|
|
Studies of Clay Formation Provide Clues to Early Martian Climate![]() Mountain View, CA (SPX) Feb 06, 2018 New research published in Nature Astronomy seeks to understand how surface clay was formed on Mars despite its cold climate. The climate on early Mars has presented an enigma for planetary scientists because surface features such as valley networks indicate abundant liquid water was present and the clay minerals found in most ancient surface rocks need even warmer temperatures to form, while atmospheric models generally support a cold climate on early Mars. This new study led by Janice Bishop of t ... read more |
Opportunity Celebrates 14 Years of Working on MarsPasadena CA (JPL) Feb 05, 2018 Opportunity is continuing her exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover has moved along the north fork of the local flow channel. Continuing the exten ... more
Mount Sharp 'Photobombs' Mars Curiosity RoverPasadena CA (JPL) Feb 02, 2018 A new self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle on Vera Rubin Ridge, which it has been investigating for the past several months. Directly behind the rover is the start of a cla ... more
SpaceX poised to launch 'world's most powerful rocket'Miami (AFP) Feb 6, 2018 SpaceX is poised for the first test launch Tuesday of its Falcon Heavy, which aims to become the world's most powerful rocket in operation, capable of reaching the Moon or Mars some day. ... more
NASA tests power system to support manned missions to MarsWashington DC (VOA) Jan 30, 2018 United States government agencies say the first tests of a very small nuclear power system designed for missions to Mars have been successful. The American space agency NASA and the Department ... more |
|
| Previous Issues | Feb 06 | Feb 05 | Feb 03 | Feb 02 | Feb 01 |
|
|
|
|
Kilopower: What's Next?Cleveland OH (SPX) Jan 19, 2018 When astronauts someday venture to the Moon, Mars and other destinations, one of the first and most important resources they will need is power. A reliable and efficient power system will be essenti ... more
Opportunity gets dust cleaning and passes 45 kilometers of drivingPasadena CA (JPL) Jan 23, 2018 Opportunity is continuing her winter exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover has moved along the north fork of the local flow channel. However, befo ... more
Mystery Solved for Mega-Avalanches in Tibet - and Perhaps on MarsTucson Az (SPX) Jan 24, 2018 An international scientific effort determined the cause of a highly unusual and deadly glacier avalanche in Tibet in 2016, a new Nature Geoscience paper says. In July 2016, a glacier in Tibet ... more
Crater Neukum named after Mars Express founderParis (ESA) Jan 19, 2018 A fascinating martian crater has been chosen to honour the German physicist and planetary scientist, Gerhard Neukum, one of the founders of ESA's Mars Express mission. The International Astron ... more
Next Mars Analog mission will help improve efficiency and reduce dust exposureDaytona Beach, FL (SPX) Jan 18, 2018 As NASA and others look to return humans to the Moon for longer durations, lunar dust remains an industry concern. Apollo mission crew members described the dust as similar to sandpaper, havin ... more |
![]() New technique for finding life on Mars
Deep, buried glaciers spotted on MarsMiami (AFP) Jan 11, 2018 Buried glaciers have been spotted on Mars, offering new hints about how much water may be accessible on the Red Planet and where it is located, researchers said Thursday. ... more |
|
|
Opportunity takes right at the fork and has successful battery testPasadena CA (JPL) Jan 15, 2018 Opportunity is continuing her winter exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is positioned upstream of a fork in the flow channels. After some deliberatio ... more
Possible Lava Tube Skylights Discovered Near the North Pole of the MoonMountain View CA (SPX) Jan 15, 2018 The SETI Institute and the Mars Institute have announced the discovery of small pits in a large crater near the North Pole of the Moon, which may be entrances to an underground network of lava tubes ... more
Steep Slopes on Mars Reveal Structure of Buried IcePasadena CA (JPL) Jan 11, 2018 Researchers using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have found eight sites where thick deposits of ice beneath Mars' surface are exposed in faces of eroding slopes. These eight scarps, ... more
Scientist's work may provide answer to Martian mountain mysteryDallas TX (SPX) Jan 12, 2018 By seeing which way the wind blows, a University of Texas at Dallas fluid dynamics expert has helped propose a solution to a Martian mountain mystery. Dr. William Anderson, an assistant professor of ... more
Exploring alien worlds with lasersParis (ESA) Jan 11, 2018 In everyday life we look and touch things to find out what they are made of. A powerful scientific technique does the same using lasers - and in two years' time it will fly in space for the first ti ... more |
|
|
Chinese volunteers spend 200 days on virtual 'moon base' Beijing (AFP) Jan 26, 2018
Chinese students spent 200 continuous days in a "lunar lab" in Beijing, state media said Friday, as the country prepares for its long-term goal of putting people on the moon.
Four students crammed into a 160-square-metre (1,720-square-foot) cabin called "Yuegong-1" - Lunar Palace - on the campus of Beihang University, testing the limits of humans' ability to live in a self-contained space, ... more |
China launches first shared education satellite Jiuquan (XNA) Feb 06, 2018
China's first shared education satellite, Young Pioneer 1, carried by the Long March-2D rocket, was launched into space from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center Friday afternoon.
The 3-kg CubeSat (100 * 100 * 340mm), Young Pioneer 1, enters an orbit of 502 km above the Earth. The rocket also carried Zhangheng 1, an electromagnetic satellite to study earthquake data, and five other miniaturized ... more |
|
|
New research suggests toward end of Ice Age, human beings witnessed fires larger than dinosaur killers Lawrence KS (SPX) Feb 02, 2018
On a ho-hum day some 12,800 years ago, the Earth had emerged from another ice age. Things were warming up, and the glaciers had retreated.
Out of nowhere, the sky was lit with fireballs. This was followed by shock waves.
Fires rushed across the landscape, and dust clogged the sky, cutting off the sunlight. As the climate rapidly cooled, plants died, food sources were snuffed out, and ... more |
Europa and Other Planetary Bodies May Have Extremely Low-Density Surfaces Tucson AZ (SPX) Jan 25, 2018
Spacecraft landing on Jupiter's moon Europa could see the craft sink due to high surface porosity, research by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Robert Nelson shows.
Nelson was the lead author of a laboratory study of the photopolarimetric properties of bright particles that explain unusual negative polarization behavior at low phase angles observed for decades in association wi ... more |
|
|
Titan topographic map unearths cookie-cutter holes in moon's surface Ithaca NY (SPX) Jan 19, 2018
Using the now-complete Cassini data set, Cornell University astronomers have created a new global topographic map of Saturn's moon Titan that has opened new windows into understanding its liquid flows and terrain. Two papers, recently published in Geophysical Review Letters, describe the map and discoveries arising from it.
Creating the map took about a year, according to doctoral student ... more |
NASA's small spacecraft produces first 883-gigahertz global ice-cloud map Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 31, 2018
A bread loaf-sized satellite has produced the world's first map of the global distribution of atmospheric ice in the 883-Gigahertz band, an important frequency in the submillimeter wavelength for studying cloud ice and its effect on Earth's climate.
IceCube - the diminutive spacecraft that deployed from the International Space Station in May 2017- has demonstrated-in-space a commercial 883 ... more |
|
|
NanoRacks adds Thales Alenia Space to team up on Commercial Space Station Airlock Module Turin, Italy (SPX) Feb 07, 2018
NanoRacks reports that Thales Alenia Space has been chosen as the latest partner in its commercial airlock program.
Thales Alenia Space will produce and test the critical pressure shell for NanoRacks' Airlock Module, which is targeting to be launched to the International Space Station late 2019, and will be used to deploy commercial and government payloads. Thales Alenia Space will also ma ... more |
TRAPPIST-1 Planets Probably Rich in Water Garching, Germany (SPX) Feb 06, 2018
A new study has found that the seven planets orbiting the nearby ultra-cool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 are all made mostly of rock, and some could potentially hold more water than Earth. The planets' densities, now known much more precisely than before, suggest that some of them could have up to 5 percent of their mass in the form of water - about 250 times more than Earth's oceans.
The hotter ... more |
|
|
L-3 awarded $8.2M for retrofits to Predator simulators Washington (UPI) Jan 30, 2018
The U.S. Air Force has awarded L-3 Link Simulation & Training an $8.2 million contract for retrofits on the Predator Mission Aircrew Training System simulators.
The new award, announced Monday by the Department of Defense, is a modification to a previous contract, which is now valued at $120,753,92.
The modified contract is for 40 retrofit communications kits and simulator seats ... more |
What's behind the most brilliant lights in the sky Madison WI (SPX) Feb 01, 2018
Space physicists at University of Wisconsin-Madison have just released unprecedented detail on a bizarre phenomenon that powers the northern lights, solar flares and coronal mass ejections (the biggest explosions in our solar system). The data on so-called "magnetic reconnection" came from a quartet of new spacecraft that measure radiation and magnetic fields in high Earth orbit.
"We're lo ... more |
|
|
Elon Musk, visionary Tesla and SpaceX founder San Francisco (AFP) Feb 6, 2018
From cars to rockets, Elon Musk dreams big.
On Tuesday, the South African-born entrepreneur combined both of those passions, blasting one of his Tesla electric cars into space aboard his own rocket.
It was the latest feat for the 46-year-old Silicon Valley billionaire who has been hailed as a leading innovator and visionary.
Born in Pretoria, on June 28, 1971, the son of an engineer ... more |
New use for telecommunications networks: Helping scientists peer into deep space Washington DC (SPX) Feb 07, 2018
For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that a stable frequency reference can be reliably transmitted more than 300 kilometers over a standard fiber optic telecommunications network and used to synchronize two radio telescopes. Stable frequency references, which are used to calibrate clocks and instruments that make ultraprecise measurements, are usually only accessible at facilities t ... more |
|
|
Acoustic tractor beam could pave the way for levitating humans Bristol UK (SPX) Feb 05, 2018
Acoustic tractor beams use the power of sound to hold particles in mid-air, and unlike magnetic levitation, they can grab most solids or liquids. For the first time University of Bristol engineers have shown it is possible to stably trap objects larger than the wavelength of sound in an acoustic tractor beam. This discovery opens the door to the manipulation of drug capsules or micro-surgical im ... more |
Distant galaxy group contradicts common cosmological models, simulations Irvine, CA (SPX) Feb 07, 2018
An international team of astronomers has determined that Centaurus A, a massive elliptical galaxy 13 million light-years from Earth, is accompanied by a number of dwarf satellite galaxies orbiting the main body in a narrow disk. In a paper published in Science, the researchers note that this is the first time such a galactic arrangement has been observed outside the Local Group, home to the Milk ... more |
|
|
Artificial intelligence sparks hope -- and fear, US poll shows Washington (AFP) Jan 31, 2018
Americans are torn over the promise of artificial intelligence, a new poll showed Wednesday, expressing broad optimism about the emerging technologies but also fearing their negative impacts - including job losses, a poll showed Wednesday.
The Gallup survey showed 79 percent of Americans say artificial intelligence has had a "mostly positive" or "very positive" impact on their lives thus fa ... more |
China launches first shared education satellite Jiuquan (XNA) Feb 06, 2018
China's first shared education satellite, Young Pioneer 1, carried by the Long March-2D rocket, was launched into space from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center Friday afternoon.
The 3-kg CubeSat (100 * 100 * 340mm), Young Pioneer 1, enters an orbit of 502 km above the Earth. The rocket also carried Zhangheng 1, an electromagnetic satellite to study earthquake data, and five other miniaturized ... more |
|
| Buy Advertising | Media Advertising Kit | Editorial & Other Enquiries | Privacy statement |
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2018 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement |