Beijing (XNA) Jan 01, 2021
China's Chang'e-5 probe retrieved about 1,731 grams of samples from the moon. It has been much anticipated just how these would be used for research. Researchers have set up special storage facilities, constructed laboratories for sample processing and analysis, and developed detailed operating procedures to ensure that lunar samples are not contaminated as far as possible and that the res

Moscow (Sputnik) Jan 01, 2021
The two architects built the foldable futuristic-looking shelter as part of an experiment to establish whether ordinary people without training could survive in harsh conditions, including those on the Moon. Danish "space architects" Sebastian Aristotelis and Karl-Johan Sorensen have wrapped up their mission in Greenland aimed at testing a "Lunark" shelter - an origami-inspired camp design

Beijing (XNA) Jan 01, 2021
Some of the 40 grams of rice seeds that made a round trip to the moon have sprouted and are ready for follow-up studies, according to Science Daily on Monday. The rice seeds traveled to the moon and returned to Earth after 23 days of flight aboard China's Chang'e 5 lunar probe. This marks the first time China conducted a deep space induced mutation breeding experiment on rice. The se

Beijing (XNA) Jan 01, 2021
China launched a Long March 4C carrier rocket late on Sunday, bringing an end to its annual space plan for 2020. The 48-meter rocket lifted off at 11:44 pm at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern Gobi Desert, deploying the Yaogan 33 remote-sensing satellite and a small experimental satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit, according to a statement from China Aerospace Scie

Moscow (Sputnik) Jan 01, 2021
Russia plans to perform three launches of the Proton-M carrier rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome next year, three times more than in 2020, a space industry source told Sputnik. This year, only one Proton-M launch was carried out, putting telecommunications satellites Express-80 and Express-103 into orbit. "Next year, three Proton-M launches are being planned," a space industry sour

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 01, 2021
Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX), Hawthorne, California, has been awarded a $150,450,000 firm-fixed-price contract for launch services from Vandenberg Air Force Base for the Space Development Agency's Tranche 0 Transport and Tracking Layer space vehicles. This award was made based on the Tranche 0 Launch request for proposal (HQ085021R0001) released Oct. 6, 2020, to which respo

Orlando FL (UPI) Jan 01, 2021
Launching people into orbit from U.S. soil again during two SpaceX launches topped the year's accomplishments in spaceflight. With that and other achievements, it was a strong year for Elon Musk's company. The launch of the Dragon Endeavour at the end of May with two astronauts on board, followed by the Crew 1 mission's successful flight starting Nov. 15, stood out as historic achievements

London, UK (The Conversation) Jan 01, 2021
When it comes to the Moon, everyone wants the same things. Not in the sense of having shared goals, but in the sense that all players target the same strategic sites - state agencies and the private sector alike. That's because, whether you want to do science or make money, you will need things such as water and light. Many countries and private companies have ambitious plans to explore or

Washington DC (SPX) Dec 31, 2020
A diamond lasts forever, but that doesn't mean all diamonds have a common history. Some diamonds were formed billions of years ago in space as the carbon-rich atmospheres of dying stars expanded and cooled. In our own planet's lifetime, high-temperatures and pressures in the mantle produced the diamonds that are familiar to us as gems. 5,000 years ago, a large meteorite that struck a carbon-rich

Munich, Germany (SPX) Dec 31, 2020
Analytical optical methods are vital to our modern society as they permit the fast and secure identification of substances within solids, liquids or gases. These methods rely on light interacting with each of these substances differently at different parts of the optical spectrum. For instance, the ultraviolet range of the spectrum can directly access electronic transitions inside a substance wh