Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News
January 15, 2021
MARSDAILY
Making methane on Mars



Irvine CA (SPX) Jan 15, 2021
Among the many challenges with a Mars voyage, one of the most pressing is: How can you get enough fuel for the spacecraft to fly back to Earth? Houlin Xin, an assistant professor in physics and astronomy, may have found a solution. He and his team have discovered a more efficient way of creating methane-based rocket fuel theoretically on the surface of Mars, which can make the return trip all more feasible. The novel discovery comes in the form of a single-atom zinc catalyst that will ... read more

MOON DAILY
Orion Ready to Fuel Up for Artemis I Mission
Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Jan 15, 2021
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis I mission is taking one more step closer to its flight to the Moon. On Jan. 14, the spacecraft was lifted out of the stand in the Neil Armstrong Operations an ... more
MARSDAILY
InSight 'Mole' payload ends operations on Mars
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 15, 2021
The heat probe developed and built by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and deployed on Mars by NASA's InSight lander has ended its portion of the mission. Since Feb. 28, 2019, the probe, called the ... more
MOON DAILY
Lockheed Martin-Built Orion spacecraft is ready for its Moon mission
Denver CO (SPX) Jan 15, 2021
NASA's Orion spacecraft is ready for its mission to the Moon. Lockheed Martin has completed assembly and testing of the Orion Artemis I spacecraft and has transferred possession to NASA's Exploratio ... more
MARSDAILY
With $3M NASA Grant, UArizona scientists will test Mars exploration drones in Iceland
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jan 15, 2021
A team of scientists led by Christopher Hamilton of the University of Arizona is gearing up to send drones on exploration missions across a vast lava field in Iceland to test a next-generation Mars ... more
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OUTER PLANETS
Juno mission expands into the future
Washington DC (SPX) Jan 15, 2021
NASA has authorized a mission extension for its Juno spacecraft exploring Jupiter. The agency's most distant planetary orbiter will now continue its investigation of the solar system's largest plane ... more
EXO WORLDS
Astronomers finally measure polarized light from exoplanet
Amsterdam, Netherlands (SPX) Jan 13, 2021
An international team led by Dutch astronomers has, after years of searching and defying the boundaries of a telescope, for the first time directly captured polarized light from an exoplanet. They c ... more
MOON DAILY
NASA, Japan formalize Gateway Partnership for Artemis Program
Washington DC (SPX) Jan 13, 2021
NASA and the Government of Japan have finalized an agreement for the lunar Gateway, an orbiting outpost that commercial and international partners will build together. This agreement strengthens the ... more
MARSDAILY
Curiosity Rover reaches its 3,000th day on Mars
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 13, 2021
It's been 3,000 Martian days, or sols, since Curiosity touched down on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012, and the rover keeps making new discoveries during its gradual climb up Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-tall (5-ki ... more
IRON AND ICE
Why do some regions on the dwarf planet Ceres appear blue
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 13, 2021
This month marks the 220th anniversary of the discovery of the first asteroid. During the night of 1-2 January 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi, the director of Palermo Astronomical Observatory, noticed a 'sta ... more
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STELLAR CHEMISTRY
New Horizons spacecraft answers question: how dark is space
Baltimore MD (SPX) Jan 13, 2021
How dark is the sky, and what does that tell us about the number of galaxies in the visible universe? Astronomers can estimate the total number of galaxies by counting everything visible in a Hubble ... more
MOON DAILY
Dynetics achieves critical NASA milestone and delivers key data on lunar lander program
Huntsville AL (SPX) Jan 11, 2021
Dynetics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Leidos, has submitted its proposal for Option A of the Human Landing System (HLS) for NASA's Artemis Program. The Dynetics team has also completed the HLS Cont ... more
EXO WORLDS
A Tale of Planetary Resurrection
Pasadena CA (SPX) Jan 12, 2021
Years after its detection, astronomers have learned that a planet called KOI-5Ab orbits in a triple-star system with a skewed configuration. Shortly after NASA's Kepler mission began operations bac ... more
SPACE MEDICINE
'Say ahh': Chinese robots take throat swabs to fight Covid outbreak
Beijing (AFP) Jan 13, 2021
A Chinese city deployed robots to take Covid-19 throat swabs on Wednesday, as the country ramps up mass testing to stamp out local coronavirus outbreaks. ... more
ROBO SPACE
NASA readies Astrobee flying robots for serious space science
Washington DC (UPI) Jan 12, 2021
NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station are preparing new Astrobee flying robots to enhance science on the orbiting laboratory - a technology that could be vital to future deep space exploration. ... more


Pandemic's robot 'heroes' highlight their value at tech show

ROBO SPACE
Programming tweak helps AI software imitate human visual learning
Washington DC (UPI) Jan 12, 2021
Using a novel programming tweak, a pair of neuroscientists have managed to replicate human visual learning in computer-based artificial intelligence. ... more
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ROBO SPACE
Using light to revolutionize artificial intelligence
Quebec City, Canada (SPX) Jan 12, 2021
An international team of researchers, including Professor Roberto Morandotti of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), just introduced a new photonic processor that could revolut ... more
SPACE MEDICINE
Russia starts mass vaccinations in cosmonaut centre
Moscow (AFP) Jan 12, 2021
Russia's cosmonaut training centre said Tuesday it has begun vaccinating employees against the coronavirus ahead of future space missions. ... more
EXO WORLDS
A rocky planet around one of our galaxy's oldest stars
Honolulu HI (SPX) Jan 12, 2021
"They should have sent a poet," says Ellie Arroway in the film Contact as, suspended in outer space, she gazes upon a spiral galaxy. Almost all of the planets discovered to date (including the solar ... more
EXO WORLDS
Astronomers find evidence for planets shrinking over billions of years
Honolulu HI (SPX) Jan 12, 2021
A team of astronomers led by University of Hawai?i Institute for Astronomy (IfA) graduate student Travis Berger has shown that an intriguing class of Neptune-sized planets shrinks over billions of y ... more
EXO WORLDS
Astronomers measure enormous planet lurking far from its star
Riverside CA (SPX) Jan 12, 2021
Scientists aren't usually able to measure the size of gigantic planets, like Jupiter or Saturn, which are far from the stars they orbit. But a UC Riverside-led team has done it. The planet is ... more
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RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
With $3M NASA Grant, UArizona scientists will test Mars exploration drones in Iceland
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jan 15, 2021
A team of scientists led by Christopher Hamilton of the University of Arizona is gearing up to send drones on exploration missions across a vast lava field in Iceland to test a next-generation Mars exploration concept. Hamilton is the principal investigator on a project that has been awarded a $3.1 million NASA grant to develop a new concept combining rovers and unmanned aerial systems, co ... more
+ Curiosity Rover reaches its 3,000th day on Mars
+ InSight 'Mole' payload ends operations on Mars
+ Making methane on Mars
+ Frosty scenes in martian summer
+ Seven things to know about the NASA rover about to land on Mars
+ China Focus: 400 mln km within 163 days, China's Mars probe heads for red planet
+ Tianwen 1 robotic probe to enter Mars orbit in Feb




Orion Ready to Fuel Up for Artemis I Mission
Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Jan 15, 2021
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis I mission is taking one more step closer to its flight to the Moon. On Jan. 14, the spacecraft was lifted out of the stand in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida where engineers have meticulously outfitted it with thousands of components and tested its systems and subsystems to ensure it can a ... more
+ NASA, Japan formalize Gateway Partnership for Artemis Program
+ Dynetics achieves critical NASA milestone and delivers key data on lunar lander program
+ Lockheed Martin-Built Orion spacecraft is ready for its Moon mission
+ Tiny NASA cameras to watch commercial lander form craters on moon
+ Chang'e 4 probe resumes work for 26th lunar day
+ UK eyes plan to send first rover to Moon in 2021
+ Lunar gold rush could create conflict on the ground if we don't act now
Juno mission expands into the future
Washington DC (SPX) Jan 15, 2021
NASA has authorized a mission extension for its Juno spacecraft exploring Jupiter. The agency's most distant planetary orbiter will now continue its investigation of the solar system's largest planet through September 2025, or until the spacecraft's end of life. This expansion tasks Juno with becoming an explorer of the full Jovian system - Jupiter and its rings and moons - with multiple rendezv ... more
+ Dark Storm on Neptune reverses direction, possibly shedding a fragment
+ The 'Great' Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn
+ NASA's Juno Spacecraft Updates Quarter-Century Jupiter Mystery
+ Swedish space instrument participates in the search for life around Jupiter
+ Researchers model source of eruption on Jupiter's moon Europa
+ Radiation Does a Bright Number on Jupiter's Moon
+ New plans afoot beyond Pluto


Astronomers finally measure polarized light from exoplanet
Amsterdam, Netherlands (SPX) Jan 13, 2021
An international team led by Dutch astronomers has, after years of searching and defying the boundaries of a telescope, for the first time directly captured polarized light from an exoplanet. They can deduct from the light that a disk of dust and gas is orbiting around the exoplanet in which moons are possibly forming. The researchers will soon publish their findings in the journal Astronomy and ... more
+ A Tale of Planetary Resurrection
+ A rocky planet around one of our galaxy's oldest stars
+ Astronomers find evidence for planets shrinking over billions of years
+ Astronomers measure enormous planet lurking far from its star
+ Discovery boosts theory that life on Earth arose from RNA-DNA mix
+ Astronomers detect possible radio emission from exoplanet
+ Key building block for organic molecules discovered in meteorites
Cargo Dragon undocks from Station and heads for splashdown
Houston TX (SPX) Jan 13, 2021
With NASA astronaut Victor Glover monitoring aboard the International Space Station, an upgraded SpaceX cargo Dragon spacecraft undocked from the International Docking Adapter on the station's space-facing port of the Harmony module at 9:05 a.m. EST. It is the first undocking of a U.S. commercial cargo craft from the complex. Previous cargo Dragon spacecraft were attached and removed from ... more
+ SpaceX CRS-21 safely splashes down off the coast of Florida for first time
+ DARPA's Operational Fires Ground-Launched Hypersonics program enters new phase
+ Exotrail aims for more in orbit space mobility
+ China makes progress in developing rocket engines for space missions
+ Rolls-Royce and UK Space Agency launch study into nuclear-powered space exploration
+ SpaceX Dragon capsule to make first of its kind science splashdown
+ Flexibility and resiliency define Arianespace's performance in 2020




Chinese space enterprise gears up for record-breaking 40-plus launches in 2021
Beijing (XNA) Jan 06, 2021
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the leading force of the country's space industry, has released a plan for more than 40 space launches for 2021, a new high following the already busy and fruitful 2020. The construction of China's space station, the key space mission in the year, will enter a crucial stage, according to the CASC. The country plans to lau ... more
+ China's space achievements out of this world
+ China's Chang'e-5 orbiter embarks on new mission to gravitationally stable spot at L1
+ China plans to launch four manned spacecraft in next two years
+ Mission accomplished, now on to the next: China Daily editorial
+ China prepares to launch Long March-8 Y1 rocket
+ China plans to launch new space science satellites
+ How it took decades for space program to take off
Why do some regions on the dwarf planet Ceres appear blue
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 13, 2021
This month marks the 220th anniversary of the discovery of the first asteroid. During the night of 1-2 January 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi, the director of Palermo Astronomical Observatory, noticed a 'star' on the shoulder of the bull-shaped constellation, Taurus. But the position of the star was changing each night. Piazzi had discovered Ceres, the largest body in the vast space between the planets M ... more
+ Remote sensing data sheds light on when and how asteroid Ryugu lost its water
+ NASA's first mission to the Trojan Asteroids integrates its second scientific instrument
+ Knowledge of asteroid composition to help avert collisions
+ EMXYS and Royal Observatory, Belgium to participate in planetary defence Hera space mission
+ SwRI-led team finds meteoric evidence for a previously unknown asteroid
+ The Subaru Telescope photographs the next target asteroid for Hayabusa2
+ Asteroid samples leave Japan scientists 'speechless'




Lockheed Martin delivers HELIOS Laser to US Navy for testing and integration
Moorestown NJ (SPX) Jan 12, 2021
This year, the U.S. Navy will field the first acquisition program to deploy the High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance, or HELIOS, a laser weapon system with high-energy fiber lasers for permanent fielding by the U.S. Department of Defense. This will be the only deployed laser system integrated into an operational Flight IIA DDG. This follows the Lockheed Martin ... more
+ DARPA seeks compact, deployable electron accelerator
+ Navy tests autonomous drone as target for laser weapon testing
+ Do Directed Energy Weapons finally live up to their expectations?
+ Army testing new air defense system, laser weapons
+ AFRL breaks ground on new directed energy facility
+ US Army plans to mount anti-aircraft lasers on Stryker armored vehicles
+ Northrop Grumman taps Epirus for Electromagnetic Pulse C-UAS Weapon System
Israel delivers second Iron Dome Defense System battery to U.S.
Washington DC (UPI) Jan 7, 2021
Israel delivered the second of two Iron Dome Defense System batteries to the U.S. Army this week. "The delivery of the Iron Dome to the U.S. Army once again demonstrates the close relations between the Israel Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense, the effectiveness of the system against various threats, and the excellent technological capabilities of Israeli industries, ... more
+ Congress adds $1.3B to Missile Defense Agency's budget in spending bill
+ IMDO and MDA complete intercept test of the David's Sling Weapon System
+ Most Advanced SBIRS Missile Warning Satellite Ready For 2021 Launch
+ Russian military successfully tests new anti-ballistic missile
+ Navy intercepts, destroys ICBM during missile test in Hawaii
+ U.S., allied countries begin NATO Missile Firing Installation 2020 in Greece
+ Launching your career in missile defense




SwRI models point to a potentially diverse metabolic menu at Enceladus
San Antonio TX (SPX) Dec 17, 2020
Using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, scientists at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) modeled chemical processes in the subsurface ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The studies indicate the possibility that a varied metabolic menu could support a potentially diverse microbial community in the liquid water ocean beneath the moon's icy facade. Prior to its deorbit in September of 2017 ... more
+ Impact craters reveal details of Titan's dynamic surface weathering
+ NASA Scientists Discover 'Weird' Molecule in Titan's Atmosphere
+ ALMA shows volcanic impact on Io's atmosphere
+ Interplanetary storm chasing
+ Titan's lakes can stratify like those on Earth
+ New chronology of the Saturn System
Scientists see competition of magnetic orders from 2D sheets of atoms
Washington DC (UPI) Jan 6, 2021
For the first time, scientists have observed competition between magnetic orders from coupled sheets of atoms. The observations, described Wednesday in the journal Nature, promise new insights into the quantum qualities of two-dimensional materials. Ever since a pair of British researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010 for the discovery of graphene, material scientists, electrica ... more
+ Atomic-scale nanowires can now be produced at scale
+ Weak force has strong impact on nanosheets
+ Making 3D nanosuperconductors with DNA
+ Researchers share design for affordable single-molecule microscope
+ Scientists explain the paradox of quantum forces in nanodevices
+ Rice rolls out next-gen nanocars
+ Nano particles for healthy tissue




'Galaxy-sized' observatory sees potential hints of gravitational waves
Boulder CO (SPX) Jan 12, 2021
Scientists have used a "galaxy-sized" space observatory to find possible hints of a unique signal from gravitational waves, or the powerful ripples that course through the universe and warp the fabric of space and time itself. The new findings, which appeared recently in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, hail from a U.S. and Canadian project called the North American Nanohertz Observatory ... more
+ What happens when your brain can't tell which way is up or down?
+ Arecibo observatory helps find possible 'first hints' of low-frequency gravitational waves
+ China launches two satellites for gravitational wave detection
+ A technique to sift out the universe's first gravitational waves
+ Getting in a spin over a cup of coffee
+ Looking at solutions on a parabolic flight
+ Hundreds of copies of Newton's Principia found in new census
The earliest supermassive black hole and quasar in the universe
Maunakea HI (SPX) Jan 13, 2021
The most distant quasar known has been discovered. The quasar, seen just 670 million years after the Big Bang, is 1000 times more luminous than the Milky Way, and is powered by the earliest known supermassive black hole, which weighs in at more than 1.6 billion times the mass of the Sun. Seen more than 13 billion years ago, this fully formed distant quasar is also the earliest yet discover ... more
+ 'Old Faithful' cosmic eruption shows black hole ripping at star
+ NASA missions help investigate an 'old faithful' active galaxy
+ Researchers use LRZ HPC resources to perform largest-ever supersonic turbulence simulation
+ Researchers realize efficient generation of high-dimensional quantum teleportation
+ Could we harness energy from black holes
+ Discovery of quantum behavior in insulators suggests possible new particle
+ Scientists entangle atoms using heat




Programming tweak helps AI software imitate human visual learning
Washington DC (UPI) Jan 12, 2021
Using a novel programming tweak, a pair of neuroscientists have managed to replicate human visual learning in computer-based artificial intelligence. The tweak, described Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, yielded a model capable learning new objects faster than earlier AI programs. "Our model provides a biologically plausible way for artificial neura ... more
+ NASA readies Astrobee flying robots for serious space science
+ Using light to revolutionize artificial intelligence
+ Pandemic's robot 'heroes' highlight their value at tech show
+ A robotic revolution for urban nature
+ Army research leads to more effective training model for robots
+ U.S. Army, Clemson University partner on autonomous vehicle project
+ Northrop Grumman invests in Deepwave Digital's AI
French army to purchase 300 mini-drones
Washington DC (UPI) Jan 13, 2021
French drone maker Parrot will build 300 small drones for the French Army under a five-year contract, according to two announcements on Wednesday. The ANAFI USA drones weigh 17 ounces, have a battery-powered fight time of up to 32 minutes and typically carry cameras, including thermal cameras, for day and night observation capabilities. Capable of fitting in a soldier's hand, the ... more
+ First-ever remote drone delivery completed in Latvia
+ US Air Force Funds Adaptation of Automotive Radar for Autonomous "Flying Cars"
+ Air Force moves Reaper drones, 90 airmen to Romania
+ Iran army announces large-scale drone drill
+ German government at odds over armed drones
+ Funding for MQ-9 Reaper drone back in federal budget
+ Northrop Grumman completes first flight of Global Hawk Ground Station Modernization Program
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