portions of North America, Europe and Asia enjoyed a partial eclipse, at least where the skies were clear. At those locations, the moon appeared to take a bite out of the sun.
It was the first eclipse of the sun visible from North America since August 2017, when a dramatic total solar eclipse crisscrossed the U.S.
NASA's Perseverance rover begins its first science campaign on Mars
Thursday, 10 June 2021 14:15 Write a comment
On June 1, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover kicked off the science phase of its mission by leaving the "Octavia E. Butler" landing site. Until recently, the rover has been undergoing systems tests, or commissioning, and supporting the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's month of flight tests.
During the first few weeks of this first science campaign, the mission team will drive to a low-lying scenic overlook from which the rover can survey some of the oldest geologic features in Jezero Crater, and they'll bring online the final capabilities of the rover's auto-navigation and sampling systems.
Space startups selected for Amazon Web Services accelerator
Thursday, 10 June 2021 13:29 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Amazon Web Services announced June 10 it selected 10 U.S. and European space startups for a four-week accelerator program where companies learn how they can grow their business using cloud computing and analytics technologies.
The companies selected are Cognitive Space, D-Orbit, Descartes Labs, Edgybees, Hawkeye360, LeoLabs, Lunar Outpost, Orbital Sidekick, Satellite VU and Ursa Space.
Health care exec to lead UK Space Agency
Thursday, 10 June 2021 12:02 Write a comment
TAMPA, Fla. — The UK Space Agency has picked health care veteran Paul Bate to be its next CEO starting Sept. 6.
Bate is currently vice president of commercial at Babylon Health, responsible for sales around the world for the U.K.
'Metasurface' technology could advance Earth science from orbit
Thursday, 10 June 2021 11:53 Write a comment
Sunlight traveling through the atmosphere becomes polarized in different ways as it is scattered by water vapor, ice, aerosols created by living organisms, dust, and other particulates.
Measuring that polarization lets scientists extrapolate what is in the atmosphere, and the next generation of polarimeters for the job could benefit from a new technology developed by researchers at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Earth scientist Kerry Meyer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is working with Harvard partners to develop a science use for their "metasurface" technology. Using one flat optical component, the technology can analyze light along four polarization directions, allowing for a full characterization of light's polarized state: intensity, linear polarization (horizontal and vertical), and circular polarization.
Lunar sample tells ancient story through international collaborative effort
Thursday, 10 June 2021 11:32 Write a comment
Curtin University researchers have helped uncover the four billion year old story of a lunar sample brought from the moon to Earth, by the manned Apollo 17 mission more than 50 years ago.
The global research collaboration, involving scientists from the UK, Canada, Sweden and Australia, aimed to analyze the ancient rock sample through a modern lens to find out its age, which crater it came from and its geological trajectory.
That modern lens was provided, in part, by both Curtin's Geoscience Atom Probe Facility and Space Science and Technology Center (SSTC) where the research team was able to use the most advanced analytical equipment to accurately date the sample and perform sophisticated numerical impact simulations to determine the source crater.
Co-author Associate Professor Katarina Miljkovic from the SSTC in Curtin's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences said Curtin's involvement ensured the international team had access to world-class facilities in order to shed new light about Earth-moon origins.
"Through a truly international collaborative effort, we have connected a tiny lunar sample investigated on a microscopic scale with the moment when the moon's surface was smashed by a major impact event.