Copernical Team
DOD taking measures to protect nuclear weapons, space assets
The Defense Department relies on nuclear-armed bombers, submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as space-based sensors, to provide a strategic deterrence umbrella for the homeland and to protect deployed forces, allies and partners.
However, sensitive microelectronics used in these assets could be vulnerable to high levels of ionizing radiation caused by a number of fac Mars habitability limited by its small size, isotope study suggests
Water is essential for life on Earth and other planets, and scientists have found ample evidence of water in Mars' early history. But Mars has no liquid water on its surface today. New research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests a fundamental reason: Mars may be just too small to hold onto large amounts of water.
Remote sensing studies and analyses of Martian meteorites datin Lunar crater named after Arctic Explorer Matthew Henson
The International Astronomical Union has named a crater at the Moon's south pole after the Arctic explorer Matthew Henson, a Black man who in 1909 was one of the first people to stand at the very top of the world. The proposal to name the crater after Henson came from Jordan Bretzfelder, an Exploration Science summer intern with the Lunar and Planetary Institute, in Houston, TX, which is a membe NASA offers new website to look at Mars rover images
Fans of NASA's Mars rover Perseverance can now see the robotic explorer and its activity in a 3D depiction of the Red Planet terrain via a new website.
The site, Explore with Perseverance, is updated when the rover makes a significant move. NASA has uploaded seven locations, starting with the Octavia E. Butler Landing Site at which the spacecraft landed Feb. 18.
Software develope NASA plans to send lunar rover to Nobile region of moon's South Pole
NASA's ice-hunting VIPER lunar rover, scheduled to arrive on the moon in 2023, would land near the Nobile Crater on the lunar South Pole, the space agency announced Monday.
The crater offers a relatively safe area to hunt for water ice, which is considered crucial for long-term Artemis missions to explore the moon and eventually Mars, NASA officials said. The ice could provide a water s Small stature limits Mars' ability to hold water, study finds
For a planet to be habitable, it must be able to hold significant amounts of liquid water.
When considering a planet's potential habitability, scientists mostly look at a planet's atmosphere and its distance from its host star. But novel research out of Washington University in St. Louis suggests size matters, too.
According to the new study, published Monday in the journal PNAS, Discovery about meteorites informs atmospheric entry threat assessment
Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign watched fragments of two meteors as they ramped up the heat from room temperature to the temperature it reaches as it enters Earth's atmosphere and made a significant discovery. The vaporized iron sulfide leaves behind voids, making the material more porous. This information will help when predicting the weight of a meteor, its likelihoo Artemis rover to land near Nobile region of Lunar south pole
In 2023, NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) will land near the western edge of the Nobile Crater at the Moon's South Pole to map and explore the region's surface and subsurface for water and other resources. Part of Artemis, VIPER will launch on a SpaceX Falcon-Heavy rocket for delivery to the Moon by Astrobotic's Griffin lander under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload
NASA selects Moon site for ice-hunting rover
NASA on Monday announced it would land an ice-seeking rover on a region of the Moon's south pole called the Nobile Crater in 2023.
The space agency hopes the robot will confirm the presence of water ice just below the surface, which could one day be converted into rocket fuel for missions to Mars and deeper into the cosmos.
"Nobile Crater is an impact crater near the south pole that was born through a collision with another smaller celestial body," Lori Glaze, director of NASA's planetary science division told reporters.
It is one of the solar system's coldest regions, and has only so far been probed from afar using sensors such as those aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite.
Solar electric propulsion makes NASA's Psyche spacecraft go
When it comes time for NASA's Psyche spacecraft to power itself through deep space, it'll be more brain than brawn that does the work. Once the stuff of science fiction, the efficient and quiet power of electric propulsion will provide the force that propels the Psyche spacecraft all the way to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The orbiter's target: A metal-rich asteroid also called Psyche.
The spacecraft will launch in August 2022 and travel about 1.5 billion miles (2.4 billion kilometers) over three and a half years to get to the asteroid, which scientists believe may be part of the core of a planetesimal, the building block of an early rocky planet.
