Copernical Team
Researchers create lunar regolith bricks that could be used to construct Artemis base camp
As part of NASA's Artemis program to establish a long-term presence on the moon, it aims to build an Artemis base camp that includes a modern lunar cabin, rover and mobile home. This fixed habitat could potentially be constructed with bricks made of lunar regolith and saltwater, thanks to a recent discovery from a team of UCF researchers.
Associate Professor Ranajay Ghosh of UCF's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and his research group found that 3D-printed bricks of lunar regolith can withstand the extreme environments of space and are a good candidate for cosmic construction projects. Lunar regolith is the loose dust, rocks and materials that cover the moon's surface.
The results of their experiments are detailed in a recent issue of Ceramics International.
To create the bricks, Ghosh's team in the Complex Structures and Mechanics of Solids (COSMOS) Lab used a combination of 3D printing and binder jet technology (BJT), an additive manufacturing method that forces out a liquid binding agent onto a bed of powder.
ISS habitat is safe for its residents, according to 5-year microbial study
A 5-year microbial study of the International Space Station (ISS) and its astronauts by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and NASA researchers has found that the ISS habitat is safe for its residents.
The research effort represents the first comprehensive characterization of the space station's environmental profile (or microbiome) and is the first to compare the ISS microbiome to an astronaut's microbiome using metagenomic DNA sequencing techniques.
Partial solar eclipse begins in Iceland headed towards India
A partial solar eclipse began over Iceland on Tuesday as the rare celestial spectacle started to make its way east across a swathe of the Northern Hemisphere.
The partial eclipse began at 0858 GMT and will end off the coast of India at 1302 GMT, crossing parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East on its way, according to the IMCCE institute of France's Paris Observatory.
Amateur astronomers must not stare directly at the eclipse, which will not darken the sky, and should instead wear protective glasses to avoid eye damage, experts said.
Solar eclipses occur when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, casting its shadow down onto our planet.
A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon completely blocks the Sun's disk, momentarily plunging a portion of the Earth into complete darkness.
Methane-eating 'borgs' have been assimilating Earth's microbes
In Star Trek, the Borg are a ruthless, hive-minded collective that assimilate other beings with the intent of taking over the galaxy. Here on nonfictional planet Earth, Borgs are DNA packages that could help humans fight climate change.
Last year, a team led by Jill Banfield discovered DNA structures within a methane-consuming microbe called Methanoperedens that appear to supercharge the o Mapping planet Earth for better positioning: ESA's GENESIS mission
ESA's Navigation Directorate is planning a new satellite whose results will enable the generation of an updated global model of Earth - the International Terrestrial Reference Frame, employed for everything from land surveying to measuring sea level rise - with an accuracy down to 1 mm, while tracking ground motion of just 0.1 mm per year. This improvement, at a stroke, will have a major impact Ride into microgravity with a 'spy' amongst numerous experiments
On 21 October 2022 at 09:25, the MAPHEUS 12 research rocket of the German Aerospace Center took off from the Esrange Space Center near Kiruna in northern Sweden. It reached an altitude of 260 kilometres before descending back to Earth on a parachute. On board for the first time were nerve cells. The goal is to understand how their electrical signals deviate in microgravity.
The research te SpaceX announces Starlink Internet service on airplanes
SpaceX announced that its satellite internet service Starlink will be available on select airplanes beginning next year.
Starlink Aviation will offer Internet speeds of up to 350 Mbps to each plane that is equipped with its Aero Terminal, which it says is fast enough for video calls, online gaming, "and other high data rate activities."
"With Starlink, passengers will be able to The most precise accounting yet of dark energy and dark matter
Astrophysicists have performed a powerful new analysis that places the most precise limits yet on the composition and evolution of the universe. With this analysis, dubbed Pantheon+, cosmologists find themselves at a crossroads. Pantheon+ convincingly finds that the cosmos is composed of about two-thirds dark energy and one-third matter - mostly in the form of dark matter - and is expanding at a Using Webb Telescope to study supernovae as source of heavy elements in universe
In 1980's popular book "Cosmos," Carl Sagan wrote of what makes us: "All the elements of the Earth except hydrogen and some helium have been cooked by a kind of stellar alchemy billions of years ago in stars, some of which are today inconspicuous white dwarfs on the other side of the Milky Way Galaxy. The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our app 'Marshmallow' world orbiting a cool red dwarf star
A gas giant exoplanet with the density of a marshmallow has been detected in orbit around a cool red dwarf star by a suite of instruments, including the NASA-funded NEID radial-velocity instrument on the WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab. The planet, named TOI-3757 b, is the fluffiest gas giant planet ever discovered around this type of star. 
