27 March 2020
Mercury's crust could have had episodic habitable conditions, new study says
... of volatile materials escaping Mercury’s subsurface. These volatiles, or volatile-rich compounds, include chemicals such as nitrogen, water, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and sulphates, stretched as far down as at least 2.5 kilometres, if not further...
15 April 2020
Successful test clears the way for Virgin Orbit's first-ever launch
...°F) warmer. For the final development test carried out on Sunday, the tanks were filled with liquid nitrogen; a compound very similar to that which will be carried on operational flights - super cold liquid oxygen. Founded by Richard...
27 April 2020
SpaceX's first full-scale Starship passes key test
.... The cryogenic proof involves filling some or all of the Starship SN4 prototype with ultra-cold liquid nitrogen (LN2) to verify that its tanks can withstand flight pressures therefore proving the vehicle is flight-worthy...
17 June 2020
NASA wants to visit Neptune’s weird moon Triton
... as it illuminates Neptune to capture this mysterious region. Trident's third major goal is to understand how Triton’s crust of frozen nitrogen over an icy mantle with a stack of unusual landforms keeps renewing itself; a feat that means the moon...
21 August 2020
A small air leak has been found on the International Space Station, says NASA
... NASA, over time, a tiny bit of air leaks out requiring the station to undergo routine repressurisation from nitrogen tanks delivered on cargo resupply missions. However, nearly a year ago, a slight increase above the normal air...
31 August 2020
"Dry" meteorites unlock the origin of Earth's water
..., CNRS/Universite de Lorraine) in Nancy, France, measured the hydrogen content, deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) ratio and nitrogen isotope compositions in thirteen enstatite chondrite meteorites. "Only a few pristine enstatite chondrites exist: ones that...
