Copernical Team
Space launch from British soil one step closer
In a giant leap in British spaceflight history, government publishes response to commercial spaceflight consultation.
A giant leap in British spaceflight history is being made 5 March 2021 as the government publishes its commercial spaceflight consultation response, paving the way for space launches from UK soil.
Over the past few months, the government has been inviting industry, st NASA's Perseverance Drives on Mars' Terrain for First Time
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover performed its first drive on Mars March 4, covering 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) across the Martian landscape. The drive served as a mobility test that marks just one of many milestones as team members check out and calibrate every system, subsystem, and instrument on Perseverance. Once the rover begins pursuing its science goals, regular commutes extending 656 feet Spacewalkers finish solar panel prep for station power boost
For the second time this week, a pair of astronauts floated outside Friday to get the International Space Station ready for new solar panels.
Engineering marvel: Sixth mirror cast for Giant Magellan Telescope
The Giant Magellan Telescope announces fabrication of the sixth of seven of the world's largest monolithic mirrors. These mirrors will allow astronomers to see farther into the universe with more detail than any other optical telescope before. The sixth 8.4-meter (27.5 feet) mirror—about two stories high when standing on edge—is being fabricated at the University of Arizona's Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab and will take nearly four years to complete. The mirror casting is considered a marvel of modern engineering and is usually celebrated with a large in-person event with attendees from all over the world. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, work on the sixth mirror began behind closed doors to protect the health of the 10-person mirror casting team at the lab.
Timelapse: Ariane 6 upper stage installed for tests
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This timelapse video shows the hot firing model of the Ariane 6 upper stage being installed on the P5.2 test stand at the DLR German Aerospace Center in Lampoldshausen, Germany on 16 February 2021.
After arrival from the ArianeGroup facilities in Bremen, this 5.4 m-diameter upper stage was hoisted out of its container, tilted vertical and installed on the test stand.
Tests will simulate all aspects of flight including stage preparation such as fuelling with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, and draining its tanks.
Data will be gathered on non-propulsive ballistic phases, tank pressurisation to increase performance, Vinci engine reignitions,
Visit ESA virtually with new Discover ESA platform
Do you want to visit all ESA establishments and see what we’re doing to explore space and protect our planet? Now you can, by taking virtual tours from your own homes, thanks to the Discover ESA interactive experience.
Week in images: 01 - 05 March 2021
Week in images: 01 - 05 March 2021
Discover our week through the lens
Mining water and metal from the moon at the same time
In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is becoming an increasingly popular topic as space exploration begins to focus on landing on the surface of other bodies in the solar system. ISRU focuses on making things that are needed to support an exploration mission out of materials that are easily accessible at the site being explored, like European explorers in the New World building canoes out of the wood they found there.
Recently NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) has started looking more closely at a variety of ISRU projects as part of their Phase I Fellows program. One of the projects selected, led by Amelia Grieg at the University of Texas, El Paso, is a mining technique that would allow explorers to dig up water, metal and other useful materials, all at the same time.
Most ISRU schemes focus on using water, as it important for many exploration efforts. However, those schemes usually discard the rest of the material that is gathered in an effort to collect the water.
Spacewalking astronauts tackle more solar panel advance work
For the second time this week, a pair of astronauts floated outside Friday to get the International Space Station ready for new solar panels.
Earth from Space: Galápagos Islands
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Galápagos Islands – a volcanic archipelago situated some 1000 km west of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean.