Copernical Team
SpaceX lofts SES-18 and 19 C-Bands birds for US coverage
SES reports that the SES-18 and SES-19 satellites, designed and assembled by Northrop Grumman, were successfully launched by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, United States, at 7:38 pm local time on Friday, March 17.
The two American-made satellites are the fourth and fifth - and final - satellites to be launched as part of SES's C-band transition Dragonfly Mass Spectrometer could reveal chemistry leading to life on Titan
A new NASA mission to Saturn's giant moon, Titan, is due to launch in 2027. When it arrives in the mid-2030s, it will begin a journey of discovery that could bring about a new understanding of the development of life in the universe. This mission, called Dragonfly, will carry an instrument called the Dragonfly Mass Spectrometer (DraMS), designed to help scientists hone in on the chemistry at wor Toodle-oo Tapo Caparo: Sols 3771-3772
Today, we finally leave Tapo Caparo and begin something new. But... actually, we are not going very far. Whilst sitting at Tapo Caparo, we spent some time looking around at the neighbourhood using Mastcam and ChemCam imaging. Not too far away, we spotted a workspace that includes two types of bedrock - a finely laminated bedrock (which is what we just drilled) and some bedrock with abundant nodu Rocket Lab to launch twin satellites for BlackSky from New Zealand
Rocket Lab USA, Inc (Nasdaq: RKLB) will launch a pair of satellites on a dedicated Electron mission for BlackSky (NYSE: BKSY) through global launch services provider Spaceflight, Inc., during a launch window opening March 22, 2023 UTC.
The mission, named "The Beat Goes On," will launch two of BlackSky's Gen-2 Earth-imaging satellites from Pad B at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Quantum sensing in outer space
Texas Engineers are leading a multi-university research team that will build technology and tools to improve measurement of important climate factors by observing atoms in outer space.
They will focus on the concept of quantum sensing, which use quantum physics principles to potentially collect more precise data and enable unprecedented science measurements. These sensors could help satell Study shines new light on ancient microbial dark matter
Bacteria are literally everywhere - in oceans, in soils, in extreme environments like hot springs, and even alongside and inside other organisms including humans. They're nearly invisible, yet they play a big role in almost every facet of life on Earth.
Despite their abundance, surprisingly little is known about many microorganisms that have existed for billions of years.
This includ Terminator zones on distant planets could harbor life
In a new study, University of California, Irvine astronomers describe how extraterrestrial life has the potential to exist on distant exoplanets inside a special area called the "terminator zone," which is a ring on planets that have one side that always faces its star and one side that is always dark.
"These planets have a permanent day side and a permanent night side," said Ana Lobo, a p SpaceX sets a new doubleheader record launch for SES
Establishing a new record of only four hours between a launch of Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, earlier today and a pair of geostationary-bound satellites for SES from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), Florida.
A Luxembourg-based telecommunications company, SES S.A., sent two C-band television broadcasting satellites atop a 229-foot-tall (70-met The best way to learn about Venus could be with a fleet of balloons
Interest in the exploration of Venus has kicked up a notch lately, especially after a contested recent discovery of phosphine, a potential biosignature, in the planet's atmosphere. Plenty of missions to Venus have been proposed, and NASA and ESA have recently funded several. However, they are mainly orbiters, trying to peer into the planet's interior from above. But they are challenged by having to see through dozens of kilometers of an atmosphere made up of sulfuric acid.
That same atmosphere is challenging for ground missions. While some of the recently funded missions include a component on the ground, they are missing an opportunity that isn't afforded on many other planets in the solar system—riding along in the atmosphere. Technologists have proposed everything from simple balloons to entire floating cities—we even heard of a plan to enclose the entirety of Venus in a shell and live on the surface of that shell.
Rolls-Royce wins UK funds for 'Moon' nuclear reactors
British aerospace giant Rolls-Royce said Friday it had secured UK funding to develop small nuclear reactors that could provide power on the Moon.
Rolls said the UK Space Agency had offered it £2.9 million ($3.5 million) to help research "how nuclear power could be used to support a future Moon base for astronauts".
"Scientists and engineers at Rolls-Royce are working on the micro-reactor program to develop technology that will provide power needed for humans to live and work on the Moon," the aerospace company added in a statement.
Rolls forecast its first car-sized reactor would be ready to be sent to the Moon by 2029.
Friday's news comes as US space agency NASA aims to return humans to the Moon in 2025.
It would be the first visit since the historic Apollo missions ended in 1972.
"Nuclear power has the potential to dramatically increase the duration of future lunar missions and their scientific value," Rolls said.
The group, best known for its engines powering Airbus and Boeing aircraft, will work alongside UK universities including Oxford on the space project.
