March 2nd, 2021
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As China’s Tianwen-1 Mars spacecraft circles the Red Planet, back here on Earth, a trio of names is being weighed for the country’s first Mars rover. The suggested names are the product of a 40-day global online poll. They are: — “Zhurong,” a fire god in ancient Chinese mythology. — “Nezha,” a Chinese mythological figure. […]
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 3046 tasks. Ken Herkenhoff, a planetary geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, reports that a recent drive by the robot on Sol 3044 brought it to “an area mostly covered by dark sand, with very few exposed rocks in the arm workspace.” Still, […]
What does patulas, glue-mastic, Hermetall and Anaterm sealants, sandpaper, foam rubber, fluoroplastic films, alcohol wipes, metal pads, and electrical tape have to do with space? Also, toss in goggles, respirators, rubber gloves, a drill and a vacuum cleaner. Cosmonauts are to use these to fix a 2-inch (4.5-centimeter) air leak in the Zvezda intermediate […]
A citizen science project asks you to keep an eye out for aurora – that complex dance of particles and magnetism between the Sun and Earth. With the right tools, you can generally capture aurora in photographs. Your camera can even pick up very dim colors of the auroral spectrum that your eyes cannot see. […]
Lunar samples brought back to Earth by China’s Chang’e-5 Moon mission are on display at the National Museum in Beijing. The exhibit is dubbed “Lunar Sample 001, Witnessing China’s Flying Dream,” featuring a hundred grams of soil. Encased in crystal According to China Central Television (CCTV) the sample is encased in a crystal container resembling […]
While the world waits for the unleashing of a mini-helicopter by the recently landed Perseverance Mars rover, a team of aeronautical and space experts are already blueprinting a piloted aircraft. The vehicle is tailor-made for exploration, research, cargo transport, photography, and to link multiple settlements on the Red Planet. “If national governments and certain […]
Next week, look for a rapid prototyping program dubbed ARRW, short for the AGM-183A air-launched rapid response weapon, to take to the air. This boost-glide based hypersonic weapon is moving the United States forward in developing hypersonic systems able to travel on extended flights within the upper atmosphere — 80,000 to 200,000 feet — […]
The Defense Sciences Office (DSO) at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has blueprinted a wanted and visionary wish list of new research to enable the fabrication of future space structures – including use of lunar resources to enable those structures. “Specific technologies of interest include high performance feedstock materials, mass- and energy-efficient off-Earth […]
Dmitry Rogozin, General Director of the State Corporation Roscosmos, visited JSC NPO Lavochkin on February 26 to receive a work-in-progress briefing. Lavochkin, part of the Roscosmos State Corporation, is working on Russia’s next lunar mission, Luna-25, as well as ExoMars-2022. Lavochkin has an impressive and history-making past, producing an array of planetary exploration spacecraft. Rogozin […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 3042 tasks. Reports Mark Salvatore, a planetary geologist at University of Michigan: “Curiosity presses on to the east within Gale Crater, characterizing compositional variations within the underlying bedrock as we continue to march uphill and encounter sedimentary rocks that record the ancient geologic and environmental conditions within […]
