Launching with the Perseverance rover, this technology demonstration could lead to revolutionary new capabilities in interplanetary exploration.
Category: space – Page 717
What’s the big deal about little Phobos and tinier Deimos?
A close-up view of Phobos, the larger of Mars’s two moons. It is 17 miles across. Credit… NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
A radiation-absorbing fungus found at the destroyed Chernobyl nuclear reactor has been shown to absorb harmful cosmic rays on the International Space Station, and could potentially be used to protect future Mars colonies.
Exposure to cosmic rays poses a major health risk to astronauts leaving Earth’s protective atmosphere. Shields can be made out of stainless steel and other materials, but they must be shipped from Earth, which is difficult and costly.
The ASTHROS mission will be carried on a big balloon that will be about 150 meters wide — or roughly the size of a football stadium — and will be inflated with helium. A carrier below the balloon will hold the instruments and the telescope. During its flight, it will allow scientists to control the direction of the telescope with precision and download the data in real-time using satellite links.
The ASTHROS team expects that stratospheric winds will help the balloon complete two to three loops around the South Pole in approximately 21 to 28 days. Once complete, the parachute will return the carrier to the ground and the telescope will be recovered and refurbished for future missions.
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The incredibly rare family portrait highlights two baby exoplanets orbiting a very young, sun-like star.
The U.S. Air Force has realigned some of its major space wings and transferred their missions to the Space Force in one of the largest command overhauls in nearly 40 years.
Space Force officials announced Friday that five Air Force units have moved to the military’s sixth branch. Three wings and eight subordinate groups or centers were deactivated in favor of creating the provisional Space Training and Readiness Command.
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An observatory affiliated with NASA’s quest to identify potentially dangerous asteroids spotted something equally speedy but not quite as natural: a spacecraft bound for Mars.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. wants to build nuclear power plants that will work on the moon and Mars, and on Friday put out a request for ideas from the private sector on how to do that.
The U.S. Department of Energy put out the formal request to build what it calls a fission surface power system that could allow humans to live for long periods in harsh space environments.
The Idaho National Laboratory, a nuclear research facility in eastern Idaho, the Energy Department and NASA will evaluate the ideas for developing the reactor.
Giant waves of sand are moving on Mars
Posted in space
The UK says the Russian satellite launched “a projectile with the characteristics of a weapon”.