Mars News, Science, Technology at MarsDaily.com

September 23, 2019

Per Aspera Ad Astra

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 21, 2019
I have always known what the phrase "Per Aspera Ad Astra" meant, and in my work in the Aerospace arena, I have come to appreciate its significance. And so, any film that would attempt a title as such has to live up to my expectations and Ad Astra the movie does. Actor Brad Pitt and the cast masterfully demonstrate what a near-future voyage to the Moon, Mars and outer solar system might feel and sound like, as well as what some hypothetical political sensitivities might entail. A key ob ... read more

Australian Government commits to join NASA in Lunar exploration and beyond
Washington DC (Sputnik) Sep 20, 2019
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced his nation's intention to join the United States' Moon to Mars exploration approach, including NASA's Artemis lunar program. The announce ... more

Trump marks Mars as next target, Moon 'not so exciting'
Washington DC (Sputnik) Sep 23, 2019
US President Donald Trump on Friday praised the US space program's efforts to return astronauts to the moon by 2024 as "tremendous," yet outlined that the ultimate goal is Mars. "We're going t ... more

Marvellous Mars from the North Pole to the Southern Highlands
Cologne, Germany (SPX) Sep 23, 2019
In June 2019 the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) captured a number of global images of Mars. The view shown in the main image stretches from the North Pole to the heavily cratered highlands aro ... more

Drones probe dust devils to understand Mars's atmosphere
Geneva, Switzerland (SPX) Sep 20, 2019
Dust devils, small dusty whirlwinds, have been studied for decades. But, says Brian Jackson, an associate professor in the Department of Physics at Boise State University, the ability of dust devils ... more

Previous Issues

Sep 20

Sep 19

Sep 18

Sep 17

Sep 16

Deadline closing for names to fly on NASA's next Mars rover
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 19, 2019
It's the final boarding call for you to stow your name on NASA's Mars 2020 rover before it launches to the Red Planet. The Sept. 30 deadline for NASA's "Send Your Name to Mars" campaign gives the mi ... more

3D models of Mars to aid ESA Rover in quest for ancient life
Geneva, Switzerland (SPX) Sep 17, 2019
Scientists at TU Dortmund University have generated high-accuracy 3D models of terrain within the landing ellipse of the ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars rover, Rosalind Franklin. The Digital Terrain Models (D ... more

Carbon Dioxide Conversion Challenge could help human explorers live on Mars
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 20, 2019
On Earth, plants convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into carbohydrates and oxygen - food for them and oxygen for us to breathe. There aren't plants on Mars, but there is a lot of CO2. Technology that take ... more

Mars 2020 Spacecraft Comes Full Circle
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 13, 2019
Engineers took NASA's Mars 2020 for a spin on Aug. 29, 2019. The 2,300-pound (1,040-kilogram) Martian vehicle was rotated clockwise and counterclockwise at about 1 revolution per minute on what is c ... more

NASA Research Gives New Insight into How Much Atmosphere Mars Lost
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 06, 2019
A key tracer used to estimate how much atmosphere Mars lost can change depending on the time of day and the surface temperature on the Red Planet, according to new observations by NASA-funded scient ... more

'Martian CSI' Sheds Light on How Asteroid Impacts Generated Running Water Under Red Planet
Swindon UK (Sputnik) Sep 09, 2019
Volcanic Martian meteorites known as "nakhlites owe their name to El Nakhla in Egypt, where they first landed on Earth in 1911. Although they hold traces of impact of liquid water on the Martian sur ... more

NASA engineers attach Mars Helicopter to Mars 2020 rover
Washington (UPI) Aug 29, 2019
NASA engineers have installed the miniature helicopter on the space agency's Mars 2020 rover. The Mars Helicopter, nicknamed Scout, will be the first aircraft to fly on another planet. ... more

ESA Chief says discussed ExoMars 2020 launch with Roscosmos
Moscow (Sputnik) Aug 30, 2019
The 2020 mission of the ExoMars programme is expected to deliver a European rover and a Russian surface platform to the surface of Mars. The rover is expected to spend one year exploring the surface ... more

NASA's Mars Helicopter Attached to Mars 2020 Rover
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 29, 2019
Engineers attached NASA's Mars Helicopter, which will be the first aircraft to fly on another planet, to the belly of the Mars 2020 rover in the High Bay 1 clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laborator ... more

NASA Invites Students to Name Next Mars Rover
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 29, 2019
Red rover, red rover, send a name for Mars 2020 right over! NASA is recruiting help from students nationwide to find a name for its next Mars rover mission. Starting Tuesday, K-12 students in ... more

ExoMars rover ready for environment testing

'Game-Changer' for Cosmic Research: NASA Chief Touts Nuclear Powered Spacecraft
Washington DC (Sputnik) Aug 23, 2019
Earlier this month, NASA's Future In-Space Operations working group said that its portable nuclear powered reactor will be ready to fly to Mars by 2022. Speaking at a National Space Council (N ... more

Scientists Explore Outback as Testbed for Mars
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 27, 2019
This week, scientists from NASA's upcoming Mars 2020 mission joined their counterparts from the joint European-Russian ExoMars mission in an expedition to the Australian Outback, one of the most rem ... more

Atacama Desert microbes may hold clues to life on Mars
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 23, 2019
Microbial life on Mars may potentially be transported across the planet on dust particles carried by wind, according to a study conducted in the Atacama Desert in North Chile, a well-known Mars anal ... more

A step closer to solving the methane mystery on Mars
Canberra, Australia (SPX) Aug 22, 2019
Scientists have taken an important step towards revealing the mysterious source of methane on Mars, by refining estimates of the gas in the planet's atmosphere. The methane puffing from a huge ... more

Roscosmos postpones joint ESA ExoMars mission after failed parachute tests
Moscow (Sputnik) Aug 16, 2019
Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos said in a statement on Thursday that the launch of the joint Russian-European ExoMars-2020 astrobiology mission, aimed at searching for evidence of life on ... more

NASA's portable trash bin-sized nuclear power module to be ready by 2022
Washington DC (Sputnik) Aug 14, 2019
The reactor is expected to fulfil a variety of tasks on the red planet, ranging from supplying astronauts with heat and air, to powering 3D printers that will be used for constructing buildings. ... more

Lunar soil is a dangerous nuisance for astronauts
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 23, 2019

Future moon missions are at risk because of lunar soil. It seems harmless, but moon dust can actually damage scientific equipment and be harmful to human health: It is like a sticky powder made from shards of glass. Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the moon 50 years ago, and his footprints in lunar soil will be there for million of years, according to NASA. There is no wind to blow the fo ... more

+ China's lunar rover discovers mysterious material on far side of Moon

+ Orion to face simulated rigors of space in last major testing before Artemis I

+ Audit faults NASA for failing to detect schedule delays for moon return

+ Are we prepared for a new era of field geology on the moon and beyond?

+ Kentucky companies give NASA Artemis missions a boost

+ NASA Funds CubeSat Pathfinder Mission to Unique Lunar Orbit

+ India locates missing Moon lander

China's KZ-1A rocket launches two satellites
Jiuquan, China (XNA) Sep 02, 2019

Two satellites for technological experiments were sent into space by a Kuaizhou-1A, or KZ-1A, carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Saturday. The rocket blasted off at 7:41 a.m. and sent the two satellites into their planned orbit. Kuaizhou-1A, meaning speedy vessel, is a low-cost solid-fuel carrier rocket with high reliability and a short prep ... more

+ China's newly launched communication satellite suffers abnormality

+ China launches first private rocket capable of carrying satellites

+ Chinese scientists say goodbye to Tiangong-2

+ China's space lab Tiangong 2 destroyed in controlled fall to earth

+ From Moon to Mars, Chinese space engineers rise to new challenges

+ China plans to deploy almost 200 AU-controlled satellites into orbit

+ Luokung and Land Space to develop control system for space and ground assets

Comet's collapsing cliffs and bouncing boulders
Paris (ESA) Sep 23, 2019

Scientists analysing the treasure trove of images taken by ESA's Rosetta mission have turned up more evidence for curious bouncing boulders and dramatic cliff collapses. Rosetta operated at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko between August 2014 and September 2016, collecting data on the comet's dust, gas and plasma environment, its surface characteristics and its interior structure. As ... more

+ Comet gateway discovered to inner solar system

+ Gigantic asteroid collision boosted biodiversity on Earth

+ International space agencies to test-crash spacecraft into asteroid

+ NASA blames bad weather for failure to warn about approaching hazardous asteroid

+ Gemini observatory captures multicolor image of first-ever interstellar comet

+ AIDA collaboration highlights case for planetary defense

+ Newly Discovered Comet Is Likely Interstellar Visitor

Huge Volcano on Jupiter's Moon Io Erupts on Regular Schedule
Tucson AZ (SPX) Sep 18, 2019

Volcanic eruptions are difficult to predict, but observations have shown the largest and most powerful volcano on Io, a large moon of Jupiter, has been erupting on a relatively regular schedule. The volcano Loki is expected to erupt in mid-September 2019, according to a poster by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Julie Rathbun presented this week. "Loki is the largest and ... more

+ Stony-iron meteoroid caused August impact flash at Jupiter

+ Storms on Jupiter are disturbing the planet's colorful belts

+ ALMA shows what's inside Jupiter's storms

+ Young Jupiter was smacked head-on by massive newborn planet

+ Mission to Jupiter's icy moon confirmed

+ Giant Impact Disrupted Jupiter's Core

+ Young Jupiter Was Smacked Head-On by Massive Newborn Planet

'Snow-Cannon' Enceladus shines up Saturn's super-reflective moons
Geneva, Switzerland (SPX) Sep 19, 2019

Radar observations of Saturn's moons, Mimas, Enceladus and Tethys, show that Enceladus is acting as a 'snow-cannon,' coating itself and its neighbours with fresh water-ice particles to make them dazzlingly reflective. The extreme radar brightness also points to the presence of 'boomerang' structures beneath the surface that boost the moons' efficiency in returning the microwave signals to the sp ... more

+ Age-old debate on Saturn's rings reignited

+ Saturn's Rings Shine in New Hubble Portrait

+ Nitrogen explosions created craters on Saturn moon Titan

+ Methane-filled lakes on Saturn's moon Titan are explosion craters

+ New models suggest Titan lakes are explosion craters

+ A brief astronomical history of Saturn's amazing rings

+ Yale researcher has a window seat for planning NASA's Dragonfly mission

China launches new remote-sensing satellites
Jiuquan (XNA) Sep 20, 2019

Five new remote-sensing satellites were sent into planned orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gobi Desert Thursday. The five satellites were launched by a Long March-11 carrier rocket at 2:42 p.m. (Beijing Time). The satellites belong to a commercial remote-sensing satellite constellation project "Zhuhai-1," which will comprise 34 micro-nano satellites ... more

+ Clemson physicists lead rocket missions to further explore the wonders of Earth's atmosphere

+ Suomi NPP tracks fire and smoke from two continents

+ German HALO research aircraft to investigate ozone hole, Amazon fires and gravity waves

+ First Earth observation satellite with AI ready for launch

+ Sudden warming over Antarctica to prolong Australia drought

+ Do animals control earth's oxygen level

+ Cutting edge UK led satellite will help to identify natural resources from space

Russia to give cosmonauts guns to fend off animals on landing
Moscow (AFP) Sept 18, 2019

Russia is testing a gun that returning cosmonauts could use to fend off wild animals when landing in remote areas, the head of the Russian space agency said Wednesday. Cosmonauts have been unarmed for more than a decade but Roscosmos agency head Dmitry Rogozin said it was time to bring back weapons as manned launches move to the Russian Far East. "It's possible that landings will also be ... more

+ Orion Test Article on the Move

+ Per Aspera Ad Astra

+ Roscosmos finds causes of hole in Soyuz MS-09, but won't disclose them

+ Space Station science: learning from Luca

+ Brad Pitt talks weightlessness and calluses on phone call to ISS

+ Putin briefed on results of probe into hole in Soyuz MS-09

+ France pledges billions in fight to halt start-up drain

First Water Detected on Planet in the Habitable Zone
Garching, Germany (SPX) Sep 12, 2019

With data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, water vapour has been detected in the atmosphere of a super-Earth within the habitable zone by University College London (UCL) researchers in a world first. K2-18b, which is eight times the mass of Earth, is now the only planet orbiting a star outside the solar system, or exoplanet, known to have both water and temperatures that could support l ... more

+ Looking for alien lurkers

+ The rare molecule weighing in on the birth of planets

+ Researchers mix RNA and DNA to study how life's process began billions of years ago

+ Research redefines lower limit for planet size habitability

+ First water detected on potentially 'habitable' planet

+ Water detected on an exoplanet located in its star's habitable zone

+ How to Spin a Disk Around Young Protostars

U.S. Navy's MQ-25 tanker drone completes first test flight
Washington (UPI) Sep 20, 2019

The U.S. Navy's MQ-25 unmanned aerial refueling aircraft successfully completed its first test flight, manufacturer Boeing Co. announced this week. The tanker drone completed its two-hour flight at its test program base at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Mascoutah, Ill., on Thursday, the company said in a press release. The aircraft completed an autonomous taxi and takeoff, and t ... more

+ FedEx, Walgreens team with Wing for drone delivery test

+ Lockheed, Raytheon launch Javelin missiles from unmanned vehicle

+ Iran unveils new reconnaissance and attack drone

+ Iraq paramilitary force says Israel behind latest drone attack

+ Hughes partners with startup to extend LTE Coverage using helicopters and UAVs

+ Drone buzzes above vineyard helping Luxembourg winegrower

+ Skyfront Perimeter Drone Performs The First Beyond-Line-of-Sight Flight under FAA Part 107

Sandia experiments at temperature of sun offer solutions to solar model problems
Albuquerque NM (SPX) Sep 12, 2019

Experimenting at 2.2 million degrees Celsius, physicists at Sandia National Laboratories' Z machine have found that an astronomical model - used for 40 years to predict the sun's behavior as well as the life and death of stars - underestimates the energy blockage caused by free-floating iron atoms, a major player in those processes. The blockage effect, called opacity, is an element's natu ... more

+ It's not aurora, it's STEVE

+ NASA Selects Proposals to Advance Understanding of Space Weather

+ Streaks in Aurora Found to Map Features in Earth's Radiation Environment

+ Proposals selected for small satellites to study interplanetary space

+ NASA's MMS finds first interplanetary shock

+ Parker Solar Probe completes 2 orbits of Sun

+ Magnetic plasma pulses excited by UK-size swirls in the solar atmosphere

NASA joins last of five sections for Space Launch System rocket stage
New Orleans LA (SPX) Sep 23, 2019

NASA finished assembling and joining the main structural components for the largest rocket stage the agency has built since the Saturn V that sent Apollo astronauts to the Moon. Engineers at the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans connected the last of the five sections of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage on Sept. 19. The stage will produce 2 million pounds of thrust ... more

+ Aerojet Rocketdyne Scores Big Contracts on US ICBM, Hypersonic Missile Programs

+ Baikonur Cosmodrome Getting Ready for Last Launch of Russian Rocket With Ukrainian Parts

+ China to launch Third Long March 5 by year end

+ Roscosmos to Build Cheap Soyuz-2M Rocket for Commercial Satellites Launch Service

+ Engine Section for NASA's SLS Rocket Moved for Final Integration

+ Fire forces Japan to cancel rocket launch to ISS

+ New salt-based propellant proven compatible in dual-mode rocket engines

Deep dive for dark matter may aid all of data science
Houston TX (SPX) Sep 19, 2019

A Rice University scientist and his colleagues are booting their search for dark matter into a study they hope will enhance all of data science. Rice astroparticle physicist Christopher Tunnell and his team have received a $1 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to reimagine data science techniques and help push data-intensive physical sciences past the tipping point to discover ... more

+ From primordial black holes new clues to dark matter

+ VISTA unveils a new image of the Large Magellanic Cloud

+ Event Horizon Telescope Design Program Announced

+ New observations help explain the dimming of Tabby's Star

+ WVU astronomers help detect the most massive neutron star ever measured

+ Most massive neutron star ever detected, almost too massive to exist

+ The stellar nurseries of distant galaxies

UN offers use of ESA's hypergravity centrifuge to researchers worldwide
Noordwijk, Netherlands (SPX) Sep 06, 2019

Imagine being able to increase the force of gravity simply by turning a dial. A United Nations fellowship is offering this opportunity to researchers all over the world, through access to ESA's hypergravity-generating Large Diameter Centrifuge. Manipulate gravity and a lot of other factors shift too: bubbles in liquid alter their behaviour, convection currents accelerate and metal alloys f ... more

+ A key piece to understanding how quantum gravity affects low-energy physics

+ Fastest eclipsing binary, a valuable target for gravitational wave studies

+ Chameleon Theory Could Change How We Think About Gravity

+ Artificial gravity breaks free from science fiction

+ Researchers find quantum gravity has no symmetry

+ Development of a displacement sensor to measure gravity of smallest source mass ever

+ Gravitational waves leave a detectable mark, physicists say

New initiative to explore origin and future of Universe
Hannover, Germany (SPX) Sep 23, 2019

Anna Ijjas, leader of the recently established Lise Meitner Research Group "Gravitational Theory and Cosmology" at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute / AEI) in Hannover, and Paul Steinhardt, Albert Einstein Professor in Science at Princeton University, receive 1.3 million US-dollars for four years from the Simons Foundation. The goal of the newly ... more

+ Milestones on the way to the nuclear clock

+ Researchers produce synthetic Hall Effect to achieve one-way radio transmission

+ Milestones on the way to the nuclear clock

+ Unexpected periodic flares may shed light on black hole accretion

+ KATRIN cuts the mass estimate for the elusive neutrino in half

+ High value for Hubble Constant from two gravitational lenses

+ First 'Overtones' Heard in the Ringing of a Black Hole

Microsoft President calls for urgent action to tackle rise of killer robots
Washington DC (Sputnik) Sep 23, 2019

Despite public concern and criticism, numerous countries are developing military drones and autonomous weapon systems that are capable of destroying targets on their own and possibly also of replacing humans on some missions. As the chief of one of the world's leading tech companies suggests, the global community is unprepared for the shift. Microsoft President Brad Smith has told The Tele ... more

+ Nevada's Team CERBERUS moves ahead at robotic underground terrain competition

+ Russia terminates robot Fedor after space odyssey

+ At NY Fashion Week, robotic dresses take on a life of their own

+ 'Sense of urgency', as top tech players seek AI ethical rules

+ Psychosensory electronic skin technology for future AI and humanoid development

+ Russian robot 'Fedor' leaves ISS

+ Russian Humanoid Robot Fedor Announces Full Implementation of Flight Test Program

China's KZ-1A rocket launches two satellites
Jiuquan, China (XNA) Sep 02, 2019

+ China's newly launched communication satellite suffers abnormality

+ China launches first private rocket capable of carrying satellites

+ Chinese scientists say goodbye to Tiangong-2

+ China's space lab Tiangong 2 destroyed in controlled fall to earth

+ From Moon to Mars, Chinese space engineers rise to new challenges

+ China plans to deploy almost 200 AU-controlled satellites into orbit

+ Luokung and Land Space to develop control system for space and ground assets

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