Mars 2020 Rover Gets its Helicopter Sidekick Work on the Mars 2020 Rover is heating up as the July/August 2020 launch date approaches. Mission engineers just attached the Mars Helicopter to the belly of the rover, where it will make the journey to Mars. Both the solar-powered helicopter and the Mars Helicopter Delivery System are now attached to the rover. NASA’s Mars … Continue reading “Mars 2020 Rover Gets its Helicopter Sidekick” The post Mars 2020 Rover Gets its Helicopter Sidekick appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Carnival of Space #626 This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Brian Wang at his Next Big Future blog. Click here to read Carnival of Space #622 And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry … Continue reading “Carnival of Space #626” The post Carnival of Space #626 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

By Continuously Watching the Moon, we Could Detect Interstellar Meteorites In a new study, a pair Harvard scientists calculated how often interstellar objects could collide with our Moon, and how we might study them to learn more of what lies beyond our Solar System. The post By Continuously Watching the Moon, we Could Detect Interstellar Meteorites appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Even Though it Hasn’t Launched Yet, JUICE Took its First Images of Jupiter and its Moons Is there a more complicated and sophisticated technological engineering project than a spacecraft? Maybe a particle accelerator or a fusion power project. But other than those two, the answer is probably no. Spacecraft like the ESA’s JUICE don’t just pop out of the lab ready to go. Each spacecraft like JUICE is a singular design, … Continue reading “Even Though it Hasn’t Launched Yet, JUICE Took its First Images of Jupiter and its Moons” The post Even Though it Hasn’t Launched Yet, JUICE Took its First Images of JupiterRead More →

Bringing Mars To Earth. The Plans For a Mars Sample Return Mission One of the great accomplishments of the Apollo missions was to bring home hundreds of kilograms of lunar rock. Suddenly, geologists had a lifetime’s worth of lunar samples captured from several different spots across the Moon. These rocks and dust have been under continuous analysis since the Apollo 11 astronauts came home over 50 years … Continue reading “Bringing Mars To Earth. The Plans For a Mars Sample Return Mission” The post Bringing Mars To Earth. The Plans For a Mars Sample Return Mission appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

SpaceX Starship Hopper Prototype Makes its Highest Hop Test So Far! SpaceX just completed the second hop test of their Starship Hopper prototype, bringing the company one step closer to full-scale tests and commercial missions to the Moon and Mars! The post SpaceX Starship Hopper Prototype Makes its Highest Hop Test So Far! appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Asteroid Ryugu is a “Fragile Rubble Pile” When Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft arrived at asteroid Ryugu in June 2018, it carried four small rovers with it. Hayabusa 2 is primarily a sample-return mission, but JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) sent rovers along to explore the asteroid’s surface and learn as much as they could from their visit. There’s also no guarantee that … Continue reading “Asteroid Ryugu is a “Fragile Rubble Pile”” The post Asteroid Ryugu is a “Fragile Rubble Pile” appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

There Could be Planets Out There Which are Even More Habitable than Earth According to a recent study presented at this year’s Goldschmidt Geochemistry Congress, there may be exoplanets out there that are more habitable than Earth The post There Could be Planets Out There Which are Even More Habitable than Earth appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Upgraded ISS Now Has a 600 Megabit per Second Internet Connection In the digital age, connectivity and bandwidth are important, even if you’re in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). And when you’re performing research and experiments that could help pave the way for future missions to the Moon, to Mars, and other deep-space destinations, it’s especially important. Hence why NASA recently upgraded the ISS’ connection, effectively doubling … Continue reading “Upgraded ISS Now Has a 600 Megabit per Second Internet Connection” The post Upgraded ISS Now Has a 600 Megabit per Second Internet Connection appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

How Do We Colonize the Moon? Welcome back to our series on Colonizing the Solar System! Today, we take a look at that closest of celestial neighbors to Earth. That’s right, we’re taking a look at the Moon! Chances are, we’ve all heard about it more than once in our lifetimes and even have some thoughts of our own on the … Continue reading “How Do We Colonize the Moon?” The post How Do We Colonize the Moon? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Astrobotic is Going to Use a Vulcan Rocket For its Lunar Lander in 2021 The commercial delivery company Astriobiotic will be working with the ULA to send payloads to the Moon for NASA beginning in 2021. The post Astrobotic is Going to Use a Vulcan Rocket For its Lunar Lander in 2021 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Astronomers Image the Atmosphere of a Red Dwarf Planet for the First Time. Spoiler Alert, it’s a Terrible Place to Live Using data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, a team of astronomers was able to study the surface of an exoplanet orbiting a nearby red dwarf star for the first time. The post Astronomers Image the Atmosphere of a Red Dwarf Planet for the First Time. Spoiler Alert, it’s a Terrible Place to Live appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

A Spacecraft Is Going To Assemble Its Own Solar Panels In Space: Archinaut One As I’ve mentioned in several episodes now, humanity is in a bit of a transition period, a time when it makes sense to launch material up and out of Earth’s gravity well into orbit, and beyond. But it’s really expensive, costing up to $10,000 per pound you want in orbit, and 10 times if you … Continue reading “A Spacecraft Is Going To Assemble Its Own Solar Panels In Space: Archinaut One” The post A Spacecraft Is Going To Assemble Its Own Solar Panels In Space: Archinaut One appeared first onRead More →

Earth is an Exoplanet to Aliens. This is What They’d See A team of Caltech researchers developed a new method that shows what Earth would look like to extra-terrestrial observers, which could seriously aid in the hunt for habitable exoplanets. The post Earth is an Exoplanet to Aliens. This is What They’d See appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

AI Could Help the Europa Clipper Mission Make All Kinds of Discoveries! A team of NASA scientists recently developed a series of machine learning algorithms that could help the Europa Clipper find life beyond Earth! The post AI Could Help the Europa Clipper Mission Make All Kinds of Discoveries! appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Exploring The Icy Moons of Jupiter. NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s JUICE On August 19th, 2019, NASA announced that their Europa Clipper mission has been approved to move to the next phase of the mission, progressing to the final design stage. Mars is the place that most of our spacecraft, landers and rovers are studying, searching for any evidence that life ever existed somewhere else in the … Continue reading “Exploring The Icy Moons of Jupiter. NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s JUICE” The post Exploring The Icy Moons of Jupiter. NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s JUICE appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

Carnival of Space #625 This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by me at the CosmoQuest blog. Click here to read Carnival of Space #625 And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry to susie@wshcrew.space, and … Continue reading “Carnival of Space #625” The post Carnival of Space #625 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →