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InSight's Seismometer Now Has a Cozy Shelter on Mars![]() Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 05, 2019 For the past several weeks, NASA's InSight lander has been making adjustments to the seismometer it set on the Martian surface on Dec. 19. Now it's reached another milestone by placing a domed shield over the seismometer to help the instrument collect accurate data. The seismometer will give scientists their first look at the deep interior of the Red Planet, helping them understand how it and other rocky planets are formed. The Wind and Thermal Shield helps protect the supersensitive instrument fr ... read more |
Research Uses Curiosity Rover to Measure Gravity on MarsCollege Park MD (SPX) Feb 01, 2019 Apollo 17 astronauts drove a moon buggy across the lunar surface in 1972, measuring subtle changes in gravitational pull with an instrument called a gravimeter. Although there are no astronauts on M ... more
Innovative GEDI Instrument Now Gathering Forest DataGreenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 04, 2019 NASA instrument scientist Bryan Blair had just finished writing the flight software for the agency's Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, or MOLA, when he was invited in 1991 to fly a lidar instrument aboa ... more
What Can Curiosity Tell Us About How a Martian Mountain FormedWashington DC (SPX) Feb 01, 2019 The density of rock layers on the terrain that climbs from the base of Mars' Gale Crater to Mount Sharp is less dense than expected, according to the latest report on the Red Planet's geology from a ... more
Curiosity Says Farewell to Mars' Vera Rubin RidgePasadena CA (JPL) Jan 29, 2019 NASA's Curiosity rover has taken its last selfie on Vera Rubin Ridge and descended toward a clay region of Mount Sharp. The twisting ridge on Mars has been the rover's home for more than a yea ... more |
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Compete in a lunar economyParis (ESA) Jan 21, 2019 Sign up to the Metalysis-ESA Grand Challenge worth euro 500 000 rewarding innovation that helps us to explore space. As ESA and other agencies prepare to send humans back to the Moon - this t ... more
Team selected by Canadian Space Agency to study Mars mineralsLondon, Canada (SPX) Jan 17, 2019 In the coming years, new rovers will explore Mars with better scientific instruments, as capable as those that exist in labs here on Earth today. Roberta Flemming from Western University's Departmen ... more
UK tests self driving robots for MarsLondon, UK (SPX) Jan 03, 2019 As far as we know, Mars is the only planet populated entirely by robots! Due to the time taken for commands to travel to Mars (eight minutes each way), hand guided robots are limited to travelling o ... more
Russia continues work on plasma engine for superfast space travelMoscow (Sputnik) Jan 03, 2019 Scientists from Russia and around the world see plasma rocket technology as a crucial possible ingredient for speedy missions to Mars and beyond. Physicists from the Budker Institute of Nuclea ... more
ExoMars mission has good odds of finding life on Mars if life exists.Moscow (Sputnik) Jan 01, 2019 As Dr Dartnell pointed out, at this point it is unclear whether life actually exists on Mars; and if it does exist, it remains to be seen how similar this life may be to that on Earth. While N ... more |
![]() Mars Express gets festive: A winter wonderland on Mars
Over Six Months Without Word From OpportunityPasadena CA (JPL) Dec 24, 2018 Mars atmospheric opacity (tau) over the rover site remains at a storm-free range around 1.0. No signal from Opportunity has been heard since Sol 5111 (June 10, 2018). Opportunity likely experi ... more |
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3D photogrammetric evidence for trace fossils at Vera Rubin Ridge, Gale Crater, MarsBuckingham UK (SPX) Dec 24, 2018 On sol 1922 and 1923, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover (Curiosity) mission in Gale Crater, using its microscopic imager (MAHLI) returned over 84 images to Earth of enigmatic metallic dark- ... more
The C-Space Project Opens Mars Base as a Space Education FacilityJinchang, China (SPX) Dec 24, 2018 The C-Space Project recently unveiled its Mars Base set in the Gobi Desert, leaving many curious about its objectives. The C-Space Project, where the C stands for Community, Culture and Creativity, ... more
Mars 2020 rover to capture sound on the Red PlanetAlleroed, Denmark (SPX) Dec 21, 2018 In February 2021, NASA's Mars 2020 Rover is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet. The spacecraft will have the capability to capture imagery and sound as the Mars 2020 vehicle descends through ... more
InSight places its first instrument on MarsPasadena CA (JPL) Dec 21, 2018 NASA's InSight lander has deployed its first instrument onto the surface of Mars, completing a major mission milestone. New images from the lander show the seismometer on the ground, its copper-colo ... more
Finding ways to protect crews from the effects of space radiationHouston TX (SPX) Dec 21, 2018 In the near future, crews will embark on multi-month missions to the Moon, and eventually Mars and beyond. All incredible adventures, however, have their hazards, and a major one for crews on long-d ... more |
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First private spacecraft shoots for the moon Columbus OG (The Conversation) Feb 04, 2019
"Moon of Israel" is an epic 1924 film from the golden era of silent movies, and helped launch the directing career of Michael Curtiz, of "Casablanca" fame. Sequels seldom live up to the original.
But if Israel's plans to put a robotic lander on the moon in February 2019 can be considered a sequel, this new "Moon of Israel" mission, led by the nonprofit company SpaceIL, will be a blockbuste ... more |
Seed of moon's first sprout: Chinese scientists' endeavor Beijing (XNA) Feb 05, 2019
An experiment that saw the first-ever plant sprouting on the moon last month was born in a natural disaster that devastated China's cotton-industry almost three decades ago.
Li Fuguang was one of the Chinese agricultural scientists whose years of hard work might one day help lead to a base and long-term human residence on the moon.
He was on the team that developed the cotton seeds c ... more |
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Ancient asteroid impacts played a role in creation of Earth's future continents Johannesburg, South Africa (SPX) Feb 01, 2019
The heavy bombardment of terrestrial planets by asteroids from space has contributed to the formation of the early evolved crust on Earth that later gave rise to continents - home to human civilisation.
More than 3.8 billion years ago, in a time period called the Hadean eon, our planet Earth was constantly bombarded by asteroids, which caused the large-scale melting of its surface rocks. M ... more |
Sodium, Not Heat, Reveals Volcanic Activity on Jupiter's Moon Io Tucson AZ (SPX) Feb 01, 2019
A large volcanic event was detected on Jupiter's moon Io using Jovian sodium nebula brightness variation, a new paper in Astrophysical Journal Letters said.
"These results highlight the growing body of evidence that the traditional way of monitoring Io's volcanism - by looking for temperature changes on its surface caused by hot lava - is not able to reliably find these large gas release e ... more |
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Scientist sheds light on Titan's mysterious nitrogen atmosphere San Antonio TX (SPX) Jan 24, 2019
A new Southwest Research Institute study tackles one of the greatest mysteries about Titan, one of Saturn's moons: the origin of its thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere. The study posits that one key to Titan's mysterious atmosphere is the "cooking" of organic material in the moon's interior.
"Titan is a very interesting moon because it has this very thick atmosphere, which makes it unique amo ... more |
Earth-i Updates Satellite Map of Queensland, Australia London, UK (SPX) Feb 04, 2019
New Space pioneer Earth-i has announced that it has completed the third annual update of the satellite map of the state of Queensland.
The map covers the whole of Queensland's 1.9 million km2 and was created by Earth-i for the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy (DNRME). The first map was produced in 2016 with Earth-i reappointed for updates in both 2017 and 2018.
Aroun ... more |
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ISRO Unveils Human Space Flight Centre in Bengaluru Bengaluru, India (IANS) Feb 01, 2019
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Thursday that it has launched a Human Space Flight Centre here.
"Human Space Flight Centre is operational now... The facility is next to ISRO headquarters," the city-based space agency tweeted.
The Centre is dedicated to developing critical technologies for human space missions.
The facility, unveiled by former ISRO chairman ... more |
Magnifying glass reveals unexpected intermediate mass exoplanets Maunakea HI (SPX) Feb 01, 2019
Astronomers have found a new exoplanet that could alter the standing theory of planet formation. With a mass that's between that of Neptune and Saturn, and its location beyond the "snow line" of its host star, an alien world of this scale was supposed to be rare.
Aparna Bhattacharya, a postdoctoral researcher from the University of Maryland and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), le ... more |
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German Forces Begin Training Courses on Armed Israeli Surveillance Drones Moscow (Sputnik) Feb 05, 2019
German forces recently began a training course at the Tel Nof airbase in Rehovot, Israel, in an effort to learn the surveillance capabilities of the costly Heron TP unmanned surveillance drone.
The German officials, a pilot and sensor operator, began the eight-week training session in late January, according to the Jerusalem Post, which reported that the drone training is expected to conti ... more |
All systems go as Parker Solar Probe begins second orbit of Sun Laurel MD (SPX) Jan 29, 2019
On Jan. 19, 2019, just 161 days after its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, NASA's Parker Solar Probe completed its first orbit of the Sun, reaching the point in its orbit farthest from our star, called aphelion. The spacecraft has now begun the second of 24 planned orbits, on track for its second perihelion, or closest approach to the Sun, on April 4, 2019.
Parker S ... more |
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Learning on the Job: Student Rocket Launches From Norway Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 05, 2019
Before arriving in Andenes, Norway, on Jan. 3, 2019, Alvaro Guerra and Erica Venkatesulu - both juniors at Pennsylvania State University in State College - had never seen the northern lights. Yet in a few short days, they would launch a rocket right into them.
"I'd never done anything like this before," Guerra said. "I thought we would just make a tiny rocket with a little payload, but no ... more |
Retreating snow line reveals organic molecules around young star Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 05, 2019
Astronomers using ALMA have detected various complex organic molecules around the young star V883 Ori. A sudden outburst from this star is releasing molecules from the icy compounds in the planet forming disk. The chemical composition of the disk is similar to that of comets in the modern Solar System. Sensitive ALMA observations enable astronomers to reconstruct the evolution of organic molecul ... more |
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New squeezing record at GEO600 gravitational-wave detector Hannover, Germany (SPX) Dec 17, 2018
The detection of Einstein's gravitational waves relies on highly precise laser measurements of small length changes. The kilometer-size detectors of the international network (GEO600, LIGO, Virgo) are so sensitive that they are fundamentally limited by tiny quantum mechanical effects.
These cause a background noise which overlaps with gravitational-wave signals. This noise is always presen ... more |
How does a quantum particle see the world Vienna, Austria (SPX) Feb 01, 2019
According to one of the most fundamental principles in physics, an observer on a moving train uses the same laws to describe a ball on the platform as an observer standing on the platform - physical laws are independent on the choice of a reference frame. Reference frames such as the train and the platform are physical systems and ultimately follow quantum-mechanical rules.
They can be, fo ... more |
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Engineers build a soft robotics perception system inspired by humans San Diego CA (SPX) Feb 01, 2019
An international team of researchers has developed a perception system for soft robots inspired by the way humans process information about their own bodies in space and in relation to other objects and people. They describe the system, which includes a motion capture system, soft sensors, a neural network, and a soft robotic finger, in the Jan. 30 issue of Science Robotics.
The researcher ... more |
Seed of moon's first sprout: Chinese scientists' endeavor Beijing (XNA) Feb 05, 2019
An experiment that saw the first-ever plant sprouting on the moon last month was born in a natural disaster that devastated China's cotton-industry almost three decades ago.
Li Fuguang was one of the Chinese agricultural scientists whose years of hard work might one day help lead to a base and long-term human residence on the moon.
He was on the team that developed the cotton seeds c ... more |
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