Copernical Team
Green Run Update: Engineers Repair Valve for Mid-March Hot Fire Test
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Engineers have successfully repaired a liquid oxygen valve on the Space Launch System rocket's core stage with subsequent checks confirming the valve to be operating properly.
The team plans to power up the core stage for remaining functional checks later this week before moving forward with final preparations for a hot fire test in mid-March at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Lou NASA prepares Dragon capsule for first reuse with astronauts
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NASA is preparing for the first time to reuse a SpaceX Dragon capsule, the Endeavor, on a crewed mission in April.
The capsule previously took astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station in May. The upcoming Crew 2 mission is planned for launch no earlier than April 20 from Kennedy Space Center.
NASA gave a detailed update this week about the capsule's r SpaceX Starship makes upright landing, but rocket explodes minutes later
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Elon Musk's SpaceX notched the first upright landing of the company's deep-space Starship rocket after a test flight early Wednesday evening in Boca Chica, Texas - but the rocket exploded minutes later.
A live feed showed the stainless steel rocket soaring above the South Texas shoreline, flipping over and decelerating to a gentle touchdown at a slight angle on the landing pad.
But a fire Space Care
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Why does ESA send missions beyond our Earth? To explore unknown worlds, and better understand our place in the Universe. But that answer only gives part of the picture. The first thing people do when they first reach space is to turn back to see our homeworld. Looking down on our planet from above allows ESA with its global partners to monitor climate, disasters and environmental changes – to work together to protect our home.
And danger comes from above as well as below: a close eye on our stormy Sun is vital to gather early warning of
Help is a long way away: The challenges of sending humans to Mars
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On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin stepped out a lunar lander onto the surface of the moon. The landscape in front of him, which was made up of stark blacks and grays, resembled what he later called "magnificent desolation."
When it comes to desolation, however, the moon may have nothing on Mars.
The red planet circles the sun at an average distance of about 140 million miles from Earth. When people eventually visit this world—whether that's in 20 years or 50—they may face a journey lasting 1,000 days or longer. The entire Apollo 11 mission, in contrast, lasted just a little over eight days. If future Mars astronauts get lonely, or if something more serious goes wrong, help is a long way away.
For researchers who study how human bodies and minds respond to the rigors of space travel, the scenario poses a lot of unknowns.
Source of hazardous high-energy particles located in the Sun
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The source of potentially hazardous solar particles, released from the Sun at high speed during storms in its outer atmosphere, has been located for the first time by researchers at UCL and George Mason University, Virginia, U.S.
These particles are highly charged and, if they reach Earth's atmosphere, can potentially disrupt satellites and electronic infrastructure, as well as pose a radiation risk to astronauts and people in airplanes. In 1859, during what's known as the Carrington Event, a large solar storm caused telegraphic systems across Europe and America to fail.
Electronic Data Sheets: a common language for space
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Designing and building equipment for space is hard enough; then comes the writing of its accompanying documentation. Creating a working space mission involves putting together a vast number of elements correctly, so such guidelines need to be clear and easy to understand. ESA is leading efforts to create standardised ‘Electronic Data Sheets’ for common use across the space industry.
Video: Suitcase-sized asteroid explorer
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Video: Suitcase-sized asteroid explorer
Artificial "molecules" open door to ultrafast polaritonic devices
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Researchers from Skoltech and the University of Cambridge have shown that polaritons, the quirky particles that may end up running the quantum supercomputers of the future, can form structures behaving like molecules - and these "artificial molecules" can potentially be engineered on demand. The paper outlining these results was published in the journal Physical Review B Letters.
Polariton NASA, LAPAN launch Ozonesonde from Indonesian site
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Up, up, and ... back down! On Jan. 27, scientists on an island in Indonesia launched a weather balloon carrying an ozonesonde - an instrument that measures ozone throughout the layers of Earth's atmosphere. Ozonesondes collect valuable data that scientists use to understand Earth's atmosphere, improve air quality predictions, and validate satellite measurements.
The Indonesian space agency