Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 27, 2022
Mars once rippled with rivers and ponds billions of years ago, providing a potential habitat for microbial life. As the planet's atmosphere thinned over time, that water evaporated, leaving the frozen desert world that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) studies today. It's commonly believed that Mars' water evaporated about 3 billion years ago. But two scientists studying data that M

Beijing (XNA) Jan 26, 2022
China has released SpaceOS III, a new-generation operating system for spacecraft. Developed by the Beijing Institute of Control Engineering under China Academy of Space Technology, the operating system has independent intellectual property rights. Earlier versions of SpaceOS have been used in more than 300 spacecraft. According to SpaceOS developers, the system boasts outstanding rel

Alexandria VA (SPX) Jan 27, 2022
SCOUT Inc. has announced its latest Autonomy Software offerings: computer vision and guidance software to make navigation safer and less complex for space operators. These offerings include software-hardware integration providing: next-generation AI/ML-based autonomy, hybrid data fusion from various sensors, and closed-loop optical navigation control algorithms. "Our first SCOUT-Vision sys

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over northwest Lesotho – a small, land-locked country surrounded entirely by South Africa.

The lower stage of ESA’s next-generation Ariane 6 launch vehicle has been installed on the assembly line at Europe’s Spaceport behind the upper stage. It is now time to join the two horizontally to create the central core of Ariane 6 in readiness for the first combined tests on the launch pad.

Image: Crater tree rings

Beijing (XNA) Jan 28, 2022
China will employ its space station for carrying out astronomical observations, Earth science and research, and space science experiments in the next five years, according to a white paper published Friday. The white paper, titled "China's Space Program: A 2021 Perspective", was released by China's State Council Information Office. The country plans to complete the construction of it

Beijing (XNA) Jan 28, 2022
China will carry out more space science exploration in the next five years, according to a white paper on the country's space activities released Friday. The white paper, titled "China's Space Program: A 2021 Perspective," was released by the State Council Information Office. It says that China will continue with the research and development of programs such as the satellite for spac

Montreal, Canada (SPX) Jan 28, 2022
When bears and ground squirrels hibernate in winter, they stop eating, lasting until spring simply on the fat reserves they've stored up in their bodies. Usually, this sort of prolonged fasting and inactivity would significantly reduce the mass and function of muscle, but hibernators don't suffer this fate. How they avoid it, however, has been a mystery. Now, in research published in Scien