Copernical Team
NASA's moon rocket returns to pad for next launch attempt
Write a comment
NASA's moon rocket is back on the pad for another launch attempt, following more repairs.
The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket departed its hangar in the middle of the night and completed the 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) trip shortly after sunrise Friday.
How do you keep a solar sail stable?
Write a comment
Solar sailing seems like a simple concept—instead of being pushed along by the wind, as in a typical sailing ship, a spacecraft can use highly reflective said to be pushed along simply by sunlight. But as with almost all engineering challenges, that technique is much easier said than done. Sunlight can head up one side of a sail more than another, causing the ship to rotate unexpectedly. Other unforeseen situations could arise that can also have catastrophic consequences for any mission using this propulsion technology.
Luckily, there is a way to account for those situations, though it involves a lot of math. Control theory is common in system design, and now researchers at Beihang University have devised a control scheme that they think could help minimize the risk to solar sails.
Control systems are relatively easy to understand in concept. A system has a series of inputs; in the case of a solar sail, those inputs might be the solar force pushing on it from the sun and maybe the gravity of any nearby object.
Week in images: 31 October - 4 November 2022
Write a comment
Week in images: 31 October - 4 November 2022
Discover our week through the lens
Bye-Bye Biomass: forest monitoring satellite departs for final testing before launch
Write a comment
Biomass, the European Space Agency's (ESA) forest measuring satellite has left the Airbus Defence and Space site in Stevenage and is on its way to Toulouse for final testing ahead of launch.
The comprehensive environmental test programme for the spacecraft will include thermal vacuum tests, mechanical vibration, acoustic and electromagnetic compatibility testing to replicate the conditions Terran Orbital receives $100M investment from Lockheed Martin
Write a comment
Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP), a global leader in satellite-based solutions primarily serving the United States and Allied aerospace and defense industries, announced that it has entered into a note and warrant purchase agreement pursuant to which Terran Orbital received a $100 million investment from Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) in exchange for convertible notes and warrants issued by Saltzman formally elevated to Space Force's highest position - Chief of Space Operations
Write a comment
Pledging to build on the Space Force's achievements while also infusing the nascent service with new approaches, Gen. B. Chance Saltzman was officially installed Nov. 2 as Chief of Space Operations, the service's highest-ranking military post and only the second person to hold the position in the Space Force's history.
In remarks during a solemn "Change of Responsibility" ceremony in which Mars's crust more complex, evolved than previously thought
Write a comment
Early crust on Mars may be more complex than previously thought-and it may even be similar to our own planet's original crust.
The Martian surface is uniformly basaltic, a product of billions of years of volcanism and flowing lava on the surface that eventually cooled. Because Mars did not undergo full-scale surface remodeling like the shifting of continents on Earth, scientists had though Rice from space promises robust new varieties
Write a comment
Mutated rice seeds brought from space may provide new species on Earth and result in higher yields than their terrestrial counterparts. At a scientific research demonstration base in Wuhan, Hubei province, workers from Hubei Jinguang Agricultural Technology Co recently completed harvesting space rice from 20 hectares of paddies where they had planted seeds from China's Shenzhou-12 manned space m Can cosmic inflation be ruled out
Write a comment
Astrophysicists say that cosmic inflation - a point in the Universe's infancy when space-time expanded exponentially, and what physicists really refer to when they talk about the 'Big Bang' - can in principle be ruled out in an assumption-free way.
The astrophysicists, from the University of Cambridge, the University of Trento, and Harvard University, say that there is a clear, unambiguous Last chance to see Total Lunar Eclipse until 2025
Write a comment
For the second time in 2022, stargazers will have the opportunity to view a total lunar eclipse on Nov. 8. At least a portion of the phenomenon will be visible throughout eastern Asia, Australia, the Pacific, and North America. The previous total lunar eclipse happened in May.
According to Alphonse Sterling, astrophysicist from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to 
