NASA prepares for space research decadal survey
Thursday, 24 August 2023 10:46
North Korea’s spy satellite launch fails again
Thursday, 24 August 2023 10:23
Delivering Esprit to Gateway
Thursday, 24 August 2023 09:10
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00:00:41
Animation showing the Orion spacecraft, powered by the European Service Module-5, delivering the Esprit to the Gateway, not shown is the lunar landing system that will also be docked to Gateway on arrival.
The mega Moon rocket SLS will propel four astronauts inside Orion to the Moon on Artemis V as well as deliver the Esprit module to the lunar Gateway.
Orion and the European Service Module will tug Esprit into position around the Moon and dock with the Gateway, pushing Esprit into position.
The Esprit refuelling module is part of the Gateway’s core structure. The module is 4.6 m
Orion and I-Hab
Thursday, 24 August 2023 09:03 Write a comment
Video:
00:00:26
Animation showing the Orion spacecraft, powered by the European Service Module-4, with I-Hab for the Gateway.
The mega Moon rocket SLS will propel four astronauts inside Orion to the Moon on Artemis IV as well as deliver the I-Hab module to the lunar Gateway.
The international habitat or, I-Hab for short, is one of ESA’s many contributions to the lunar Gateway – an outpost that will orbit the Moon as part of the Artemis programme.
The I-Hab is a pressurised module that will provide living quarters for astronauts visiting the Gateway, including multiple docking ports for berthing vehicles as well
Mating Hera: two into one
Thursday, 24 August 2023 07:00 Write a comment
Video:
00:03:31
Hera is complete. ESA’s asteroid mission for planetary defence was built and prepared in two halves, but now, through a painstaking operation, they have been mated together to make a single spacecraft, ready for full-scale testing of its readiness for space.
The mating took place at OHB Bremen in Germany, with Hera’s Core Module raised more than 3 m above its Propulsion Module then gradually and carefully slotted into place, over a three-hour period. The modules had been placed in cages to ensure their correct alignment relative to each other down to a few tenths of a millimetre.
Indian rover begins exploring moon's south pole
Thursday, 24 August 2023 06:30 Write a comment
India began exploring the moon's surface with a rover on Thursday, a day after it became the first nation to land a craft near the largely unexplored lunar south pole.
Pragyan—"Wisdom" in Sanskrit—rolled out of the lander hours after the latest milestone in India's ambitious but cut-price space program sparked huge celebrations across the country.
"Rover ramped down the lander and India took a walk on the moon!" the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday.
The six-wheeled, solar-powered rover will amble around the relatively unmapped region and transmit images and scientific data over its two-week lifespan.
Rocket Lab reuses engine on Electron launch
Thursday, 24 August 2023 00:03
Long wait nearly over for Psyche asteroid probe's Space Coast launch
Wednesday, 23 August 2023 20:05 Write a comment
Just off a tree-covered side road past businesses selling boats and fishing gear sits a fenced-off building that's home to a $700 million satellite nearly ready for launch. Its mission: To study the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, which scientists suspect could mirror the inner core of Earth and other planets in the solar system.
The probe, which also is named Psyche, awaits an October trip to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. But after missing a chance to launch in 2022, NASA parked it at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility across the river where it has been sitting in the center of the stark, white clean room.
With its solar panels installed this month, teams are finally set to load it with the fuel needed to send it on its 2.5-billion-mile trip to the asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter.
Liftoff on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from KSC's Launch Complex 39-A is targeting as soon as Oct. 5 with a window that stretches until Oct. 23. It's not slated to arrive at Psyche, which can range from 235 million to 309 million miles away from Earth until August 2029, and only then will it get down to the business of figuring out what's special about the distant asteroid.
North Korea conducts rocket launch in likely 2nd attempt to put spy satellite into orbit
Wednesday, 23 August 2023 18:52
Venus flyby sends Parker Solar Probe toward record-setting flights around the sun
Wednesday, 23 August 2023 18:37 Write a comment
NASA's Parker Solar Probe zoomed past Venus on Aug. 21, using the planet's gravity to aim toward a record-setting series of flights around the sun that start next month.
At just before 8:03 a.m.
Space imagery startup HEO raises $8 million
Wednesday, 23 August 2023 18:29
Chandrayaan-3 is a story of ISRO’s perseverance and triumph
Wednesday, 23 August 2023 18:05
NASA begins integrating 'nervous system' for Roman Space Telescope
Wednesday, 23 August 2023 17:26 Write a comment
Russia has declared a new space race, hoping to join forces with China. Here's why that's unlikely
Wednesday, 23 August 2023 17:12 Write a comment
This week, the Russian space agency Roscosmos had hoped to return to the moon after an absence of nearly 50 years. Instead, on Saturday it lost control of its Luna-25 lander. The agency explained the spacecraft "switched to an off-design orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface."
Yet, in an interview aired on state television, the agency's chief, Yuri Borisov, pledged his nation's unwavering commitment to lunar exploration:
Simulations suggest only 22 people are required to start a colony on Mars
Wednesday, 23 August 2023 13:20 Write a comment
A team of computational social scientists at George Mason University has found via simulations that 22 people is the minimum number needed to start a human colony on Mars. The group has posted a paper describing their simulation on the arXiv preprint server.
As humans around the globe ponder the possibility of one day sending people to Mars, and then at some later date, establishing a colony, scientists are exploring ways to overcome the hurdles standing in the way of achieving such goals. One factor that needs to be addressed, according to the team, is determining how many people could sustain a Mars colony, and what types of people are required.
To find possible answers, the team created a model simulating a Mars colony, focused specifically on how many people are required to create a viable colony as well as the characteristics that would most likely contribute to the success of such a colony. To that end, they used data from past endeavors, such as questionnaires filled out by groups aboard the International Space Station or those living in close quarters in the Arctic for months at a time.