Lifeboat Foundation

A new study led by Northern Illinois University geography professor Wei Luo calculates the amount of water needed to carve the ancient network of valleys on Mars and concludes the Red Planet’s surface was once much more watery than previously thought.

The study bolsters the idea that Mars once had a warmer climate and active hydrologic cycle, with water evaporating from an ancient ocean, returning to the surface as rainfall and eroding the planet’s extensive network of valleys.

Satellites orbiting Mars and rovers on its surface have provided scientists with convincing evidence that water helped shape the planet’s landscape billions of years ago. But questions have lingered over how much water actually flowed on the planet, and the ocean hypothesis has been hotly debated.

It has been an eventful 12 months for SpaceX. Many successful launches were interspersed with a high-profile test failure which led to the loss of the Spacecom satellite, AMOS 6, making headlines across the world, far beyond the traditional coverage of space publications. However, the launch service provider is dusting itself off and ready to go again with some hugely ambitious targets in 2017.

Mark Holmes

On September 1, 2016, at Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, SpaceX observed an anomaly about eight minutes in advance of a scheduled test firing of a Falcon 9 rocket. This resulted in the loss of Spacecom’s Amos 6 satellite. It was headline news around the world.

Continue reading “Shotwell: Ambitious Targets Achievable This Year” »

Today sees the launch of the biennial UK Space Conference, taking place at Manchester Central, from 30 May through to 1 June. This year’s conference is designed to inspire, enable and connect the UK and international space community.

The multiple plenary and parallel sessions feature informative and interactive presentations, workshops and debates covering a wide range of topics from space science through to how satellite data is being used by many industries here on Earth. The programme has been designed to provide a compelling forum to discuss the changing economic and technological landscape impacting the UK space sector.

Stuart Martin, CEO of the Satellite Applications Catapult, said: “The UK Space Conference provides an invaluable opportunity for those involved or interested in the space sector to gain up-to-date information, network with peers, establish new contacts, exchange information and improve links with government, industry, academia, customers, suppliers, and the financial community.

Continue reading “Catapult joins over 1,000 delegates at the UK Space Conference in Manchester” »

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Rocket Lab is aiming to put small satellites in low Earth orbit at a fraction of the cost of even SpaceX.

With its Thursday announcement of a successful launch of the Electron rocket, a small New Zealand start-up changed the private space race.

The research agency hopes its XS-1 jumpstarts a whole new industry of very-low-cost satellite launches.

Boeing did such a good job plotting out the commercial future of a reusable satellite-launching plane that they’re going to get to build it — and just maybe, launch a whole new low-cost satellite industry.

Continue reading “DARPA Picks Boeing To Build Its New Space Plane” »

Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to start launching satellites into orbit in 2019 to provide high-speed internet to Earth.

In November, the company outlined plans to put 4,425 satellites into space in a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filing. But the document gave little detail on the timeline.

However on Wednesday, Patricia Cooper, SpaceX’s vice president of satellite government affairs, said later this year, the company will start testing the satellites themselves, launch one prototype before the end of the year and another during the “early months“ of 2018. Following that, SpaceX will begin its satellite launch campaign in 2019.

Continue reading “Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to send the first of its 4,425 super-fast internet satellites into space in 2019” »

The 33rd annual Space Symposium wrapped up recently in Colorado and New Atlas was on hand to check out some of the exhibits and talks. Amidst the rocket models, jet engines and satellites, we found a quiet corner to sit down with Scott Fouse, the vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center. For our One Big Question series, we wanted to get his thoughts on what reaching for the stars will look like in the future, so we asked him: What will space exploration look like in 2040?

Fusion-driven rockets, remote control systems for space robots, and satellites that build themselves up in orbit are among the made-in-Washington projects getting a share of $49.9 million in NASA grants.

Seven businesses in Washington state will benefit from NASA’s latest round of Small Business Innovation Research grants and Small Business Technology Transfer grants, announced today.