The "Science and Space" Thread #2

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NASA’s SOFIA Discovers Water on Sunlit Surface of Moon

NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places.

 

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The sky's not falling, yet...


Space debris by the numbers

 

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NASA and ESA finalize agreement to build Gateway deep space outpost

Scheduled to begin construction in cislunar orbit in 2024, the Gateway outpost is intended to act as a staging point for missions to the lunar surface, and deep space, and, ultimately, for the first crewed missions to Mars. One-sixth the size of the International Space Station (ISS), the Gateway will be assembled as modules launched into a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit, where it will not revolve around the Earth or the Moon, but one of the Lagrange points where the gravitational fields of the Earth and Moon balance out.

 

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NASA's Perseverance Rover Is Midway to Mars

NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission has logged a lot of flight miles since being lofted skyward on July 30 – 146.3 million miles (235.4 million kilometers) to be exact. Turns out that is exactly the same distance it has to go before the spacecraft hits the Red Planet's atmosphere like a 11,900 mph (19,000 kph) freight train on Feb. 18, 2021.

 

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NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Successfully Stows Sample of Asteroid Bennu

NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission has successfully stowed the spacecraft’s Sample Return Capsule (SRC) and its abundant sample of asteroid Bennu. On Wednesday, Oct. 28, the mission team sent commands to the spacecraft, instructing it to close the capsule – marking the end of one of the most challenging phases of the mission.

 

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Chinese spacecraft set for Mars landing in May: state media

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese spacecraft is expected to land on Mars in May, state-run media reported on Thursday, citing a space agency official.

The spacecraft, which left Earth in July, is set to land in Utopia Planitia, a plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars, the China News Service reported, citing Liu Tongjie, spokesman for the Mars mission.

Separate spacecraft launched by the United States and the United Arab Emirates this year are also en route to Mars, though only the U.S. one will attempt a landing.

 

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Space Station 20th: Halloween on ISS

 

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Unusual molecule found in atmosphere on Saturn's moon Titan

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is the only moon in our solar system that has a thick atmosphere. It's four times denser than Earth's. And now, scientists have discovered a molecule in it that has never been found in any other atmosphere

The particle is called cyclopropenylidene, or C3H2, and it's made of carbon and hydrogen. This simple carbon-based molecule could be a precursor that contributes to chemical reactions that may create complex compounds. And those compounds could be the basis for potential life on Titan.

 

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX will ‘make its own laws on Mars’

SpaceX will not recognise international law on Mars, according to the Terms of Service of its Starlink internet project.

Elon Musk’s space company will instead reportedly adhere to a set of “self-governing principles" that will be defined at the time of Martian settlement.

 

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We finally know what has been making fast radio bursts

Today, researchers are announcing they've solved one of the questions that has been nagging them over the past decade: what exactly produces the weird phenomena known as fast radio bursts (FRBs)? As their name implies, FRBs involve a sudden blast of radio-frequency radiation that lasts just a few microseconds. We didn't even know that FRBs existed until 2007 but have since cataloged hundreds of them; some come from sources that repeatedly emit them, while others seem to burst once and go silent.

 

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The Little Satellite that Could..


NASA sends first commands to Voyager 2 in eight months

NASA is back in contact with Voyager 2 after almost eight months of silence. Radio communication has not been possible because the Deep Space Station 43 (DSS43) in Australia is undergoing an upgrade, but on October 29 it sent a signal to Voyager 2, which successfully carried out the commands and returned a confirmation signal.

 

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NASA objects to new mega-constellation, citing risk of “catastrophic collision”

NASA has formally commented (PDF) on a request by a US company to build a mega-constellation of satellites at an altitude of 720km above the Earth's surface, citing concerns about collisions. This appears to be the first time that NASA has publicly commented on such an application for market access, which is pending before the Federal Communications Commission.

 

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CERN scientists design trap to transport antimatter between facilities

The BASE collaboration has now designed a new device, called BASE-STEP, that could help scientists move antimatter around to other facilities. The key to the system is what’s known as a Penning trap, which uses electric and magnetic fields to suspend antiprotons (the antimatter version of protons) away from the walls of the container. But there are atoms in air too of course, so the trap also stores them in a vacuum. BASE-STEP would be made with two Penning traps – one to receive and release antiprotons and a second one that acts as a storage reservoir.

Penning traps are already in use in antimatter facilities, with CERN previously showing they can store antiprotons for over 400 days – a huge improvement over the record of 16 minutes, set in 2011. But the real challenge for the team was to then make these devices portable.

 

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Rocket Lab gets set for its first ever booster recovery attempt

Last year, we saw some details start to emerge around Rocket Lab's vision to recover its spacecraft for reuse, plans that involved catching part of its Electron booster in mid-air with a helicopter. The private company is set to take an important step toward this objective, announcing that it will make its first attempt to recover the rocket’s first stage during a mission scheduled for later this month.

 

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SpaceX launches 4 astronauts to space station, beginning new era for NASA

Lighting up the night sky, four astronauts shot into orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Sunday for a 27-hour voyage to the International Space Station in the first operational flight of a commercially developed Crew Dragon capsule.