Copernical Team
ISS National Lab announces funding for In-Space Advanced Materials and Manufacturing
The International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory has announced the availability of new funding for projects that aim to advance in-space production applications, focusing specifically on the areas of advanced materials and manufacturing. This initiative is part of a broader strategy to promote research and development in low Earth orbit (LEO) that has the potential to benefit humanity a Olsen secures UK funding for development of lunar rover drive system
Leading provider of actuators and space-certified motor drives, Olsen Actuators and Drives has won its first UK Space Agency funding to deliver a Proof of Concept (PoC) demonstrator for a new lunar rover being designed by the University of Manchester, and funded by the Enabling Technologies Programme (ETP).
The project will develop and fabricate a jumping robot system capable of thrusting Astroforensics: Pioneering Blood Behavior Research for Space Crime Solving
As more people seek to go where no man has gone before, researchers are exploring how forensic science can be adapted to extraterrestrial environments. A new study by Staffordshire University and the University of Hull highlights the behaviour of blood in microgravity and the unique challenges of bloodstain pattern analysis aboard spacecraft.
Bloodstain expert Zack Kowalske is a Crime Scen Dream Chaser spaceplane nears flight readiness with completion of key pre-flight tests
Sierra Space, a pioneering force in commercial space exploration and defense technology, recently announced the achievement of a significant milestone for its innovative Dream Chaser spaceplane, Tenacity, following the conclusion of the initial environmental testing phase. Conducted at NASA's Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, this phase marks a crucial step in the spacecraft's jour Orbit Fab Announces Strategic Leadership Reorganization to Propel Space Refueling Innovation
In a strategic move to bolster its pioneering position in the space refueling sector, Orbit Fab had announced a significant reorganization of its leadership team across the United States and the United Kingdom, aligning with the swift uptake of its RAFTI refueling ports for future missions.
Jacob Geer, a distinguished figure in the UK's space and defense landscape, takes the helm as Orbit Watch Andreas return to Earth
After more than six months on the International Space Station, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen and the rest of Crew-7 will undock and make their way down to Earth on 11 March 2024 at 13:15 GMT/14:15 CET, splashing down off the coast the Florida on 12 March, at 09:35 GMT / 10:35 CET. Watch the undocking and splashdown on ESA WebTV.
Drones could help map the lunar surface with extreme precision
Exploring the moon has become increasingly more of a focal point lately, especially with a series of landers recently launched with various degrees of success. One of the difficulties those landers and any future human missions face is understanding the terrain they are landing on and potentially traversing in the case of a rover or human. To help fight this problem, a team of researchers from Switzerland has developed a drone concept that could help map out some of the more interesting, potentially hazardous areas to explore on the moon.
Mapping the moon has already been a priority for years. However, some of the more exciting regions, such as the Permanently Shadows Regions (PSR) at the lunar poles that hold a significant amount of water ice, have only been mapped to a resolution of about 1m per pixel in the best images of them. That's including artificial enhancement by AI-backed algorithms.
That level of resolution isn't near enough to provide useful planning data for any potential rover or human missions—a given rover's wheel itself won't even more that in width, let alone hope to traverse an obstacle of that size.
NASA unveils design for message heading to Jupiter's moon Europa
When it launches in October, the agency's Europa Clipper spacecraft will carry a richly layered dispatch that includes more than 2.6 million names submitted by the public.
Pentagon says no evidence of secret US work on alien tech
Has the United States confirmed sightings of alien craft, or worked to reverse-engineer extraterrestrial technology?
A more than 60-page Pentagon report released Friday says no, pouring cold water on popular conspiracy theories about government cover-ups of contact with aliens.
The report was mandated by Congress, which required the submission to lawmakers of a "written report detailing the historical record of the United States government relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs)," more commonly known as UFOs.
The Defense Department's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) "found no evidence" that any government investigation, academic research or official review "has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology."
Instead, "all investigative efforts, at all levels of classification, concluded that most sightings were ordinary objects and phenomena and the result of misidentification," said the report.
It also "found no empirical evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology."
AARO said the inaccurate reverse-engineering claims are "in large part the result of circular reporting from a group of individuals who believe this to be the case, despite the lack of any evidence.
CSI in space: Analyzing bloodstain patterns in microgravity
As more people seek to go where no man has gone before, researchers are exploring how forensic science can be adapted to extraterrestrial environments.
A new study by Staffordshire University and the University of Hull highlights the behavior of blood in microgravity and the unique challenges of bloodstain pattern analysis aboard spacecraft.
Bloodstain expert Zack Kowalske is a Crime Scene Investigator based in Atlanta, U.S., and led the study as part his Ph.D. research at Staffordshire University.
"Studying bloodstain patterns can provide valuable reconstructive information about a crime or accident. However, little is known about how liquid blood behaves in an altered gravity environment. This is an area of study that, while novel, has implications for forensic investigations in space," he commented.
"Forensic science is more than just trying to solve crimes; it additionally has a role in accident reconstruction or failure analysis.