Copernical Team
Mars agriculture simulations show promise and challenges
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The vision of a permanent human settlement on Mars is drawing closer to reality, and with it, the challenge of ensuring food security for Martian colonists. The reliance on Earth for resupplying food is both impractical and costly, making it imperative to utilize Martian resources for local food production.
Rovers have initially scoped Martian terrains, setting the stage for human research Testing the quantumness of gravity without entanglement
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Gravity, a fundamental force in our everyday lives, continues to puzzle scientists: Is it a geometric force as Einstein suggested, or does it follow quantum mechanics? Researchers from the University of Amsterdam and Ulm have introduced an innovative experiment to explore this, avoiding the challenges of previous methods that required entangling massive objects, which often lose their quantum pr A Fluidic Telescope is enabling the Next Generation of Large Space Observatories
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The future of space-based UV/optical/IR astronomy requires ever larger telescopes. The highest priority astrophysics targets, including Earth-like exoplanets, first generation stars, and early galaxies, are all extremely faint, which presents an ongoing challenge for current missions and is the opportunity space for next generation telescopes: larger telescopes are the primary way to address thi Revisiting gravity: University of Waterloo researchers propose new model for cosmic anomalies
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Researchers from the University of Waterloo, in collaboration with the University of British Columbia, have observed what they term a "cosmic glitch," indicating a deviation in gravity's behavior on a vast cosmic scale.
For a century, Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity has been the cornerstone of our understanding of gravity, asserting its influence across not just three physic NASA launches commercial studies to facilitate Mars robotic science
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NASA has commissioned 12 concept studies from nine U.S. companies to explore how commercial services could support scientific missions to Mars. These studies, funded between $200,000 and $300,000 each, will investigate various services including payload delivery, communications relay, surface imaging, and payload hosting to aid future missions to Mars.
The initiative began with a request f Seeds from China's space station tested in agricultural experiments
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Following the recent return of the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft, seeds that experienced space radiation for nearly a year aboard China's space station have arrived back on Earth. These seeds are now part of critical breeding experiments.
The seeds, including alfalfa and oats, were exposed to space radiation on the space station's biology exposure equipment for 11 months, provided by the Lanzhou Unraveling the diet of white dwarfs: New insights into their metal consumption
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White dwarfs, remnants of stars like the Sun, pack a mass equivalent to the Sun's but are as small as Earth, making up 97% of our galaxy's stars. The transformation of a star into this dense state marks the stellar lifecycle's end, rendering our galaxy a celestial necropolis.
The chemical composition of white dwarfs, especially the unexpected presence of heavy metals like silicon, magnesiu Boeing's Starliner joins select club of crewed US spaceships
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Throughout the annals of American space exploration, a select few spacecraft have had the distinction of carrying human beings beyond Earth.
Next week, Boeing is poised to join this elite group with the long-awaited launch of its Starliner capsule, just the sixth class of vessel built in the United States for NASA astronauts.
Here's a recap of their storied past, marked by groundbreaking triumphs and some devastating setbacks.
Mercury
Known as America's "man-in-space" program, Project Mercury was born just days after NASA itself was formed in 1958, and officials settled on the term "astronauts" for its space explorers.
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to fly in space during a 15-minute suborbital flight in the one-man, cone-shaped capsule—about a month after the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin became the first human to achieve the feat.
Boeing's Starliner finally ready for first crewed mission
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Launch day is finally here: Boeing's Starliner capsule blasts off Monday to the International Space Station on its first crewed mission—several years after SpaceX first achieved the same milestone.
The flight, a final test before Starliner takes up regular service for NASA, is critical for the US aerospace giant, whose reputation has suffered of late due to safety issues with some of its passenger jets.
Starliner, which was first ordered a decade ago by the US space agency, has had a bumpy ride to the finish line, with surprise setbacks and multiple delays—a saga Boeing is eager to complete.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are set to leave Cape Canaveral at 10:34 pm Monday (0234 GMT Tuesday) aboard the capsule.
Making sure ESA's cloud and aerosol satellite is aerosol-free
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