September 19th, 2020
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It is officially tagged by the North America Aerospace Defense Command as 46395, 2020-063G, an object that was released into Earth orbit by China’s experimental space plane. That space plane circuited Earth for roughly two days, touching down on September 6, 2020, apparently landing on a lengthy airstrip in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, near […]
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2886 tasks. Reports Michelle Minitti, a planetary geologist at Framework in Silver Spring, Maryland: Based on the initial results from the recent Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) wet chemistry experiment, the SAM team elected to complement it with a second wet chemistry experiment on the […]
U.S. military space policy officials have increasingly flagged a new role in guarding American assets and interests in cis-lunar space. This evolving doctrine extends to the Moon’s surface too, given NASA’s Artemis and private operator projects to set up mining activities. What do space experts say about extending military tactics to a new “high ground” […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now carrying out Sol 2885 tasks. Reports Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, a planetary geologist at University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada: Mars scientists are busy starting their analysis of data from the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument that used a special chemical called […]
Satellite tracker Bob Christy reports on his Zarya.info website and the Seesat-l website that China’s space plane deployed a payload before landing on Earth. “The object may have separated from the space plane earlier than suggested,” Christy says. “The two may have been orbiting close together for some time, with the second object getting […]
NASA’s Planetary Science Division (PSD) is responsible for a portfolio of spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, rovers, and probes. A just-released audit, performed from June 2019 through August 2020 by NASA’s Office of Audits within the space agency’s Office of Inspector General, has assessed NASA’s management of its planetary science portfolio and examined whether PSD is […]
A global team of astronomers today announced the discovery of a rare molecule – phosphine – in the clouds of Venus. Here on Earth, this gas is only made industrially, or by microbes that thrive in oxygen-free environments. So does the detection of phosphine point to extra-terrestrial “aerial” life on Venus? This new finding […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2883 duties. Reports Ryan Anderson, Planetary Geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona: “Our [Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite] TMAH experiment was successful! For those who don’t speak fluent rover team alphabet soup, as we described the other day, the SAM TMAH […]
Coming to a sky near you? Microsatellites equipped with a laser system for projecting images in the night sky are to be placed in Earth orbit – a “pay per view” way to advertise a message to Earth watchers. Moscow-based Avant-Space is a team of professionals who have participated in more than 10 space projects. […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now carrying out Sol 2879 tasks. It is “opening night” at the rover’s current site, reports Scott Guzewich, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Ten sols ago was our final dress rehearsal and today’s plan is opening night for an experiment that […]
