HIRAX: Looking deep into the universe for answers about dark matter
Monday, 31 May 2021 12:30
Write a comment
How is matter distributed within our universe? And what is the mysterious substance known as dark energy made of? HIRAX, a new large telescope array comprising hundreds of small radio telescopes, should provide some answers. Among those instrumental in developing the system are physicists from ETH Zurich.
"It's an exciting project," says Alexandre Refregier, Professor of Physics at ETH Zurich, as he considers the futuristic-looking visualization from South Africa. The image shows a scene in the middle of the Karoo semidesert, far away from larger settlements, with rows upon rows of more than 1,000 parabolic reflectors all directed towards the same point. At first glance, one might assume this is a solar power station, but it's actually a large radio telescope that over the coming years should provide cosmologists with new insights into the makeup and history of our universe.
Destination Moon: Is it time for us to send astronauts back?
Monday, 31 May 2021 12:20 Write a comment
The series For All Mankind (2019) is a fictional alternate history that imagines a world where the Soviet Union was the first power to send an astronaut to the moon. From that starting point, the two rival superpowers compete to establish their own lunar station.
Just a few short years later, the scenario is no fantasy. Fifty years after the Apollo 11 mission in 2019 the United States announced its intention to return to the Moon in 2024. In light of the concept of "New Space", this new ambition highlights a growing geostrategic competition, particularly given China's precipitous rise.
Artemis, one step ahead
To succeed on this mission, NASA has promoted the Artemis program, a consortium led by the United States that brings together eight other countries—Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. NASA and Brazil signed a statement of intent in December 2020 to join the program. Each participant will contribute to the completion of the mission with technical and scientific support.
NASA is also counting on the private sector, including the SpaceX Starship (SN1), to fulfill the human landing system (HLS) program.
Japanese space agency to put Transformable Lunar Robot on the moon
Monday, 31 May 2021 11:50 Write a comment
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has announced on its website that the agency has plans to put a Transformable Lunar Robot on the moon. In their announcement, they note that the goal of the robot deployment is to learn more about the surface of the moon as part of preparation for the deployment of a future crewed rover.
JAXA has made clear its aim to be part of establishing a permanent crewed presence on the moon, and as part of that, the agency has developed a lunar lander and is working on a rover. The lander, officially called the ispace lunar lander, has been designed to be a generic host for multiple entities. Customers planning to use the lander include the Canadian Space Agency and The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center. JAXA is developing a rover as well, which it plans to send to the moon in 2029. The lander will be launched aboard SpaceX rockets.
Russia, China hope to secure partners for moon base project
Monday, 31 May 2021 10:39 Write a comment
HELSINKI — Russia and China are looking to announce new partnerships for a joint initiative to construct a robotic moon base ahead of potential crewed lunar missions.
Who will race SpaceX to the moon?
Monday, 31 May 2021 10:00 Write a comment
For months, NASA had strongly suggested that it would select two companies for the next phase of its Human Landing System (HLS) program. Just as with the commercial cargo and crew programs, agency officials said, having two companies develop and demonstrate lunar landers would provide redundancy and ensure NASA was getting the best deal.
Save the date: Living Planet Symposium 2022
Monday, 31 May 2021 07:00 Write a comment
It’s time to block your agendas to make sure you don’t miss out on the biggest Earth observation conference in the world – ESA’s next Living Planet Symposium, which is set to take place on 23–27 May 2022 at the World Conference Center in Bonn, Germany.
New NASA Student Challenge offers hands-on tech development
Monday, 31 May 2021 04:18 Write a comment
NASA will initiate a new competition for the 2021-22 school year, providing student teams a chance to design, build, and launch experiments on suborbital rockets and high-altitude balloon flights. NASA and Future Engineers, the challenge administrator, will offer a series of virtual events for educators to hear from agency experts and learn more about this exciting opportunity for students. Hubble inspects a contorted spiral galaxy
Monday, 31 May 2021 04:18 Write a comment
This striking image showcases the unusually contorted appearance of NGC 2276, an appearance caused by two different astrophysical interactions - one with the superheated gas pervading galaxy clusters, and one with a nearby galactic neighbour.
The interaction of NGC 2276 with the intracluster medium - the superheated gas lying between the galaxies in galaxy clusters - has ignited a burst of Dark energy survey releases most precise look at the universe's evolution
Monday, 31 May 2021 04:18 Write a comment
In 29 new scientific papers, the Dark Energy Survey examines the largest-ever maps of galaxy distribution and shapes, extending more than 7 billion light-years across the Universe. The extraordinarily precise analysis, which includes data from the survey's first three years, contributes to the most powerful test of the current best model of the Universe, the standard cosmological model. However, UMass Amherst astronomer reveals never-before-seen detail of the center of our galaxy
Monday, 31 May 2021 04:18 Write a comment
New research by University of Massachusetts Amherst astronomer Daniel Wang reveals, with unprecedented clarity, details of violent phenomena in the center of our galaxy. The images, published recently in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, document an X-ray thread, G0.17-0.41, which hints at a previously unknown interstellar mechanism that may govern the energy flow and potentiall Official: Chinese astronauts go to space station next month
Sunday, 30 May 2021 17:00 Write a comment
A three-member crew of male astronauts will blast off next month for a three-month mission on China's new space station, according to a space official who was the country's first astronaut in orbit.
China to send 3 male astronauts to its space station in June
Sunday, 30 May 2021 17:00 Write a comment
A three-member crew of male astronauts will blast off next month for a three-month mission on China's new space station, according to a space official who was the country's first astronaut in orbit.
DoD agencies to invest more than $1 billion in low-Earth orbit space technologies
Sunday, 30 May 2021 15:35 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration’s defense budget proposal for fiscal year 2022 seeks more than $1.2 billion for military space systems in low-Earth orbit.
According to budget documents released May 28, nearly $900 million of that investment is for the Space Development Agency’s communications network in low-Earth orbit (LEO) known as the Transport Layer.
China cargo craft docks with space station module
Sunday, 30 May 2021 07:57 Write a comment
A Chinese cargo spacecraft carrying equipment and supplies successfully docked with the core module of the country's future space station on Sunday, state media said.
A Long March 7 rocket carrying the Tianzhou-2 cargo craft - loaded with essentials such as food, equipment and fuel - blasted off late Saturday from the Wenchang launch site on the tropical southern island of Hainan, the Xinh NASA administrator Bill Nelson supports $10B boost for moon landing
Sunday, 30 May 2021 07:57 Write a comment
NASA needs about a 40% boost - $10 billion - in its budget to foster competition that could aid future astronaut missions to the moon, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.
The Biden administration is seeking $24.8 billion for NASA in fiscal 2022, which would be a 6.6% increase from 2021, Nelson said during a press conference on Friday. But there's an amendment to the 2021 budget pendi