https://phys.org/space-news/space-exploration en-us Space exploration news and updates. Space missions and science news. Planet exploration and more. A small team of political scientists and astronomers at the University of British Columbia has conducted a study of the number of filings to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) by entities wishing to send satellites into low orbit and has found the numbers growing so fast that soon there will not be room for new satellite deployments. In their paper is published in the journal Science. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-itu-tighten-orbit-satellites.html Space Exploration Wed, 18 Oct 2023 10:35:51 EDT news616844137 The Space Age is leaving fingerprints on one of the most remote parts of the planet—the stratosphere—which has potential implications for climate, the ozone layer and the continued habitability of Earth. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-signatures-space-age-spacecraft-metals.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Mon, 16 Oct 2023 15:00:01 EDT news616679367 First came the darkening skies, then the crescent-shaped shadows on the ground, and finally an eruption of cheers by crowds that gathered Saturday along the narrow path of a rare "ring of fire" eclipse of the sun. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-eclipse-americas-shouts-joy.html Space Exploration Sat, 14 Oct 2023 17:07:16 EDT news616522028 After spending more than a year in space, Frank Rubio now has to get used to that pesky thing Earthlings call gravity. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-astronaut-earth-record-setting-days-space.html Space Exploration Sat, 14 Oct 2023 05:11:38 EDT news616479091 NASA's Psyche spacecraft rocketed away Friday on a six-year journey to a rare metal-covered asteroid. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-spacecraft-mysterious-rare-metal.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Fri, 13 Oct 2023 10:28:08 EDT news616411682 It's a world like no other: a metal-rich asteroid that could be the remnants of a small planet, or perhaps an entirely new type of celestial body unknown to science. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-journey-metal-rich-asteroid.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 12 Oct 2023 15:53:44 EDT news616344819 It may be possible to create paved roads and landing pads on the moon by using lasers to melt lunar soil into a more solid, layered substance, reports a proof-of-concept study in Scientific Reports. Although these experiments were carried out on Earth using a substitute for lunar dust, these findings demonstrate the viability of the technique and suggest it could be replicated on the moon. However, further work may be needed to refine the process, according to the authors. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-small-lunar-roads-potentially-giant.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 12 Oct 2023 11:00:01 EDT news616320072 If all goes well, on Thursday morning a NASA mission with extensive connections to MIT will be headed to a metal world. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-psyche-journey-ancient-asteroid.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 11 Oct 2023 12:20:07 EDT news616245603 A sample collected from the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu contains abundant water and carbon, NASA revealed on Wednesday, offering more evidence for the theory that life on Earth was seeded from outer space. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-asteroid-sample-life-critical-carbon.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 11 Oct 2023 12:10:25 EDT news616245003 For decades, scientists have pondered the mystery of the moon's ancient magnetism. Based on analyses of lunar samples, its now-deceased magnetic field may have been active for more than 1.5 billion years—give or take a billion years. Scientists believe it was generated like the Earth's via a dynamo process, whereby the spinning and churning of conductive liquid metal within a rocky planet's core generates a magnetic field. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-magnetic-spacecraft-contamination-extraterrestrial-samples.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 11 Oct 2023 11:59:56 EDT news616244389 NASA is set to reveal on Wednesday the first images of the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space, something scientists hope will yield clues about the earliest days of our solar system and perhaps the origins of life itself. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-unveil-images-historic-asteroid.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 11 Oct 2023 04:29:58 EDT news616217393 Tens of millions in the Americas will have front-row seats for Saturday's rare "ring of fire" eclipse of the sun. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-solar-eclipse-slice-americas-saturday.html Space Exploration Tue, 10 Oct 2023 13:48:44 EDT news616164499 The Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) sprung its third coolant leak in under a year Monday, raising new questions about the reliability of the country's space program even as officials said crew members were not in danger. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-coolant-leaked-russian-iss-crew.html Space Exploration Mon, 09 Oct 2023 15:20:37 EDT news616083620 A Spanish company launched the country's first private rocket on Saturday in a step towards bringing Spain into the exclusive club of space-faring nations. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-spain-private-rocket-successfully.html Space Exploration Sat, 07 Oct 2023 05:17:03 EDT news615874619 Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in collaboration with NASA, are taking additive manufacturing to the final frontier by 3D printing the same kind of wheel as the design used by NASA for its robotic lunar rover, demonstrating the technology for specialized parts needed for space exploration. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-3d-moon-rover-wheel-prototype.html Space Exploration Fri, 06 Oct 2023 13:04:04 EDT news615816241 Observations of the BlueWalker 3 prototype satellite show it is one of the brightest objects in the night sky, outshining all but the brightest stars. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-massive-low-earth-orbit-communications-satellites.html Astronomy Space Exploration Mon, 02 Oct 2023 11:00:02 EDT news615454886 India's sun-monitoring spacecraft has crossed a landmark point on its journey to escape "the sphere of Earth's influence", its space agency said, days after the disappointment of its moon rover failing to awaken. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-indian-spacecraft-center-solar.html Space Exploration Sun, 01 Oct 2023 06:31:34 EDT news615360684 The lower portion of a Martian dust devil was captured moving along the western rim of Mars' Jezero Crater by NASA's Perseverance rover on Aug. 30, 2023, the 899th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The video, which was sped up 20 times, is composed of 21 frames taken four seconds apart by one of the rover's Navcams. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-nasa-perseverance-captures-dust-filled-martian.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Fri, 29 Sep 2023 12:56:53 EDT news615210999 As hopes dim of further contact with India's moon rover, the country's space chief has said he was satisfied with the prospect of calling its successful lunar mission to an end. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-india-space-chief-unfazed-moon.html Space Exploration Fri, 29 Sep 2023 03:45:19 EDT news615177913 New guidelines are needed to assure that research on human subjects performed on commercial spaceflights is conducted ethically, a panel of experts say in a commentary appearing in the September 28 issue of the journal Science. Their paper is titled "Ethically cleared to launch?" https://phys.org/news/2023-09-ethics-human-commercial-spaceflights-panel.html Space Exploration Thu, 28 Sep 2023 14:00:01 EDT news615111830 After a seven-year wait, NASA scientists on Tuesday finally pried open a space probe carrying the largest asteroid samples ever brought back to Earth, finding black debris. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-asteroid-debris-nasa-probe.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 27 Sep 2023 03:39:02 EDT news615004739 NASA's first asteroid samples fetched from deep space parachuted into the Utah desert Sunday to cap a seven-year journey. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-nasa-asteroid-samples-earth-spacecraft.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Sun, 24 Sep 2023 13:55:46 EDT news614782540 The climactic end of a seven-year voyage comes Sunday when a NASA capsule is due to land in the Utah desert, carrying to Earth the largest asteroid samples ever collected. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-nasa-readies-asteroid-sample-earth.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Sun, 24 Sep 2023 05:50:02 EDT news614752869 NASA's Parker Solar Probe has racked up an impressive list of superlatives in its first five years of operations: It's the closest spacecraft to the sun, the fastest human-made object and the first mission to ever "touch the sun." https://phys.org/news/2023-09-parker-probe-path-solar-blast.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Fri, 22 Sep 2023 08:28:03 EDT news614590081 A computer pilot helps NASA's six-wheeled geologist as it searches for rock samples that could be brought to Earth for deeper investigation. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-autonomous-nasa-perseverance-science-mars.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 21 Sep 2023 12:31:03 EDT news614518261 Planet Earth is about to receive a special delivery—the biggest sample yet from an asteroid. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-nasa-spacecraft-biggest-sample-asteroid.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 20 Sep 2023 13:44:19 EDT news614436253 A study published in npj Microgravity, finds an engineered compound given to mice aboard the International Space Station (ISS) largely prevented the bone loss associated with time spent in space. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-compound-bone-loss-space.html Space Exploration Mon, 18 Sep 2023 10:32:54 EDT news614251970 On Sept. 5, 2022, NASA's Parker Solar Probe soared gracefully through one of the most powerful coronal mass ejections (CMEs) ever recorded—not only an impressive feat of engineering, but a huge boon for the scientific community. Parker's journey through the CME is helping to prove a 20-year-old theory about the interaction of CMEs with interplanetary dust, with implications for space weather predictions. The results were recently published in The Astrophysical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-parker-probe-powerful-coronal-mass.html Astronomy Space Exploration Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:49:03 EDT news614249342 On August 23 the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon's south pole, a location that has always been of particular interest to scientists due to the unique conditions created by the planet's extremities. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-exploring-lunar-south-pole-lessons.html Space Exploration Fri, 15 Sep 2023 12:34:51 EDT news614000087 NASA said Thursday that the study of UFOs will require new scientific techniques, including advanced satellites as well as a shift in how unidentified flying objects are perceived. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-nasa-ufo-science-techniques.html Space Exploration Thu, 14 Sep 2023 10:39:19 EDT news613906750