The Space Industry’s Climate Impact: Part 3
As governments around the world wrestle with how to stop the harmful effects of climate change, they’re finding space a useful vantage point from which to understand the scope of the problem.
Science
Stories about the wondrous world of space science.
The Space Industry’s Climate Impact: Part 2
Spaceflight can be a filthy business.
Rocket Lab Takes On Venus
Deep space exploration isn’t just for governments anymore.
NASA Reveals Bennu Asteroid Samples, Finds Water and Carbon
Small rocks, big rocks, carbon rocks, water rocks—everyone gets a space rock.
Vector Atomic Delivers Atomic Gyroscope to DIU
The most accurate clock in the world will pass 50B years before it falls a single second behind. A clock like that could change everything we know about timekeeping and tracking our position in the world, dramatically transforming the precision of our measurements across the globe in a moment. This type of clock is a […]
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Delivers Asteroid Samples to Earth
Asteroid bits from millions of miles away have been safely delivered to Earth’s doorstep. After its seven-year journey, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft flew by Earth yesterday, tossing down a capsule carrying an estimated 250 grams of extraterrestrial regolith. The capsule parachuted down to the DoD’s Utah Test and Training Range and safely landed right-side up. The […]
NASA and IBM Release Geospatial AI Model
Wait your turn, room-temp superconductor. We’re still not finished with the AI craze. NASA and IBM launched their open-source geospatial foundation model on the AI platform Hugging Face, the team announced yesterday. The model leverages NASA’s vast inventory of satellite data to provide insight and modeling on the impacts of climate change. “We believe that […]
Asteroid Day 2023
Each year on this day, the UN honors a little-known event called Asteroid Day. On Asteroid Day, we remember the 1908 Tunguska asteroid, which entered the atmosphere over Siberia and leveled more than 2000 sq km of forest. The event is dedicated to raising public awareness of the risk of asteroid impacts and the importance […]
Biden Administration Highlights Climate, DEI Efforts
The Biden administration hosted a pair of events last week showcasing two of its top priorities for space: fighting climate change and promoting diversity in the industry. A warming climate: On Wednesday morning, NASA hosted a ribbon cutting for its Earth Information Center, an interactive exhibit at the space agency’s HQ in DC that’s been […]
Euclid to Launch July 1 on a Mission to Study Dark Energy
Euclid, ESA’s dark energy surveyor satellite, is slated to launch July 1 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, the space agency announced this week. Ministry of magic: The spacecraft, named after the Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria, will map the cosmos in 3D and study how dark energy shapes the universe. Scientists hope the data will […]
NASA Taps Top Scientist for Crewed Moon Return
Noah Petro will be the science lead for Artemis III, which aims to return humans to the Moon by mid-decade, officials announced last week during NASA’s Artemis town hall briefing at the 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC). Petro is the project scientist for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The satellite’s observations have helped […]
Blue Origin Plans Interplanetary Initiatives
Blue Origin is opening up about some of its latest interplanetary work. Last week, the Washington company announced two science initiatives supporting humanity’s efforts to push outward into the cosmos. On Thursday, NASA awarded Blue Origin a contract to provide launch services for the ESCAPADE mission to study the magnetosphere of Mars. And on Friday, […]