Two decades after Mars Express, ESA is returning to small-scale missions aimed at exploring the Red Planet. With a completely different landscape of technologies available this time around, new opportunities for interplanetary missions open up. As part of ESA's LightShip initiative, four consortia will conduct independent parallel studies to define what a small low cost Mars satellite-platform could look like as a LightShip passenger.

Pasadena CA (SPX) Jan 17, 2025
Researchers have discovered two sets of ancient wave ripples on Mars, signatures of long-dried bodies of water preserved in the rock record. Wave ripples are small undulations in the sandy shores of lakebeds, created as wind-driven water laps back and forth. The two sets of ripples indicate the former presence of shallow water that was open to the Martian air, not covered by ice as some climate

San Francisco (AFP) Jan 17, 2025
Skepticism rages about whether Elon Musk actually put in the hours to become a top player of video games "Diablo IV" and "Path of Exile 2." The fourth main installment in the Blizzard Entertainment series "Diablo" came out in 2023 and a "Vessel of Hatred" expansion pack was released late last year. Role-playing title "Path of Exile 2," available to those who pay for early access, is expe

Washington DC (UPI) Jan 20, 2025
SpaceX for the third time on Monday scrubbed plans to launch 27 more Starlink internet satellites into low-earth orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with an earlier one postponed because of a Delta jet flying nearby. No reason was given for the latest delay. The private company is now targeting a Falcon 9 launch from Space Launch Complex 4 East at 7:24 a.m. Tuesd

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 21, 2025
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced a major step forward in nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) technology with successful testing of its reactor fuel at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). This progress supports the development of rapid and flexible cislunar transportation and deep space missions, including human exploration of Mars. The collaborative effort with NAS

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jan 21, 2025
Members of the Shenzhou XIX mission aboard China's Tiangong space station successfully completed their second round of extravehicular activities (EVAs) early Tuesday morning, as confirmed by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). The EVA concluded at 1:12 am Beijing Time. During the 8.5-hour operation, astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong, and Wang Haoze accomplished multiple tasks, includin

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jan 21, 2025
Galactic Energy, a Beijing-based private rocket manufacturer, successfully completed a mission on Monday afternoon, deploying five satellites into orbit. According to the company's statement, the Ceres-1 rocket launched at 6:11 pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, located in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The mission placed five remote-sensing satellites into a sun-synchrono

Washington (AFP) Jan 20, 2025
US President Donald Trump vowed Monday to "plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars" but made no mention of NASA's planned return to the Moon, heightening speculation about his space strategy. During his first term, the Republican launched the Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon as a stepping stone to the Red Planet - yet even then he expressed doubts about the Moon's nec

Cornelio Procopio, Brazil (SPX) Jan 21, 2025
Large space cooperation projects are sometimes the visible tip of a geopolitical iceberg. ESA is the tip of the iceberg of European political and economic integration. Russia's association with the ISS in 1993 was the tip of the iceberg of non-proliferation of nuclear and ballistic technologies, giving Russia in the 1990s (and its thousands of unemployed space and nuclear engineers) a new purpos

Durham NC (SPX) Jan 17, 2025
The Universe really seems to be expanding fast. Too fast, even. A new measurement confirms what previous - and highly debated - results had shown: The Universe is expanding faster than predicted by theoretical models, and faster than can be explained by our current understanding of physics. This discrepancy between model and data became known as the Hubble tension. Now, results publi