Lifeboat Foundation

A simple add-on to Ingenuity-like crafts could gather unique data, scientists say. Last weekend, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter notched over 100 minutes of flying time in thin Martian air, a feat which until only a couple of years ago was considered wildly ambitious.

Originally designed for a simple technology demonstration, the “Marscopter” has far exceeded its initial one-month, five-flight mission, after which its role was extended to scout the Martian landscape and assist NASA’s Perseverance life-seeking rover. Riding on Ingenuity’s success, scientists are already planning two more mini helicopters. These will serve as backup copters in the space agency’s mission to bring tubes of Martian… More.

The first experiment to produce oxygen on another planet has come to an end on Mars after exceeding NASA’s initial goals and demonstrating capabilities that could help future astronauts explore the red planet.

The microwave-size device called MOXIE, or Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, is on the Perseverance rover.

The experiment kicked off more than two years ago, a few months after the rover landed on Mars. Since then, MOXIE has generated 122 grams of oxygen, equal to what a small dog breathes in 10 hours, according to NASA. The instrument works by converting some of Mars’ plentiful carbon dioxide into oxygen.

NASA’s Psyche mission launches on October 5 to explore the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, offering insights into planet formation.

As October 5 inches closer on the calendar, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is buzzing with anticipation. Engineers and scientists are busy making final preparations for the groundbreaking Psyche mission, set to launch within less than a month. With its suite of high-end science instruments — a multispectral imager, magnetometer, and gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer — primed for action, the spacecraft aims to unlock the secrets of its namesake asteroid, Psyche.

Credits: NASA/Kim Shiflett.

Continue reading “NASA gears up for metal-rich asteroid exploration” »

Almost a century ago, physicists Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein predicted a theoretical state of matter in which individual particles would, at extremely cold temperatures and low densities, condense into an indistinguishable whole. These so-called Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) would offer a macroscopic view into the microscopic world of quantum mechanics. In 1995, theoretical BECs became an experimental reality, which garnered the physicists who created them a Nobel Prize. Labs around the world— and even in space —have been creating them ever since.

All of the BECs created so far to ask fundamental questions about quantum mechanics have been made from atoms. It has proven much harder to make molecules cold enough to approach a BEC state, which hover fractions of a degree above absolute zero, and to keep the molecules stable long enough to conduct experiments.

“For twenty years, there have been proposals about what you could do with stable ultracold molecules, but it has been tough on the experimental side because the lifetime of molecular samples has been short,” said Columbia physicist Sebastian Will, whose lab specializes in creating ultracold atoms and molecules.

TOKYO — Japan launched a lunar lander on Thursday, aiming to become the fifth nation to achieve a soft landing on the moon’s surface early next year following India’s success in a similar mission last month.

The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) was sent to space on an H-IIA rocket, the first launch since a high-profile launch failure of the next-generation H3 rocket in March.

In just two weeks, the Indian mission has made some surprising discoveries about the composition of the Moon.

Scientists hope to use the pilot technology to build out a more robust system that would produce enough oxygen for humans and for rocket propellant.

Aditya-L1, India’s solar probe, has snapped some striking shots in space, capturing itself and the Earth and moon.

Dubbed ‘Luminous Fast Coolers,’ this new class of extreme cosmic explosion is incredibly rare — and unbelievably bright.