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NASA's MAVEN spacecraft shrinking its Mars orbit to prepare for Mars 2020 Rover![]() Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 12, 2019 NASA's 4-year-old atmosphere-sniffing Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission is embarking on a new campaign to tighten its orbit around Mars. The operation will reduce the highest point of the MAVEN spacecraft's elliptical orbit from 3,850 to 2,800 miles (6,200 to 4,500 kilometers) above the surface and prepare it to take on additional responsibility as a data-relay satellite for NASA's Mars 2020 rover, which launches next year. "The MAVEN spacecraft has done a phenomenal job teach ... read more |
Developing a flight strategy to land heavier vehicles on MarsUrbana IL (SPX) Feb 12, 2019 The heaviest vehicle to successfully land on Mars is the Curiosity Rover at 1 metric ton, about 2,200 pounds. Sending more ambitious robotic missions to the surface of Mars, and eventually humans, w ... more
Curiosity Mars Rover Departs Vera Rubin RidgePasadena CA (JPL) Feb 11, 2019 After exploring Mars' Vera Rubin Ridge for more than a year, NASA's Curiosity rover (https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl) recently moved on. But a new 360-video lets the public visit Curiosity's final dri ... more
NASA Administrator says Agency plans to 'go to the Moon and stay'Washington DC (Sputnik) Feb 11, 2019 Jim Bridenstine, the space agency's administrator, said that NASA plans to return people to the Moon and have astronauts explore more of the surface for longer periods. The NASA administrator ... more
More than 835 recovery commands have been sent to OpportunityPasadena CA (JPL) Feb 11, 2019 Mars atmospheric opacity (tau) over the rover site is estimated to be somewhere in the range of 0.9 to 1.3. No signal from Opportunity has been heard since Sol 5111 (June 10, 2018) during the ... more |
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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
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
Mars Rover Curiosity Makes Gravity-Measuring TraverseTempe AZ (SPX) Jan 31, 2019 A clever use of non-science engineering data from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has let a team of researchers, including an Arizona State University graduate student, measure the density of rock layer ... more
NASA's Opportunity Rover Logs 15 Years on MarsPasadena CA (JPL) Jan 25, 2019 NASA's Opportunity rover begins its 16th year on the surface of Mars today. The rover landed in a region of the Red Planet called Meridiani Planum on Jan. 24, 2004, sending its first signal back to ... more
Prolonged spaceflight could weaken astronauts' immune systemsTucson AZ (SPX) Jan 24, 2019 NASA hopes to send humans to Mars by 2030 on a round-trip mission that could take up to three years - far longer than any human has ever traveled in space. Such long-term spaceflights could adversel ... more |
![]() ExoMars software passes ESA Mars Yard driving test
Dust storm activity appears to pick up south of OpportunityPasadena CA (JPL) Jan 18, 2019 Dust storm activity appears to have picked up again, with a regional storm tracking south about 124 miles (200 kilometers) to the west of Opportunity. The storm is expected to increase in opac ... 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 |
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NASA seeks US partners to develop reusable systems for lunar missions Washington DC (SPX) Feb 08, 2019
As the next major step to return astronauts to the Moon under Space Policy Directive-1, NASA announced plans on Dec. 13 to work with American companies to design and develop new reusable systems for astronauts to land on the lunar surface. The agency is planning to test new human-class landers on the Moon beginning in 2024, with the goal of sending crew to the surface in 2028.
Through mult ... more |
China improves Long March-6 rocket for growing commercial launches Beijing (XNA) Feb 12, 2019
China announced Monday that it is developing the modified version of the Long March-6 rocket to add four solid boosters to increase its carrying capacity.
The improved medium-left carrier rocket will be sent into space by 2020, according to the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, which designed the rocket.
The Long ... more |
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Asteroid from 'Rare Species' Sighted in the Cosmic Wild Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 08, 2019
Astronomers have discovered an asteroid looping through the inner solar system on an exotic orbit. The unusual object is among the first asteroids ever found whose orbit is confined almost entirely within the orbit of Venus. The asteroid's existence hints at potentially significant numbers of space rocks arcing unseen in uncharted regions nearer to the sun.
A state-of-the-art sky-surveying ... more |
New Horizons' evocative farewell glance at Ultima Thule Washington DC (SPX) Feb 11, 2019
An evocative new image sequence from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft offers a departing view of the Kuiper Belt object (KBO) nicknamed Ultima Thule - the target of its New Year's 2019 flyby and the most distant world ever explored.
These aren't the last Ultima Thule images New Horizons will send back to Earth - in fact, many more are to come - but they are the final views New Horizons captu ... 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 |
Swarm helps pinpoint new magnetic north for smartphones Paris (ESA) Feb 11, 2019
Since it was first measured in 1831, we have known that the magnetic north is constantly on the move. However, its tendency to slowly roam has stepped up a pace recently - so much so that the World Magnetic Model has had to be updated urgently with the pole's new location, vital for navigation on smartphones, for example. ESA's magnetic field Swarm mission has been key for this update.
The ... more |
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Richard Branson says he'll fly to space by July Washington (AFP) Feb 8, 2019 British billionaire Richard Branson plans to travel to space within the next four or five months aboard his own Virgin Galactic spaceship, he told AFP Thursday.
"My wish is to go up on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, that's what we're working on," the head of the Virgin group said on the sidelines of an event to honor Virgin Galactic at the Air and Space Museum in Washington.
... more |
Study shows unusual microbes hold clues to early life East Boothbay ME (SPX) Feb 08, 2019
A new study has revealed how a group of deep-sea microbes provides clues to the evolution of life on Earth, according to a recent paper in The ISME Journal. Researchers used cutting-edge molecular methods to study these microbes, which thrive in the hot, oxygen-free fluids that flow through Earth's crust.
Called Hydrothermarchaeota, this group of microbes lives in such an extreme environme ... more |
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Hughes satellite modems power beyond-line-of-sight comms for UAVs Germantown MD (SPX) Feb 11, 2019
Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite networks and services, has announced the first shipments of its specialized, multiband HM400 SATCOM modems to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), powering beyond-line-of-sight communications for their next-generation Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) known as the MQ-9B SkyGuardian.
Customized to m ... more |
Evidence for a new fundamental constant of the sun Newcastle UK (SPX) Feb 08, 2019
New research undertaken at Northumbria University, Newcastle shows that the Sun's magnetic waves behave differently than currently believed.
Their findings have been reported in the latest edition of the prominent journal, Nature Astronomy.
After examining data gathered over a 10-year period, the team from Northumbria's Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering fo ... more |
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Raptor engine beats Russian RD-180 record in combustion chamber pressure says Musk Moscow (Sputnik) Feb 12, 2019
The new methane-fueled Raptor engine developed by US SpaceX aerospace company for its Starship interplanetary craft has outperformed the Russian RD-180 rocket engine in terms of pressure level in the combustion chamber, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Monday.
"Raptor reached 268.9 bar [approximately 274.2 kilograms of power per square centimeter], exceeding prior record held by the awesome Ru ... more |
All the data in the sky, alerted via UW eyes Seattle, WA (SPX) Feb 08, 2019
Casual stargazers may look at the black area among stars and think that there's nothing there except empty space. But the night sky hides many secrets invisible to the naked eye.
Less than a year into its mission, a sky-survey camera in Southern California shows just how full the sky is. The Zwicky Transient Facility, based at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, has identified ove ... 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 |
Lightning's electromagnetic fields may have protective properties Tel Aviv, Israel (SPX) Feb 11, 2019
Lightning was the main electromagnetic presence in the Earth's atmosphere long before the invention of electricity. There are some 2,000 thunderstorms active at any given time, so humans and other organisms have been bathed in extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields for billions of years.
These electromagnetic fields - the result of global lightning activity known as Schumann ... more |
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Programming autonomous machines ahead of time promotes selfless decision-making Aberdeen Proving Ground MD (SPX) Feb 12, 2019
A new study suggests the use of autonomous machines increases cooperation among individuals.
Researchers from the U.S. Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory, the Army's Institute for Creative Technologies and Northeastern University collaborated on a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research team, led by Dr. Cels ... more |
China improves Long March-6 rocket for growing commercial launches Beijing (XNA) Feb 12, 2019
China announced Monday that it is developing the modified version of the Long March-6 rocket to add four solid boosters to increase its carrying capacity.
The improved medium-left carrier rocket will be sent into space by 2020, according to the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, which designed the rocket.
The Long ... more |
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