DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ New analysis reveals dynamic volcanism on Venus
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A February 1991 image showed the vent as a circular formation covering about one square mile (2.6 square km). A October 1991 image showed the vent with an irregular shape covering about 1.5 square miles (3.9 square km). Another study published in 2020 identified 37 volcanic structures apparently active in the past 2 million to 3 million years. Venus, with a diameter of about 7,500 miles (12,000 km), is slightly smaller than Earth. Its thick atmosphere - mainly carbon dioxide - traps in heat in a runaway greenhouse effect, rendering Venus the solar system's hottest planet.

☆ Asteroid's sudden flyby shows blind spot in planetary threat detection
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NASA for years has prioritized detecting asteroids much bigger and more existentially threatening than 2023 BU, the small space rock that streaked by 2,200 miles from the Earth's surface, closer than some satellites. If bound for Earth, it would have been pulverized in the atmosphere, with only small fragments possibly reaching land. But 2023 BU sits on the smaller end of a size group, asteroids 5-to-50 meters in diameter, that also includes those as big as an Olympic swimming pool. But with current capabilities, astronomers can't see when such a rock targets Earth until days prior. The successful demonstration, called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), affirmed for the first time a method of planetary defense.

☆ Why we love to anthropomorphize space-faring robots
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

We know Mars rovers are robots, but they feel like friends, or pets. "It's the way the rovers are designed," Abigail Freeman, the deputy project scientist of the Curiosity rover, told Insider. The first selfie NASA's Opportunity Mars rover snapped. Their ability to snap selfies on the Martian surface make them seem self-awareNASA's Curiosity Mars rover created this selfie in front of Mont Mercou. On February 12, 2019, mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, sent the last commands to ask NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars to call home.

☆ I pilot NASA's first and only Mars helicopter. My job can be like a video game, but not the kind with a joystick.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Håvard Grip pilots NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, which has flown 40 times on Mars. I'm the chief pilot for NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, which landed on Mars with the Perseverance rover in February 2021. NASA's Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, in a close-up from the Perseverance rover's cameras. Members of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team stand next to the Collier Trophy. How we fly a helicopter on MarsMembers of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory react to data showing that the helicopter completed its second flight.

☆ It should take another 300 years for NASA's Voyager 1 probe to reach the most distant region of our solar system. Until then, it's cruising through the void between the stars.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Voyager 1 and 2 are exploring the mysterious region between stars, called interstellar space. Both plucky spacecraft continue to send data back from beyond the solar system — and their cosmic journeys are far from over. A diagram showing both of NASA's Voyager probes in interstellar space as of November 2018. An illustration of the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud in relation to our solar system. NASA/JPL-CaltechFor the last decade, Voyager 1 has been exploring interstellar space, which is full of gas, dust, and charged energetic particles.

☆ NASA hasn't heard from its InSight lander in 5 days. It may have run out of power and died on Mars.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

NASA's InSight lander on Mars isn't responding to communications from Earth, likely due to low power levels. The solar arrays on NASA's InSight lander are deployed for a test at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, on April 30, 2015. An illustration of the InSight Mars lander. An artist illustration of the InSight lander on Mars. Then they instructed the robot to scoop up dirt and slowly trickle it next to the solar panels.

☆ SpaceX rocket launches world's first global water survey mission
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The upper stage of the two-stage rocket was expected to reach its initial orbit about 530 miles (850 km) above Earth within minutes. Its payload, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite, or SWOT, incorporates advanced microwave radar technology to collect high-definition measurements of oceans, lakes, reservoirs and rivers over 90% of the globe. Components of the SUV-sized satellite were built primarily by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and French space agency CNES. SWOT's ability to discern smaller surface features also will help study the impacts of rising ocean levels on coastal areas. Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and John StonestreetOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ NASA fixed a glitch on Voyager 1 after consulting 45-year-old manuals. The spacecraft was beaming information through a dead computer.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In May, NASA reported its Voyager 1 spacecraft was sending strange data back to Earth. An engineer works on an instrument for one of NASA's Voyager spacecraft, on November 18, 1976. NASA/JPL-CaltechDuring the first 12 years of the Voyager mission, thousands of engineers worked on the project, Dodd said. In late August, Voyager engineers located the source of the garbled data: the spacecraft's attitude-control system was routing information through a dead computer. NASA/JPLFrom discovering unknown moons and rings to the first direct evidence of the heliopause, the Voyager mission has helped scientists understand the cosmos.

☆ Listen to the Best Songs From the Opportunity Rover's Morning Playlist
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

There's a new documentary about the Opportunity rover's life on Mars. For more than 15 years, NASA's Opportunity rover was a robot geologist on the Martian surface. From ABBA to George Michael, wake up with the stirring playlist NASA engineers made for the Opportunity Mars rover. While dusty storms can silence rovers, dust devils can blow away some of the dust that blankets the rover's solar panels. Months later, mission engineers hoped Opportunity would reboot once the weather cleared, as it had in the past.

☆ NASA instrument detects dozens of methane super-emitters from space
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The device, called an imaging spectrometer, has identified more than 50 methane "super-emitters" in Central Asia, the Middle East and the Southwestern United States since it was installed in July aboard the International Space Station, NASA said on Tuesday. The newly measured methane hotspots - some previously known and others just discovered - include sprawling oil and gas facilities and large landfills. "Some of the (methane) plumes EMIT detected are among the largest ever seen - unlike anything that has ever been observed from space," said Andrew Thorpe, a JPL research technologist leading the methane studies. Examples of newly imaged methane super-emitters showcased by JPL on Tuesday included a cluster of 12 plumes from oil and gas infrastructure in Turkmenistan, some plumes stretching more than 20 miles (32 km). EMIT, one of 25 Earth science instruments in orbit, could potentially find hundreds of methane super-emitters before its year-long mission ends, NASA said.

The mission, known as DART, or the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, will attempt a method of planetary defense that could save Earth from an asteroid on a potential collision course with the planet. On Monday, the spacecraft will crash into Dimorphos at a blistering speed of around 4 miles per second, or 15,000 mph. Ground-based telescopes will be used to time Dimorphos' orbit and determine whether the mission was a success. The Applied Physics Lab built and manages the $325 million DART mission for NASA. Even if the DART mission fails, scientists will learn a lot from the experiment, said Andrea Riley, a program executive in NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office.

NASA's Perseverance rover has collected several "tantalizing" rock samples from an ancient river delta on Mars, setting the stage for an elaborate future mission that aims to retrieve the specimens and bring them back to Earth. Perseverance has been exploring the 28-mile-wide basin of Jezero Crater since it touched down on Mars in February 2021. The rover previously found igneous rocks, likely formed deep underground through volcanic processes, on the crater floor. Perseverance has collected 12 "scientifically compelling" rock cores to date, along with one sample of the Red Planet's atmosphere. Subsequent missions will send another spacecraft to Mars to collect the samples and ferry them back to Earth for more detailed analysis.

Search resuls for: "NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory"

12 mentions found