Inaugural Space Resources Challenge for driving and walking rovers
Thursday, 16 December 2021 13:47
Driving and walking rovers competed to survey a shadowy analog of the south polar lunar surface for useable resources during the inaugural ESA-ESRIC Space Resources Challenge. Some 13 teams from across Europe and Canada took part in last month's field test, with the winners due to be announced shortly.
The Space Resources Challenge—supported by ESA and the European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC) in Luxembourg—is asking European (and Canadian) researchers and institutions to develop and demonstrate a system of one or more vehicles capable of prospecting resources on the Moon in the near future.
Massimo Sabbatini, overseeing the contest for ESA, comments: "ESA is analyzing the results of the first field test of the Challenge and the competition is fierce. There was a wide range of participants and technological solutions to the problem of prospecting: notably different locomotion techniques—legged, wheeled, tracked, and so on—and approaches, such as single versus multiple vehicles and aerial vehicles. The jury is out!"
The emphasis of the contest is on prospecting: pinpointing promising resources within a difficult lunar environment then characterizing them in as much detail as possible, such as through visual inspection or spectral analysis.
Op-ed | Through the Legs of Giants: The next chapter in Australia’s space journey
Thursday, 16 December 2021 13:00
Australia’s modern space story is only just beginning, and its progress today is a perfect example of how a nation is leveraging its resources and capabilities, making smart investments, and implementing focused strategies to grow its space ecosystem, participate in the global space economy, and enjoy the rewards it offers for life on Earth.
Did black holes form immediately after the Big Bang?
Thursday, 16 December 2021 13:00
How did supermassive black holes form? What is dark matter? In an alternative model for how the Universe came to be, as compared to the ‘textbook’ history of the Universe, a team of astronomers propose that both of these cosmic mysteries could be explained by so-called ‘primordial black holes’.
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Lunar robot wars MDA announces Chorus as new commercial EO mission
Thursday, 16 December 2021 10:07
MDA Ltd. has announced at the World Satellite Business Week event that its next generation commercial Earth observation (EO) mission will be named CHORUS. The company also announced that CHORUS will initially include C-band and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites.
A collaborative multi-sensor constellation, CHORUS will bring together multiple diverse and unique perspectives in BlackSky achieves highest revisit, dawn-to-dusk satellite coverage
Thursday, 16 December 2021 10:07
BlackSky's high-resolution small satellite constellation has the highest revisit rate in the world, with a peak of 15 hourly visits per day over certain locations. The real-time geospatial intelligence company achieved a 12 small satellite constellation, doubling its imaging capacity, following Wednesday's successful Rocket Lab mission.
In less than 30 days the company launched six satelli NASA to launch 4 Earth Science Missions in 2022
Thursday, 16 December 2021 10:07
NASA will launch four Earth science missions in 2022 to provide scientists with more information about fundamental climate systems and processes including extreme storms, surface water and oceans, and atmospheric dust. Scientists will discuss the upcoming missions at the American Geophysical Union's (AGU) 2021 Fall Meeting, hosted in New Orleans between Dec. 13 and 17.
NASA has a unique vi Tehran getting ready for space satellite launch
Thursday, 16 December 2021 10:07
In early December, Iranian media outlets reported that Tehran's civilian space programme stipulates launching four satellites, including one that was described as being "under the final phase of preparation".
Tehran appears to be getting ready for a space satellite launch amid the Vienna talks on the Iran nuclear deal, according to several satellite images showing alleged activity at the I Innovative silicon nanochip can reprogram biological tissue in living body
Thursday, 16 December 2021 10:07
A silicon device that can change skin tissue into blood vessels and nerve cells has advanced from prototype to standardized fabrication, meaning it can now be made in a consistent, reproducible way. As reported in Nature Protocols, this work, developed by researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine, takes the device one step closer to potential use as a treatment for people with a v India May Become 1st in Line to Buy Russian Air Defense System S-500
Thursday, 16 December 2021 10:07
India may become the first in line to but Russian air defense system S-500, if it expresses such a desire, after the Russian Armed Forces receive them in required quantity, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov said.
"India will probably be the first on the list if it expresses a desire to buy these modern means," Borisov said in an interview with the RBC broadcaster.
He specifi Airbus and OneWeb expand their partnership to connect European defence and security forces
Thursday, 16 December 2021 10:07
Airbus and OneWeb have signed a distribution partner agreement to provide low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication services for military and governmental use. As the leading provider of military satellite communication services in Europe, Airbus will offer new communication services utilising the OneWeb constellation to select European and UK armed forces, and civil protection and security Kitesurfing the white wilderness for science
Thursday, 16 December 2021 09:40
In an astonishing feat of endurance, explorers Justin Packshaw and Jamie Facer Childs are a quarter of the way through a 3600-km kitesurf trek that takes them across the desolate heart of Antarctica. They are not pushing their physical and mental limits to the brink, facing howling gales and temperatures of –55°C just for the sake of adventure. They are gathering information to help scientists better understand how the body responds to extremes and taking unique measurements of their ice environment that will help complement ESA’s CryoSat mission to better understand how this giant ice
Kitesurfing the white wilderness for polar science
Thursday, 16 December 2021 09:40In an astonishing feat of endurance, explorers Justin Packshaw and Jamie Facer Childs are a quarter of the way through a 3600-km kitesurf trek that takes them across the desolate heart of Antarctica. They are not pushing their physical and mental limits to the brink, facing howling gales and temperatures of –55°C just for the sake of adventure. They are gathering information to help scientists better understand how the body responds to extremes and taking unique measurements of their ice environment that will help complement ESA’s CryoSat mission to better understand how this giant ice
Mars helicopter Ingenuity ready to fly again as radio link is restored
Thursday, 16 December 2021 07:42
NASA has regained its radio link with the Mars helicopter Ingenuity and plans its 18th flight on the Red Planet as early as Wednesday, the agency announced.
NASA had lost radio contact - except for very brief transmissions - after Ingenuity's Flight 17 on Dec. 5. Hills between the helicopter and the Perseverance rover blocked the link.
But the Mars helicopter's team said in a p Rock composition determines how deadly a meteorite impact is
Thursday, 16 December 2021 07:42
A new University of Liverpool study has found that the minerology of the rocks that a meteorite hits, rather than the size of the impact, determines how deadly an impact it will have.
The earth has been bombarded by meteorites throughout its long history. Meteorite impacts generate atmospheric dust and cover the Earth's surface with debris and have long been considered as a trigger of mass