Nuremberg, Germany (SPX) Jul 10, 2022
Lots of little dots with no apparent pattern: where laypeople may just see milky gray photos sprinkled with what looks like random crumbs, it is enough to make astronomers' hearts miss a beat. We are talking about historical photographic plates showing negatives of the night sky. Together with the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam and the universities of Hamburg and Tartu (Estonia

Madrid, Spain (SPX) Jul 10, 2022
Nitriles, a class of organic molecules with a cyano group, that is, a carbon atom bound with a triple unsaturated bond to a nitrogen atom, are typically toxic. But paradoxically, they are also a key precursor for molecules essential for life, such as ribonucleotides, composed of the nucleobases or 'letters' A, U, C, and G joined to a ribose and phosphate group, which together make up RNA. Now, a

Boca Raton LA (SPX) Jul 10, 2022
Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP), a global leader in satellite solutions, primarily serving the United States and Allied aerospace and defense industries, has announced the successful completion of CAPSTONE's first TCM burn (TCM-1). As the first statistical maneuver of the mission, TCM-1 is designed to clean up expected dispersions from the launch vehicle injection - enabling CAPSTONE to

Washington DC (UPI) Jul 10, 2022
Elon Musk's SpaceX has announced its new Starlink Maritime service to provide satellite internet to yachts and oil rigs for $5,000 per month. Starlink Maritime on its website advertises low-latency connection with download speeds of up to 350 megabytes-per-second while at sea, boasting that users can "connect from the most remote waters in the world." The company said that the Starli

Maxwell AFB AL (The Conversation) Jul 10, 2022
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson recently expressed concerns over China's aims in space, and in particular, that China would, in some way, claim ownership over the Moon and stop other countries from exploring it. In an interview with a German newspaper, Nelson cautioned, "We must be very concerned that China is landing on the Moon and saying: 'It's ours now and you stay out.'" China immediately de

Beijing (XNA) Jul 10, 2022
Though China now has more than 1.7 kilograms of lunar soil gathered from its historic Chang'e 5 mission, the government practices a prudent policy when it comes to distributing these valuable samples to researchers. Professor Wang Zaicong, a senior researcher at the School of Earth Sciences of the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, Hubei province, said his team received 200 milligra

Dallas TX (SPX) Jul 10, 2022
Jacobs (NYSE:J) was awarded the JSC Engineering, Technology, and Science (JETS) II contract at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Jacobs is scheduled to begin contract transition on Aug. 1 to continue providing engineering and scientific products and technical services for NASA at Johnson Space Center (JSC). The contract maximum value is estimated at approximately $3.9 billion ov

Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jul 10, 2022
NASA's microwave oven-sized CubeSat dubbed CAPSTONE is flying solo, blazing an unusual yet efficient deep space route to the Moon. The CubeSat is heading toward an unique orbit intended in the future for Gateway, a lunar space station built by the agency and its commercial and international partners that will support science and human exploration under Artemis. During the next four months,

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 10, 2022
Both the CheMin and SAM instruments have dined on the Avanavero drill samples and have decided their appetites are sated. CheMin has completed X-ray diffraction mineralogical analysis of the Avanavero drill sample, and SAM their Evolved Gas Analysis. Both instrument teams are satisfied with their analyses and SAM are not opting to do a Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry run. Now it is th

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jul 08, 2022
NASA will supply the upcoming European Space Agency (ESA) Lunar Pathfinder mission with an array of laser retroreflectors, mirrored devices that reflect light back at its source. The retroreflectors will offer new opportunities for lunar science and space geodesy. Geodesy is the scientific discipline that seeks to map Earth's shape, orientation, and gravity field. Space geodesy uses satell