Copernical Team
Series Futuristic Space Themed Centers
Space Hero, Lava and One Digital Entertainment has announced plans for the creation of Space Village, a series of 10 iconic futuristic space-inspired landmarks in different locations around the world. Space Village is designed by Alexander Rieck from German architectural firm LAVA. Each Space Village will feature a large space center and a glimpse of forward-looking technology that will stimulat
Dust grains older than our sun found in Asteroid Ryugu samples
Microscopic grains of ancient material that predate our Sun's birth were found in samples returned from the asteroid Ryugu by the Hayabusa2 mission, according to new work from an international team led by Carnegie's Jens Barosch and Larry Nittler and published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Named after a Japanese folktale, Ryugu is a near-Earth object shaped kind of like a spinning
Sols 3562-3563: Adventures Over Sand
Curiosity is continuing the journey through Paraitepuy Pass. The image above shows why it is going to take some time to traverse through this area. Here the navigation cameras snapped a photo of Curiosity's wheel tracks over a sand ripple. The rover was designed to overcome terrain like this, but the rover planners still want to develop the drive paths very carefully as we drive through these ro
Virgin Orbit earns AS9100 Certification
The Performance Review Institute (PRI) Registrar recently certified Virgin Orbit (Nasdaq: VORB) as having met stringent international standards. This achievement promotes Virgin Orbit's ongoing commitment to satisfying stakeholders, and the Company's dedication to continual improvement of its quality management system. The globally recognized AS9100 standard builds upon the ISO 9000 family
Rocket Lab to launch 150th satellite with upcoming Synspective SAR launch
Rocket Lab USA, Inc (Nasdaq: RKLB) has announced its upcoming 30th Electron launch will deliver its 150th payload and 300th Rutherford engine to space. The mission is a dedicated launch for Japanese Earth-imaging satellite constellation operator Synspective. "The Owl Spreads Its Wings" mission is scheduled to lift-off from Pad B at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand during a launch
Russian spacewalk cut short due to issue with suit
A spacewalk by two Russians on Wednesday was ended abruptly due to a problem with the battery in cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev's suit, though at no point was he in any danger, the US and Russian space agencies said. "Oleg, you must return to the airlock as soon as possible," the Earth-based Russian mission controllers ordered, more than two hours into his trip outside the International Space Stat
Voyager logs 45 years in space as NASA's longest mission to date
Launched in 1977, the twin Voyager probes are NASA's longest-operating mission and the only spacecraft ever to explore interstellar space. NASA's twin Voyager probes have become, in some ways, time capsules of their era: They each carry an eight-track tape player for recording data, they have about 3 million times less memory than modern cellphones, and they transmit data about 38,000 time
NASA's new rocket on launchpad for trip to Moon
NASA's giant new SLS rocket arrived at its launchpad Wednesday in Cape Canaveral ahead of a planned flight to the Moon in less than two weeks. It will be the maiden voyage of the Artemis program - America's quest to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972. The Artemis 1 mission, an uncrewed test flight, will feature the first blastoff of the Sp
Test chamber for NASA's new cosmic mapmaker makes dramatic entrance
After three years of design and construction, a monthlong boat ride across the Pacific Ocean, and a lift from a 30-ton crane, the customized test chamber for NASA's upcoming SPHEREx mission has finally reached its destination at Caltech's Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pasadena.
Set to launch no earlier than June 2024, SPHEREx (short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) will make a unique map of the cosmos that will contain hundreds of millions of objects, including stars, galaxies, star-forming regions, and other cosmic wonders.
Facilitating the development of LEO mega constellations
The rapid development of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) mega constellations has significantly contributed to several aspects of human scientific progress, such as communication, navigation, and remote sensing. However, unrestrained deployment of constellations has also strained orbital resources and increased spacecraft congestion in LEO, which seriously affects the safety of in-orbit operations of many space assets.
For the long-term and sustainable development of space activities in LEO regions, space environment stability must be maintained using more rational surveillance and governance mechanisms. In a review paper recently published in Space: Science & Technology, Jingrui Zhang from School of Aerospace Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, analyzed the research gap and facilitated the development of LEO mega constellations.
First of all, the author reviewed the current developments of typical LEO mega constellations, including Starlink, OneWeb, Iridium Next, Globalstar, and Flock. Taking SpaceX's Starlink as an example, it aims to build a LEO constellation containing 42,000 satellites to achieve global coverage, high-speed, large-capacity, and low-latency space-based global communication system. Starlink has shown excellent performance in related fields, such as international aviation and ocean transportation. Moreover, Starlink can be constructed as a powerful command and communication network and has already been an important symbol of the weaponization of outer space in the United States.