Copernical Team
A VIPER in the Sand
The test version of NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, kicks up high sinkage sand-like material while transiting NASA Glenn's Simulated Lunar Operations Laboratory, or SLOPE bed. In November 2021, the latest test rover visited SLOPE to complete the next iteration of mobility testing, a critical step toward ensuring the rover is ready for its 2023 mission to the Moo
Making matter from collisions of light
Nuclear scientists have used a powerful particle accelerator to create matter directly from collisions of light. Scientists predicted this process in the 1930s, but it has never been achieved in a single direct step. The researchers accelerated two beams of gold ions to close to the speed of light in opposite directions. At such speeds, each gold ion is surrounded by particles of light (re
Advances in Space Transportation Systems Transforming Space Coast
From a seaside perch overlooking the hustle and bustle of ships coming and going at Port Canaveral on Florida's east coast, Dale Ketcham reflects on decades of history with nostalgia. "I moved here and learned how to walk on Cocoa Beach three years before NASA was created" in 1958, he said. Not only can Ketcham trace his life alongside the U.S. space program, he's had a firsthand vie
12 Companies to Provide Venture Class Launch Services for NASA
NASA has selected 12 companies to provide launch services for the agency's Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) missions, providing new opportunities for science and technology payloads and fostering a growing U.S. commercial launch market. The fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts have a five-year ordering period with a maximum total value of
Enabling artificial intelligence on satellites
Swarms of hundreds or thousands of small satellites are increasingly used for bringing data and internet services to Earth. To position, communicate and dispose such large amounts of satellites, Artificial Intelligence is getting increasingly important. To enable a large-scale use of Artificial Intelligence in orbit, RUAG Space, Europe's leading supplier to the space industry, and Stream A
Summit to ignite Europe's bold space ambitions
European leaders will reaffirm plans to launch Europe on a world-leading trajectory during a high-level space summit to be held on 16 February in Toulouse, France. Urgent action is needed to tackle the unprecedented societal, economic and security challenges faced by Europe - from the climate crisis and its consequences to threats to crucial infrastructure in space and on Earth. Spac
Satellogic completes transaction to become publicly traded company
Satellogic Inc., a leader in sub-meter resolution satellite imagery collection has completed its previously announced business combination with CF Acquisition Corp. V (Nasdaq: CFV) ("CFV"), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald. The business combination was approved at a special meeting of CFV stockholders on January 24, 2022. Beginning Wednesday, J
New tech spurs spaceplane vision: halfway around world in 40 minutes
Seattle-area company Radian Aerospace plans to build and commercialize a true spaceplane that could take off from a commercial runway, fly to space and return under its own power - a feat never achieved in aerospace history. The company emerged from secrecy in an announcement last week that said a former Boeing official who oversaw that company's X-33 spaceplane program, Livingston Hol
Scientific hardware, experiments return to Earth on SpaceX CRS-24 Dragon
A retired microscope and samples from studies on colloids and cellular signaling are among the cargo returning from the International Space Stationaboard the 24th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission. The Dragon craft, which arrived at the station Dec. 22, 2021, was scheduled to undock Jan. 22 with splashdown the next afternoon off the coast of Florida.
These quick return flights allow scientists to make additional observations and analyses of their experiments at Kennedy Space Center, minimizing the effects of gravity on samples.
Three, two, one: astronomers predict SpaceX space junk will hit the Moon
A chunk of a SpaceX rocket that blasted off seven years ago and was abandoned in space after completing its mission will crash into the Moon in March, experts say.
The rocket was employed in 2015 to put in orbit a NASA satellite called the Deep Space Climate Observatory.
Since then the second stage of the rocket, or booster, has been floating in what mathematicians call a chaotic orbit, astronomer Bill Gray told AFP Wednesday.
It was Gray who calculated the space junk's new collision course with the Moon.
The booster passed by pretty close to the Moon in January in a rendezvous that altered its orbit, said Gray.
He is behind Project Pluto, software that allows for calculating the trajectory of asteroids and other things in space and is used in NASA-financed space observation programs.