Jupiter’s radiation belts – and how to survive them
Thursday, 06 April 2023 10:07
ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, is headed to the largest structure in the Solar System – not the gas giant itself but the mammoth magnetic field that it generates. Its exact size varies with the solar wind, but Jupiter’s magnetosphere is on average 20 million kilometres across, which is about 150 times wider than its parent planet and almost 15 times the diameter of the Sun. But within that field lurks a clear and present danger to space missions – intense belts of radiation much more energetic and intense than Earth’s own Van Allen belts.
Loft Orbital orders 15 more buses from Airbus OneWeb Satellites
Thursday, 06 April 2023 10:04
Loft Orbital has ordered an additional 15 satellite buses from Airbus OneWeb Satellites to meet growing demand for its standardized space platforms.
Europe’s biggest test chamber for space antennas takes shape
Thursday, 06 April 2023 09:43
Antennas and radio frequency systems for space are growing larger and more powerful, so to keep pace ESA’s ground-based test facilities are scaling up too. A construction project underway beside the dunes of the North Sea marks the expansion of the ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands with the addition of Europe’s largest antenna and radio-frequency payload test chamber – Hertz 2.0.
China invites Venezuela to join moon base project
Thursday, 06 April 2023 07:59
China has invited Venezuela to join its lunar research station project as the country works to gain partners for the endeavor.
NASA Earth science hosted payload set for launch on Intelsat satellite
Thursday, 06 April 2023 01:31
The upcoming launch of a NASA Earth science instrument on a commercial communications satellite illustrates the promise of, but also the problems with, hosted payloads.
Space Development Agency’s first satellite launch hailed as model
Wednesday, 05 April 2023 22:04
The successful launch of Tranche 0 satellites took place 27 months after SDA, an agency under the U.S.
Space Force embraces unconventional ways to attract and retain talent
Wednesday, 05 April 2023 19:45
As the smallest branch of the U.S.
Juice mission to Jupiter testing—down to the wire
Wednesday, 05 April 2023 18:39
Preparing the Juice mission to Jupiter has involved testing for all kinds of contingencies, down to the smallest of scales. This microscopic view shows surface damage to a tiny silver interconnector after being exposed to erosive atomic oxygen known to be found surrounding Jupiter's moon Ganymede.
Due to launch on April 13 to begin an eight-year journey to the largest planet in the solar system, ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, will spend three and a half years in the Jupiter system, and in the final phase of its exploration will go into orbit around the largest Jovian moon, Ganymede.
However, previous observations by the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed auroral glows around Ganymede due to the presence of 'atomic oxygen'—individual atoms of oxygen at the fringes of the moon's scanty atmosphere, the result of standard oxygen molecules being broken apart by the powerful radiation belts surrounding Jupiter.
ESA materials engineer Adrian Tighe explains, "Atomic oxygen is also experienced in Earth orbit, due to oxygen molecules being dissociated by ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, and all Earth-orbiting missions below about 1000 km altitude are designed to resist it.
Dawn flies rocket-powered spaceplane
Wednesday, 05 April 2023 16:30
Dawn Aerospace completed its first series of rocket-powered flights last week of the Mk-II Aurora spaceplane.
The post Dawn flies rocket-powered spaceplane appeared first on SpaceNews.
Juice testing – down to the wire
Wednesday, 05 April 2023 11:14
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Juice testing – down to the wire Updated space safety document outlines rules of the road for avoiding collisions
Wednesday, 05 April 2023 10:33
An updated version of a space safety document endorsed by more than two dozen organizations includes “rules of the road” for avoiding collisions between space objects.
Webb telescope discovers oldest galaxies ever observed
Wednesday, 05 April 2023 09:55
The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered the four most distant galaxies ever observed, one of which formed just 320 million years after the Big Bang when the universe was still in its infancy, new research said on Tuesday.
The Webb telescope has unleashed a torrent of scientific discovery since becoming operational last year, peering farther than ever before into the universe's distant Spire Global awarded National Reconnaissance Office contract for radio frequency data
Wednesday, 05 April 2023 09:55
Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR) has been awarded a contract by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) for commercial radio frequency (RF) remote sensing. Spire won a contract as part of the NRO's Strategic Commercial Enhancements (SCE) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) program in September 2022.
Spire is proud to announce two options were exercised extending the performance period through Space ISAC stands up operational watch center to keep pace with proliferating threats to space systems
Wednesday, 05 April 2023 09:55
Space ISAC, its founding board of directors and executive director launched Space ISAC's Operational Watch Center and its initial operational capability today. This is a crucial milestone for Space ISAC, whose executive, operational, and administrative functions are operated by the National Cybersecurity Center (NCC), and the global space industry, as they address the growing threats and vulnera