A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China on Saturday (Jan. 14), sending 14 commercial satellites to orbit.
Space News & Blog Articles
Tune into the SpaceZE News Network to stay updated on industry news from around the world.
Instead of Building Structures on Mars, we Could Grow Them With the Help of Bacteria
NASA and the China National Space Agency (CNSA) plan to mount the first crewed missions to Mars in the next decade. These will commence with a crew launching in 2033, with follow-up missions launching every 26 months to coincide with Mars and Earth being at the closest point in their orbits. These missions will culminate with the creation of outposts that future astronauts will use, possibly leading to permanent habitats. In recent decades, NASA has conducted design studies and competitions (like the 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge) to investigate possible designs and construction methods.
For instance, in the Mars Design Reference Architecture 5.0, NASA describes a “commuter” architecture based on a “centrally located, monolithic habitat” of lightweight inflatable habitats. However, a new proposal envisions the creation of a base using organisms that extract metals from sand and rock (a process known as biomineralization). Rather than hauling construction materials or prefabricated modules aboard a spaceship, astronauts bound for Mars could bring synthetic bacteria cultures that would allow them to grow their habitats from the Red Planet itself.
The concept, known as “Biomineralization-Enabled Self-Growing Building Blocks for Habitat Outfitting on Mars,” was proposed by Dr. Congrui Grace Jin – an assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her proposal was one of several selected by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) for Phase I development, which includes a grant of $12,500. This program makes annual solicitations for advanced, innovative, and technically feasible concepts that assist NASA missions and further the agency’s space exploration objectives.
Since the 1990s, several architectures have been drafted for crewed missions to Mars, all of which have emphasized the need for keeping launch mass low. Suggestions for how this could be accomplished include inflatable modules. But as Dr. Jin emphasized in her proposal, the physical structures used to outfit the inflatable modules cannot be carried by a crewed spacecraft and generally require a second vehicle to launch them. This is a logistical challenge for missions and drastically increases launch costs.
Another possibility is to use local resources to reduce the amount of supplies that must be transported – a process known as In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). Examples range from the Mars Direct proposal drafted in 1991 by Dr. Robert Zubrin and colleagues from NASA’s Ames Research Center to NASA’s Journey to Mars program launched in 2010. For missions to Mars, this would include using local regolith to create building materials and water ice for astronaut consumption, irrigation, and to create propellant and oxygen gas.
Brilliant green comet loses part of its tail to solar storm in this stunning astrophotographer photo
An image taken by an Austrian comet hunter reveals a disconnection in Comet's C/2022 E3 (ZTF) tail that may have been caused by turbulent space weather.
SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch spotted from space station (photo)
A high-definition exterior camera on the International Space Station snapped a shot of the plume created by SpaceX's Falcon Heavy during its Jan. 15 launch.
SpaceX orbits 51 more Starlink satellites in year’s first launch from Vandenberg
SpaceX launched 51 more Starlink satellites Jan. 19 on the first launch of the year from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX’s first launch of the year from California, and fourth mission overall in 2023, added 51 more satellites to the Starlink internet constellation Thursday, keeping pace with the company’s goal of 100 Falcon rocket launches this year.
A Falcon 9 rocket took off from Space Launch Complex 4-East, or SLC-4E, at Vandenberg Space Force Base with 1.7 million pounds of thrust from nine Merlin 1D engines. The kerosene-fueled engines steered the rocket south-southeast from Vandenberg on a path over the Pacific Ocean.
Liftoff occurred at 7:43:10 a.m. PST (10:43:10 a.m. EST; 1543:10 GMT) Thursday, following more a week of delays due to a technical concern with the rocket and bad weather at the California spaceport, along with rough seas in a downrange recovery zone in the Pacific Ocean where the Falcon 9’s first stage booster aimed to land on a ship.
The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket lit its nine kerosene-fueled engines and climbed through scattered clouds, surpassed the speed of sound in about a minute, then shut down its first stage booster around two-and-a-half minutes into the mission. The booster, numbered B1075 in SpaceX’s fleet, extended hypersonic titanium grid fins and successfully maneuvered to a controlled propulsive touchdown on a SpaceX drone ship west of Baja California.
The booster completed its first trip to space and will be returned to Southern California for refurbishment and use on a future SpaceX mission.
SpaceX GPS launch delivers stunning sunrise views (photos)
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket made an early-morning space run Wednesday (Jan. 18), and the launch photos look like stills from a beachside Hollywood film.
Light pollution is erasing stars from the night sky at breakneck pace. It's only going to get worse.
Light pollution is brightening up the night sky so fast that stars are virtually disappearing in front of sky-watchers' eyes, a new study has revealed.
Artemis 1 moon mannequins unpacked from Orion spacecraft (photos)
Moonikin Campos, Helga and Zohar flew around the moon in December 2022 to help NASA get its Orion spacecraft ready to carry Artemis astronauts to lunar realms a few years from now.
See a Giant Sunspot!
If you have a solar filter, check out the sunspot group AR 3190 that's crossing the solar disk this week.
The post See a Giant Sunspot! appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Newfound alien planet has nuclear fusion going in its core
An international team of scientists has found a huge new alien world that's on the boundary between planet and "failed star."
Exploring the Outer Solar System Takes Power, Here’s a Way to Miniaturize Nuclear Batteries for Deep Space
As science and technology advance, we’re asking our space missions to deliver more and more results. NASA’s MSL Curiosity and Perseverance rovers illustrate this fact. Perseverance is an exceptionally exquisite assemblage of technologies. These cutting-edge rovers need a lot of power to fulfill their tasks, and that means bulky and expensive power sources.
Space exploration is an increasingly energy-hungry endeavour. Orbiters and fly-by missions can perform their tasks using solar power, at least as far out as Jupiter. And ion drives can take spacecraft to more distant regions. But to really understand distant worlds like the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, or even the more distant Pluto, we’ll need to eventually land a rover and/or lander on them just as we have on Mars.
Those missions require more power to operate, and that usually means MMRTGs (Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators.) But they’re bulky, heavy, and expensive, three undesirable traits for spacecraft. Each one costs over $100 million. Is there a better solution?
Stephen Polly thinks there is.
Polly is a research scientist at the NanoPower Research Laboratories at the Rochester Institute of Technology. His work focuses on something most of us have likely never heard of: the development, growth, characterization, and integration of III-V materials by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE).
BioLite Charge PD series power bank review
A reliable power bank that can power laptops for the eco-conscious sky watcher who needs additional charge on-the-go.
Sweden just opened an orbital spaceport, Europe's new 'gateway to space'
Esrange, in the far north of Sweden, has been launching sounding rockets since 1966. After nearly 60 years of operations, orbital missions are on the horizon.
Save over $118 on the Celestron Inspire 100 AZ telescope
Wanting to try astronomy this year? The Celestron Inspire 100 AZ telescope is 25% off and ideal for beginners.
Ancient 'guest star' may mark rare collision of stellar corpses
Centuries after Chinese and Japanese astronomers spotted a bright light in their skies, astronomers have pinned it to a stellar collision that unleashed a rare supernova 850 years ago.
Future-proofing ice measurements from space
With diminishing ice one of the biggest casualties of our warming world, it’s imperative that accurate measurements continue to be made for scientific research and climate policy, as well as for practical applications such as ship routing. To ensure that ESA and NASA are getting the best out of their ice-measuring satellites and to help prepare for Europe’s new CRISTAL satellite, the two space agencies along with the British Antarctic Survey and a team of scientists teamed up recently to carry out an ambitious campaign in Antarctica.
What is astrobiology?
As long as humanity has looked up at the stars we have dreamed of discovering extraterrestrial life. Astrobiologists attempt to do just this searching for telltale signs of life, potentially habitable worlds, and the answer to the question of how life arose on Earth.
Live coverage: SpaceX plans to launch 51 Starlink satellites today from California
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the Starlink 2-4 mission with 51 Starlink internet satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
SpaceX Webcast
SpaceX Mission Audio
What time is the conjunction of Venus and Saturn on Sunday (Jan. 22)?
On Sunday (Jan. 22) at 5:13 p.m. EST (2213 GMT), Venus and Saturn will make a close approach in the night sky, known as an appulse, and will also be in conjunction.
See the Gamma Ursae Minorid meteor shower peak on Thursday (Jan. 19)
The annual Ursae Minorid meteor shower which began on Jan. 15 peaks on Thursday, Jan. 19, with the meteors best seen when the constellation Ursa Minor is high above the horizon.
