October 20th, 2023
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The countdown is underway for India’s milestone-making launch of the Gaganyaan TV-D1 – an “In-flight” abort demonstration of the crew escape system. Project Gaganyaan is India’s effort to become a member of the elite cadre of countries capable of independent human spaceflight. This TV-D1 test flight is scheduled for October 21, 2023 between 7 am […]
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China’s next human spaceflight — the Shenzhou-17 mission — is scheduled to be launched “in the coming days” to transport three astronauts to the country’s Tiangong space station, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) has stated. The Shenzhou-17 spacecraft atop its booster, a Long March 2F rocket, were moved on Thursday morning to the service […]
It is now official. NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter made its 62nd flight on October 12, 2023. As posted by NASA/JPL: Horizontal distance: roughly 880 feet (268 meters); Maximum altitude: roughly 59 feet (18 meters): soaring for 121.1 seconds. Several black and white images collected during the flight include those taken by the navigation […]
Planetary protection requirements should address pollution by shot-from-Earth chemicals and materials. That’s from a new opinion piece appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences. Thus far, “there has been little research on the impacts of anthropogenic chemicals and materials in […]
There has been a long research trail in deciphering what happens when Earth’s atmosphere is intruded by incoming, human-made space debris. Much of this past research involved modeling and squeaking out potential and early warning sign findings. Enter new rarefied research. Unnatural dust The just-issued results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences […]
Scientists have linked exotic metal particles in the upper atmosphere to re-entering rockets and satellite leftovers. The just-issued findings come from work by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Measurements show that about 10% of the aerosol particles in the stratosphere contain aluminum and other metals that originated from the “burn-up” of satellites and […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3977 duties. Curiosity is now in position to start new drill operations, as early as this weekend, reports Conor Hayes, a graduate student at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “Drilling and the activities that accompany it can be quite power-intensive, which means that […]
In an effort to increase the affordability of Artemis, NASA is preparing to award a sole-sourced services contract, known as the Exploration Production and Operations Contract (EPOC), to Deep Space Transport, LLC (DST)—a newly formed joint venture of The Boeing Company and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation—for the production, systems integration, and launch of at least […]
The European Space Agency’s Paving the road for large area sintering of regolith (PAVER) project has investigated the feasibility of melting regolith for lunar roadmaking. Paved surfaces on the Moon, such as roads and landing pads, are possible using a sunlight-focusing Frensel lens to melt lunar regolith. No word yet on patching potholes. PAVER consortium […]
When talking about the Moon, throw some LOGIC into the mix. In this case it’s the Lunar Operating Guidelines for Infrastructure Consortium or LOGIC for short. This consortium is being put in place by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Better known as DARPA, its purpose is to develop operational guidelines and pathways to close […]
