Copernical Team
Eclipse chasers head to southern Illinois for 2nd total solar eclipse in 7 years
In 1999, Michelle Nichols saw her first total solar eclipse on a cruise in the Black Sea. It would be many years before she witnessed another one during a visit to southern Illinois in 2017.
"It seemed so far in the future," she said.
Now, Nichols, an astronomer, educator and the director of public observing at the Adler Planetarium, is planning to return to Carbondale, Illinois, where the moon will completely block out the sun for more than four minutes on April 8. It is the second time in seven years that southern Illinois has been in the path of totality, or the moon's shadow.
Rarely do these celestial bodies line up perfectly with the earth to create a total eclipse. It's even rarer for a total eclipse to plunge the same region into darkness in less than a decade.
"Any given location on Earth will see an actual, total solar eclipse on average every 375 years," Nichols said. "So you have to be at the right place, at the right time."
While Chicago is not in the path of totality again this year, the area will experience a partial eclipse, and the sky will darken.
What's the best way to pack for space?
Packing to go to space is a lot like getting ready for a plane ride with only a carry-on bag. You have to maximize the use of the space in your bag at the same time you want to make sure you have what you need.
AI makes a rendezvous in space
Space travel is complex, expensive, and risky. Great sums and valuable payloads are on the line every time one spacecraft docks with another. One slip and a billion-dollar mission could be lost. Aerospace engineers believe that autonomous control, like the sort guiding many cars down the road today, could vastly improve mission safety, but the complexity of the mathematics required for error-free certainty is beyond anything on-board computers can currently handle.
In a new paper presented at the IEEE Aerospace Conference in March 2024 and published on the preprint server arXiv, a team of aerospace engineers at Stanford University reported using AI to speed the planning of optimal and safe trajectories between two or more docking spacecraft.
Reentry of International Space Station (ISS) batteries into Earth’s atmosphere
New radar mission for Europe
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The upcoming Copernicus Radar Observation System for Europe in L-band (ROSE-L) will provide continuous day-and-night all-weather monitoring of Earth’s land, oceans and ice, and offer frequent observations of Earth’s surface at a high spatial resolution.
ROSE-L will carry an active phased array synthetic aperture radar instrument. The radar antenna will be the largest deployable planar antenna ever built measuring an impressive 40 sq m.
ROSE-L will deliver many benefits including essential information on forests and land cover, leading to improved monitoring of the terrestrial carbon cycle and carbon accounting.
The mission will also greatly extend our ability to monitor minute
Icy first light of shoebox-sized PRETTY CubeSat
A shoebox-sized satellite looking far to the horizon picked up a strong signal reflection from hundreds of kilometres below it, beside a lonely polar island in the Canadian Arctic. ESA’s PRETTY CubeSat mission team could not be quite certain of what its instrument first light was showing until cross-checking it against a Sentinel-1 radar map of the same location, to find a precise correlation with a stretch of offshore sea ice.
UMaine researchers use GPS-tracked icebergs in novel study to improve climate models
Over the last four decades, warming climate and ocean temperatures have rapidly altered the Greenland Ice Sheet, creating concern for marine ecosystems and weather patterns worldwide. The environment has challenged scientists in their attempts to measure how water moves around and melts the ice sheet because equipment can be destroyed by icebergs floating near the glaciers.
Collected using GITAI tests robotic construction of lunar comms tower in desert simulation exercise
GITAI USA Inc. (GITAI), a leader in space robotics innovation, has successfully showcased its advanced robotics technology through the construction of a 5-meter-high communication tower. This achievement was realized in a desert environment meticulously designed to simulate the lunar surface, representing a "first of its kind" demonstration in space robotics.
GITAI, in a collaborative effo Teledyne e2v HiRel Unveils New S-Band Ultra-Low Noise Amplifier for Space Missions
Teledyne e2v HiRel has announced the launch of its latest product - the TDLNA2050SEP, a radiation-tolerant S-Band low noise amplifier. This product stands out in the market for its exceptional performance tailored to meet the rigorous demands of space and radar applications, where every component's reliability, efficiency, and size play a critical role in the success of the mission.
Develo Full Disclousre: Enhanced Radiation Warnings for Space Tourists
In a groundbreaking study led by space weather experts at the University of Surrey, there's a growing call for immediate action to safeguard the burgeoning space tourism industry from the invisible threat of cosmic radiation. The study, recently published in Space Policy, emphasizes the urgent need for collaboration between regulators and space tourism companies to enhance passenger and crew pro 
