Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News
August 18, 2021
MARSDAILY
Curiosity Mars Rover explores a changing landscape



Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 18, 2021
Images of knobbly rocks and rounded hills are delighting scientists as NASA's Curiosity rover climbs Mount Sharp, a 5-mile-tall (8-kilometer-tall) mountain within the 96-mile-wide (154-kilometer-wide) basin of Mars' Gale Crater. The rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam, highlights those features in a panorama captured on July 3, 2021 (the 3,167th Martian day, or sol, of the mission). This location is particularly exciting: Spacecraft orbiting Mars show that Curiosity is now somewhere between a region e ... read more

MOON DAILY
NASA benefits from Lunar surface simulant testing
Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Aug 18, 2021
To safely reach the Moon, a lunar lander must fire its rocket engines to decelerate the spacecraft for a soft touchdown. During this process, the engine exhaust stirs up regolith - the dust and rock ... more
MARSDAILY
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter completes 12th Mars flight
Washington DC (UPI) Aug 17, 2021
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter completed its 12th flight on Mars, officials said early Tuesday, as it scouts out the Martian terrain for the Perseverance land rover. ... more
MOON DAILY
Blue Origin sues NASA over SpaceX Moon contract
Washington (AFP) Aug 16, 2021
Blue Origin, the space company owned by Jeff Bezos, is suing the US government over its decision to award a massive Moon exploration contract to its competitor SpaceX, it said in a statement Monday. ... more
SATURN DAILY
Saturn makes waves in its own rings
Pasadena CA (SPX) Aug 18, 2021
In the same way that earthquakes cause our planet to rumble, oscillations in the interior of Saturn make the gas giant jiggle around ever so slightly. Those motions, in turn, cause ripples in Saturn ... more
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Chinese astronauts to conduct extravehicular activities for second time

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MARSDAILY
Trio of orbiters shows small dust storms help dry out Mars
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 17, 2021
By combining observations from three international spacecraft at Mars, scientists were able to show that regional dust storms play a huge role in drying out the Red Planet. Dust storms heat up highe ... more
MOON DAILY
Jeff Bezos' rocket company sues, creates additional delay for moon landing
Washington DC (UPI) Aug 16, 2021
Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, has sued the U.S. government in federal court to overturn NASA's decision awarding SpaceX a contract for a lunar lander - an action likely to further delay a U.S. return to the moon. ... more
IRON AND ICE
Fizzing sodium could explain Asteroid Phaethon's comet-like activity
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 17, 2021
As a comet zooms through the inner solar system, the Sun heats it, causing ices below the surface to vaporize into space. The venting vapor dislodges dust and rock, and the gas creates a bright tail ... more
DRAGON SPACE
Chinese rocket for Tianzhou-3 mission arrives at launch site
Wenchang, China (XNA) Aug 17, 2021
China's Long March-7 Y4 rocket, which will launch the new cargo craft of China's space station, on Monday arrived at its launch site in southern China's Hainan Province. The rocket, alongside ... more
IRON AND ICE
DART Gets Its Wings: Spacecraft Integrated with Innovative Solar Array Technology and Camera
Maryland MD (SPX) Aug 16, 2021
Perched atop a stand in the middle of a high-ceilinged clean room, DART is beginning to look like the intrepid spacecraft that will aim itself directly into an asteroid next fall. With the addition ... more
IRON AND ICE


Traces of Ceres' icy crust found at Occator Crater

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IRON AND ICE
OSIRIS-REx helps scientists model the orbit of hazardous asteroid Bennu
Washington DC (UPI) Aug 11, 2021
The half-a-kilometer-wide asteroid Bennu is already one of the most well-studied asteroids prior to the OSIRIS-REx mission. ... more
SATURN DAILY
Dragonfly mission to Titan announces big science goals
Ithaca NY (SPX) Aug 11, 2021
Among our solar system's many moons, Saturn's Titan stands out - it's the only moon with a substantial atmosphere and liquid on the surface. It even has a weather system like Earth's, though it rain ... more
SPACE MEDICINE
Blobs in space: Slime mould to blast off for ISS experiment
Paris (AFP) Aug 10, 2021
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are set to welcome a most unusual guest, as "the Blob" blasts off into orbit on Tuesday. ... more
SPACE MEDICINE
Spacebound study began with astronaut medical mystery
Houston TX (SPX) Aug 11, 2021
An 18-year-old high school graduate has developed an elegant new way to gauge the liver health of astronauts-and it could someday help solve an enduring medical mystery in space. Each year, th ... more
EXO WORLDS
Did nature or nurture shape the Milky Way's most common planets
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 10, 2021
A Carnegie-led survey of exoplanet candidates identified by NASA's Transiting Exoplanets Satellite Survey (TESS) is laying the groundwork to help astronomers understand how the Milky Way's most comm ... more
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Curiosity Mars Rover explores a changing landscape
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 18, 2021
Images of knobbly rocks and rounded hills are delighting scientists as NASA's Curiosity rover climbs Mount Sharp, a 5-mile-tall (8-kilometer-tall) mountain within the 96-mile-wide (154-kilometer-wide) basin of Mars' Gale Crater. The rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam, highlights those features in a panorama captured on July 3, 2021 (the 3,167th Martian day, or sol, of the mission). This locat ... more
+ NASA's Ingenuity helicopter completes 12th Mars flight
+ Trio of orbiters shows small dust storms help dry out Mars
+ Aviation Week awards NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter with laureate
+ Is Curiosity exploring surface sediments or lake deposits
+ NASA begins recruitment for long-duration Mars Mission Analog Study
+ China's Mars rover travels over 800 meters on red planet
+ Mars rock drilling begins after NASA's helicopter helps plan rover's route




Jeff Bezos' rocket company sues, creates additional delay for moon landing
Washington DC (UPI) Aug 16, 2021
Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, has sued the U.S. government in federal court to overturn NASA's decision awarding SpaceX a contract for a lunar lander - an action likely to further delay a U.S. return to the moon. Bezos' company asked permission to file the suit under seal Friday, and U.S. Federal Claims Court Judge Richard Hertling approved that motion Monday morning. ... more
+ Blue Origin sues NASA over SpaceX Moon contract
+ NASA benefits from Lunar surface simulant testing
+ Advanced Space passes preparatory test for pathfinder mission to the moon
+ Lunar samples solve mystery of the moon's supposed magnetic shield
+ CAPSTONE's cubesat prepares for Lunar mission
+ NASA identifies likely locations of the early molten Moon's deep secrets
+ NASA study highlights importance of surface shadows in Moon water puzzle
A few steps closer to Europa: spacecraft hardware makes headway
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 06, 2021
The hardware that makes up NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft is rapidly taking shape, as engineering components and instruments are prepared for delivery to the main clean room at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. In workshops and labs across the country and in Europe, teams are crafting the complex pieces that make up the whole as mission leaders direct the elaborate ... more
+ Juno joins Japan's Hisaki satellite and Keck Observatory to solve "energy crisis" on Jupiter
+ Hubble finds first evidence of water vapor on Ganymede
+ NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for the Europa Clipper Mission
+ Juno tunes into Jovian radio triggered by Jupiter's volcanic moon Io
+ Ride with Juno as it flies past Jupiter and Ganymede
+ The mystery of what causes Jupiter's X-ray auroras is solved
+ Surface of Jupiter's moon Europa churned by small impacts


Did nature or nurture shape the Milky Way's most common planets
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 10, 2021
A Carnegie-led survey of exoplanet candidates identified by NASA's Transiting Exoplanets Satellite Survey (TESS) is laying the groundwork to help astronomers understand how the Milky Way's most common planets formed and evolved, and determine why our Solar System's pattern of planetary orbits and sizes is so unusual. Carnegie's Johanna Teske, Tsinghua University's Sharon Wang (formerly of ... more
+ New ESO observations show rocky exoplanet has just half the mass of Venus
+ Small force, big effect: How the planets could influence the sun
+ Astronomers find evidence of possible life-sustaining planet
+ Astronomers show how planets form in binary systems without getting crushed
+ Galileo Project to search for ET artifacts in galactic space
+ From the sun to the stars: A journey of exoplanet discovery begins
+ ALMA images moon-forming disk around alien world
Musk says next Moon landing will probably be sooner than in 2024
Moscow (Sputnik) Aug 17, 2021
NASA reportedly paid $300 million to SpaceX on 30 July to turn Starship into a crewed Moon lander for its Human Landing System (HLS) programme. In total, the project may require up to $3 billion in funding. Once again, Elon Musk has shared his optimistic views on space exploration, saying that Moon travel may be closer than it seems. Replying to the Twitter account "Everything Artemis", wh ... more
+ Netflix plans series on historic SpaceX Inspiration4 mission
+ Next Vega mission to orbit Pleiades Neo 4 EO bird and 4 small science sats
+ Boeing Starliner launch faces further delays
+ Spacesuit delays threaten moon landing plans, NASA watchdog says
+ Boeing to remove Starliner from rocket, months-long delay expected
+ Hermeus fully-funded to flight with US Air Force Partnership
+ SpaceX briefly puts together largest rocket in history at Texas base




Chinese astronauts to conduct extravehicular activities for second time
Beijing (XNA) Aug 18, 2021
China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced on Tuesday that astronauts currently in China's space station core module Tianhe will carry out extravehicular activities for a second time within the next few days. The three Chinese astronauts have been working and living in orbit for two months. They were sent into space on board the Shenzhou-12 spaceship and entered Tianhe on June 17. Th ... more
+ Mars mission outcomes to advance space research
+ Chinese rocket for Tianzhou-3 mission arrives at launch site
+ Tianhe astronauts use free time to watch ping-pong and exercise
+ Shanxi company helps astronauts keep fit in space
+ China's space propaganda blitz endures at slick new planetarium
+ How Chinese astronauts stay healthy in space
+ China's five-star red flag flies proudly on red planet
Fizzing sodium could explain Asteroid Phaethon's comet-like activity
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 17, 2021
As a comet zooms through the inner solar system, the Sun heats it, causing ices below the surface to vaporize into space. The venting vapor dislodges dust and rock, and the gas creates a bright tail that can extend millions of miles from the nucleus like an ethereal veil. Whereas comets contain lots of different ices, asteroids are mainly rock and not known for producing such majestic disp ... more
+ DART Gets Its Wings: Spacecraft Integrated with Innovative Solar Array Technology and Camera
+ Traces of Ceres' icy crust found at Occator Crater
+ OSIRIS-REx helps scientists model the orbit of hazardous asteroid Bennu
+ Only slight chance of asteroid Bennu hitting Earth: NASA
+ Perfect for the Perseid Meteor Shower
+ Hi-res measurements of asteroid surface temperatures obtained from Earth
+ Lucy boxed to go




Army successfully tests high-energy laser weapon
Washington DC (UPI) Aug 12, 2021
The U.S. Army says it's developed a combat-capable prototype of a high-energy laser weapon. The laser, which has been 24 months in the making, can be mounted on a Stryker military vehicle and used to defend troops against drones as well as rockets, artillery and mortars, according to an Army press release this week. Over the summer, the new weapon was successfully tested in Fort ... more
+ Israel says used 'airborne laser' to down drones
+ AFRL holds high power electromagnetic wargaming event
+ AFRL directed energy industry days
+ Israel unveils laser-guided 'precision' mortar system
+ Army partners with Air Force's THOR for base defense
+ SHiELD set to receive critical assembly
+ MDA awarded first production contract for the Canadian Surface Combatant Project
Raytheon Intelligence and Space completes Next Gen OPIR Block 0 Milestone
El Segundo CA (SPX) Aug 18, 2021
Raytheon Intelligence and Space, a Raytheon Technologies business, completed a Critical Design Review of its competitive sensor payload design for the U.S. Space Force's Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared or Next-Gen OPIR, Block 0 GEO missile warning satellites, which are being designed and built by spacecraft prime contractor Lockheed Martin. "Protecting the U.S. and our allies ... more
+ General says sensors pinpointing missile threats worldwide are critical capability
+ Pentagon works toward bridging air, missile defense capability gaps
+ Lockheed Martin completes new round of PAC-3 flight tests
+ Northrop Grumman completes CDR for Next-Gen OPIR missile warning mission payload
+ Chinese eyes Russia's S-500 for possible purchase for PLA
+ MDA Test Intercepts Target
+ MDA Tech Bridges Gap Between Disparate Sensors, Fire Control Systems




Saturn makes waves in its own rings
Pasadena CA (SPX) Aug 18, 2021
In the same way that earthquakes cause our planet to rumble, oscillations in the interior of Saturn make the gas giant jiggle around ever so slightly. Those motions, in turn, cause ripples in Saturn's rings. In a new study accepted in the journal Nature Astronomy, two Caltech astronomers have analyzed those rippling rings to reveal new information about the core of Saturn. For their study, ... more
+ Dragonfly mission to Titan announces big science goals
+ Icequakes likely rumble along geyser-spitting fractures in Saturn's icy moon Enceladus
+ Methane in the plumes of Saturn's moon Enceladus: Possible signs of life?
+ Glenn researchers study new, futuristic concept to explore Titan
+ Johns Hopkins Scientists Model Saturn's Interior
+ Ocean currents predicted on Enceladus
+ Hubble Sees Changing Seasons on Saturn
Striking Gold: A Pathway to Stable, High-Activity Catalysts from Gold Nanoclusters
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Aug 16, 2021
Precise metal nanoclusters (NCs) are ideal for developing practical catalysts for chemical reactions. However, their catalytic activity is reduced either due to protective molecules called "ligands" surrounding them or aggregation resulting from ligand removal. In a new study, scientists from Japan elucidate the ligand removal mechanism for gold NCs and irradiate them with UV light to prevent ag ... more
+ Tracking the movement of a single nanoparticle
+ Researchers demonstrate technique for recycling nanowires in electronics
+ Custom-made MIT tool probes materials at the nanoscale
+ Nano-Bio Materials Consortium introduces new AFRL-Industry Co-Development Program
+ Nanostructured device stops light in its tracks
+ Scientists use DNA technology to build tough 3D nanomaterials
+ New "metalens" shifts focus without tilting or moving




On chaos, drunks and a solution to the chaotic three-body problem
Haifa, Israel (SPX) Aug 16, 2021
The three-body problem is one of the oldest problems in physics: it concerns the motions of systems of three bodies, like the Sun, Earth and the Moon - how their orbits change and evolve due to their mutual gravity. The three-body problem has been a focus of scientific inquiry ever since Newton. When one massive object comes close to another, their relative motion follows a trajectory dict ... more
+ Astrophysicist outlines plans for the gravitational wave observatory on the moon
+ AstroAccess opens applications to disabled crew participants for space training on zero gravity flight
+ A new type of gravitational wave detector to find tennis ballsized black holes
+ Scientists find new insights into the elusive continuous waves from spinning neutron stars
+ Cramming it all into three hundred and thirty seconds of microgravity
+ NASA Marshall team soars to success in microgravity
+ The gateway to weightlessness, the edge of space
Beating the curse of dimensionality
Thuwal, Saudi Arabia (SPX) Aug 17, 2021
By scanning past data for both partial and complete matches to current observations, a KAUST-led research team has developed a prediction scheme that can more reliably forecast the future trajectory of environmental parameters. The collection of data at regular intervals over time is common in many fields but particularly so in environmental, transportation and biological research. Such da ... more
+ Size of supermassive black hole divulged by eating pattern
+ Using particle accelerators to investigate the quark-gluon plasma of early universe
+ Best of both worlds-combining classical and quantum systems to meet supercomputing demands
+ Exotic matter is in our sights
+ Huge rings around a black hole
+ Collisions of Light Produce Matter/Antimatter from Pure Energy
+ Magnetic 'balding' of black holes saves general relativity prediction




Inflatable robotic hand gives amputees real-time tactile control
Boston MA (SPX) Aug 17, 2021
For the more than 5 million people in the world who have undergone an upper-limb amputation, prosthetics have come a long way. Beyond traditional mannequin-like appendages, there is a growing number of commercial neuroprosthetics - highly articulated bionic limbs, engineered to sense a user's residual muscle signals and robotically mimic their intended motions. But this high-tech dexterity ... more
+ Army award-winning research to transform Soldier-robot communication
+ Artificial Intelligence learns better when distracted
+ Kitchen robot in Riga cooks up new future for fast food
+ Wearable brain-machine interface turns intentions into actions
+ MDA awarded next contract for flagship Canadarm3 Program
+ Google parent launches new 'moonshot' for robotics software
+ Smart cards and robots: Saudi Arabia's 'digital hajj'
Unmanned systems used to detect mines in U.S. Navy's Large Scale Exercise
Washington DC (UPI) Aug 16, 2021
Unmanned systems were successfully used to detect underwater mines in the U.S. Navy's Large Scale Exercise 2021, the branch said on Monday. The Navy Expeditionary Combat Command's Expeditionary Mine Countermeasures, or exMCM, Company 2-3, tied to the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 6, EOD Group 2, embarked on amphibious ship, USS Arlington, Aug. 3-9, for the exercise, the branch ... more
+ US Department of Defense awards Citadel Defense contract for integrated counter drone system
+ System trains drones to fly around obstacles at high speeds
+ Draganfly commences training for Texas EMS drone delivery services
+ With drones and bananas, China coaxes wayward elephants home
+ Air Force to develop anti-drone system named for Thor's hammer, Mjolnir
+ XQ-58A Valkyrie Tail #1 prepares for transfer to Air Force Museum
+ Navy tests MQ-4C unmanned aerial vehicles with upgraded sensors
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