Humankind has never before seen the low frequency radio sky. It is hidden from ground-based telescopes by the Earth's ionosphere and challenging to access from space with traditional missions because the long wavelengths involved (meter- to kilometer-scale) require infeasibly massive telescopes to see clearly.

Electromagnetic radiation at these low frequencies carries crucial information about exoplanetary and stellar magnetic fields (a key ingredient to habitability), the interstellar/intergalactic medium, and the earliest stars and galaxies.

The Great Observatory for Long Wavelengths (GO-LoW) proposes an interferometric array of thousands of identical SmallSats at an Earth-Sun Lagrange point (e.g., L5) to measure the magnetic fields of terrestrial exoplanets via detections of their radio emissions at frequencies between 100 kHz and 15 MHz. Each spacecraft will carry an innovative Vector Sensor Antenna, which will enable the first survey of exoplanetary magnetic fields within 5 parsecs.

In a departure from the traditional approach of a single large and expensive spacecraft (i.e.

Space debris is a growing problem, so companies are working on ways to mitigate it. A new satellite called ADRAS-J was built and launched to demonstrate how a spacecraft could rendezvous with a piece of space junk, paving the path for future removal.

Astroscale Japan Inc, the Japanese company behind the satellite, released a new picture from the mission showing a close image of its target space debris, a discarded Japanese H2A rocket's upper stage, captured from just a few hundred meters away.

ADRAS-J stands for Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan, and is the first satellite ever to attempt to safely approach, characterize and survey the state of an existing piece of large debris. This mission will only demonstrate Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) capabilities by operating in near proximity to the piece of space debris, and gather images to assess the rocket body's movement and the condition of the structure, Astroscale Japan said.

A group of crop systems analysts at Wageningen University and Research, in the Netherlands, has found evidence that intercropping on Mars could be a viable option for optimizing vegetable production.

In their study, reported in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, Rebeca Gonçalves, G. W. Wieger Wamelink, Peter van der Putten and Jochem B. Evers, grew test plants in simulated Martian soil in a greenhouse.

If humans are ever to going to build colonies on Mars, colonists will need to grow most of their own food sustainably. Hauling soil or fertilizer from Earth to prevent depletion of nutrients in soil is considered to be unsustainable by most in the habitability field. For this new study, the research team looked at the possibility of intercropping as a way to optimize vegetable production.