Copernical Team
Sol 3721: Wrapping up at the Encanto Drill Site
Despite giving it the "old college try," Curiosity's attempt to drill into the Marker Band at the "Encanto" site did not reach sampling depth. Because other rocks around the rover look similar to "Encanto" and are likely also too hard to drill, the Science Team decided to convert the plan to a "Touch and Go."
Although the Science Team is disappointed to leave this Marker Band location with New photos from China's lunar rover released with New Year blessings
The China National Space Administration on Saturday released a group of new photos from the country's lunar rover Yutu 2, together with its good wishes for all Chinese people, ahead of the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rabbit.
The photos showed the wheel track left by the rover, some rocks and a small impact crater on the lunar surface.
Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, is known as the pet o NASA launches Mars Sample Receiving Project Office at Johnson
NASA announced Thursday its new Mars Sample Receiving Project office, responsible for receiving and curating the first samples returned from the Red Planet, will be located at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The safe and rapid release of Mars samples after they return to Earth to laboratories worldwide for science investigations will be a priority.
The office will reside with Psyche continues preparation for October launch
NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on Dec. 8, 2022, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft was powered on and connected to ground support equipment, enabling engineers and technicians to prepare it for launch in 2023.
Teams working at Astrotech and at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California con SpaceX's Starship clears latest hurdle in quest to return to moon
The maiden mission of SpaceX's Starship into orbit could come as soon as March following a successful dry launch run, bringing Elon Musk's dream of viable interplanetary travel a step closer.
SpaceX said its engineers conducted a full fueling test on Monday night of the company's reusable Starship launch system at its Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas, with a T-10 launch countdown Boeing CST-100 Starliner Crew and Service Modules Mated
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner's crew and service modules were connected, or mated, on Jan. 19 in advance of the first launch with astronauts to the International Space Station on the company's next-generation spacecraft.
During the operation inside the company's Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane lifted the reusable crew module a Plasma thrusters used on satellites could be much more powerful
It was believed that Hall thrusters, an efficient kind of electric propulsion widely used in orbit, need to be large to produce a lot of thrust. Now, a new study from the University of Michigan suggests that smaller Hall thrusters can generate much more thrust-potentially making them candidates for interplanetary missions.
"People had previously thought that you could only push a certain a NASA, DARPA will test nuclear engine for future Mars missions
NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced Tuesday a collaboration to demonstrate a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space, an enabling capability for NASA crewed missions to Mars.
NASA and DARPA will partner on the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO, program. The non-reimbursable agreement designed to benefit both agencies, outlines NASA, Pentagon developing nuclear-powered rocket for Mars voyage
NASA is partnering with a Pentagon research agency to develop a nuclear-powered rocket engine in preparation for sending astronauts to Mars.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Tuesday that the US space agency will team up with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to "develop and demonstrate advanced nuclear thermal propulsion technology as soon as 2027."
"With the help of this new technology, astronauts could journey to and from deep space faster than ever –- a major capability to prepare for crewed missions to Mars," Nelson said in a statement.
DARPA is the Pentagon's research and development arm and has played a role in many of the notable innovations of the 20th century including the internet.
NASA said nuclear thermal rockets can be three or more times more efficient than conventional chemical propulsion and would reduce transit time, essential for an eventual mission to Mars.
In a nuclear thermal engine, a fission reactor is used to generate extremely high temperatures.
Heat from the reactor is transferred to liquid propellant which is then converted into gas, which expands through a nozzle and provides thrust.
Europe's JUICE spacecraft ready to explore Jupiter's icy moons
Europe's JUICE spacecraft is all ready to embark on an eight-year odyssey through the Solar System to find out whether the oceans hidden under the surface of Jupiter's icy moons have the potential to host extraterrestrial life.
For now, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is in a white room of its manufacturer Airbus in the southwestern French city of Toulouse. But its days on this planet are numbered.
Soon the spacecraft will be put in a container, wings carefully folded away, ahead of traveling to Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana off the coast of South America in early February.
From there, one of Europe's most ambitious space missions ever is scheduled to launch in April.
The scientists and engineers in Toulouse who have spent years working on the project are clearly emotional at the thought of saying goodbye to what they call "the beast".
