Lifeboat Foundation

The spacecraft bus that will deliver NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to its orbit and enable it to function once there is now complete after years of construction, installation, and testing.

Now that the spacecraft is assembled, engineers will begin working to integrate the observatory’s other major components, including the science instruments and the telescope itself.

“They call it a spacecraft bus for a reason — it gets the telescope to where it needs to be in space,” said Jackie Townsend, the Roman deputy project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “But it’s really more like an RV because it has a whole assortment of functions that enable Roman to accomplish its scientific goals while out there too.”

Data from India’s recent Chandrayaan-3 mission supports the idea that an ocean of molten rock once covered the moon. Scientists from the mission have published their new findings in the journal Nature.

On August 23, 2023, a lander called Vikram successfully touched down on the lunar surface. Controllers then deployed a rover called Pragyan, which had been stowed on Vikram, to explore the landing site.

The location where Vikram touched down was further south than any other landing craft had previously been on the moon. It gave scientists an insight into the geology of the moon that had not yet been sampled.

Over the weekend, the aerospace giant’s Starliner softly touched down in the New Mexico desert, bookending a disastrous first crewed test flight.

But NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are still stranded on board the International Space Station after the space agency deemed Starliner too dangerous for their return.

And instead of trying to spin the landing into a victory, Boeing executives have been eerily quiet since. Two executives who were scheduled to speak at a post-landing press conference at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, seemingly decided last minute not to show up.

A new analysis of Mars’ gravitational field has revealed hidden structures buried beneath the remains of an ancient ocean.

The work, which was presented this week at the Europlanetary Science Congress in Berlin, could add to a growing body of evidence that suggests the Red Planet may not be as geologically “dead,” or inactive, as once believed.

Overlaid with a thick and smooth layer of sediment which may have once been a seabed, the structures are significantly denser than their surroundings — though a more precise explanation of what they might be has so far eluded researchers.

Jupiter’s moon, Io, is the most volcanically active planetary body in the entire solar system as it boasts hundreds of active volcanoes. This number continues to grow as recent study at the Europlanet Science Congress 2024 meeting showed a new active volcano on the small moon taken by NASA’s JunoCam after the spacecraft conducted the first up-close images of Io in more than a quarter of a century.

Not only have Io’s volcanoes been observed to shoot volcanic material hundreds of miles into space, but its lava fields also spread almost as far across its surface due to the much smaller gravity. For example, the volcanic deposits from this new image were observed to encompass an area spanning 180 kilometers by 180 kilometers (112 miles by 112 miles).

“Our recent JunoCam images show many changes on Io, including this large, complicated volcanic feature that appears to have formed from nothing since 1997,” said Dr. Michael Ravine, who is an Advanced Projects Manager at Malin Space Science Systems, Inc, which designed, developed and operates JunoCam for the NASA Juno Project, and is lead author of the study.

Extreme conditions prevail inside stars and planets. The pressure reaches millions of bars, and it can be several million degrees hot. Sophisticated methods make it possible to create such states of matter in the laboratory—albeit only for the blink of an eye and in a tiny volume.

Why do we study Mars? What missions have been there? How do we plan to explore this intriguing world in the future? Quench your curiosity with this educational infographic on the Red Planet!

For thousands of years, Mars aka the Red Planet, has fascinated skywatchers from countless civilizations and cultures, leading some to speculate that it was a lush world full of life. However, the exploration of Mars has proven to be quite the contrast, instead exhibiting a dry and inhabitable world utterly devoid of life. Despite this, scientists and engineers from around the world have learned quite a bit from our planetary neighbor with the countless robotic explorers sent there, including flybys, orbiters, landers, and rovers.

Through this, we have gained incredible insight into the ancient history of Mars and whether life might have existed there long ago. In the future, as humanity looks to return the first samples from Mars and land humans on the Red Planet’s surface, we will continue to learn more about this fascinating world and whether it could have, or currently, hosts life as we know it.

Continue reading “Mars Exploration: Past, Present, and Future” »

Water plays a crucial role in human survival on the lunar surface, thus attracting extensive research attention. Prof. Wang Junqiang’s team at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has recently developed a new method of massive water production through a reaction between lunar regolith and endogenous hydrogen.

Research results of previous lunar explorations, like the Apollo and Chang’E-5 missions, have revealed the widespread presence of water on the moon. However, the water content in lunar minerals is extremely low, ranging from 0.0001% to 0.02%. It remains challenging to extract and utilize water in situ on the moon.

“We used lunar regolith samples brought back by the Chang’E-5 mission in our study, trying to find a way to produce water on the moon,” said Wang. The study was published in The Innovation.

Using a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, it might be possible to use the sun as a gigantic telescope to peer deep into space.