January 2021
Taking out the trash in space
...technology used during a successful mission. Operating in a microgravity environment has many challenges not found on Earth, and performing ... Facility at KSC. An oxygen and steam-rich environment was created within the reactor for ignition conditions,...
21 November 2016
The grandest of canyons is found on Mercury with the aid of MESSENGER
... crater formed by a relatively recent impact – was found using stereo images from NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft. Its discovery reveals important clues as to the geologic history of the...
17 July 2020
Solar Orbiter spots country-sized ‘campfires’ on the Sun
... of the campfires' temperature. Fortunately, another instrument on Solar Orbiter known as the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment, or SPICE instrument, does just that. "So we're eagerly awaiting our next data set," Auchère says. "The...
27 March 2020
Mercury's crust could have had episodic habitable conditions, new study says
Having almost no atmosphere to retain heat, a surface similar in appearance to that of the Moon, and being so perilously close to the Sun, it is hard to imagine that our smallest and innermost planet in the Solar System – Mercury – could once have ...
January 2023
Space sustainability imperative
... that if we make it impossible for satellites to operate safely - there is a linkage between preserving the space environment and preserving Earth’s environment. The fact that we can’t ‘see’ all that orbital debris and all the inoperable satellites...
March 2015
ESA’s Clean Space Initiative and the role of the LCA tool
.... With the rapid development of space activities in an increasing number of countries and regions, some near- Earth space environments are becoming crowded, with many operational and defunct spacecraft occupying the same orbital regions. Recently...
