Copernical Team
NASA begins final assembly of spacecraft destined for asteroid Psyche
A major component of NASA's Psyche spacecraft has been delivered to the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the phase known as assembly, test, and launch operations is now underway. Over the next year, the spacecraft will finish assembly and undergo rigorous checkout and testing before it's shipped to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for an August 2022 launch to the main asteroid belt.
The Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) Chassis, crafted by Maxar Technologies' team in Palo Alto, California, is the size of a van and represents more than 80% (by mass) of the hardware that will ultimately make up the Psyche spacecraft. The large, box-shaped structure made a dramatic entrance as it rolled into the white-walled clean room of JPL's storied High Bay 1 of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility.
Exploring the moon's shadowed regions using beamed energy
In less than three years, astronauts will return to the moon for the first time since the Apollo Era. As part of the Artemis Program, the purpose is not only to send crewed missions back to the lunar surface to explore and collect samples. This time around, there's also the goal of establishing vital infrastructure (like the Lunar Gateway and a Base Camp) that will allow for "sustained lunar exploration."
A key requirement for this ambitious plan is the provision of power, which can be difficult in regions like the South Pole-Aitken Basin—a cratered region that is permanently-shadowed. To address this, a researcher from the NASA Langley Research Center named Charles Taylor has proposed a novel concept known as "Light Bender." Using telescope optics, this system would to capture and distribute sunlight on the moon.
The Light Bender concept was one of 16 proposals that were selected for Phase I of the 2021 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, which is overseen by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). As with previous NIAC submissions, those proposals that were selected represent a broad range of innovative ideas that could help advance NASA's space exploration goals.
Image: Engine of Atlantis
The second European Service Module that will power the Orion spacecraft on a crewed flyby of the moon is fitted with a special engine at Airbus facilities in Germany.
This engine belonged to Space Shuttle Atlantis, and is one of five refurbished engines to be paired with the first five European Service Modules. Technicians carefully install the engine in Airbus' cleanroom.
ESM is the powerhouse of NASA's Orion spacecraft. It will provide critical functions such as the propulsion system to get astronauts to the moon, and the consumables astronauts need to stay alive.
ESM-2 will fuel the crewed Orion spacecraft during a flyby of the moon for Artemis 2 and is currently undergoing integration and other testing in Europe before it is delivered to NASA this summer.
Meanwhile in the United States, the first European Service Module is making its way to the launch pad as part of the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 1 mission test flight later this year. Next stop is fuelling, due to take place next week.
ESM is ESA's contribution to NASA's Artemis program and includes involvement from 10 European nations.
SpaceX preparing for possible Starship launch
SpaceX is preparing for a possible launch of its prototype interplanetary Starship rocket from the company's facility in south Texas on Monday afternoon.
The company is hoping to finally perform a successful testflight after the last three attempts ended in spectacular explosions.
"I have ordered the closure of Boca Chica Beach and Hwy 4 for the purpose of protecting public health and safety during SpaceX space flight activities on March 29," Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr said in a statement.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk also tweeted on Sunday about the "Possible Starship flight tomorrow afternoon.
Why we need to get better at predicting space weather
The sun is the most important source of energy for sustaining life on Earth, but it gives us a lot more than just light and heat. It also gives us solar storms.
Disturbances on the sun, such as coronal mass ejections produced by solar flares that emanate from active sunspot regions, can cause solar storms. Solar flares and coronal mass ejections emit vast quantities of radiation and charged particles into space.
These events can damage the Earth's communication and power infrastructures, resulting in power outages and reduced system functionality. Satellites, space stations and astronauts, aviation, GPS, power grids and more can be affected.
As our civilisation becomes more advanced, we become more vulnerable to the effects of solar storms. Now, as the sun's activity is on the increase, we need to get better at predicting solar weather.
Many people still remember the collapse of Canada's Quebec electrical grid on 13 March 1989, which lasted for nine hours and affected six million people. It caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and lost revenues.
Corridor test of Proba-3’s formation flying sensors
The longest corridor in ESA’s largest establishment was turned into a test site for one of the Agency’s most ambitious future missions, Proba-3. The two satellites making up this mission will line up so that one casts a shadow onto the other, revealing inner regions of the Sun’s ghostly atmosphere. But such precision formation flying will only be possible through a vision-based sensor system allowing one satellite to lock onto the other.
Measuring shoreline retreat
Climate change is having an undeniable influence on coastal areas. A substantial proportion of the world’s sandy coastlines are already eroding owing to increased storm surges, flooding and sea level rise. With our coastal environments in constant change, Earth observation satellites are being used to better strengthen our knowledge of changing coastlines.
Russian Progress MS-14 spacecraft sets new flight duration record
The Russian Progress MS-14 resupply spacecraft that is currently at the International Space Station (ISS) has set a new flight duration record, according to Sputnik calculations.
At 01:45 GMT on Sunday, Progress MS-14 broke the record set by Russian Progress M-17 cargo spacecraft that was in orbit for 337 days in 1993-1994.
Progress MS-14 was launched on April 25, 2020 and is current Major Earth Satellite to Track Disasters, Effects of Climate Change
Designed to spot potential natural hazards and help researchers measure how melting land ice will affect sea level rise, the NISAR spacecraft marks a big step as it takes shape. An SUV-size Earth satellite that will be equipped with the largest reflector antenna ever launched by NASA is taking shape in the clean room at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
Called Dark matter is the most likely source of excess of gamma rays from galactic center
In the recent past, space missions dedicated to the study of astrophysical signals in the high-energy spectrum revealed a series of enigmatic excesses not predicted by the theoretical models. In order to find an explanation for these anomalies, many solutions have been proposed. The most exciting hypothesis invokes the contribution of the elusive dark matter, the mysterious form of matter 4 time