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Category: space – Page 1,052

Moon’s interior may hold way more water than we thought

Previously, scientists from Brown detected trace amounts of water in similar volcanic samples — which are composed of loose material or “glass beads” — brought back to Earth from the Apollo 15 and 17 missions. However, the Apollo samples were not collected from the large pyroclastic deposits mapped using the satellite data in the recent study. This brought into question whether the Apollo samples represent a large portion of the moon’s “wet” interior or if they represent only a small water-rich region within an otherwise “dry” mantle.

Related: Moon Express Reveals Bold New Plan to Explore Solar System

“Our work shows that nearly all of the large pyroclastic deposits also contain water, so this seems to be a common characteristic of magmas that come from the deep lunar interior,” Milliken said. “That is, most of the mantle of the moon may be ‘wet.’”.

The Moon’s Interior Could Contain Lots of Water, Study Shows

Ancient volcanic deposits on the moon reveal new evidence about the lunar interior, suggesting it contains substantial amounts of water.

Using satellite data, scientists from Brown University studied lunar pyroclastic deposits, layers of rock that likely formed from large volcanic eruptions. The magma associated with these explosive events is carried to the moon’s surface from very deep within its interior, according to a study published today (July 24) in Nature Geoscience.

Previous studies have observed traces of water ice in shadowed regions at the lunar poles. However, this water is likely the result of hydrogen that comes from solar wind, according to the new study’s lead author, Ralph Milliken, a geologist at Brown University. The new research reveals there is likely a large amount of water in the moon’s mantle, as well. This suggests that the water was delivered to the moon very early in its formation, before it fully solidified, Milliken told Space.com. [Photos: The Search for Water on the Moon].

Kalpana One: My New Vision Of Space Settlement

As an artist and science/tech enthusiast who has spent most of his life imagining the future of public spaces, homes, cities, and the effect of technological innovations on each, I’ve always tried to project a logical but optimistic path for human progress. Not just where we may go, but why we would go and what it would be like once we got there.

To me, space is a logical step in our collective path. Humans have always wanted to climb the next hill or sail uncharted waters to see what awaited us over the horizon. We have spread to all ‘corners’ of this earth, at times to the detriment of the life that was already there. In space, we fulfill an entirely different role. When we build a space station and bring life to it, we are actually “planting” a beautiful habitat is where once there was none. This is what inspired me to imagine these spaces.

US-Australia had a successful Mach 8 HiFire 4 hypersonic missile test last week

The US-Australia Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HiFIRE) program had at least one successful hypersonic flight at Woomera testing range in South Australia last week. A round of experiments concluded on 12 July, confirmed Australian defense minister Marise Payne.

UQ hypersonics researchers collaborated with the Defence Science and Technology Group (DST Group) and US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Boeing, and BAE Systems for test flights in July 2017. This vehicle is a free-flying hypersonic glider, designed to fly at Mach 8 (8000 km/hr). It is designed to separate from its rocket booster in space and perform controlled manoeuvres as it enters the atmosphere. The test flight was intended to enable learning about how to fly a hypersonic vehicle at high altitude.

BAE Systems Australia said in a statement that “the successful flight trial [was] the most complex of all HIFiRE flights conducted to date”.

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