Space – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Mar 6
2019

Goals for collecting and studying samples from Mars

A paper, “The potential science and engineering value of samples delivered to Earth by Mars sample return,” authored by 71 scientists is available. According to the summary at Science Daily.

Returning samples from the surface of Mars has been a high-priority goal of the international Mars exploration community for many years. Although randomly collected samples would be potentially interesting, they would not be sufficient to answer the big questions that have motivated Mars exploration for decades. A new paper published in Meteoritics & Planetary Science describes the results of a major collaboration among 71 scientists from throughout the international science community to define specific scientific objectives for a Mars Sample Return campaign, to describe the critical measurements that would need to be done on returned samples to address the objectives, and to identify the kinds of samples that would be most likely to carry the key information.

Mar 6
2019

A Pair of Gargantuan Space Bubbles Might Be Spitting Cosmic Rays at Earth

Two huge bubbles, thousands of light-years across, have been discovered jiggling near the center of a distant galaxy. They could be spitting all over Earth.

Mar 6
2019

The women who changed the way we see the universe

Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and Vera Rubin all helped change the way we view the universe. So why don’t we hear more about them?

Mar 6
2019

2 female NASA astronauts and a Canadian flight controller will conduct the first-ever all-woman space walk

Almost 35 years after Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space, history will once again be made.

Since 1998, there have been 213 spacewalks at the International Space Station. In March, an all-female spacewalk is happening aboard the ISS.

Mar 5
2019

Despite being the very first candidate planet discovered by our Kepler Mission, Kepler-1658b had a rocky road to confirmation

Despite being the very first candidate planet discovered by our Kepler Mission, Kepler-1658b had a rocky road to confirmation. Ten years later, scientists have now confirmed that it is, in fact, a planet. It whips around its star every 3.85 days. Details: https://go.nasa.gov/2TDlaIl

Mar 5
2019

Tens of billions of potentially habitable, Earth-size planets in our galaxy, say astronomers

Circa 2013

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Artist’s representation of the “habitable zone,” the range of orbits where liquid water is permitted on the surface of a planet. The authors find that 22% of Sun-like stars harbor a planet between one and two times the size of Earth in the habitable zone. (Credit: UC Berkeley)

One in five stars in our galaxy like the Sun have planets about the size of Earth and a surface temperature conducive to life, astronomers at UC Berkeley and University of Hawaii, Manoa now estimate.

The estimate was based on a statistical analysis of all the Kepler observations of NASA’s Kepler space telescope of the 200 billion stars in our galaxy.

Mar 4
2019

Soon, hundreds of tourists will go to space. What should we call them?

Astronauts or astro-nots?

Mar 4
2019

China Opens Its First Mars Simulation Base

Visitors will get a chance to tackle the types of problems colonists might face on the real Mars.

Mar 4
2019

Exploring China’s latest space ambitions

China says it is working to develop a solar energy plant in space that could one day beam enough power back to Earth to light up an entire city.

If scientists can overcome the formidable technical challenges, the project would represent a monumental leap in combating the Earth’s addiction to dirty power sources which worsen air pollution and global warming.

A space-based solar power station could also provide an alternative to the current generation of earthbound and relatively ineffective renewable energy sources.

Mar 4
2019

Fifty Billion Planets In Our Milky Way Galaxy Are Likely To Be Free Floaters, Says New Study

Homeless free-floating planets are likely to be rampant within the Milky Way, says new study. Young, dense loose clusters of stars are pretty raucous places early in their evolution.