Copernical Team
Perseverance extracts first oxygen from Mars surface materials
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The growing list of "firsts" for Perseverance, NASA's newest six-wheeled robot on the Martian surface, includes converting some of the Red Planet's thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into oxygen. A toaster-size, experimental instrument aboard Perseverance called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) accomplished the task. The test took place April 20, the 60th Martian NASA to participate in tabletop exercise simulating asteroid impact
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JPL's Center for Near Earth Object Studies will lead the hypothetical impact scenario to see how international agencies respond to an actual impact prediction. During the week of April 26, members of NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) will participate in a "tabletop exercise" to simulate an asteroid impact scenario.
The exercise depicting this fictional event is being led MOXIE creates oxygen on Mars
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NASA's Perseverance rover has been marking milestones on Mars since landing on the Red Planet in February. Its latest historic accomplishment is the first creation of oxygen from carbon dioxide in the thin Mars atmosphere. Mission time is measured in sols, or Martian days. Oxygen production was achieved early in the evening of April 20, or early morning on Sol 60 in Jezero Crater.
MOXIE (M SpaceX flight to ISS postponed by one day due to weather
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A crewed SpaceX mission to the International Space Station has been postponed by a day due to weather concerns downrange of the launch site, NASA said Wednesday.
Liftoff had been scheduled for Thursday but because of unfavorable conditions along the Atlantic coast, it will now be set for 5:49 am (0949 GMT) Friday.
"For crewed missions we need to look downrange to make sure weather's good for a potential launch escape, and for recovery of the crew," acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk told reporters.
The Crew-2 mission will carry four astronauts in the second routine taxi ride by SpaceX to ISS since the United States resumed crewed space flight, and the first with a European.
Scientists find carbon-rich liquid water in ancient meteorite
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23 April: watch Mission Alpha launch live
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Latest: NASA and SpaceX now are targeting 23 April at 10:49 BST (11:49 CEST) for the launch of the Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station due to unfavourable weather conditions along the flight path on Thursday.
French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet is returning to the International Space Station on his second spaceflight. The mission, which is called Alpha, will see the first European to launch on a US spacecraft in over a decade. Thomas is flying on the Crew Dragon, alongside NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide.
SpaceX flight to ISS postponed by one day due to weather: NASA
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A crewed SpaceX mission to the International Space Station has been postponed by a day due to concerns over the weather, NASA said Wednesday.
The flight had been scheduled for Thursday but because of an unfavorable weather forecast along the flight path it will now be set for 5:49 am (0949 GMT) Friday, the US space agency said.
A SpaceX rocket is to carry four astronauts to the ISS in th Science without gravity at the International Space Station
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In two decades orbiting the Earth the International Space Station has become a cutting-edge cosmic laboratory, with astronauts researching everything from black holes to disease and even gardening in microgravity.
The ISS, which orbits about 250 miles above Earth, is as large as a football field inside and divided up like a beehive into spaces where the crew can carry out experiments with guidance from researchers on the ground.
Often, the astronauts are also the guinea pigs.
More than 3,000 scientific tests have been carried out at the ISS since its manned missions began in 2000.
"From a science perspective, there have been some major discoveries," said Robert Pearlman, space historian and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space".
ISS sets its research scope on longer space missions
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Detect harmful radiation, pilot a rover module, learn better sleep and body maintenance: astronauts aboard the International Space Station are preparing for future missions even further afield—from the Moon to, one day, Mars.
The latest arrival of four more astronauts to the ISS, due to blast off aboard a SpaceX rocket from Florida on Thursday, will open the door for new experiments aimed at priming humans for long-distance space travel.
"We're trying out technologies for exploration," said Remi Canton, director of Cadmos, the division of France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) undertaking 12 new experiments.
Whether it is humans revisiting the Moon for the first time since 1972 or eventually travelling as far as the Red Planet, the challenges are overwhelming.
Firstly, how can engineers ensure that astronauts and their equipment are protected from the flow of particles thrown out by solar storms and cosmic rays?
Hide and seek: How NASA's Lucy mission team discovered Eurybates' satellite
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On Jan. 9, 2020, NASA's Lucy mission officially announced that it would be visiting not seven, but eight asteroids. As it turns out, Eurybates, one of the asteroids along Lucy's path, has a small satellite.
Though searching for satellites is one of the mission's central goals, finding these tiny worlds before Lucy is launched gives the team the opportunity to investigate their orbits and plan for more detailed follow-up observations with the spacecraft.