Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 25, 2023
Solar flares and other types of space weather can wreak havoc with spaceflight and with telecommunications and other types of satellites orbiting the Earth. But, to date, scientists' ability to research ways to overcome that challenge has been severely limited. That's because experiments they conduct in laboratories here on Earth are affected by gravity in ways that are so different from conditi

Bern, Switzerland (SPX) Jan 25, 2023
Frozen molecules were central to the origin of life on Earth. In addition to impacts of icy comets and asteroids, according to current theory, our planet likely also received the elementary components of life from the ices of the immense interstellar molecular cloud from which the Earth and the rest of the solar system emerged. In a new study, an international research team, with the parti

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 25, 2023
Despite giving it the "old college try," Curiosity's attempt to drill into the Marker Band at the "Encanto" site did not reach sampling depth. Because other rocks around the rover look similar to "Encanto" and are likely also too hard to drill, the Science Team decided to convert the plan to a "Touch and Go." Although the Science Team is disappointed to leave this Marker Band location with

Beijing (XNA) Jan 25, 2023
The China National Space Administration on Saturday released a group of new photos from the country's lunar rover Yutu 2, together with its good wishes for all Chinese people, ahead of the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rabbit. The photos showed the wheel track left by the rover, some rocks and a small impact crater on the lunar surface. Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, is known as the pet o

Houston TX (SPX) Jan 25, 2023
NASA announced Thursday its new Mars Sample Receiving Project office, responsible for receiving and curating the first samples returned from the Red Planet, will be located at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The safe and rapid release of Mars samples after they return to Earth to laboratories worldwide for science investigations will be a priority. The office will reside with

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 25, 2023
NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on Dec. 8, 2022, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft was powered on and connected to ground support equipment, enabling engineers and technicians to prepare it for launch in 2023. Teams working at Astrotech and at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California con

Washington DC (UPI) Jan 24, 2021
The maiden mission of SpaceX's Starship into orbit could come as soon as March following a successful dry launch run, bringing Elon Musk's dream of viable interplanetary travel a step closer. SpaceX said its engineers conducted a full fueling test on Monday night of the company's reusable Starship launch system at its Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas, with a T-10 launch countdown

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Jan 25, 2023
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner's crew and service modules were connected, or mated, on Jan. 19 in advance of the first launch with astronauts to the International Space Station on the company's next-generation spacecraft. During the operation inside the company's Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane lifted the reusable crew module a

Ann Arbor MI (SPX) Jan 25, 2023
It was believed that Hall thrusters, an efficient kind of electric propulsion widely used in orbit, need to be large to produce a lot of thrust. Now, a new study from the University of Michigan suggests that smaller Hall thrusters can generate much more thrust-potentially making them candidates for interplanetary missions. "People had previously thought that you could only push a certain a

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 25, 2023
NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced Tuesday a collaboration to demonstrate a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space, an enabling capability for NASA crewed missions to Mars. NASA and DARPA will partner on the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO, program. The non-reimbursable agreement designed to benefit both agencies, outlines