Copernical Team
NASA works to give satellite swarms a hive mind
Swarms of small satellites could communicate amongst themselves to collect data on important weather patterns at different times of the day or year, and from multiple angles. Such swarms, using machine learning algorithms, could revolutionize scientists' understanding of weather and climate changes.
Engineer Sabrina Thompson is working on software to enable small spacecraft, or SmallSats, to communicate with each other, identify high-value observation targets, and coordinate attitude and timing to get different views of the same target.
"We already know that Saharan dust blowing over to the Amazon rainforests affects cloud formation over the Atlantic Ocean during certain times of the year," said Thompson, who works at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
NASA's Mars simulation hopefuls face tough application process
NASA won't send astronauts to Mars for at least a decade, but the agency said interest is running high in applying for a year's stint in a simulated home base on the Red Planet.
The space agency's simulation is to begin in fall 2022 inside a 3D-printed habitat at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Applications are due Sept. 17.
And being chosen for this simulation seems as difficul NASA welcomes new Russian commitment to space station
NASA welcomed reports Thursday that Russia's space agency is committed to supporting the International Space Station as long as it operates, administrator Bill Nelson said.
"I look forward to continued cooperation with Roscosmos on the International Space Station until 2030 and into the future," Nelson said in the emailed statement.
The space station's official decommission date US grounds Virgin Galactic after space flight 'mishap'
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Thursday said it was grounding space flights by Virgin Galactic while it investigates why the company's July 11 voyage carrying Richard Branson deviated from its planned trajectory.
The move represents a blow to the private space company as it prepares to carry paying customers following its first fully-crewed test flight.
It is now unc Timelapse of Eutelsat Quantum launch
Video:
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Experience the preparation and launch of telecommunications satellite Eutelsat Quantum by watching this unique timelapse video.
Developed under an ESA Partnership Project with satellite operator Eutelsat and prime manufacturer Airbus, Eutelsat Quantum has pioneered a new generation of satellites with the European space industry.
The footage was captured at the Airbus facility in Toulouse – where the satellite was assembled and tested – and Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
The world’s first fully software-defined satellite – which will be used for communication in government, mobility and data markets – was launched on board an Ariane 5 on 30 July.
Following its
Anchoring single atoms
There is a dictum to "never change a running system". New methods can however be far superior to older ones. While to date chemical reactions are mainly accelerated by catalytic materials that comprise several hundreds of atoms, the use of single atoms could provide a new approach for catalysis.
An international research team, led by the TU Wien, Austria, has now developed a new method for What can a young star teach us about the birth of our solar system
The familiar star at the center of our solar system has had billions of years to mature and ultimately provide life-giving energy to us here on Earth. But a very long time ago, our sun was just a growing baby star. What did the sun look like when it was so young? That's long been a mystery that, if solved, could teach us about the formation of our solar system-so-named because sol is the Latin w Astronomers find new clue that heavy stars don't go supernova
Conventional theory states that light stars like our Sun gently blow off their layers when they die, while heavy stars explode as a supernova. But for some reason, we are so far failing to find supernovae from stars heavier than eighteen solar masses. Now a team led by SRON astronomers finds a new clue that fuels this apparent mystery. Publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The rese Chemical clues to the death of massive stars
The Universe has countless stars, which come in different masses. The most common ones are the low-mass stars, including our Sun. Massive stars refer to those whose mass is more than eight times the mass of the Sun. The life of low-mass stars is quite long. For instance, our Sun can live for 10 billion years. However, massive stars can only live up to tens of millions of years.
Some of the Astronomer recruiting volunteers in effort to quadruple number of known active asteroids
The study of active asteroids is a relatively new field of solar system science, focusing on objects that have asteroid-like orbits but look more like comets, with visual characteristics such as tails.
Because finding an active asteroid is such a rare event, fewer than 30 of these solar system bodies have been found since 1949, so there is still much for scientists to learn about them. Rou