Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 23, 2025
NASA's Artemis program is spearheading efforts to return humans to the Moon, establish a sustainable lunar presence, and pave the way for crewed missions to Mars. As part of this initiative, engineers are tackling the challenge of lunar dust, a substance known for its sharp, abrasive particles that adhere to spacesuits and disrupt equipment functionality. Lunar dust emerged as a significan

Fairbanks AK (SPX) Jan 23, 2025
Three NASA sounding rockets are set to launch from Poker Flat Research Range as early as Tuesday to learn more about three types of aurora - black, flickering and fast-pulsating. The launch window is Jan. 21 through Feb. 5. The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute owns Poker Flat, located at Mile 30 Steese Highway, and operates it under a contract with NASA's Wallops

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 23, 2025
Four compact spacecraft, designed and constructed by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), have arrived at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for final preparations ahead of their upcoming launch. NASA's Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission will share its ride to orbit with the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Ex

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 23, 2025
Researchers have used an aircraft to measure the wind speed on Mars, marking the first time this method has been used on another planet. This groundbreaking measurement was made possible by the Ingenuity helicopter, which was active for nearly three years and spent, cumulatively, more than two hours in flight on the Red Planet. In February 2021, Mars got two new inhabitants: the Perseveran

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 23, 2025
A critical component of NASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission has begun a rigorous testing phase at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Known as the instrument enclosure, the structure spans 12 feet (3.7 meters) in length and is designed to safeguard the spacecraft's infrared telescope while efficiently dissipating heat during its operations in space. Built by NASA's Jet Propuls

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 23, 2025
The near-Earth object 2024 PT5, a small asteroid discovered in 2024, has been identified as likely originating from the Moon. Scientists believe it was ejected into space thousands of years ago following a significant impact event, offering valuable opportunities to study both asteroid dynamics and lunar geology. The asteroid, approximately 33 feet (10 meters) wide, was first observed on A

Image: A Tarantula’s outskirts

Image: Satellite ready for close-up

Week in images: 20-24 January 2025

Discover our week through the lens

Video: 00:01:20

Listen to the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft as it flew past Mercury on 8 January 2025. This sixth and final flyby used the little planet's gravity to steer the spacecraft on course for entering orbit around Mercury in 2026. 

What you can hear in the sonification soundtrack of this video are real spacecraft vibrations measured by the Italian Spring Accelerometer (ISA) instrument. The accelerometer data have been shifted in frequency to make them audible to human ears – one hour of measurements have been sped up to one minute of sound.  

BepiColombo is always shaking ever so