NASA Administrator Bill Nelson called the relationship between NASA and SpaceX a symbiotic one in a recent interview with CNBC’s Mike Sheetz. SpaceX has been a workhorse that scored several lucrative contracts from NASA, and NASA counts on it for services like getting astronauts to and from the International Space Station. As the NASA administrator … [Read more…]
NASA is preparing to send out a request for proposals for a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) that will be used with the Artemis Program. The LTV will have to be suitable for use at the lunar south pole, which will pose challenges like low lighting and intense cold. NASA is framing the request for proposal … [Read more…]
The Perseverance rover will cache about half the 14 rock cores that it has drilled as early as November. Some of these samples could be returned in a future sample return mission. Mission planners called the cache a safeguard for the sample return mission. It provides a backup location that a future lander could land … [Read more…]
On October 29, 2022, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) demolished Building 4200, which served as the center’s headquarters from 1963 to 2020. NASA says the demolition will make room for more modern buildings. NASA says the new facilities will “help NASA map out the next century’s worth of discoveries in space.” NASA already had … [Read more…]
The Voyager probes became the first two spacecraft from Earth to travel beyond the heliosphere and reach the interstellar medium. Voyager 1 did it first in 2012 and Voyager 2 made it in 2018. Now data sent back from the twin probes suggest that the heliopause – the place where the heliosphere meets the interstellar … [Read more…]
The ultra-sensitive instruments on NASA’s InSight lander detected a Magnitude 4 “marsquake” on Mars on December 4, 2021. Scientists discovered that the marsquake indicated a meteoroid strike on the red planet when they compared data from InSight to images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). InSight’s seismometer, Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), can detect … [Read more…]
Edward Stone retired as the project scientist for the Voyager mission after 50 years in the role. He had joined the project in 1972 – years before they even launched. Edward Stone also served as head of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1991 to 2001. While in that capacity, he continued to serve as Voyager’s … [Read more…]
A scientific instrument installed on the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS) in July identified 50 methane “super emitters” in central Asia, the Middle East, and the southwestern United States. The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) instrument can map key minerals in dust-producing regions. Minerals from dusty regions can get blown around … [Read more…]
Could early life still exist on Mars? Some scientists say that, if life existed, it could have contributed to the Martian climate change that forced it underground in the same way that the “invention” of photosynthesis removed a lot of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) from Earth’s atmosphere and caused a mass extinction. Most scientists … [Read more…]
Auroras punched a 250-mile-wide in the ozone in Earth’s mesosphere, which resides 50 to 80 kilometers above Earth’s surface. Scientists captured the damage caused by an isolated proton aurora. A research team that included scientists from Japan, Canada, and the United States say the aurora had more of an impact on the ozone than expected. … [Read more…]