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☆ NASA researchers will spend a year living in a simulated Mars habitat
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Thomas Page | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Bill Stafford/NASAAiming for fidelity has resulted in a habitat that could feasibly built on Mars, Smith adds. MARK FELIX/AFP/AFP /AFP via Getty ImagesNASA is attempting to fill in what it calls “Strategic Knowledge Gaps,” that currently make a manned Mars mission too risky. A manned Mars mission will ship food to the planet in advance of humans, which means it will need a long shelf-life. Intended as a location for the emirate to develop technology for an eventual Mars mission, it was also designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, with 3D-printed buildings. Thankfully the crew entering CHAPEA in June will not have to concern themselves with that potentially deadly element of a Mars mission.

☆ SpaceX partner aims to launch commercial space station
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Nor is it clear how much a trip to the proposed space station would cost visitors, which could include professional astronauts or tourists. NASA, along with its global partners, is seeking to use a privately developed space station to replace the aging International Space Station, which has been continuously inhabited in low-Earth orbit since 2000. But the other key partner on the International Space Station, Russia, has said it will only guarantee participation through 2028. “The Dragon team and the team and leadership (at SpaceX) really want to build a Falcon 9-based space station,” said Max Haot, Vast’s president. Later, the company plans to attach the spacecraft as a module to a larger space station.

☆ Fact Check-Video shows astronaut conducting an experiment in front of a grid background
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The grid is used similarly to graph paper to conduct experiments in space, according to the National Space Centre. The first few seconds of the video shows European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake on the middle screen in the background, in front of a grid background. It shows Peake conducting an experiment with a green ball. “It’s not a chroma key background,” Paul Millington, a representative for the National Space Centre, said in an email to Reuters. The video does not show an astronaut in front of a chroma key background with the purpose of falsifying space travel.

☆ Webb telescope spies evidence of hidden planets around nearby star
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The revelation of the Fomalhaut’s two inner rings has suggested that planets hidden deeper within the star system may be affecting the dust belt’s shape. Stars form from gas and dust, and then a ring of leftover material called a protoplanetary disk orbits the star, where planets are born. Once the planets form around a star, debris belts form and become shaped by the gravity of the planets. Studying the dust belts can help unlock more of the secrets behind how planetary systems form. “I think it’s not a very big leap to say there’s probably a really interesting planetary system around the star.”

☆ Pollution Reveals What Russian Statistics Obscure: Industrial Decline
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Josh Zumbrun | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A satellite monitoring pollution released by Russian factories can detect gases including nitrogen dioxide, ozone, formaldehyde and methane. Photo: European Space AgencyEver since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, questions have multiplied about the reliability of Russia’s economic data. Official Russian government reports have often suggested the economy is surviving Western sanctions better than Western governments had hoped. Yet with Moscow’s penchant for wartime propaganda, to what extent should anyone trust Russia’s economic information? So here is a data point that is hard for Russia to fake: pollution emitted by its factories and detectable by satellites in outer space.

☆ Russia's economy is suffering from industrial decline as satellites detect less pollution in the air
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Pollution in Russia's industrial regions fell 1.2% in the six months to April, and is 6.2% lower annually. Still, the satellite data offers a picture that cannot be easily obscured. Additional satellite data shows that the automotive sector, construction, oil and gas, and even the defense industry are emitting less pollution. ECB economists Adrian Schmith and Hanna Sakhno have also incorporated satellite pollution data as part of their alternative tracker of economic data for Russia. Our tracker shows a contraction of the Russian economy ahead of the official figures release precisely because we use high-frequency indicators from the private economy."

☆ NASA footage reveals 4 types of solar eruptions and 'holes' that could affect Earth as the sun grows more active
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The sun is slamming Earth with solar flares and high-speed eruptions of plasma. Solar flares can have the power of 1 billion hydrogen bombsA solar flare erupts — the bright flash on the bottom right of the sun — on March 28, 2023. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the upper right – on March 3, 2023. CMEs are common culprits of solar storms on Earth, since they can send a powerful flood of solar particles washing over the planet. Coronal holes open a highway for solar windA video from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the massive hole in the sun's atmosphere.

☆ Fact Check-Ocean pulled to Earth by force of gravity
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The ocean is pulled down to Earth due to gravity, despite a viral post shared online falsely claiming that the planet’s oceans are held inside a “container,” with Antarctica forming the external ridge. The posts allude to flat earth conspiracies. OUR CONTAINER.”The ocean is pulled down to the irregular ellipsoid-shaped Earth due to gravity (here), however, and is not held together by containers on a flat surface. On Earth, per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), “gravity pulls all objects ‘downward’ toward the center of the planet” (bit.ly/41XcxYq). The ocean is pulled to Earth due to gravity.

☆ Rocket that landed in the wrong country recovered
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Authorities in Sweden have retrieved the payload of a research rocket launched from the country’s Esrange Space Center that landed by error in neighboring Norway. It landed 15 kilometers (9 miles) across the Norwegian border — 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the planned landing site — in a forested area that lies 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) above sea level. The rocket’s payload was recovered on Tuesday in good condition and transported by helicopter back to the Esrange Space Center in the north of Sweden. We are now investigating the reason why the rocket flew further northwest than (optimal). It is still too early to speculate about the cause, and we await more information from the current investigation,” Marko Kohberg, head of sounding rocket and balloon operations at Esrange Space Center, said in a Tuesday statement.

☆ Commercial lunar lander presumed lost after historic moon landing attempt
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —A Japanese lunar lander, carrying a rover developed in the United Arab Emirates, attempted to find its footing on the moon’s surface Tuesday — and potentially mark the world’s first lunar landing for a commercially developed spacecraft. The lunar lander, called Hakuto-R, was carrying the Rashid rover — the first Arab-built lunar spacecraft, which was built by Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai. Israel-based company SpaceIL was the first XPrize contestant to attempt to put its lander on the moon after the program ended. Its Beresheet spacecraft crashed in 2019 after ground teams lost contact with the lander as it approached the surface. That same year, the Indian Space and Research Organisation lost contact with a lunar lander shortly before it was slated to touch down on the moon.

☆ Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are melting rapidly and driving sea level rise, new satellite data finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Jack Guy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —The Earth’s ice sheets lost enough ice over the last 30 years to create an ice cube 12 miles high, according to new research. They found that ice sheet melting has increased six-fold over the past 30 years, as record levels of planet-heating pollution push up global temperatures. The worst year for ice sheet loss was 2019, the report found, when the ice sheets lost around 675 billion tons of ice. Ice sheet melting now accounts for a quarter of all sea level rise – a fivefold increase since the 1990s. Otosaka expects the Greenland ice sheet to continue losing ice, but said it’s not yet clear what might happen to the Antarctic ice sheet.

☆ Abortion Access: Where It Stands Almost One Year After Dobbs Decision
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Juice Mission Launches to Jupiter’s Moons to Explore Potential for Life The European Space Agency launched its Juice mission to explore the potential for life on Jupiter’s moons. WSJ’s Aylin Woodward explains what will happen on the eight-year journey and what scientists are hoping to learn once the spacecraft arrives. Photo: Jody Amiet/AFP/Getty Images

☆ Deadly Clashes in Sudan Enter Third Day as Leaders Call for Calm
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Leaked Pentagon docs show the shot-down Chinese spy balloon may have had a feature known as 'synthetic aperture radar' that can see through certain materials, WaPo reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The shot-down Chinese spy balloon may have had synthetic aperture radar, the Washington Post reports. SAR is used around the world by organizations like NASA and the European Space Agency. "The amount of solar power generated by the panels on the Chinese stratospheric balloon that NSA named Killeen-23 is excessive for a weather balloon," the document reads. Synthetic aperture radar is the solution to the problem with real aperture radar, which cannot create high-resolution images without an impractically large antenna. These sensor readings then allow the radar to create a reconstruction of whatever objects are below the energy beam.

☆ Juice mission launches to explore Jupiter’s icy ocean worlds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —The European Space Agency has sent a spacecraft to explore Jupiter and three of its largest and most intriguing moons. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission, or Juice, launched Friday at 8:14 a.m. Toward the end of the mission, Juice will focus solely on orbiting Ganymede, making it the first spacecraft ever to orbit a moon in the outer solar system. The Juice mission was designed to unravel what takes place as Jupiter interacts with its moons, including auroras, hot spots, radio emissions and waves of charged particles. Given the eventual distance between the spacecraft and Earth, it will take 45 minutes to send a one-way signal to Juice.

☆ Jupiter Mission Set to Explore Icy Worlds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Aylin Woodward | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A historic mission to Jupiter is about to blast off. The European Space Agency’s spacecraft nicknamed Juice—for Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer—is set to begin an eight-year journey toward the planet and three of its largest moons. Juice is scheduled to launch Friday morning Eastern Time from a spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, after an earlier attempt was scrubbed because of lightning risk.

☆ The Juice mission will soon launch to Jupiter’s icy ocean worlds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission, or Juice, was expected to lift off Thursday at 8:15 a.m. European Space AgencyGanymede, Callisto and Europa are ice-covered worlds that may contain subsurface oceans that are potentially habitable for life. European Space Agency“With Juice, we want to confirm there’s liquid water in these moons, confirm their heat sources. Testing and modeling of Jupiter’s radiation belts allowed engineers to prepare for what Juice will encounter. Given the eventual distance between the spacecraft and Earth, it will take 45 minutes to send a one-way signal to Juice.

☆ Europe’s Juice Mission Will Launch to Jupiter and Its Moons: How to Watch
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Jonathan O Callaghan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jupiter, king of the solar system, will be getting new visitors. The robotic mission that will leave for Jupiter on Thursday is Juice, or the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, from the European Space Agency, or ESA, aiming to closely study three of Jupiter’s satellites: Callisto, Europa and Ganymede. When will the launch happen, and how can I watch it? Juice is scheduled to launch on April 13 at 8:15 a.m. Eastern time. ESA will stream the launch live on its website and on its YouTube channel.

☆ New James Webb telescope photo of a galaxy cluster 6 billion light years away shows a trippy phenomenon where gravity warps spacetime
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

New cosmic photos of galactic "arcs and streaks" in space were released on Tuesday by NASA's James Webb Telescope. The galaxies are bending space and time in a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. The SDSS J1226+2149 galaxy cluster shown in this newest photo is around 6.3 billion light years away, in the constellation Coma Berenices, according to the ESA. The James Webb Space Telescope's first deep field infrared image, released July 11, 2022. The light from the MACS0647-JD system is bent and magnified by the massive gravity of galaxy cluster MACS0647.

☆ Giant 'holes' dozens of times the size of our planet are appearing on the sun. Here's how they could affect Earth.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Two huge coronal holes, dozen of times the size of the Earth, have appeared on the sun. These coronal holes can spew solar winds at 1.8 million mph toward our planet, which can cause stunning auroras and disrupt satellites. Coronal holes aren't actually holes in the sunA coronal hole rotates across the face of the sun, streaming solar wind towards Earth, February 1, 2017. Coronal holes happen in the "corona," the atmosphere of the sun, and can only be seen in UV or X-ray light. We could see this month's coronal holes again next monthThe coronal hole came into view as the sun rotated.

☆ The moon could have up to 297 billion tons of water stored in tiny glass beads on its surface, scientists say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Researchers say glass beads found on the moon's surface could contain billions of tons of water. The scientists say the water was created from solar winds, which blow hydrogen — one of the two elements in water — onto the lunar surface. The glass beads themselves form when small meteorites hit the surface of the moon and melt with material on the surface, per the study. Hu said the water extracted from the glass beads shows promise that it could be used in future lunar missions. NASA also plans to once again send astronauts to the Moon in 2025, 50 years after man last set foot on the lunar surface.

☆ NASA awards Firefly Aerospace $112 mln contract for far-side moon lander
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 14 (Reuters) - NASA on Tuesday said it had picked U.S. rocket builder Firefly Aerospace to put a lander on the moon's far side in 2026, under a nearly $112 million contract. "The commercial lander will deliver two agency payloads, as well as communication and data relay satellite for lunar orbit, which is an ESA (European Space Agency) collaboration with NASA," the U.S. space agency said. NASA handed a similar award of $73 million to spacecraft software firm Draper last year to deliver science and technology payloads to the far side of the moon in 2025. NASA awarded Cedar Park, Texas-based Firefly $93.3 million in 2021 to carry a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the moon in 2023. Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju SamuelOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Fact Check-Astronauts can cut hair while in space
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Astronauts use specific tools to cut their hair in space, a NASA spokesperson told Reuters, after some social media users questioned how they could float in space for months on end with groomed hair. A photo of the vacuum attached to clippers used to cut astronauts’ hair while in space can be seen on the NASA site (here). As for shaving facial hair, astronauts use “the same razors and creams that we use here on Earth,” Bleacher said. Astronauts trimming and shaving hair in space has been documented by space agencies. Astronauts use special clippers with a vacuum attachment to cut their hair while in space, and space agencies have documented the process online.

☆ Japan's new rocket fails after engine issue, in blow to space ambitions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Tim Kelly | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/4] An H3 rocket carrying a land observation satellite lifts off from the launching pad at Tanegashima Space Center on the southwestern island of Tanegashima, Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan March 7, 2023, in this photo taken by Kyodo. The 57-metre (187 ft) tall H3 rocket lifted off without a hitch from the Tanegashima space port, a live-streamed broadcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) showed. But upon reaching space, the rocket's second-stage engine failed to ignite, forcing mission officials to manually destroy the vehicle. "This will have a serious impact on Japan's future space policy, space business and technological competitiveness," he added. A successful launch on Tuesday would have put the Japanese rocket into space ahead of the planned launch later this year of the European Space Agency's new lower-cost Ariane 6 vehicle.

☆ China gears up to compete with SpaceX's Starlink this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Nacho DoceBEIJING, March 2 (Reuters) - China's military-industrial complex is set to start building its first constellation of very low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites later this year, the latest Chinese bid to catch up with U.S.-based Starlink. Starlink, operated by billionaire Elon Musk's Space X, has built a fast-growing network of more than 3,500 satellites in low-Earth orbit. LEO satellites have the added advantage of being cheaper and providing more efficient transmission than satellites at higher orbits. While CASIC and others have already launched their first LEO satellites, the gap with Starlink is likely to remain large throughout the next decade. Analysts estimate that China currently has no more than several hundred LEO satellites in operation and it would only reach 4,000 by 2027.

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