Inspiration4 private crewed mission nears launch
SpaceX is gearing up for its first purely commercial human spaceflight, but many details about the mission remain unclear.
Week in images: 6 - 10 September 2021
Week in images: 6 - 10 September 2021
Discover our week through the lens
Largest virtual universe free for anyone to explore
Forget about online games that promise you a "whole world" to explore. An international team of researchers has generated an entire virtual universe, and made it freely available on the cloud to everyone.
Uchuu (meaning "outer space" in Japanese) is the largest and most realistic simulation of the universe to date. The Uchuu simulation consists of 2.1 trillion particles in a computational cube an unprecedented 9.63 billion light-years to a side. For comparison, that's about three-quarters the distance between Earth and the most distant observed galaxies.
Geospatial intelligence companies struggle to educate customers about their capabilities
The good news for the Earth observation industry is that their capabilities to collect and analyze imagery are better than ever. The bad news for the industry is that many prospective customers don’t understand those capabilities.
DoD looking for commercially available nuclear propulsion for small spacecraft
The Defense Innovation Unit last week issued a call for bids for small nuclear-powered engines for space missions beyond Earth orbit.
SpaceX wins contract to launch weather satellite after ULA withdraws
NASA has selected SpaceX to launch the last in a series of geostationary weather satellites that had previously been launched by United Launch Alliance.
NASA's Perseverance rover collects puzzle pieces of Mars' history
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover successfully collected its first pair of rock samples, and scientists already are gaining new insights into the region. After collecting its first sample, named "Montdenier," Sept. 6, the team collected a second, "Montagnac," from the same rock Sept. 8.
Analysis of the rocks from which the Montdenier and Montagnac samples were taken and from the rover's previ Antennas searching for ET threatened by wildfire
The Allen Telescope Array, an ensemble of 42 antennas used in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), is once again threatened by wildfires. The scientists and engineers normally on-site have been evacuated as a precautionary measure, and in response to an order from the Shasta County Sheriff's Office.
The Dixie Fire, which is currently approximately 12 miles south of the Arra CuPID CubeSat will get new perspective on Sun-Earth boundary
When you help build a satellite the size of a shoebox, you learn pretty much everything about it, says Emil Atz, a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Boston University. You learn how to write a proposal to fund it, how to place the screws that hold it together, how to test each instrument to ensure it functions properly.
And then you learn how to say goodbye.
"It's a scary fe ASU-developed ShadowCam is incorporated into Korean spacecraft
The ASU-developed ShadowCam instrument was successfully shipped to the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and incorporated into the Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) spacecraft. The project is set to be the Republic of Korea's first space exploration mission to travel beyond Earth in August 2022.
The KPLO engineering team is now running functional tests on the ShadowCam, a cam 
