Smallsats offer lessons for big science missions
SAN FRANCISCO – As a group, NASA’s low-cost science missions have improved significantly.
SAN FRANCISCO – As a group, NASA’s low-cost science missions have improved significantly.
HELSINKI — China will launch new quantum satellites into low Earth orbit next year, according to a scientist leading the project.
The outer crust of the dwarf planet Ceres, which at 588 miles (946 kilometers) across is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is likely made from a dirty frozen ocean, according to new computer models.
The European Space Agency’s Hera mission launched today (Oct. 7) at 10:52 a.m. EDT (1452 GMT), riding a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in coastal Florida.
There is very little doubt that Earth is getting warmer, and that this warming is a result of human-driven gases in the atmosphere that store heat and redirect it toward our planet’s surface. And Earth isn’t the only planet to have experienced this so-called “greenhouse effect.”
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered that a “puffy” planet is asymmetric, meaning there is a significant difference between one side of the atmosphere and the other.
The $5 billion Europa Clipper mission had been scheduled to launch on Thursday (Oct. 10) atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), on Florida’s Atlantic Coast. But Hurricane Milton has nixed that plan.
Astronomers have used the wide-field view of the Dark Energy Camera to confirm that supermassive-black-hole-powered quasars in the early universe were packed into dense neighborhoods. However, it seems these cosmic beasts weren’t exactly the best neighbors.
A leading astrobiologist melds her passion with the weighty nature of trying to grasp for answers to two key questions: Are we alone in the universe? How did life on Earth begin in the first place?
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force selected four companies to develop concepts for smaller, more cost-effective GPS satellites based on commercial designs, aiming to augment the existing Global Positioning System network, the Department of the Air Force announced Sept. 23.
SAN FRANCISCO — Firefly Aerospace won a contract to launch Quicksounder, a prototype for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s next-generation of environmental satellites in low-Earth orbit. The value of the award was not disclosed.
WASHINGTON — The House passed a new NASA authorization bill Sept. 23 that would largely keep the agency on course in its human spaceflight and science programs while directing it to prepare several reports.
HELSINKI — China will launch the Tianwen-2 mission to sample a near-Earth asteroid next year, an official with the country’s space agency said Tuesday.
SAN FRANCISCO – Earth observation company Planet unveiled a product Sept. 24 for monitoring global forests.