|
|
NASA's MAVEN Uses Red Planet's Atmosphere to Change Orbit![]() Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 08, 2019 NASA's MAVEN spacecraft achieved a tighter orbit around Mars to act as a telecommunications relay. The two-month campaign began February 11 and ended April 5. MAVEN's navigation team slowed the spacecraft down gradually by aerobraking, a process taking advantage of the Martian upper atmosphere to place a small amount of drag on the spacecraft. "It's like applying the brakes on a car but instead of brake pads, we used Mars' atmosphere," said Stuart Demcak navigation team lead at NASA's Jet Pr ... read more |
ExoMars carrier module prepares for final pre-launch testingParis (ESA) Apr 08, 2019 The module that will carry the ExoMars rover and surface science platform from Earth to Mars has arrived in Italy for final integration preparations. The module, along with electrical ground s ... more
Mysterious Martian Methane Bursts ConfirmedTucson AZ (SPX) Apr 05, 2019 Martian methane releases are rare, episodic, and often debated, but scientists have discovered evidence of a methane emission in June 2013, which constitutes the first confirmation of a methane rele ... more
Life on Mars?Washington DC (SPX) Apr 05, 2019 According to NASA, scientists are in agreement that there is no life on Mars. However, they continue to assess whether Mars ever had an environment capable of supporting microbial life. Now, r ... more
Curiosity Captured Two Solar Eclipses on MarsPasadena CA (JPL) Apr 05, 2019 When NASA's Curiosity Mars rover landed in 2012, it brought along eclipse glasses. The solar filters on its Mast Camera (Mastcam) allow it to stare directly at the Sun. Over the past few weeks, Curi ... more |
|
| Previous Issues | Apr 05 | Apr 04 | Apr 03 | Apr 02 | Apr 01 |
|
|
|
|
Results of BIOMEX, the Biology and Mars Experiment on the ISSBerlin, Germany (SPX) Apr 01, 2019 Earth is a very special planet. It is the only celestial body in the solar system on which we know life exists. Could there be life on other planets or moons? Mars is always the first to be mentione ... more
Evidence of deep groundwater on Mars detailed in new studyWashington (UPI) Mar 28, 2019 Mars may still host active groundwater deep beneath its surface, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Southern California. ... more
Rivers raged on Mars late into its historyChicago IL (SPX) Mar 28, 2019 Long ago on Mars, water carved deep riverbeds into the planet's surface - but we still don't know what kind of weather fed them. Scientists aren't sure, because their understanding of the Martian cl ... more
Laser blasts show asteroid bombardment, hydrogen make great recipe for life on MarsGreenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 26, 2019 A new study reveals asteroid impacts on ancient Mars could have produced key ingredients for life if the Martian atmosphere was rich in hydrogen. An early hydrogen-rich atmosphere on Mars could also ... more
Mars callingParis (ESA) Mar 27, 2019 An exciting new competition is giving citizens of planet Earth the opportunity to get their voices to Mars in the next phase of the ExoMars programme. The ExoMars rover and platform will launch to t ... more |
![]() Dormant viruses reactivate during spaceflight
Google and Haughton-Mars Project Partner on Moon-Mars Exploration PrepMountain View CA (SPX) Mar 26, 2019 The Mars Institute and the SETI Institute are announcing a new partnership between Google and the NASA Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) to advance Mars exploration at one of the most otherworldly places ... more |
|
|
ExoMars landing platform arrives in Europe with a nameParis (ESA) Mar 22, 2019 The platform destined to land on the Red Planet as part of the next ExoMars mission has arrived in Europe for final assembly and testing - and been given a name. An announcement was made by th ... more
NASA's Mars 2020 rover is put to the testPasadena CA (JPL) Mar 20, 2019 In a little more than seven minutes in the early afternoon of Feb. 18, 2021, NASA's Mars 2020 rover will execute about 27,000 actions and calculations as it speeds through the hazardous transition f ... more
Drone maps icy lava tube to prepare for cave exploration on Moon and MarsMountain View CA (SPX) Mar 20, 2019 The SETI Institute and Astrobotic Technology, Inc. are announcing the successful mapping in 3D of the interior of an ice-rich lava tube in Iceland using a LiDAR-equipped drone. The team was investig ... more
Trembling Aspen Leaves Could Save Future Mars RoversCoventry, UK (SPX) Mar 19, 2019 Researchers at the University of Warwick have been inspired by the unique movement of trembling aspen leaves, to devise an energy harvesting mechanism that could power weather sensors in hostile env ... more
Rehearsing for the Mars landings in Hawaii and IdahoHamilton, Canada (SPX) Mar 19, 2019 Imagine astronauts on Mars, tasked with picking rock samples that will be used by scientists to search for signs of life. But they can only transport a limited number back to Earth. What should they ... more |
|
|
ESA boosts startup to the Moon Berlin, Germany (ESA) Apr 08, 2019
European Space Agency operations specialists are helping flight planners at new European space startup PTScientists, headquartered in Berlin, pilot their way to the Moon.
PTScientists are planning to launch lunar landers and rovers as a regular service in the future, with an inaugural flight expected in 2020.
Specialists from ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germa ... more |
China's commercial carrier rocket finishes engine test Beijing (XNA) Apr 04, 2019
China's first carrier rocket for commercial use, the Smart Dragon-1 (SD-1), has finished its engine test, paving way for its maiden flight in the first half of 2019, according to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT).
The rocket is the first member of the Dragon series commercial carrier rockets family to be produced by CALT. It has a total length of 19.5 meters, a diameter ... more |
|
|
Self-driving spacecraft set for planetary defence expedition Paris (ESA) Apr 08, 2019
Engineers designing ESA's Hera planetary defence mission to the Didymos asteroid pair are developing advanced technology to let the spacecraft steer itself through space, taking a similar approach to self-driving cars.
"If you think self-driving cars are the future on Earth, then Hera is the pioneer of autonomy in deep space," explains Paolo Martino, lead systems engineer of ESA's proposed ... more |
Europa Clipper High-Gain Antenna Undergoes Testing Hampton, VA (SPX) Apr 01, 2019
It probably goes without saying, but this isn't your everyday satellite dish.
In fact, it's not a satellite dish at all. It's a high-gain antenna (HGA), and a future version of it will send and receive signals to and from Earth from a looping orbit around Jupiter.
The antenna will take that long journey aboard NASA's Europa Clipper, a spacecraft that will conduct detailed reconnaissa ... more |
|
|
New close-ups of the mini-moons in Saturn's rings Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 29, 2019 Nestled between Saturn's rings are a collection of mini-moons that NASA's Cassini spacecraft skimmed past in 2017.
On Thursday, for the first time, astronomers and scientists are detailing their findings about the moons in the US journal Science.
Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Pandora and Epimetheus each measure between eight and 116 kilometers (five to 72 miles) in diameter. They are either round ... more |
DLR and the UStuttgart test transmission of EO data using laser communications Bonn, Germany (SPX) Apr 08, 2019
Earth observation satellites play a key role in weather forecasting, climate research, monitoring of the planet's surface and the detection of forest fires. These tasks require satellites to transmit very large amounts of data to the ground for analysis. Today's radio systems are reaching their limits in this area.
Optical transmission methods, however, offer the possibility of sending dat ... more |
|
|
Music for space by Staff Writers
Paris (ESA) Apr 08, 2019
Music has long been known to affect people's mood. A certain tune can lift you up or bring you to tears, make you focus, relax or even run faster. Now a study is investigating how the power of music may improve human performance in one of the most stressful and alien environments we know - space.
Music can help release a cocktail of hormones that have a positive e ... more |
Biologists find world's first organism with non-photosynthesizing chlorophyll Washington (UPI) Apr 4, 2019 Scientists have discovered the world's first organism that can produce chlorophyll but does not perform photosynthesis.
The unprecedented animal is called a corallicolid because it is found in 70 percent of the planet's corals.
"This is the second most abundant cohabitant of coral on the planet and it hasn't been seen until now," Patrick Keeling, a botanist at the University of B ... more |
|
|
A short first hop for 'drone taxi' in Vienna Vienna (AFP) April 4, 2019
It was more of a small step than a giant leap, but the first public outing of a pilotless "drone taxi" in Vienna on Thursday nevertheless offered a glimpse into the possible future of urban travel.
Several big companies such as Boeing and Airbus are working on their own versions of the technology but it was the Chinese firm EHang that unveiled its aircraft to assembled journalists in the Aus ... more |
Unexpected rain on Sun links two solar mysteries Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 08, 2019
For five months in mid 2017, Emily Mason did the same thing every day. Arriving to her office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, she sat at her desk, opened up her computer, and stared at images of the Sun - all day, every day.
"I probably looked through three or five years' worth of data," Mason estimated. Then, in October 2017, she stopped. She realized she had ... more |
|
|
Rocket fuel that's cleaner, safer and still full of energy Montreal, Canada (SPX) Apr 08, 2019
Research published this week in Science Advances shows that it may be possible to create rocket fuel that is much cleaner and safer than the hypergolic fuels that are commonly used today. And still just as effective.
The new fuels use simple chemical "triggers" to unlock the energy of one of the hottest new materials, a class of porous solids known as metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs. MOF ... more |
Simulations find mechanism of brightest flashes in Universe Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Apr 08, 2019
Scientists have used simulations to show that the photons emitted by long gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful electromagnetic phenomena in the universe, originate at the visible surface of high-speed jets emitted by exploding stars.
Gamma-ray bursts release as much energy in a second or so as the Sun will release over its entire lifetime. Scientists now know that one of the types, long bur ... more |
|
|
Ten years before the detection of gravitational waves Santa Barbara CA (SPX) Apr 08, 2019
The history of science is filled with stories of enthusiastic researchers slowly winning over skeptical colleagues to their point of view. Astrophysicist Scott Hughes can relate to these tales.
"For the first 15 or 16 years of my career I was speaking to astronomers, and I always had the impression that they were politely interested in what I had to say, but regarded me as a little bit of ... more |
Journey to the Big Bang via Lithium of a Milky Way Star Tenerife, Spain (SPX) Apr 08, 2019
Researchers at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of Cambridge have detected lithium in a primitive star in our galaxy. The observations were made at the VLT, at the Paranal Observatory of ESO in Chile.
In astrophysics, any element heavier than hydrogen and helium is termed "metal" and lithium is among the lightest of these metals. Researchers at the IAC and ... more |
|
|
Robots to autocomplete Soldier tasks, new study suggests Adelphi MD (SPX) Apr 08, 2019
Smart phones autocorrect in texting, search engines autocomplete queries, and mapping applications redirect navigation in real-time to avoid slowed traffic. These ubiquitous AI-based technologies adapt to everyday needs and learn user habits by focusing on making the algorithm better, but Army researchers want to enhance AI by providing more information about the intent of the user.
New re ... more |
China's commercial carrier rocket finishes engine test Beijing (XNA) Apr 04, 2019
China's first carrier rocket for commercial use, the Smart Dragon-1 (SD-1), has finished its engine test, paving way for its maiden flight in the first half of 2019, according to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT).
The rocket is the first member of the Dragon series commercial carrier rockets family to be produced by CALT. It has a total length of 19.5 meters, a diameter ... 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 |