NASA's network of small moon-bound rovers is ready to roll
Thursday, 07 March 2024 16:48
Construction and testing are complete on the CADRE rovers, which will map the lunar surface together as a tech demo to show the promise of multi-robot missions.
A trio of small rovers that will explore the moon in sync with one another are rolling toward launch. Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California recently finished assembling the robots, then subjected them to a punishing series of tests to ensure they'll survive their jarring rocket ride into space and their travels in the unforgiving lunar environment.
Reentry of International Space Station (ISS) batteries into Earth’s atmosphere
Thursday, 07 March 2024 16:35
Spacesuits need a major upgrade for the next phase of exploration
Thursday, 07 March 2024 15:56
Humans have long dreamed of setting foot on the moon and other planetary bodies such as Mars. Since the 1960s, space travelers have donned suits designed to protect them from the vacuum of space and stepped out into the unknown.
However, the Polaris Dawn mission, which is to include the first spacewalk organized by a private company, has been delayed. This is due to complications with the design and development of a suitable spacesuit.
Moon suits are also one of the key elements of NASA's Artemis lunar program that have yet to be delivered. A report released in November 2023 said that the contractor making the suits is having to revisit aspects of the design provided by NASA, which could introduce delays.
Yet the first spacewalk, by the Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, took place in 1965. Later, 12 NASA astronauts would walk on the lunar surface, between 1969 and 1972, using technology that would be eclipsed by today's smartphones.
First Arab woman to graduate NASA training shoots for the Moon
Thursday, 07 March 2024 15:41
Like her ancestors before her, Emirati astronaut Nora AlMatrooshi has spent much of her life gazing up at the stars and dreaming of flying to the Moon.
This week, she became the first Arab woman to graduate from NASA's training program, ready to blast off into the cosmos.
AlMatrooshi, 30, remembers an elementary school lesson about space in which her teacher simulated a trip to the lu NASA tests limits of updated engines for future Artemis missions
Thursday, 07 March 2024 15:41
NASA completed a full-duration RS-25 engine hot fire Wednesday, as the space agency continues testing the updated engines that will launch Artemis missions to the moon and beyond.
The full-duration test was the ninth of 12 scheduled tests, and took place on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis in Mississippi.
The certification engine, which Icy first light of shoebox-sized PRETTY CubeSat
Thursday, 07 March 2024 14:05
A shoebox-sized satellite looking far to the horizon picked up a strong signal reflection from hundreds of kilometres below it, beside a lonely polar island in the Canadian Arctic. ESA’s PRETTY CubeSat mission team could not be quite certain of what its instrument first light was showing until cross-checking it against a Sentinel-1 radar map of the same location, to find a precise correlation with a stretch of offshore sea ice.
New radar mission for Europe
Thursday, 07 March 2024 14:00
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The upcoming Copernicus Radar Observation System for Europe in L-band (ROSE-L) will provide continuous day-and-night all-weather monitoring of Earth’s land, oceans and ice, and offer frequent observations of Earth’s surface at a high spatial resolution.
ROSE-L will carry an active phased array synthetic aperture radar instrument. The radar antenna will be the largest deployable planar antenna ever built measuring an impressive 40 sq m.
ROSE-L will deliver many benefits including essential information on forests and land cover, leading to improved monitoring of the terrestrial carbon cycle and carbon accounting.
The mission will also greatly extend our ability to monitor minute
GITAI Pioneers Robotic Construction of Lunar Communications Towers in Desert Simulation
Thursday, 07 March 2024 13:27
GITAI USA Inc. (GITAI), a leader in space robotics innovation, has successfully showcased its advanced robotics technology through the construction of a 5-meter-high communication tower. This achievement was realized in a desert environment meticulously designed to simulate the lunar surface, representing a "first of its kind" demonstration in space robotics.
GITAI, in a collaborative effo Rover Kinesthetics: Sols 4116-4117
Thursday, 07 March 2024 13:27
Earth planning date: Monday, March 4, 2024: It has been a busy and exciting week for Curiosity and its science team. Our intrepid rover successfully drilled its 40th sample on Mars and today followed it up with an intensive campaign to characterize the tailings expelled while drilling "Mineral King." When APXS analyzes a target, it receives signals from the top millimeter or less of the sample ( UCF scientists use James Webb Space Telescope to uncover clues about Neptune's evolution
Thursday, 07 March 2024 13:27
A ring of icy rocks orbiting our sun just beyond Neptune may give us a glimpse of how Neptune - and other objects in the outskirts of our solar system - were formed.
Mors-Somnus, a binary duo comprised of a pair of icy asteroids bound by gravity, was recently concluded to have originated within the Kuiper Belt, meaning it can serve as a basis to study and enrich our understanding of the dy Space research sheds new light on formation of planets
Thursday, 07 March 2024 13:27
An international team of astronomers has shed new light on the fascinating and complex process of planet formation. Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) in Chile, researchers captured stunning images of more than 80 young stars and discs of dust and gas where planets are forming.
The research represents one of the largest surveys ever of planet-forming New theory explains why white dwarf stars can cheat death
Thursday, 07 March 2024 13:27
In a paper published in Nature, scholars from the Institute for Advanced Study; the University of Victoria, Canada; and the University of Warwick, U.K., have proposed a new theory that explains why a puzzling population of white dwarf stars stopped cooling for ten billion years.
Open any astronomy textbook to the section on white dwarf stars and you'll likely learn that they are "dead star Sidus Space and Spire Global Satellites Soar into Orbit with SpaceX's Transporter-10 Mission
Thursday, 07 March 2024 13:27
Sidus Space (NASDAQ: SIDU) and Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR) have both reported the successful launch and deployment of their satellites aboard SpaceX's Transporter-10 Rideshare mission. The mission, which took to the skies from the Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, marked a significant step forward for both companies in expanding their space-based capab NASA selects Momentus for a five-year contract to enhance space operation technologies.
Thursday, 07 March 2024 13:27
Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS), a leader in the new field of in-space transportation services, has reportes its selection by NASA to receive a significant indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) base contract. This award positions Momentus as a pivotal player among 15 companies chosen to support the United States' space exploration and technology advancement efforts over the next five year University Experts Call for Enhanced Radiation Warnings in Space Tourism
Thursday, 07 March 2024 13:27
In a groundbreaking study led by space weather experts at the University of Surrey, there's a growing call for immediate action to safeguard the burgeoning space tourism industry from the invisible threat of cosmic radiation. The study, recently published in Space Policy, emphasizes the urgent need for collaboration between regulators and space tourism companies to enhance passenger and crew pro