January 17th, 2024
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It’s called Xenolinguistics, looking at the science of extraterrestrial language. Biologists, anthropologists, linguists, and other experts specializing in language and communication have begun to explore what non-human, non-Earthbound language might look like. Arguably, such thinking sparks thought about the fabricated Klingon language, the cosmic “Klingonese” chatter spoken by Star Trek’s fictional alien race called the […]
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China is ready to loft the uncrewed Tianzhou-7 supply ship to the country’s space station – but adopting a first-time rapid rendezvous and docking plan. According to China Global Television Network (CGTN), the cargo ship will make a three-hour trek to the orbiting complex. Two-hour and six-and-a-half-hour rapid rendezvous and docking plans have been practiced […]
Months in the making. Go and touch…touch and go! Curation team members at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston have successfully removed the two remaining fasteners from the sampler head that had prevented the remainder of OSIRIS-REx’s asteroid Bennu sample material from being accessed. Turn of the screw(s) Two new multi-part tools were designed […]
“Peregrine will soon return to Earth’s atmosphere and the vehicle is now about 234,000 miles away. We are working with NASA to continue updating and evaluating the controlled re-entry path of Peregrine,” notes a communiqué from the Pittsburgh, Pa.-situated Astrobotic – the private firm that designed and built the lunar lander. “Working with NASA, we […]
In the future, rocketing in and precisely alighting on the moon’s craggy, rocky and crater-pocked face won’t be as hard. NASA’s Lunar Retroreflector Array (LRA) program is engaged with U.S. and foreign lunar lander initiatives. An LRA is a dome-shaped device, topped by small glass corner cube prism retroreflectors. That contrivance is then mounted to […]
Preparations are underway for the upcoming launch of China’s Tianzhou-7 cargo craft to that country’s space station. As part of the process, the Tianzhou-6 separated from the orbiting station on Friday and switched to independent flight, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMS). Under ground control, Tianzhou-6 is headed for an ocean dumping within […]
NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy has released a long-awaited study from the space agency, one that sheds light on the future prospects of Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP). Beaming power from space has been studied for decades. Over the last several years, other nations have also been studying the idea – including Europe and […]
NASA is seemingly caught between a Mars rock and a hard place. Deemed the Holy Grail of Mars science for decades, the thought of robotically rounding up prized samples of the Red Planet and hurling them to Earth is in a holding pattern. Last September, an independent review board (IRB) released its findings after taking […]
China’s next outbound Moon explorer is the Chang’e-6 spacecraft. Components for that mission have arrived at the Wenchang Space Launch Site launch site, according to a statement today from the China National Space Administration (CNSA). Scheduled for launch in the first half of this year, the Chang’e-6 mission is to showcase technologies in lunar retrograde […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 4063 duties. According to Abigail Knight, a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, last weekend Curiosity performed a successful “bump backwards.” The robot is now positioned “to execute contact science on a flat block of dark-toned bedrock in its workspace and […]
