Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

July 24, 2016

NASA Mars Rover Can Choose Laser Targets on Its Own
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 22, 2016
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is now selecting rock targets for its laser spectrometer - the first time autonomous target selection is available for an instrument of this kind on any robotic planetary mission. Using software developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, Curiosity is now frequently choosing multiple targets per week for a laser and a telescopic camera that are parts of the rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument. Most ChemCam targets are still selecte ... read more

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BepiColombo Mission to Mercury on Track for April 2018 Launch Humanity's next visitor to the solar system's innermost planet remains on track for April 2018, according to the project's scientist. The BepiColombo mission, being developed jointly by the European ... more		Atmospheric chemistry on paper Normally computers speed up calculations. But with his new pen-and-paper formula Kevin Heng of the University of Bern gets his results thousands of times faster than using conventional computer code ... more		China's Midea snares near-86 percent stake in Germany's Kuka Chinese appliance giant Midea said Wednesday it has secured almost 86 percent of German industrial robotics supplier Kuka, giving it overwhelming control despite controversy in Europe over its multi-billion-euro offer. ... more
				Directed Energy invites public to participate in Voices of Humanity For the first time ever, individuals will have the opportunity to send their own personal message and/or data into space via microchip. The project entitled "Voices of Humanity" is the creation of t ... more		NASA's Viking Data Lives on, Inspires 40 Years Later Forty years ago, NASA's Viking mission made history when it became the first mission to successfully land a fully operational spacecraft on Mars. This mission gave us our first real look at the Mart ... more

Transition from Operations to Decommissioning by Preparing a Safe, Cost-Effective Shut Down and Waste Management Strategy

Opportunity Rover wrapping up work within Marathon Valley Opportunity is exploring 'Marathon Valley' on the rim of Endeavour crater, investigating outcrops for evidence of clay minerals. The rover is nearing the completion of its exploration within M ... more		Russian and US engineers plan manned moon mission Engineers in Russia and the US are completing a plan for a collaborative space program. The initiative would preserve the multinational alliance developed when the International Space Station (ISS) ... more		Romania says Russian drone breached its airspace MSBAI wins DoD contract to accelerate OrbitGuard for space situational awarenes AI powered SAR imagery analysis tool launched by SATIM and ICEYE		NASA to Begin Testing Next Generation of Spacecraft Heat Exchangers Crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are receiving a unique hardware delivery today that can help shape NASA's human journey beyond Earth and into deep space. The Phase Ch ... more
				Asteroid that formed moon's Imbrium Basin may have been protoplanet-sized Around 3.8 billion years ago, an asteroid more than 150 miles across, roughly equal to the length of New Jersey, slammed into the Moon and created the Imbrium Basin - the right eye of the fabled Man ... more		First atmospheric study of Earth-sized exoplanets reveals rocky worlds On May 2, scientists from MIT, the University of Liege, and elsewhere announced they had discovered a planetary system, a mere 40 light years from Earth, that hosts three potentially habitable, Eart ... more

2nd Integrated Air and Missile Defense - Securing the Complex Air Domain: Requirements for Sustainable, Global, and Reliable Solutions to Next Generation Air & Missile Threats - 28-30 September, 2016 | Washington D.C.

The World's Largest Commercial Drone Conference and Expo - Sept 7-9 - Las Vegas

Feature: ET, when will we see you Are we alone? Scientists say they are on the cusp of answering the age-old question about extraterrestrial (ET) life. "We are lucky to be in a special era, with the next generation of giant te ... more		Passive Attitude Control For Small Satellites Small spacecraft technology has come of age in the past several years. Both cost and development time have been reduced significantly, especially with the CubeSat size standard of 10 x 10 x 10 cm si ... more		Ash improves methane yield and fertilizer value in biogas systems Bio-oil from agricultural and forest waste could help seal abandoned oil wells and store carbon Rice researchers turn wasted data center heat into clean power		China commissions space tracking ship as new station readied China on Tuesday formally commissioned its next-generation Yuan Wang 7 ocean-going ship for tracking and controlling spacecraft, after a two-month trial period, Chinese media reported. Accordi ... more
China's second space lab Tiangong-2 reaches launch center China's second orbiting space lab Tiangong-2, which may enable two astronauts to live in space for up to 30 days, has been delivered to Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The lab was sent from B ... more		Setting a satellite to catch a satellite The target is set: a large derelict satellite currently silently tumbling its way through low orbit. If all goes to plan, in 2023 it will vanish - and efforts against space debris will have made a g ... more		NASA's Kepler Confirms 100+ Exoplanets During Its K2 Mission An international team of astronomers has discovered and confirmed a treasure trove of new worlds using NASA's Kepler spacecraft on its K2 mission. Out of 197 initial planet candidates, scientists ha ... more		Gemini Observatory Instrumental in Latest Exoplanet Harvest The Gemini North telescope on Hawaii's Maunakea helped verify many of the over 100 new worlds announced in the initial crop of discoveries from the NASA K2 mission, according to Ian Crossfield of th ... more

	SSTL and Goonhilly announce partnership and a call for lunar orbit payloads Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd and Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd (GES) have announced a new partnership to go beyond Earth's orbit and provide a new model of low cost, high value, space exploration a ... more		U.S. and U.K. to study robotic troop re-supply The United Kingdom and the United States announced a program Thursday to speed up development of robotic and autonomous systems that can resupply troops in tough environments. ... more

Manipulating light to advance quantum entanglement research

Top Japan start-up Sakana AI touts nature-inspired tech

Galileo daughter mission named Celeste to strengthen navigation resilience

Artificial muscle for soft robotics: Low voltage, high hopes		Minimalist swimming microrobots		Researchers design minimalist microrobots for tiny tasks		NASA Selects Five Mars Orbiter Concept Studies		Taiwan to make lunar lander for NASA moon-mining mission
NASA's Kepler discovers more than 104 new exoplanets		Next Mars Rover Progresses Toward 2020 Launch		Surface Composition Determines Planet's Temperature and Habitability		Warm Jupiters Not as Lonely as Expected		Robot would assemble modular telescope - in space

India May Buy Russian Microcircuits for Its Space Program

If life can make it here, it can make it anywhere

New Distant Dwarf Planet Beyond Neptune

Behind the scenes of protostellar disk formation

NASA camera catches moon 'photobombing' Earth

Lush Venus? Searing Earth? It could have happened

The debut of a robotic stingray, powered by light-activated rat cells

The air up there

Mars Canyons Study Adds Clues about Possible Water

Graduate researchers lead exoplanet discoveries

Researcher Calls for New Tools in Search for Extraterrestrials

Dawn Maps Ceres Craters Where Ice Can Accumulate

Researchers discover distant dwarf planet beyond Neptune

Curiosity Mars Rover Enters Precautionary Safe Mode

Frosty Cold Nights Year-Round on Mars May Stir Dust

Space Debris Solutions - Revisited

2016 Will Be One Second Longer

Chemical trail on Titan may be key to prebiotic conditions

Mars Canyons Study Adds Clues about Possible Water

On the path toward molecular robots

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