Copernical Team
NASA is continuing to build the Titan Dragonfly helicopter, with a focus on its rotors
Ingenuity, the helicopter assisting NASA's Mars Perseverance rover on its mission, has been a huge success. It gathered the achievement of the first controlled flight on another heavenly body, has performed spectacularly over its 28 flights and holds records for both speed and distance. But it might not for long, as a much bigger, more capable helicopter is currently under development. And when it eventually explores Titan in the next decade, it has an excellent chance to smash many of Ingenuity's records.
That helicopter, known as Dragonfly, is currently still in development on Earth. But, it achieved a significant milestone recently by completing the testing of its rotor blades at a unique testing chamber located at NASA's Langley Research Center.
The Transonic Dynamics Tunnel (TDT) differs from a standard wind tunnel in several ways. Most helpful in this case is its ability to use gases other than just Earth-normal air.
NASA's Lunar Flashlight team assessing spacecraft's propulsion system
NASA's Lunar Flashlight mission successfully launched on Dec. 11, 2022, to begin its four-month journey to the moon, where the small satellite, or SmallSat, will test several new technologies with a goal of looking for hidden surface ice at the lunar South Pole. The mission is characterizing its new "green" propulsion system and developing a modified plan for the briefcase-size satellite's journey to the moon.
While the SmallSat is largely healthy and communicating with NASA's Deep Space Network, the mission operations team has discovered that three of its four thrusters are underperforming.
EU inaugurates first mainland satellite launch port
Week in images: 09-13 January 2023
Week in images: 09-13 January 2023
Discover our week through the lens
Ingenuity completes the A-Z tour of the Wright Brothers Field at Jezero Crater
NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has acquired a new image using its high-resolution color camera. The camera, which is mounted in the helicopter's fuselage and pointed approximately 22 degrees below the horizon, was used during the 38th flight of the Ingenuity on January 11, 2023 (Sol 667 of the Perseverance rover mission).
During the flight, the Ingenuity traveled a horizontal distance of Model-Independent Method to weigh protoplanetary disks
Astronomers have found a way to directly measure the amount of gas in protoplanetary disks without needing to make assumptions about the relative amounts of different types of gas, making this method more accurate and robust than previous methods.
Planets form in protoplanetary disks of gas and dust around young stars. Scientists study protoplanetary disks by looking at their spectra, the TESS discovers planetary system's second Earth-size world
Using data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, scientists have identified an Earth-size world, called TOI 700 e, orbiting within the habitable zone of its star - the range of distances where liquid water could occur on a planet's surface. The world is 95% Earth's size and likely rocky.
Astronomers previously discovered three planets in this system, called TOI 700 b, c, and d Kleos Observer Mission Update
Kleos Space S.A. (ASX: KSS, Frankfurt: KS1), a space-powered defence and intelligence technology Company, announces that two-way communication has been achieved with all four Observer Mission (KSF3) satellites that launched successfully on 3 rd January aboard the Transporter-6 SpaceX mission.
Bi-directional communication has been achieved with all four Observer Mission satellites. The sate Planet and NASA Harvest launch commercial partnership to advance food security
Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL), a leading provider of daily data and insights about Earth, and NASA Harvest, the federal space agency's Global Food Security and Agriculture Program, has announced a partnership to further support the joint Food Security and Agricultural Monitoring Solution. The offering aims to deliver policy-grade agricultural monitoring and assessments of potential threats to globa NASA scientists and satellites make sense of Earth's subtle motions
Creeping, rising, falling, slipping - some parts of Earth are in perpetual motion. The movements are usually too tiny for human senses to notice, but they offer clues about more significant changes happening inside volcanoes, along fault lines, and where tectonic plates meet and clash. That's why scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California are using advanced tools and c