Copernical Team
Webb looks for Fomalhaut's asteroid belt and finds much more
The belts encircle the young hot star, which can be seen with the naked eye as the brightest star in the southern constellation Piscis Austrinus. The dusty belts are the debris from collisions of larger bodies, analogous to asteroids and comets, and are frequently described as 'debris disks.' "I would describe Fomalhaut as the archetype of debris disks found elsewhere in our galaxy, because it h New standard will aid in development of spaceport descriptions
ASTM International's commercial spaceflight committee (F47) has approved a new standard that will aid spaceports in developing descriptions of their sites and capabilities, including location and contact information. The new standard will soon be published as F3610.
According to ASTM member Mark Greby, the standard will lead to spaceport descriptions that will provide potential customers a Phantom Space and Quub sign multiple launch agreement
Phantom Space Corporation, a space applications company providing launch services, satellite design and operations to commercial and government customers, has announced they have signed a launch services agreement with Quub, Inc., a satellite manufacturer, for three dedicated launch missions.
Each dedicated launch will place upwards of 80 satellites into a tailored low earth orbit meeting SSTL and Oxford Space Systems to Launch CarbSAR in-orbit demo for innovative antenna
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) and Oxford Space Systems (OSS) have confirmed a partnership to build and launch an OSS Wrapped Rib antenna mounted to an SSTL CarbSAR satellite. The In Orbit Demonstration mission advances both companies' abilities, with OSS gaining space heritage, and SSTL building its ability to integrate capability from new suppliers.
The work has been jointly fund China's reusable experimental spacecraft successfully lands
A reusable experimental spacecraft on Monday successfully returned to its scheduled landing site at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, marking an important milestone in the nation's quest for reusable space technology.
The spacecraft, which has not yet been officially named, completed a 276-day in-orbit operation before its successful landing. This achievement indicate Momentus achieves first orbit raise with pioneering propulsion system
Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS) has successfully achieved the first orbital raise of its Vigoride-5 spacecraft using its pioneering Microwave Electrothermal Thruster (MET) that uses distilled water as propellant.
The successful maneuvers raised the altitude of the Vigoride Orbital Service Vehicle (OSV) by more than 3 kilometers, taking into account the atmospheric drag that the spacecraft must ove Team Continues to Troubleshoot Propulsion for NASA's Lunar Flashlight
NASA's Lunar Flashlight operations team continues to work on remedying the CubeSat's underperforming propulsion system. They developed a method to get one of the CubeSat's four thrusters to deliver more thrust; however, the small spacecraft will need additional, more consistent thrust in the next few days to reach its revised target orbit.
Devised by team members at NASA's Jet Propulsion L Aeolus' fiery demise to set standard for safe reentry
The Euclid spacecraft will transform how we view the 'dark universe'
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Euclid satellite completed the first part of its long journey into space on May 1, 2023, when it arrived in Florida on a boat from Italy. It is scheduled to lift off on a Falcon 9 rocket, built by SpaceX, from Cape Canaveral in early July.
Euclid is designed to provide us with a better understanding of the "mysterious" components of our universe, known as dark matter and dark energy.
Unlike the normal matter we experience here on Earth, dark matter neither reflects nor emits light. It binds galaxies together and is thought to make up about 80% of all the mass in the universe.
Thirsty on the moon? Just throw some regolith in the microwave
No matter where we go in the universe, we're going to need water. Thus far, human missions to Earth orbit and the moon have taken water with them. But while that works for short missions, it isn't practical in the long term. Water is heavy, and it would take far too much fuel to bring sufficient water to sustain long-term bases on the moon or Mars. So we'll have to use the water we can extract locally.
Fortunately, water is a common molecule in the universe. Even the moon has plenty of water to sustain a lunar colony. The only real challenge is how to extract it. As a recent study published in Acta Astronautica shows, that might be as easy as popping things into a microwave oven.
Although water is present in tiny quantities all over the moon, it is most concentrated in the polar regions.
