Thousands more satellites will soon orbit Earth—we need better rules to prevent space crashes
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 16:10
In recent years, satellites have become smaller, cheaper, and easier to make with commercial off the shelf parts. Some even weigh as little as one gram. This means more people can afford to send them into orbit. Now, satellite operators have started launching mega-constellations—groups of hundreds or even thousands of small satellites working together—into orbit around Earth.
Instead of one large satellite, groups of small satellites can provide coverage of the entire planet at once. Civil, military and private operators are increasingly using constellations to create global and continuous coverage of the Earth. Constellations can provide a variety of functions, including climate monitoring, disaster management or digital connectivity, like satellite broadband.
But to provide coverage of the entire planet with small satellites requires a lot of them. On top of this, they have to orbit close to Earth's surface to reduce interruption of coverage and communication delays. This means they take up an already busy area of space called low Earth orbit, the space 100 to 2,000km above the Earth's surface.
What did the solar system look like before all the planets migrated?
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 15:16
Early planetary migration in the solar system has been long established, and there are myriad theories that have been put forward to explain where the planets were coming from. Theories such as the Grand Tack Hypothesis an the Nice Model show how important that migration is to the current state of our solar system. Now, a team from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has come up with a novel way of trying to understand planetary migration patterns: by looking at meteorite compositions.
The researchers, led by postdoc Jan Render, had three key realizations. First, that almost all the meteorites that have fallen to Earth originated from the asteroid belt. Second, that the asteroid belt is known to have formed by sweeping material up from all over the solar system. And third, and perhaps most importantly, that they could analyze the isotopic signatures in meteorites to help determine where a given asteroid had formed in the solar system.
With that knowledge, they could then extrapolate out to other asteroids of the same type. There are approximately 100 different types of asteroids, with different isotopic signatures, in the asteroid belt.
ExoMars orbiter's 20000th image
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 14:00
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ExoMars orbiter's 20000th image 
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Simulating space Artificial intelligence behind 21st Century spaceflight
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 12:30
- Maintaining safety of operations and maximising scientific return are key concerns as satellites increase in number and complexity
- Artificial intelligence offers promising solutions to modern spaceflight challenges
- ESA and Germany’s DFKI institute have launched a new lab ‘ESA_Lab@DFKI’ for artificial intelligence research
NASA prepares for Mars 2020 landing
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 12:24
WASHINGTON — NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is on track for a landing next month that will begin in earnest an effort to return samples of the planet to Earth.
The spacecraft, launched July 30, is scheduled to land in Jezero Crater at 3:55 p.m.
Electron launch demonstrated enhanced kick stage
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 10:22
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab stretched the performance of the kick stage of its Electron rocket on its most recent launch, the first in a series of milestones the company has set out for this year.
First evidence that water can be created on the lunar surface by Earth's magnetosphere
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 08:50
Mapped by Sentinel-1 for Vendée Globe safety
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 08:20
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Competitors of the Vendée Globe sailing race are now nearing the finishing point, but while they were near the treacherous iceberg-infested waters of the Southern Ocean they remained relatively safe thanks to satellite observations. On nights before a full moon, people go to bed later and sleep less
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 06:48
For centuries, humans have blamed the moon for our moods, accidents and even natural disasters. But new research indicates that our planet's celestial companion impacts something else entirely - our sleep.
In a paper published Jan. 27 in Science Advances, scientists at the University of Washington, the National University of Quilmes in Argentina and Yale University report that sleep cycles NASA's Perseverance Rover 22 days from Mars landing
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 06:48
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is just 22 days from landing on the surface of Mars. The spacecraft has about 25.6 million miles (41.2M km) remaining in its 292.5-million-mile (470.8M km) journey and is currently closing that distance at 1.6 miles per second (2.5 kilometers per second).
Once at the top of the Red Planet's atmosphere, an action-packed seven minutes of descent aw Purported phosphine on Venus more likely to be ordinary sulfur dioxide,
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 06:48
In September, a team led by astronomers in the United Kingdom announced that they had detected the chemical phosphine in the thick clouds of Venus. The team's reported detection, based on observations by two Earth-based radio telescopes, surprised many Venus experts. Earth's atmosphere contains small amounts of phosphine, which may be produced by life. Phosphine on Venus generated buzz that the NASA spacewalk partially hooks up new science platform
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 06:48
Two NASA astronauts were unable to complete work during a spacewalk Wednesday on hooking up Europe's new Bartolomeo science platform outside the International Space Station.
Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover spent 6 hours, 56 minutes on the spacewalk. The assignment was the first spacewalk for Glover, the first Black astronaut to live and work aboard the space station.
Nearly halfwa Welding underway on Orion indended for landing astronauts on the Moon
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 06:48
At NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, technicians from Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin have welded together three cone-shaped panels on Orion's crew module for the Artemis III mission that will land the first woman and next man on the Moon.
The crew module's primary structure, the pressure vessel, is comprised of seven machined aluminum alloy pieces that are welded tog NASA's Artemis Base Camp on the Moon will need light, water, elevation
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 06:48
American astronauts in 2024 will take their first steps near the Moon's South Pole: the land of extreme light, extreme darkness, and frozen water that could fuel NASA's Artemis lunar base and the agency's leap into deep space.
Scientists and engineers are helping NASA determine the precise location of the Artemis Base Camp concept. Among the many things NASA must take into account in choos