Did heat from impacts on asteroids provide the ingredients for life on Earth?
Saturday, 05 June 2021 09:05
A research group from Kobe University has demonstrated that the heat generated by the impact of a small astronomical body could enable aqueous alteration and organic solid formation to occur on the surface of an asteroid. They achieved this by first conducting high-velocity impact cratering experiments using an asteroid-like target material and measuring the post-impact heat distribution around Technique inspired by lace making could someday weave structures in space
Saturday, 05 June 2021 09:05
Lauren Dreier was paging through a 19th century book by the German architect Gottfried Semper when she spotted some intriguing patterns inspired by lace. A professional artist and designer who often incorporates technology into her work, Dreier, who is also a doctoral student at the School of Architecture at Princeton University, decided to recreate the printed illustrations in 3D.
She gra SpaceChain to test On-orbit Ethereum Multisignature Transaction Services on ISS
Saturday, 05 June 2021 09:05
SpaceChain has announced that its blockchain-enabled payload has been launched into space from NASA's Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and will be subsequently installed at the International Space Station (ISS).
The mission, made possible by Nanoracks and its Space Act agreement with NASA, marks SpaceChain's fourth blockchain payload launch into space and the first dem Microscopic Superheroes to Help Protect Astronaut Health in Space
Saturday, 05 June 2021 09:05
It's a classic superhero tale: Inconspicuous, underestimated, our hero is revealed to have powers beyond imagination! The hottest and coldest environments on Earth, decades without water, the powerful radiation of space - none of it is any match for...the tardigrade!
This chubby, microscopic, eight-legged animal may be an unlikely hero, but tardigrades, also known as water bears due to the US intel report on UFOs inconclusive: reports
Saturday, 05 June 2021 04:46
The conclusion of a classified US intelligence report on the existence of alien UFOs is . . . inconclusive, US media reported Friday.
US military and intelligence found no evidence that seemingly highly advanced unidentified flying objects sighted by military pilots were alien spacecraft, the report concludes, according to The New York Times and other media briefed on it.
But it also cou SpaceX plans to launch another SiriusXM satellite Sunday
Saturday, 05 June 2021 04:46
Elon Musk's SpaceX plans to launch a communications satellite for SiriusXM on Sunday from Florida in what will be the first such mission since one of the broadcast company's spacecraft failed after launch in December.
The satellite, known as SXM-8, is prepared for liftoff aboard a Falcon 9 rocket during a nearly two-hour window starting at 12:25 a.m. EDT from Complex 40 at Cape Canavera Air Force: Using commercial rockets to deliver supplies not as far-fetched as it sounds
Friday, 04 June 2021 20:42
WASHINGTON — U.S. Air Force officials on June 4 expressed enthusiasm about the possibility that commercial space vehicles one day could be used to ship supplies around the world.
“This never really made sense in the past” but now it does, said Greg Spanjers, manager of the rocket cargo program, a new effort to investigate how the military might be able to transport massive loads of supplies aboard commercial rockets.
Virgin Galactic signs contract for suborbital research mission
Friday, 04 June 2021 17:21
WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic has signed an agreement to fly a private researcher on a future suborbital flight, part of efforts diversify its business beyond space tourism.
Virgin Galactic announced June 3 that Kellie Gerardi, affiliated with the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences (IIAS), will fly on a future SpaceShipTwo dedicated research flight.
Seraphim Capital reportedly plotting public market debut
Friday, 04 June 2021 15:57
TAMPA, Fla. — Early-stage space investor Seraphim Capital reportedly plans to list shares on London’s stock exchange, following a growing number of its own investments to the public markets.
U.K.-based Seraphim has hired Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan to work on an initial public offering (IPO) that would raise around $355 million, reported Sky News citing banking sources.
A European in space – Thomas Pesquet in May
Friday, 04 June 2021 14:36
With ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet in space for his first full month, let’s look at what he has been doing on the International Space Station in May.
Video: NASA's OSIRIS-REx celebrates perfect departure maneuver from asteroid Bennu
Friday, 04 June 2021 12:40
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is 328,000 miles, or 528,000 kilometers, away from the asteroid Bennu, having fired its engines on May 10 to initiate a return trip to Earth. The spacecraft is on track to deliver an asteroid sample to Earth on September 24, 2023.
Mission engineers had planned to do a small thruster firing last week to ensure the spacecraft stays on the correct path back to Earth. But, the May 10 departure maneuver was calculated and executed so precisely, the mission team decided not to do a clean-up maneuver last week.
The next possible maneuver adjustment could occur in 2022.
ExoMars rover twin begins Earth-based mission in Mars Terrain Simulator
Friday, 04 June 2021 12:37
The replica ExoMars rover that will be used in the Rover Operations Control Centre to support mission training and operations is fully assembled and has completed its first drive around the Mars Terrain Simulator at ALTEC, in Turin, Italy.
Juice rotation in the clean room
Friday, 04 June 2021 12:30
Video:
00:00:43
Rotating Juice in the clean room at ESA's technical heart in the Netherlands before transfer in the Large Space Simulator.
Juice will undergo environmental testing in ESTEC’s Large Space Simulator to replicate the extreme heating and cooling cycles that the spacecraft will experience on its way to Jupiter.
Once in the Jovian system the mission will spend at least three years making detailed observations of the giant gaseous planet Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.
Week in images: 31 May - 04 June 2021
Friday, 04 June 2021 12:29
Week in images: 31 May - 04 June 2021
Discover our week through the lens
Rocket team to discern if our star count should go way up
Friday, 04 June 2021 12:20
The universe contains a mind-boggling number of stars—but scientists' best estimates may be an undercount. A NASA-funded sounding rocket is launching with an improved instrument to look for evidence of extra stars that may have been missed in stellar head counts.
The Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment-2, or CIBER-2, mission is the latest in a series of sounding rocket launches that began in 2009. Led by Michael Zemcov, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, CIBER-2's launch window opens at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on June 6, 2021.