Living on the edge: Satellites adopt powerful computers
Spacecraft operating closer to Earth are adopting state-of-the-art onboard processors. Upcoming missions will require even greater computing capability.
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NOAA seeks continuity of space weather observations
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is looking ahead to a future generation of space weather instruments.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s space station computer is in demand
Mark Fernandez, principal investigator for Spaceborne Computer-2, sees a promising future for space-based computing.
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Extraordinary black hole found in neighboring galaxy
Astronomers have discovered a black hole unlike any other. At one hundred thousand solar masses, it is smaller than the black holes we have found at the centers of galaxies, but bigger than the black holes that are born when stars explode. This makes it one of the only confirmed intermediate-mass black holes, an object that has long been sought by astronomers.
"We have very good detections of the biggest, stellar-mass black holes up to 100 times the size of our sun, and supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies that are millions of times the size of our sun, but there aren't any measurements of black between these.
Webb telescope reaches destination, 1 mn miles from Earth: NASA
The James Webb Space Telescope has fired its thrusters and reached its orbital destination around a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from our planet, NASA said Monday, a key milestone on its mission to study cosmic history.
At around 2:00 pm Eastern Time (1900 GMT), the observatory fired its thrusters for five minutes in order to reach the so-called second Lagrange point, or L2, where it will have access to nearly half the sky at any given moment.
"Webb, welcome home!" said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a statement.
"We're one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. And I can't wait to see Webb's first new views of the universe this summer!"
Japan’s H3 rocket further delayed by engine woes
After spending most of 2020 and all of 2021 struggling with the expendable H3’s novel LE-9 main engine, officials with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) told reporters last week that the H3 will not be ready to launch by the end of March as previously hoped.
RUAG Space agrees AI partnership for satellite supercomputer
Switzerland’s RUAG Space said Jan. 24 it is teaming up with a software provider to run artificial intelligence solutions on its Lynx, which it says is the most powerful commercially available onboard satellite computer.
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Hope for present-day Martian groundwater dries up
Liquid water previously detected under Mars' ice-covered south pole is probably just a dusty mirage, according to a new study of the red planet led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.
Scientists in 2018 had thought they were looking at liquid water when they saw bright radar reflections under the polar cap. However, the new study published Jan. 24 in the journal Geophysica Chinese lunar rover's 2-year travelogue on moon's far side reported
Chinese scientists published the country's lunar rover travelogue of its first two years of service that depicted the unique and untrodden moonscape on the moon's far side, revealing its notable differences with the near side with in situ evidence.
The study published on Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal, Science Robotics, described cloddy soil, gel-like rocks, and fresh small craters How to Retain a Core
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 25, 2022
Have you ever wondered how a coring bit grabs and holds onto a rock core?
As we drill, the bit teeth cut a 27mm diameter circle in the rock and leave the 13mm diameter center intact. As we dig deeper, that cylinder of rock is fed into the sample tube that was loaded inside the bit. When the drill reaches its target depth, typically 66mm, the core is fully in 
