Beijing (XNA) Aug 06, 2021
Chinese astronauts on board the Tiangong space station have enjoyed watching matches from the Tokyo Olympic Games, according to the China Manned Space Agency. "Technically, we can connect them to live broadcasts, but they've chosen to watch transmitted recordings during their time off, because there are so many tasks for them to complete," the agency said in an article on its WeChat accoun

Beijing (XNA) Aug 06, 2021
China used a Long March 3B carrier rocket to place a communications satellite in space early on Friday morning. The rocket blasted off at 00:30 am at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern China's Sichuan province and then deployed the ChinaSat 2E satellite in its orbit, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the nation's leading space contractor.

Adelphi MD (SPX) Aug 03, 2021
Army researchers developed ground-breaking technology that will enhance how Soldiers and robots communicate and carry out tasks in tactical environments. This research sets out to develop a natural language understanding, or NLU, pipeline for robots that would be easily ported over to any computational system or agent and incrementally tames the variation that we see in natural language, s

With the first Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite in orbit since 2015 and the second since 2017, engineers are busy preparing the mission’s follow-on pair to eventually pick up the baton to supply images for a myriad of applications from food security to monitoring the decline of Earth’s ice. Slated for launch at the beginning of 2024, Sentinel-2C has just started a punishing five-month testing programme to ensure that it is fit for its life in space.

Munich, Germany (SPX) Aug 06, 2021
A team of astronomers have used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) in Chile to shed new light on planets around a nearby star, L 98-59, that resemble those in the inner Solar System. Amongst the findings are a planet with half the mass of Venus - the lightest exoplanet ever to be measured using the radial velocity technique - an ocean world, and a possible plane

Yekaterinburg, Russia (SPX) Aug 06, 2021
An international team of planetary scientists from Russia, Finland, and the United States has analyzed for the first time the factors that determine the number of boulders on the surface of the nearest planet to the Sun, Mercury. Boulders are fragments of rock that form as a result of meteorite impacts on the planet's surface and are located in areas of fresh impact craters hundreds of meters in

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 5, 2021
Astronomers have found signs of a planet that may have a life-supporting atmosphere, according to a study published Thursday. The study, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, focuses on a planetary system named after the star it orbits, L 98-59, according to a press release. Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, the team of astronomers found a roc

Washington DC (SPX) Aug 06, 2021
As NASA ventures farther into the cosmos, the astronaut experience will change. In preparation for the real-life challenges of future missions to Mars, NASA will study how highly motivated individuals respond under the rigor of a long-duration, ground-based simulation. NASA is now accepting applications for participation as a crew member during the first one-year analog mission in a habita

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 06, 2021
A close examination of the millimeter-wavelength emissions from the asteroid Psyche, which NASA intends to visit in 2026, has produced the first temperature map of the object, providing new insight into its surface properties. The findings, described in a paper published in Planetary Science Journal (PSJ) on August 5, are a step toward resolving the mystery of the origin of this unusual object,

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 5, 2021
Aided by the latest photos from Mars helicopter Ingenuity, NASA's robotic rover Perseverance prepared to drill its first rock sample, the space agency said. The agency decided the drilling will occur at an area called Crater Floor Fractured Rough. NASA planned to send the first signals Thursday to start the drilling process, which could take several days, according to the agency.