Copernical Team
Chang'e-6 highlights China's goal to build international collaboration
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China's Chang'e-6 probe, carrying expectations from scientists worldwide, is currently in orbit around the moon, awaiting the optimal moment for its return journey.
If successful, Chang'e-6 will enable China to retrieve the first-ever samples from the far side of the moon. China has pledged to make the samples available to international researchers, emphasizing its commitment through consi US and Germany double down on space exploration
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U.S. and German officials this week met in Berlin to discuss ongoing and future collaborations in space exploration and Earth science. Leaders at the inaugural U.S.-Germany Space Dialogue highlighted a shared commitment to continue ongoing cooperation in space exploration and research, including through NASA's Artemis campaign.
The Artemis campaign is a series of missions with the robust g Ariane 6 to Launch SpaceCase SC-X01 for Heat Shield Demonstration
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Europe's newest rocket, Ariane 6, is set to launch soon, carrying multiple space missions with diverse objectives and destinations. The first flight of Ariane 6 will demonstrate its versatility and flexibility as a heavy-lift launcher. This article focuses on SpaceCase SC-X01 and highlights other missions on board.
Among the various missions, two have unique objectives compared to the othe Ohio State students to test space food solutions for NASA
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NASA's Deep Space Food Challenge kicks off its final eight-week demonstration this month, and a new crew is running the show.
NASA's partner for the Deep Space Food Challenge, the Methuselah Foundation, has teamed up with Ohio State University in Columbus to facilitate the challenge's third and final phase. The university is employing current and former students to serve on a "Simunaut" cr Virgin Galactic completes final spaceflight before two-year pause
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Virgin Galactic on Saturday successfully completed its last spaceflight before heading into a two-year pause on commercial operations to upgrade its fleet, as the space tourism company seeks to finally turn a profit.
"Galactic07 is back on terra firma, now as astronauts!" the company said on X, formerly Twitter, referring to a team of two pilots and two passengers. "Our pilots, crew and spa Virgin Galactic set for final spaceflight before two-year pause
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Virgin Galactic is poised on Saturday for its last spaceflight before heading into a two-year pause on commercial operations to upgrade its fleet, as the company seeks to finally turn a profit.
The "Galactic 07" mission is scheduled to begin at around 8:30 am Mountain Time (1430 GMT) from the company's base in Spaceport, New Mexico, a spokesman said.
Former astronaut William Anders, who took iconic Earthrise photo, killed in Washington plane crash
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NASA considering an interstellar probe to study the heliosphere, the region of space influenced by the sun
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The sun warms the Earth, making it habitable for people and animals. But that's not all it does, and it affects a much larger area of space. The heliosphere, the area of space influenced by the sun, is over a hundred times larger than the distance from the sun to the Earth.
The sun is a star that constantly emits a steady stream of plasma—highly energized ionized gas—called the solar wind. In addition to the constant solar wind, the sun also occasionally releases eruptions of plasma called coronal mass ejections, which can contribute to the aurora, and bursts of light and energy, called flares.
ILA 2024 - Public day
Scientists record Earth's radio waves from the Moon
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On Feb. 22, a lunar lander named Odysseus touched down near the Moon's South Pole and popped out four antennas to record radio waves around the surface—a moment University of Colorado Boulder astrophysicist Jack Burns hails as the "dawn of radio astronomy from the Moon."
It was a major achievement for the tenacious lander, which was built by the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines and had to overcome a series of technical difficulties to make it to the lunar surface. Burns is co-investigator on the radio experiment that flew aboard Odysseus called Radio wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the photo Electron Sheath (ROLSES).
He'll give an update on the ROLSES data, and will share what's in store for future radio astronomy from the Moon, this week at the 244th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Madison, Wisconsin.
"It was heroic for Intuitive Machines to land under these conditions, and to deploy our antennas, take some data and get that data back to Earth," said Burns, professor emeritus in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at CU Boulder.
