Arianespace offers free launch to deserving cubesat
VALLETTA, Malta — European launch provider Arianespace announced April 13 that it would provide a free cubesat launch to one deserving space technology startup, lab or university.
The “Destination: A Better Life on Earth” competition is part of Airanespace’s plan to unveil a range of smallsat rideshare offerings in June at VivaTech 2021, the fifth edition of an annual technology conference held in Paris.
UAE to send rover to the Moon in 2022
Lunar exploration firm iSpace said Wednesday it will transport a United Arab Emirates unmanned rover to the Moon next year, as the Gulf state seeks to expand its space sector.
The UAE—made up of seven emirates including the capital Abu Dhabi and freewheeling Dubai—announced in September 2020 that it planned to launch the "Rashid" rover by 2024.
The rover "will be transported to the Moon on iSpace's lunar lander" during a mission in 2022, the Japanese company said in a statement.
Video: Drone test of Hera mission's asteroid radar
This drone hauled a model of the Juventas CubeSat high into the air, as a practical test of the antennas designed to perform the first radar sounding of the interior of an asteroid.
The shoebox-sized Juventas will be transported to the Didymos double-asteroid system by ESA's Hera mission. Once it flies freely in space, Juventas will deploy a cross antenna to perform a low-frequency radar scan up to 100 m deep within the smaller of the two asteroids, Dimorphos. Such low frequencies result in long wavelengths of around 6 m, too long for most indoor measurement facilities.
"To verify the antenna characteristics, we performed this aerial test with the support of the Hexapilots drone company," notes Martin Laabs of the Chair for Radio Frequency and Photonics Engineering of Technical University Dresden in Germany.
"For the most accurate measurements of the antennas' radiation properties, they had to be as far away as possible from other objects, so the Juventas model was hung 10 m down from the drone, which was flown up to 50 m into the sky.
Popping pills in space: Helping astronauts manage pain or sickness on crewed missions
And you think you've had a bad head cold.
Getting sick in space is no joke. You're stuck, surrounded by the most advanced equipment in the world, most of which is useless if you need a medicine you didn't think to bring.
Even taking a pill has its problems as the constant radiation breaks them down.
Professor Volker Hessel is a researcher at the University of Adelaide who has sent medicine up to the International Space Station (ISS) to test how pills survive in space.
The plan is to understand how we can make space drugs that can last the 3-year trip to Mars.
In space, no one can hear you sneeze
Astronauts are extremely fit for a reason. Space is incredibly stressful to human bodies. Microgravity means astronauts lose 1–2% of their bone mass each month.
Radiation also changes astronaut DNA.
Blue Origin aces dress rehearsal for New Shepard crewed flights
WASHINGTON — Blue Origin completed another test flight of its New Shepard vehicle April 14, putting the company on the verge of finally flying people.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle lifted off from the company’s West Texas test site, known as Launch Site One by the company, at 12:51 p.m.
Mock crew straps into space capsule, exits before liftoff
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company strapped two employees into a fueled rocketship for practice, but pulled them out shortly before sending the capsule to the edge of space Wednesday with only a test dummy.
The crew rehearsal in West Texas brings Blue Origin closer to launching tourists and others into space.
Blue Origin wanted to see how well a crew could get in and out of the capsule. The pretend astronauts also tested seatbelts and radio links before the 10 1/2-minute flight, and went back to the capsule following touchdown to climb aboard for recovery practice.
Space Development Agency could select three manufacturers to produce its next batch of satellites
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s Space Development Agency is considering buying its next 150 satellites from three different vendors, but that could change after the agency evaluates companies’ bids, SDA director Derek Tournear said April 14.
Speaking at the Washington Space Business Roundtable, Tournear said a request for proposals will be issued in August for the agency’s Transport Layer Tranche 1 — a network of hundreds of communications satellites in low Earth orbit projected to start launching in late 2024.
DoD space agency: Cyber attacks, not missiles, are the most worrisome threat to satellites
WASHINGTON — Intelligence agencies and analysts warn China and Russia are developing missiles that could strike U.S. satellites in low-Earth orbit. This will be a concern for the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency, which plans to deploy a network of satellites within range of those missiles.
Study warns of 'oxygen false positives' in search for signs of life on other planets
In the search for life on other planets, the presence of oxygen in a planet's atmosphere is one potential sign of biological activity that might be detected by future telescopes. A new study, however, describes several scenarios in which a lifeless rocky planet around a sun-like star could evolve to have oxygen in its atmosphere.
The new findings, published April 13 in AGU Advances, highli Blue Origin launches what may be final test flight before carrying people
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched Wednesday from Texas what may be the last test flight for its New Shepard rocket before it carries people later this year.
The rocket lifted off about 12:50 p.m. EDT from the company's spaceport near Van Horn, about 120 miles southeast of El Paso. New Shepard soared into the hazy spring sky, reaching velocity of more than 2,200 mph.
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