Copernical Team
Orbital Assembly announces hosted payload services with variable gravity on Pioneer Space Station
Orbital Assembly (OA) is announcing a new program and mission design as well as planning services for station-class hosted payloads" on the company's micro and artificial gravity space stations. "The International Space Station has a multi-year backlog of companies and institutions seeking to conduct paid research projects in space and the demand is increasing," says Rhonda Stevenson, CEO
New nanosatellite tests autonomy in space
In May 2022, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Transporter-5 mission into orbit. The mission contained a collection of micro and nanosatellites from both industry and government, including one from MIT Lincoln Laboratory called the Agile MicroSat (AMS). AMS's primary mission is to test automated maneuvering capabilities in the tumultuous very low-Earth orbit (VLEO) environment, startin
Sidus Space selects Exolaunch for LizzieSat Deployment
Sidus Space, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIDU), a Space-as-a-Service company focused on mission critical hardware manufacturing combined with commercial satellite design, manufacture, launch, and data collection, recently signed an agreement with Exolaunch to use their CarboNIX separation system to deploy LizzieSatTM satellites during the LizzieSat rideshare missions with SpaceX in 2023 and 2024. This agreemen
Astronomers report most distant known galaxies, detected and confirmed by JWST
An international team of astronomers has discovered the earliest and most distant galaxies confirmed to date using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The telescope captured light emitted by these galaxies more than 13.4 billion years ago, which means the galaxies date back to less than 400 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only 2% of its current age. Ini
China's FAST telescope reveals unprecedented details of Milky Way
The vast space between billions of stars in the Milky Way is not empty, but filled with thin interstellar medium. Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), or the "China Sky Eye," Chinese scientists revealed the unprecedented details of the Galactic interstellar medium. Led by Han Jinlin, a scientist with the National Astronomical Observatories of China,
Curved spacetime in the lab
According to Einstein's Theory of Relativity, space and time are inextricably connected. In our Universe, whose curvature is barely measurable, the structure of this spacetime is fixed. In a laboratory experiment, researchers from Heidelberg University have succeeded in realising an effective spacetime that can be manipulated. In their research on ultracold quantum gases, they were able to
Let's try that again Amapari: Sols 3677-3679
On Wednesday, we uplinked a drill plan, to drill the target "Amapari" in the Marker Band. Coming into planning this morning, we learned that the drill was only able to penetrate 7 mm into the hard rock here, and this was not deep enough for the drill to collect sample that could be analyzed by CheMin and SAM. Fortunately, the RPs examined the workspace this morning and found a second similar are
Smart Dragon 3 rocket makes maiden flight
The Smart Dragon 3, a new solid-propellant carrier rocket, made its maiden flight on Friday afternoon, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the country's leading space contractor. The rocket blasted off at 2:35 pm from a ship in the Yellow Sea and launched 14 satellites into orbit during its flight, the State-owned conglomerate said in a news release. The
After 15 Years, 1,000 Tests, Orion's Heat Shield Ready to Take the Heat
When Artemis I launched on Wednesday, Nov. 16, NASA's new mega Moon rocket carried the Orion spacecraft?- uncrewed, for now - into orbit for the first time, and a new era of lunar exploration began. It's a big moment for NASA and the world. And, yet, one of the people whose work will be tested at the next crucial step - bringing Orion home safely - isn't nervous at all. Jeremy Vander Kam i
Practice makes perfect for student inventions at JPL competition
Months of preparation led to three teams from one school taking home the top prizes at the 23rd Invention Challenge hosted by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the Invention Challenge made a lively return to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Friday. Now in its 23rd year, the long-running tradition brings together student