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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter preparing for years ahead![]() Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 12, 2018 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has begun extra stargazing to help the space agency accomplish advances in Mars exploration over the next decade. The spacecraft already has worked more than double its planned mission life since launch in 2005. NASA plans to keep using it past the mid-2020s. Increased reliance on a star tracker, and less on aging gyroscopes, is one way the mission is adapting to extend its longevity. Another step is wringing more useful life from batteries. The mission's e ... read more |
NASA leverages proven technologies to build agency's first planetary wind lidarGreenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 09, 2018 NASA scientists have found a way to adapt a handful of recently developed technologies to build a new instrument that could give them what they have yet to obtain: never-before-revealed details abou ... more
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter capatures images of splitting slope streaksPasadena CA (JPL) Feb 09, 2018 This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows streaks forming on slopes when dust cascades downhill. The dark streak is an area of less dust compared to the brighter and reddish sur ... more
Tiny Crystal Shapes Get Close Look From Mars RoverPasadena CA (JPL) Feb 09, 2018 Star-shaped and swallowtail-shaped tiny, dark bumps in fine-layered bright bedrock of a Martian ridge are drawing close inspection by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. This set of shapes looks fami ... more
HKU scientist makes key discoveries in the search for life on MarsHong Kong (SPX) Feb 08, 2018 The planet Mars has long drawn interest from scientists and non-scientists as a possible place to search for evidence of life beyond Earth because the surface contains numerous familiar features suc ... more |
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European-Russian space mission steps up the search for life on MarsMoscowm Russia (SPX) Jan 25, 2018 In 2013, the European Space Agency and Roscosmos - the Russian governmental body responsible for space research - agreed to cooperate on ExoMars, the first joint interplanetary mission between ESA a ... more
A vista from Mars rover looks back over journey so farPasadena CA (JPL) Jan 31, 2018 A panoramic image that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took from a mountainside ridge provides a sweeping vista of key sites visited since the rover's 2012 landing, and the towering surroundings. ... more
Opportunity prepares software update as Sol 5000 approachesPasadena CA (JPL) Jan 29, 2018 Opportunity is continuing her winter exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater from a location in the north fork of the local flow channel. Color imaging of ligh ... more
Dust storms linked to gas escape from Mars atmospherePasadena CA (JPL) Jan 24, 2018 Some Mars experts are eager and optimistic for a dust storm this year to grow so grand it darkens skies around the entire Red Planet. This biggest type of phenomenon in the environment of modern Mar ... more
NASA's Next Mars Lander Spreads its Solar WingsPasadena CA (JPL) Jan 25, 2018 NASA's next mission to Mars passed a key test Tuesday, extending the solar arrays that will power the InSight spacecraft once it lands on the Red Planet this November. The test took place at L ... more |
![]() Kilopower: What's Next?
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 |
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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 MarsWashington DC (SPX) Jan 19, 2018 Researchers demonstrate for the first time the potential of existing technology to directly detect and characterize life on Mars and other planets. The study, published in Frontiers in Microbiology, ... more
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 |
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New study sheds light on moon's slow retreat from frozen Earth Boulder CO (SPX) Feb 09, 2018
A study led by University of Colorado Boulder researchers provides new insight into the Moon's excessive equatorial bulge, a feature that solidified in place over four billion years ago as the Moon gradually distanced itself from the Earth.
The research sets parameters on how quickly the Moon could have receded from the Earth and suggests that the nascent planet's hydrosphere was either no ... more |
Chinese taikonauts maintain indomitable spirit in space exploration: senior officer Beijing (XNA) Feb 09, 2018
Chinese taikonauts have "maintained an indomitable spirit while carrying out space exploration," said Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Wednesday.
Zhang made the remarks at a seminar while listening to reports delivered by Chinese taikonauts Jing Haipeng, Liu Yang and Deng Qingming about their work over the years.
The Taikonaut Corps of the People's Libe ... more |
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Two Small Asteroids Safely Pass Earth This Week Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 08, 2018
Two small asteroids recently discovered by astronomers at the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) near Tucson, Arizona, are safely passing by Earth within one lunar distance this week.
The first of this week's close-approaching asteroids - discovered by CSS on Feb. 4 - is designated asteroid 2018 CC. Its close approach to Earth came Tuesday (Feb. 6) at 12:10 p.m. PST (3:10 p.m. EST) at a ... more |
New Horizons captures record-breaking images in the Kuiper Belt Washington DC (SPX) Feb 09, 2018
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft recently turned its telescopic camera toward a field of stars, snapped an image - and made history.
The routine calibration frame of the "Wishing Well" galactic open star cluster, made by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on Dec. 5, was taken when New Horizons was 3.79 billion miles (6.12 billion kilometers, or 40.9 astronomical units) from Earth - ... more |
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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 |
SSTL and 21AT announce new Earth Observation data contract Guildford UK (SPX) Feb 07, 2018
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) signed a 25M pounds contract in Beijing yesterday with Twenty First Century Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd (21AT) to provide data from a new Earth Observation satellite (SSTL-S1) due for launch on PSLV in the middle of this year.
The contract was signed by Sir Martin Sweeting, Executive Chairman of SSTL, and Mme Wu Shuang, President and Chairman of 21A ... more |
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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 |
Are you rocky or are you gassy Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 09, 2018
A star about 100 light years away in the Pisces constellation, GJ 9827, hosts what may be one of the most massive and dense super-Earth planets detected to date according to new research led by Carnegie's Johanna Teske. This new information provides evidence to help astronomers better understand the process by which such planets form.
The GJ 9827 star actually hosts a trio of planets, disc ... more |
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Improving drone performance in headwinds Sendai, Japan (SPX) Feb 12, 2018
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? The prevalence of multi-rotor drones has increased dramatically in recent years, but in headwinds they pitch upwards unpredictably. Engineers from Tohoku University, Japan, have shown that angling the rotor blades of a quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles by just 20 degrees can reduce pitching by a quarter. Their work is published in the International Journal of Micro ... more |
HINODE captures record breaking solar magnetic field Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 12, 2018
Magnetism plays a critical role in various solar phenomena such as flares, mass ejections, flux ropes, and coronal heating. Sunspots are areas of concentrated magnetic fields. A sunspot usually consists of a circular dark core (the umbra) with a vertical magnetic field and radially-elongated fine threads (the penumbra) with a horizontal field.
The penumbra harbors an outward flow of gas al ... more |
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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 |
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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 |
Large Hadron Collider experiment shows potential evidence of quasiparticle sought for decades Lawrence KS (SPX) Feb 09, 2018 In a 17-mile circular tunnel underneath the border between France and Switzerland, an international collaboration of scientists runs experiments using the world's most advanced scientific instrument, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). By smashing together protons that travel close to light speed, particle physicists analyze these collisions and learn more about the fundamental makeup of all matter ... more |
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Quantum algorithm could help AI think faster Singapore (SPX) Feb 08, 2018 One of the ways that computers 'think' is by analysing relationships within large sets of data. An international team has shown that quantum computers can do one such analysis faster than classical computers, for a wider array of data types than was previously expected.
The team's proposed 'quantum linear system algorithm' is published in the 2 February issue of Physical Review Letters. In ... more |
Chinese taikonauts maintain indomitable spirit in space exploration: senior officer Beijing (XNA) Feb 09, 2018
Chinese taikonauts have "maintained an indomitable spirit while carrying out space exploration," said Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Wednesday.
Zhang made the remarks at a seminar while listening to reports delivered by Chinese taikonauts Jing Haipeng, Liu Yang and Deng Qingming about their work over the years.
The Taikonaut Corps of the People's Libe ... more |
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