NASA seeks input on Europa Clipper launch options
Thursday, 28 January 2021 11:02WASHINGTON — NASA has issued a request for information for launch services for its Europa Clipper mission, a sign the agency is taking advantage of language in a recent appropriations bill that allows it to consider alternatives to the Space Launch System.
Earth from Space: Lake Titicaca
Thursday, 28 January 2021 09:00Ahead of World Wetlands Day, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Lake Titicaca – one of the largest lakes in South America.
Ariane 6 upper stage heads for hot-firing tests
Thursday, 28 January 2021 08:40The first complete upper stage of Europe’s new Ariane 6 launch vehicle has left ArianeGroup in Bremen and is now on its way to the DLR German Aerospace Center in Lampoldshausen, Germany. Hot firing tests performed in near-vacuum conditions, mimicking the environment in space, will provide data to prove its readiness for flight.
ISS crew member reveals difficulties of filming virtual reality documentary in space
Thursday, 28 January 2021 06:43The crew on the International Space Station (ISS) has faced unique challenges while producing a new virtual reality documentary although factors such as weightlessness have also provided an advantage, Russian cosmonaut and ISS engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov told Sputnik. In December, Russia's Space Agency Roscosmos announced it is producing a documentary series - together with Canada's Feli
Exposing unmentionable human functions in space
Thursday, 28 January 2021 06:43America's first astronaut, Alan Shepard, took that first suborbital flight of 15 minutes on May 15, 1961. The expected flight time was so short that NASA assumed no toilet facilities would be needed. However, Shepard had to endure several hours in his Mercury capsule before lift-off due to launch delays. You can imagine the results, but it wasn't pretty. By the time NASA began launching Ge
Remembering Challenger and Her Crew
Thursday, 28 January 2021 06:43The year 1986 was shaping up to be the most ambitious one yet for NASA's Space Shuttle Program. The agency's plans called for up to 15 missions, including the first flight from the West Coast launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Other important missions included the launch of two planetary spacecraft with very tight launch windows, an astronomy mission to study Halley's Comet,
MAVEN continues to advance Mars science and telecommunications relay efforts
Thursday, 28 January 2021 06:43With a suite of new national and international spacecraft primed to explore the Red Planet after their arrival next month, NASA's MAVEN mission is ready to provide support and continue its study of the Martian atmosphere. MAVEN launched in November 2013 and entered the Martian atmosphere roughly a year later. Since that time, MAVEN has made fundamental contributions to understanding the hi
Airbus studies "Moon Cruiser" concept for ESA's cis-lunar transfer vehicle
Thursday, 28 January 2021 06:43Airbus has been awarded a CLTV (Cis-Lunar Transfer Vehicle) study for a "Moon Cruiser" by the European Space Agency (ESA). According to the study concept (two parallel Phase A/B1), the CLTV is a versatile, autonomous logistics vehicle that could, for example, provide timely and efficient support to NASA and ESA in the implementation of the future Artemis Moon missions. The spacecraft will be bas
Peering inside the birthplaces of planets orbiting the smallest stars
Thursday, 28 January 2021 06:43Scientists have been finding ring-like structures indicating planet formation in the disks surrounding young Sun-like stars for several years. Astronomers led by Nicolas Kurtovic from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, have now detected similar signals in disks of young very low-mass stars that are considerably smaller and less massive than their counterparts. A
TESS discovers four exoplanets orbiting a nearby sun-like star
Thursday, 28 January 2021 06:43MIT researchers have discovered four new exoplanets orbiting a sun-like star just over 200 light-years from Earth. Because of the diversity of these planets and brightness of their star, this system could be an ideal target for atmospheric characterization with NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. Tansu Daylan, a postdoc at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, led
Dalian coherent light source reveals the origin of interstellar medium S2 fragments
Thursday, 28 January 2021 06:43Studying the creation and evolution of sulfur-containing compounds in outer space is essential for understanding interstellar chemistry. CS2 is believed to be the most important molecule in comet nuclei, interstellar dust, or ice cores. CS and S2 are the photodissociation fragments of CS2. Forty years ago, the emission spectra of only CS and S2 species, and not those of CS2 species, were o
Harnessing the power of AI to understand warm dense matter
Thursday, 28 January 2021 06:43The study of warm dense matter helps us understand what is going on inside giant planets, brown dwarfs, and neutron stars. However, this state of matter, which exhibits properties of both solids and plasmas, does not occur naturally on Earth. It can be produced artificially in the lab using large X-ray experiments, albeit only at a small scale and for short periods of time. Theoretical and
New concept for rocket thruster exploits the mechanism behind solar flares
Thursday, 28 January 2021 06:43A new type of rocket thruster that could take humankind to Mars and beyond has been proposed by a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. The device would apply magnetic fields to cause particles of plasma, electrically charged gas also known as the fourth state of matter, to shoot out the back of a rocket and, because of the conservation of moment
Swedish Space Corporation opens Thailand branch
Thursday, 28 January 2021 06:43Swedish Space Corporation has announced the formation of SSC Space Thailand, a subsidiary targeted at the Asian-Pacific market, further expanding the company's presence in the region. The announcement marks further investment in the Asian-Pacific region, adding to SSC's already strong presence in Australia and Thailand, including ground station facilities in both countries. "SSC has
Simulating space at ESA's Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory
Thursday, 28 January 2021 06:43While most ESA personnel work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, essential activities continue to take place on site across Agency establishments while following social distancing protocols. In ESA's Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory -one of a suite of labs based at the ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands -testing has continued on critical elements for se