Copernical Team
Ancient river is helping Perseverance Mars Rover do its work
The six-wheeled geologist is getting some assistance in its search for diverse rock samples that could be brought to Earth for deeper investigation.
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover sealed the tube containing its 20th rock core sample on June 23 (the 832nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission), and the mission's science team is excited about its potential.
That's because this sample was CHAPEA Mars Simulation program a test bed for food systems and crop cultivation
The initial crew selected for NASA's Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) mission 1, a ground-based Mars habitat simulation, is set to evaluate the efficacy of growing fresh produce in isolation. Commenced on June 25 at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the four-member crew will conduct a series of operations over a year's span, and won't have the facility of fresh food AROBS Engineering Takes Lead Role in Space Rider Project Software Verification and Validation
The Romanian software services company, AROBS Engineering, part of AROBS Group, has been announced as the primary industrial partner and consortium leader for the software verification and validation of Europe's first reusable space transportation system, Space Rider. This project, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), is expected to revolutionize access to low orbit.
Space Rider's ce Has the standard cosmological model been brocken or just cracked
A global consortium of astrophysicists spearheaded by teams from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany, Harvard University in the United States, and Durham University in the United Kingdom, have taken a bold stride towards understanding the cosmos. The team has recently simulated the formation of galaxies and cosmic structures across vast expanses of space.
A unique aspect o Does this exoplanet have a sibling sharing the same orbit
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have found the possible 'sibling' of a planet orbiting a distant star. The team has detected a cloud of debris that might be sharing this planet's orbit and which, they believe, could be the building blocks of a new planet or the remnants of one already formed. If confirmed, this discovery would be the strongest evidence NASA selects SwRI to lead DIMPLE lunar lander/rover instrument suite
NASA has selected Southwest Research Institute to lead a $50 million lunar lander/rover instrument suite, Dating an Irregular Mare Patch with a Lunar Explorer, or DIMPLE, designed to understand if the Moon has been volcanically active in the geologically recent past. DIMPLE, which was developed by SwRI, will use cameras and radioisotope-based dating to determine the age and composition of an ano SpaceX aborts launch of Starlink satellites
With only seconds remaining in the countdown late Tuesday, SpaceX aborted the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with a payload of Starlink satellites.
The mission was to deploy 15 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit where they were to join the thousands of other orbitals making up the company's Internet-emanating constellation.
However, with only 5 seconds before the scheduled lift of Senate expresses 'significant concerns' over NASA's Mars sample-retrieval plan
NASA's plans to retrieve samples of soil from Mars and fly them back to Earth seemingly is in deep trouble with a Senate committee.
On Wednesday, a Senate appropriations committee offered only $300 million for the plan for the fiscal year 2024, well short of the $949 million for which the space agency is asking.
The mission requires several vehicles. The Perseverance rover, which is New study reveals NASA's Roman could find 400 Earth-mass rogue planets
New research by scientists from NASA and Japan's Osaka University suggests that rogue planets—worlds that drift through space untethered to a star—far outnumber planets that orbit stars. The results imply that NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch by May 2027, could find a staggering 400 Earth-mass rogue worlds. Indeed, this new study has already identified one such candidate.
"We estimate that our galaxy is home to 20 times more rogue planets than stars—trillions of worlds wandering alone," said David Bennett, a senior research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and a co-author of two papers describing the results. "This is the first measurement of the number of rogue planets in the galaxy that is sensitive to planets less massive than Earth.
Sex in space: Why it's worrying that the space tourism sector hasn't considered the consequences
Humans have a knack for sharing intimate moments in unlikely places, as membership of the mile-high club demonstrates. So there is a significant chance that the launch of the space tourism sector may be swiftly followed by the first sex in space.
But having researched the issue, my colleagues and I believe that spacetourism companies haven't adequately prepared for the consequences of people joining what we could call the "Kármán line club" (referencing the 100km-high boundary between Earth and the rest of the cosmos).
Talk of space tourism has always been in terms of the distant future. But sub-orbital space tourism—short flights with only a few minutes of spaceflight and weightlessness—already exists. Tickets range from freebies, to costing millions of dollars.
Much longer flights are just around the corner. Companies such as Elon Musk's SpaceX have well-established track records of developing spacecraft faster than the public sector. SpaceX's larger and more capable Starship spacecraft will likely operate routinely in the next few years.
When, not if
Flights have been reserved and passenger lists assembled for private flights that will loop around the Moon.
