Copernical Team
Crew-4 astronauts head to space station to conduct microgravity science
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NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 mission, originally scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on Saturday, April 23, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, has been rescheduled to Wednesday, April 27. This launch carries three NASA astronauts—Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins—and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. This spaceflight is the first for Hines and Watkins and the second for Lindgren and Cristoforetti.
Here are details on some of the research riding with the crew aboard the SpaceX Dragon Freedom capsule into low-Earth orbit:
Replacement retinas
Artificial retinas could restore meaningful vision for the millions of people on Earth who suffer from retinal degenerative diseases, including retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. The ISS National Lab-sponsored study Protein-Based Artificial Retina Manufacturing evaluates a manufacturing process to develop artificial human retinas using a light-activated protein called bacteriorhodopsin, which could replace the function of damaged light-sensing cells in the eye.
Planetary Decadal Survey says it's time for a mission to Uranus (and Enceladus too)
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Since 2002, the United States National Research Council (NRC) has released a publication that identifies objectives and makes recommendations for science missions for NASA, the National Science Foundation, and other government agencies for the next decade. These reports, appropriately named Planetary Science Decadal Surveys, help inform future NASA missions that address the mysteries that persist in astronomy, astrophysics, earth science, and heliophysics.
On Thursday, April 19th, in a briefing in Washington D.C., the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) shared the main findings of the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023–2032. The event was live-streamed and consisted of NASEM committee members discussing the key science questions, priority missions, and research strategies identified and recommended, followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
Hubble observations used to answer key exoplanet questions
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Hubble observations used to answer key exoplanet questions March in space science
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As the last days in space for ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer near and he prepares the European space laboratory Columbus for his colleague ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, European scientific endeavours on the International Space Station in March continued.
Crew of first private flight to ISS head back to Earth
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The crew of the first fully private mission to the International Space Station departed the orbiting laboratory on Monday to head back to Earth.
The three businessmen and a former NASA astronaut had spent more than two weeks on the station on a history-making mission organized by startup company Axiom Space.
The SpaceX capsule undocked from the ISS at 0110 GMT for the return trip and was Smiling Sam
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ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is all smiles after arriving at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, last week with NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins.
Collectively known as Crew-4, the astronauts flew in from Houston, Texas, USA, and are spending the days ahead in quarantine before being launched this week to the International Space Station on the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom.
“This is getting real,” said Samantha. “It’s very emotional for me, that this final stretch to the launchpad has started with the landing here, on this runway.” Samantha recalled her childhood fascination watching the
Crew of first private flight to ISS prepare for Earth return
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The crew of the first fully private mission to the International Space Station was set on Sunday to leave the orbiting laboratory and head back to Earth.
The three businessmen and a former NASA astronaut had spent more than two weeks on the station on a history-making mission organized by startup company Axiom Space.
A SpaceX capsule was scheduled to undock from the ISS at 8:55 pm (0055 GMT Monday) for the return trip, before landing in the ocean off the coast of Florida on Monday around 1:00 pm (1700 GMT).
The four men—three who paid tens of millions of dollars each for the rare chance to take part in the mission, and former astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who holds dual US-Spanish citizenship—were originally scheduled to spend only eight days on the space station.
But bad weather on Earth forced repeated delays in their return.
Private passengers Larry Connor, an American who heads a real estate company, Canadian businessman Mark Pathy and Israeli former fighter pilot and entrepreneur Eytan Stibbe had blasted off from Florida on April 8, reaching the ISS a day later.
Search for life on Jupiter moon Europa bolstered by new study
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Scientists say they are one step closer to understanding Europa, a moon orbiting Jupiter that's widely considered the prime candidate for alien life forms within the solar system.
Europa is believed to contain subterranean salty water hidden by a thick outer shell of ice. But according to a new study examining the moon's topology, a certain topographical feature called a "double ridge" Flexible quantum sieve filters out the deuterium
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Starship Enterprise flew through the galaxy using deuterium as fuel. Even if this was science fiction from the 1960s and 70s, research on the real application of the hydrogen isotope for energy generation is still going on today. The main challenge here is the extraction of the isotope. Deuterium (chem. abbrev. D, "heavy" hydrogen) is one of the three natural isotopes of hydrogen, along with pro Roscosmos plans to soon start deliveries of ICBM Sarmat to Russian forces
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Russian state-owned space agency Roscosmos is planning to start serial shipments of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Sarmat to the Russian strategic missile forces this fall, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday.
"This fall, once the Sarmat flight and development tests are completed, we plan to begin supplying serial heavy intercontinental ballistic missiles of thi 
