Copernical Team
Big ideas in small packages: The seeds and worms making their way to the ISS
On Feb. 20, 2021, Northrop Grumman will launch its Cygnus cargo spacecraft aboard an Antares rocket to deliver several tons of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station for its 15th resupply mission (CRS-15). Included in these bulky supplies will be a handful of items that weigh no more than a few grams—a sampling of seeds, some microscopic proteins, and a few small worms. Yet it is these tiny organisms that may yield the biggest impact to this mission, affecting the future of space travel while delivering life altering benefits to those of us still on Earth.
Three experiments, sponsored by NASA's Biological and Physical Sciences Division, focus on the diversity of space biology and physical sciences:
How to use space to conserve history
Space can help to identify historic landscapes and conserve cultural buildings. Find out how by joining a free ESA digital workshop introduced by UNESCO’s chief cultural heritage manager alongside ESA's director general.
Bone cancer survivor to join billionaire on SpaceX flight
Mars dust devils in action
Image:
Mars dust devils in action Advisory committee releases strategic plan for US fusion, plasma program
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) has adopted and endorsed a new report that lays out a strategic plan for fusion energy and plasma science research over the next decade. The report has been two years in the making, gathering an unprecedented level of input and support from across the U.S. fusion and plasma community.
Its strategic plan c Measuring photosynthesis on Earth from space
As most of us learned in school, plants use sunlight to synthesize carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into carbohydrates in a process called photosynthesis. But nature's "factories" don't just provide us with food - they also generate insights into how ecosystems will react to a changing climate and carbon-filled atmosphere.
Because of their ability to make valuable products from organic compo Space for all is this student's goal
The latest NASA rover, scheduled to land on Mars tomorrow after traveling more than six months in interplanetary space, is carrying with it a special instrument called MOXIE. About the size of a car battery, MOXIE will inhale carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere and transform it into a breath of oxygen.
That's the plan, at any rate. On Earth, Maya Nasr and other members of the MOXIE Mars helicopter reports in, New color images available
Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have received the first status report from the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which landed Feb. 18, 2021, at Jezero Crater attached to the belly of the agency's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.
The downlink, which arrived at 3:30 p.m. PST (6:30 p.m. EST) via a connection through the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, indicat Space station launch honors 'Hidden Figures' mathematician
A space station supply ship named after the Black NASA mathematician featured in the movie "Hidden Figures" rocketed into orbit Saturday, the 59th anniversary of John Glenn's historic launch.
Northrop Grumman's Cygnus capsule—dubbed the S.S. Katherine Johnson—should reach the International Space Station on Monday following its launch from Virginia's eastern shore.
Johnson died almost exactly a year ago at age 101.
"Mrs. Johnson was selected for her hand-written calculations that helped launch the first Americans into space, as well as her accomplishments in breaking glass ceiling after glass ceiling as a Black woman," Frank DeMauro, a Northrop Grumman vice president, said on the eve of liftoff.
NASA's Mars helicopter reports in
Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have received the first status report from the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which landed Feb. 18, 2021, at Jezero Crater attached to the belly of the agency's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. The downlink, which arrived at 3:30 p.m. PST (6:30 p.m. EST) via a connection through the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, indicates that both the helicopter, which will remain attached to the rover for 30 to 60 days, and its base station (an electrical box on the rover that stores and routes communications between the rotorcraft and Earth) are operating as expected.
"There are two big-ticket items we are looking for in the data: the state of charge of Ingenuity's batteries as well as confirmation the base station is operating as designed, commanding heaters to turn off and on to keep the helicopter's electronics within an expected range," said Tim Canham, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter operations lead at JPL.