Copernical Team
First NASA asteroid sample return mission on track for fall '23 delivery
NASA's first asteroid sample return spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, fired its thrusters for 30 seconds on Sept. 21 and nudged its trajectory toward Earth. The resulting course correction keeps the vehicle on track to deliver a sample of asteroid Bennu to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, completing a seven-year mission.
The delivery itself, however, is not a simple parcel drop on Earth's front doorstep: NASA's OSIRIS-REx—formally the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security—Regolith Explorer—must approach Earth at a precise speed and direction to deliver its sample return capsule into Earth's atmosphere. "If the capsule is angled too high, it will skip off the atmosphere," said Mike Moreau, OSIRIS-REx deputy project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Angled too low, it will burn up in Earth's atmosphere."
To ensure a safe delivery, "Over the next year, we will gradually adjust the OSIRIS-REx trajectory to target the spacecraft closer to Earth," said Daniel Wibben, trajectory-and-maneuver design lead with KinetX Inc.
Researching the effects of simulated space habitats on crews under controlled and isolated conditions
Current international human space exploration roadmaps envisage month-long crew stays on the moon within the next few decades, with crewed missions to Mars the long term goal. The psychological effects of human spaceflight, especially in the sense of isolation and confinement, need to be explored ahead of deep space crewed missions.
To allow astronauts not only to survive but to thrive in alien environments, practice is needed. Practice involves operations on the ISS, but the ISS cannot simulate all aspects of a Lunar or Martian mission, such as the surface operations or long periods without sunlight. Therefore, research is being carried out under controlled and isolated conditions within simulated space habitats, to gain insights into the effects of such conditions on the research subjects and their impacts on crews' well-being and success.
Similarly, an analog environment cannot fully replicate that of the moon or Mars, but a variety of analog environments that simulate different aspects of the off-world environment can be used in conjunction to prepare for future missions.
British institutions join search for answers on early universe
Six British academic institutions will join a U.S.-led search for answers on the early universe.
The project brings together 85 institutions from 13 countries to analyze data from the Simons Observatory, a series of telescopes 3.2 miles above Chile's Atacama desert. The observatory has three instruments that are designed to measure cosmic microwave background, the heat and radiation tha Ariane 6 stands tall on its launch pad
The Ariane 6 launch pad at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana now hosts for the first time a fully assembled example of ESA’s new heavy-lift rocket, following the addition of an upper composite to the core stage and four boosters already in place. The upper composite – consisting of two half-fairings and a payload mock-up with the structural adapter needed to join it to the core stage – made the 10 km trip from the encapsulation building to launch pad on 12 October.
Russia launches new Angolan satellite into orbit
Russia launched a new Angolan communications satellite on Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Roscosmos agency said, after Luanda's first satellite was lost in space.
A Proton-M rocket blasted off at 1500 GMT and Angosat-2 was "being put into orbit", the agency said.
Angosat-1 was also deployed by a Russian rocket in December 2017, but Moscow announced it had lost c Heat-proof chaotic carbides could revolutionize aerospace technology
A group of scientists led by Duke University have engineered a new class of materials capable of producing tunable plasmonic properties while withstanding incredibly high temperatures.
Plasmonics is a technology that essentially traps the energy of light within groups of electrons oscillating together on a metallic surface. This creates a powerful electromagnetic field that interacts with Two solar eclipses are coming to America
The countdown has begun! Exactly one year from today, the first of two major solar eclipses just six months apart will occur over the Americas. On October 14, 2023, the Moon will pass directly between Earth and the Sun but will cover only 90% of the brilliant solar disk. The remaining 10% will appear as a blazing "ring of fire" around the Moon's dark silhouette.
This annular (Latin for rin Integral's 20th anniversary
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Launched on 17 October 2002, ESA’s Integral mission is a world-class mission which has been observing the Universe’s violent explosions and powerful phenomena for 20 years, achieving many scientific firsts. The mission's impressive lifetime is owed to responsibility and leadership on the side of ESA science and operations. This graphic highlights some of the mission’s impressive numbers to date.
Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico will not be rebuilt
The National Science Foundation said Friday that it won't rebuild the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, and instead pans to build a STEM-focused education center.
The center would expand upon existing education and outreach opportunities, and is expected to open in 2023, the NSF said in a statement.
The NSF is soliciting proposals to manage "the education, STEM research, and ou NASA's Swift, Fermi missions detect exceptional cosmic blast
Astronomers around the world are captivated by an unusually bright and long-lasting pulse of high-energy radiation that swept over Earth Sunday, Oct. 9. The emission came from a gamma-ray burst (GRB) - the most powerful class of explosions in the universe - that ranks among the most luminous events known.
On Sunday morning Eastern time, a wave of X-rays and gamma rays passed through the so 
