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NASA InSight mission to Mars arrives at launch site![]() Vandenberg AFB CA (JPL) Feb 28, 2018 NASA's InSight spacecraft has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California to begin final preparations for a launch this May. The spacecraft was shipped from Lockheed Martin Space, Denver, today and arrived at Vandenberg at 3:49 p.m. PST (6:49 p.m. EST). The launch period for InSight opens May 5 and continues through June 8. InSight will be the first mission to look deep beneath the Martian surface, studying the planet's interior by listening for marsquakes and measuring the planet's ... read more |
Curiosity tests a new way to drill on MarsPasadena CA (JPL) Mar 01, 2018 NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has conducted the first test of a new drilling technique on the Red Planet since its drill stopped working reliably. This early test produced a hole about a half-in ... more
Atacama Desert study offers glimpse of what life on Mars could look likeWashington (UPI) Feb 27, 2018 For the first time, scientists have documented life rebounding in the sandy soil of the world's driest desert, the Atacama Desert. The research has offered new insights into the resiliency of life, as well as a glimpse of what life might look like on Mars. ... more
Mars Odyssey Observes Martian MoonsPasadena CA (JPL) Feb 26, 2018 Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars, are seen in this movie put together from 19 images taken by the Mars Odyssey orbiter's Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, camera. The images were ... more
Life in world's driest desert seen as sign of potential life on MarsPullman WA (SPX) Feb 27, 2018 For the first time, researchers have seen life rebounding in the world's driest desert, demonstrating that it could also be lurking in the soils of Mars. Led by Washington State University planetary ... more |
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ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter ready to start sniffing the methaneParis (ESA) Feb 22, 2018 Slowed by skimming through the very top of the upper atmosphere, ESA's ExoMars has lowered itself into a planet-hugging orbit and is about ready to begin sniffing the Red Planet for methane. T ... more
Opportunity Continues to Benefit from Dust Cleaning of the Solar PanelsPasadena CA (JPL) Feb 21, 2018 Opportunity is continuing the exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is positioned on the north fork of a local flow channel about half way down th ... more
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to Reveal Secrets of the Red PlanetBaltimore, MD (SPX) Feb 21, 2018 The planet Mars has fascinated scientists for over a century. Today, it is a frigid desert world with a carbon dioxide atmosphere 100 times thinner than Earth's. But evidence suggests that in the ea ... more
Leaky Atmosphere Linked To Lightweight PlanetParis (ESA) Feb 13, 2018 The Red Planet's low gravity and lack of magnetic field makes its outermost atmosphere an easy target to be swept away by the solar wind, but new evidence from ESA's Mars Express spacecraft shows th ... more
Mars Rover Opportunity Reaches 5000 Sols On MarsPasadena CA (JPL) Feb 16, 2018 NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity keeps providing surprises about the Red Planet, most recently with observations of possible "rock stripes." The ground texture seen in recent images f ... more |
![]() Oppy Takes A Selfie To Mark Sol 5000
Mars Opportunity Rover Energy Levels ImprovePasadena CA (JPL) Feb 13, 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 a local flow channel about half way down the ... more |
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Danish architect envisions life on MarsDubai (XNA) Feb 14, 2018 Could humans ever live on Mars? Award-winning architect gave a positive answer and even a timescale to this question: in 100 years. Bjarke Ingels, named by Time magazine in 2016 as among the " ... more
A Piece of Mars is Going HomePasadena CA (JPL) Feb 14, 2018 A chunk of Mars will soon be returning home. A piece of a meteorite called Sayh al Uhaymir 008 (SaU008) will be carried on board NASA's Mars 2020 rover mission, now being built at the agency's Jet P ... more
In Oman desert, European venture sets sights on MarsDhofar, Oman (AFP) Feb 8, 2018 Would-be astronauts in aluminium-coated suits venture out in rovers from a sprawling camp in Oman's barren desert: a simulation by a European venture aiming to one day help humans survive on Mars. ... more
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter preparing for years aheadPasadena 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 mor ... 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 |
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On second thought, the Moon's water may be widespread and immobile Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 27, 2018
A new analysis of data from two lunar missions finds evidence that the Moon's water is widely distributed across the surface and is not confined to a particular region or type of terrain. The water appears to be present day and night, though it's not necessarily easily accessible.
The findings could help researchers understand the origin of the Moon's water and how easy it would be to use ... more |
China speeds up research, commercialization of space shuttles Beijing (XNA) Feb 26, 2018
China will accelerate research and commercial use of rocket upper stages, a carrier rocket official said on Friday.
"The Yuanzheng rocket upper stage family will have a new member, Yuanzheng-1S, this year, serving launches for low and medium Earth orbit satellites," said Wang Mingzhe, an upper stage architect of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT).
Upper stages are ... more |
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Watch an asteroid pass between Earth and the moon on Friday Washington (UPI) Mar 1, 2018
A small asteroid will pass within 70,000 miles of Earth's surface on Friday - a close but safe encounter.
They flyby will be streamed live online by the Virtual Telescope Project. Asteroid 2018 DV1 will reach its closest point to Earth at approximately 12:54 p.m. ET.
The flyby will mark the 18th time an asteroid has passed between Earth and the moon in 2018. It's possible others ... more |
Chasing a stellar flash with assistance from GAIA Paris (ESA) Feb 28, 2018
Last year, ESA's Gaia mission helped astronomers make unique observations of Neptune's largest moon, Triton, as it passed in front of a distant star. This is a preview of the superb quality and versatility of the Gaia data that will be released in April.
When a small Solar System body such as a moon or an asteroid passes in front of a star and temporarily blocks its light, the occultation ... 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 |
NASA space laser completes 2,000-mile road trip Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 01, 2018
Once in orbit after it launches this fall, NASA's ICESat-2 satellite will travel at speeds faster than 15,000 miles per hour. Last week, the satellite's instrument began its journey toward space riding a truck from Maryland to Arizona, never exceeding 65 mph.
ICESat-2, or the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, is slated to launch in September to measure the height of Earth's surfac ... more |
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ISS Expedition 54 crew land safely in Kazakhstan Houston TX (SPX) Feb 28, 2018
Three members of the Expedition 54 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS), including NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba, returned to Earth on Tuesday after months of performing research and spacewalks in low-Earth orbit.
Vande Hei, Acaba and cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos landed at 9:31 p.m. EST (8:31 a.m. Feb. 28 in Kazakhstan) sout ... more |
Alien life in our Solar System? Study hints at Saturn's moon Paris (AFP) Feb 27, 2018
Humanity may need look no further than our own Solar System in the search for alien life, researchers probing one of Saturn's moons said Tuesday.
The icy orb known as Enceladus may boast ideal living conditions for single-celled microorganisms known as archaeans found in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, they reported in the science journal Nature Communications.
A methano ... more |
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Russian military developing long-range supersonic missile-lobbing drone Moscow (Sputnik) Feb 28, 2018
Designed to infiltrate far into an enemy's territory, the new system will carry both guided and unguided munitions.
Russia is working on a long-range unmanned strike system, Zvezda, the official television channel of the Russian Ministry of Defense, has learned.
Speaking to the television channel, Alexander Nemov, deputy chief of the research department at the 30th Central Scientific ... more |
NASA's SDO reveals how magnetic cage on the Sun stopped solar eruption Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 26, 2018 A dramatic magnetic power struggle at the Sun's surface lies at the heart of solar eruptions, new research using NASA data shows. The work highlights the role of the Sun's magnetic landscape, or topology, in the development of solar eruptions that can trigger space weather events around Earth.
The scientists, led by Tahar Amari, an astrophysicist at the Center for Theoretical Physics at th ... more |
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Russia's Energomash tests RD-180 engine made for US Atlas rocket Moscow (Sputnik) Mar 01, 2018
Tests of a Russian RD-180 liquid-fuel rocket engine have been carried out in the Science and Test Complex of Russia's NPO Energomash, the company said Wednesday in a statement.
"According to the head of the complex Andrey Ushkov, the tests went routinely, the test program has been fully implemented," the statement reads.
The reliable and relatively cheap RD-180 engine is developed an ... more |
Powerful flare from star Proxima Centauri detected with ALMA Charlottesville, VA (SPX) Feb 27, 2018
Space weather emitted by Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our sun, may make that system rather inhospitable to life after all. Using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a team of astronomers discovered that a powerful stellar flare erupted from Proxima Centauri last March.
This finding, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, raises questions abo ... more |
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New method enables high-resolution measurements of magnetism Uppsala, Sweden (SPX) Feb 13, 2018
In a new article, published in Nature Materials, researchers from Beijing, Uppsala and Julich have made significant progress allowing very high resolution magnetic measurements. With their method it is possible to measure magnetism of individual atomic planes.
Magnetic nanostructures are used in a wide range of applications. Most notably, to store bits of data in hard drives. These structu ... more |
Unlocking the secrets of the universe Tempe AZ (SPX) Mar 01, 2018
Long ago, about 400,000 years after the beginning of the universe (the Big Bang), the universe was dark. There were no stars or galaxies, and the universe was filled primarily with neutral hydrogen gas.
Then, for the next 50-100 million years, gravity slowly pulled the densest regions of gas together until ultimately the gas collapsed in some places to form the first stars.
What were ... more |
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Robotic crystals that walk n' roll Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 28, 2018
Scientists at Waseda University may have come a step closer to innovating soft robots to care for people. Its material, however, is something you may have never expected.
They have developed robotic crystals that walk slowly like an inchworm and roll 20,000 times faster than its walking speed. These autonomously moving, organic crystals have great potential as material for soft robots in t ... more |
China speeds up research, commercialization of space shuttles Beijing (XNA) Feb 26, 2018
China will accelerate research and commercial use of rocket upper stages, a carrier rocket official said on Friday.
"The Yuanzheng rocket upper stage family will have a new member, Yuanzheng-1S, this year, serving launches for low and medium Earth orbit satellites," said Wang Mingzhe, an upper stage architect of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT).
Upper stages are ... more |
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