Front Page / Titelseite

Credit issue header picture: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Ocean Moons, Promising Targets in Search for Life, Could Be Dead Inside

For more than two decades, scientists have wondered whether extraterrestrial life may be flourishing deep below the icy coatings boasted by moons in our outer solar system. Spacecraft like the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Cassini mission to Saturn have stumbled on evidence that some of their moons hide global oceans, warmed by the pull of the giant planet they orbit. And oceanic explorers much closer to home have discovered dynamic communities living in darkness around geologic features on the ocean floor. Combine the two and it’s easy to be carried away with dreams of alien seafloors teeming with microbes. But new research is looking deeper, into the rock itself, and suggesting that these worlds may be dead inside — not just biologically, but geologically as well.

Shutdown Grounds NASA’s Airborne Observatory

The ongoing partial government shutdown has grounded a NASA aircraft used for astronomical observations amid reviews about how to operate that program in the future. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a Boeing 747 with a 2.5-meter telescope mounted in its fuselage, has been unable able to perform any science flights since the shutdown started Dec. 22, project officials said during a town hall session about the program Jan. 8 during the 233rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) here.

Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway: NASA’s Proposed Lunar Space Station

The Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway is a proposed NASA program that would bring astronauts to the moon to operate a lunar space station. The concept has generated a wealth of research and numerous political discussions since 2017, especially because NASA’s stated goal under the Trump administration is to return to the moon before going to Mars.

Cotton Seed Sprouts on the Moon’s Far Side in Historic First by China’s Chang’e 4

Before China finished packing up its Chang’e 4 lunar lander to be blasted off on a never-before-accomplished journey to the far side of the moon, scientists slipped in a small tank holding plant seeds. And now, the team announced, a cotton seed has sprouted.

There Is Now Life On Two Worlds In Our Solar System

China Details Future Moon Plans, Including Polar Research Station

China’s bold moon-exploration plans don’t stop with the pioneering Chang’e 4 mission, which made the first-ever soft landing on the lunar far side on Jan. 2.

The State Council Information Office of China (SCIO) held a press conference Monday (Jan. 14) to discuss that epic touchdown, and to give an overview of the nation’s future activities on Earth’s nearest neighbor.

Hubble Space Telescope’s Glitchy Eye Should Clear Up Soon

The Hubble Space Telescope’s main eye on the universe should be back up and running soon. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) took itself offline last week as a safety precaution, after onboard software noticed anomalous voltage readings within the instrument. But Hubble team members have now determined that voltage levels actually remained within the normal range, ascribing the glitch to a telemetry issue rather than a power-supply problem.

Feature – ISS Horizions Mission Alexander Gerst

Horizons’ is the name of ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst’s second mission to the International Space Station.
The mission name evokes exploring our Universe, looking far beyond our planet and broadening our knowledge. Alexander would also like to make people realise that there is always a chance to go beyond their personal horizons. Alexander will be launched on 6 June with US astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev from the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft.
Alexander will take over command of the International Space Station for the second half of his mission. Alexander Gerst is the 11th German citizen to fly into space. The astronaut is now in the last stages of training for his challenging spaceflight. The science programme is packed with European research: more than 50 experiments will deliver benefits to people back on Earth and prepare for future space exploration.

“Horizons” – die neue Mission von Alexander Gerst

“Horizons” – so heißt die nächste Mission des deutschen ESA-Astronauten Alexander Gerst. Anfang Juni 2018 soll der 41-jährige Geophysiker mit der Expedition 56/57 seine zweite “Forschungsreise” zur Internationalen Raumstation ISS antreten. Gerst wird nach dem Belgier Frank de Winne der zweite Europäer sein, der als Kommandant auf der ISS eingesetzt wird. Knapp fünf Monate – bis Ende Oktober 2018 – soll Gerst in knapp 400 Kilometern Höhe unterwegs sein. Der englische Name der Mission, Horizons, symbolisiert dabei die Neugier und Faszination, Unbekanntes zu entdecken und zu erforschen.

Alexander Gerst: als Kommandant auf die ISS

Podcast auf Omega Tau. Dort wird über die Aufgaben des Kommandanten, über die Ausbildung zum Astronaut generell und zum Kommandant im Speziellen, sowie über wissenschaftliche Experimente auf der ISS gesprochen. Natürlich kommen auch seine Eindrücke während seines früheren Fluges 2014 zur Sprache.

41 Experimente des Alexander Gerst sind “made in Germany”

Wie kann Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) den Astronauten bei ihrem Job im All helfen und was lernen wir für die Anwendung auf der Erde daraus? Wie verhalten sich lebende Zellen in Schwerelosigkeit? Was macht der Aufenthalt im All mit unserem Immunsystem? Wie lassen sich aus Schmelzprozessen auf der ISS die industriellen Gießprozesse auf der Erde verbessern? Was können wir vom Wanderverhalten der Tiere über den Klimawandel lernen? Diese und viele weitere wissenschaftlich und gesellschaftlich relevante Fragen sollen auf der Internationalen Raumstation ISS in 41 deutschen Experimenten beantwortet werden, die das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) für die nächste Mission von Alexander Gerst zur ISS – “horizons – Wissen für Morgen”- koordiniert und steuert.

Die Maus im Weltall – Die Seite mit der Maus

Am 06. Juni 2018 pünktlich um 13:12 Uhr ist unser Maustronaut Alexander Gerst zusammen mit der Maus zu seiner zweiten Mission ins Weltall gestartet. Sechs Monate wird er auf der Internationalen Raumstation ISS verbringen, drei Monate lang sogar als Kommandant. Die neue Mission trägt den Titel “Horizons”, das ist englisch und bedeutet “Horizonte”. Denn Alexander will herausfinden, was sich hinter dem Horizont verbirgt – und Maus und Elefant werden ihn dabei begleiten.

Das ist jetzt die Crew auf der ISS: In der hinteren Reihe schweben die Astronauten Oleg Artjemjew, Andrew Feustel, Richard Arnold und die Maus. Vorne siehst du Sergej Prokopjew, Alexander Gerst und Serena Auñón-Chancellor. Auf dem Foto hinter der Crew ist der russische Ingenieur Sergei Koroljow zu erkennen, der ein großer Weltraumpionier war.

Further news / Weitere Nachrichten – Alexander Gerst

Astro-Alex nach ISS-Rückkehr: “Habe meine persönliche Grenze noch nicht gefunden”

Alexander Gerst ist von seiner zweiten ISS-Mission zurückgekehrt, seine Zeit als Kommandant ist vorbei. Doch für ihn war das noch lange nicht alles. Der Astronaut im ZDF-Interview.

Read more… http://bit.ly/2FuQ1iP via – ZDFmediathek – January 11, 2019 at 12:57PM

Feature – NASA’s Insight Mars Lander

Homepage – NASA’s Insight Mars Lander

BR News – Einblick in das Innerste des Mars

Noch ist der NASA-Lander Insight auf dem Weg zum Mars. Ende November soll er dort ankommen und darauf Platz nehmen. Dieses Rendezvous wird dem Roten Planeten tatsächlich unter die Haut gehen. Die NASA ist dem Mars bereits mehrfach zu Leibe gerückt – unter anderem mit den Rovern Opportunity und Curiosity sowie den Sonden Odyssey, MRO und Maven. Am 5. Mai 2018 wurde der stationäre Lander InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) zum Schnüffeln losgeschickt. InSight startete mithilfe einer rund 57 Meter großen Atlas-V-401-Rakete von der Vandenberg Air Force Basis in Kalifornien und soll am 26. November auf dem Roten Planeten ankommen. Dann wird der Lander für rund zwei Jahre zum geduldigen Spürhund.

Nasa’s InSight mission will target ‘Marsquakes’

InSight will be the first probe to focus its investigations predominantly on the interior of the Red Planet. The lander – due to touch down in November – will put seismometers on the surface to feel for “Marsquakes”. These tremors should reveal how the underground rock is layered – data that can be compared with Earth to shed further light on the formation of the planets 4.6 billion years ago. “As seismic waves travel through [Mars] they pick up information along the way; as they travel through different rocks,” explained Dr Bruce Banerdt, InSight’s principal investigator. “And all those wiggles you see on seismograms – scientists understand how to pull that information out. After we’ve gotten many, many Marsquakes from different directions, we can put together a three dimensional view of the inside of Mars.”

Media resources | InSight

Homepage – InSight Media Resources

Further news / Weitere Nachrichten – Insight

NASA’s InSight Lander on Mars Is Now Hunting for Marsquakes

NASA’s InSight Mars lander is officially hunting for quakes on the Red Planet. The lander’s ultrasensitive seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), has passed its initial tests and is working working well, according to the French space agency CNES, which built the lander’s instrument.

Minisatelliten für die InSight-Mission – Zwei Schuhkartons für die Marslandung

Wenn eine Raumsonde zur Landung ansetzt, ist stets die Frage, wie die Daten zur Erde kommen. Zumeist verfügen Landekapseln nicht über so starke Sender, um ihre Daten direkt nach Hause zu funken.

via www.deutschlandfunk.de https://www.deutschlandfunk.de – January 12, 2019 at 08:12 PM

Good News From Mars: The InSight Lander Is on Track to Start Collecting Data Next Month

The U.S. government may be in partial shutdown mode, but operations to configure instruments critical to NASA’s InSight mission on Mars are right on schedule—and things are going swimmingly, as the latest mission update attests. Our last update from the InSight mission came on December 20 following the probe’s successful deployment of the SEIS instrument, or Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, onto the Martian surface. The configuration of this hexagonal-shaped device is still ongoing, but an update from the SEIS team shows things are proceeding as planned. Over the last several weeks, mission engineers have leveled the seismometer, manipulated the cable connecting InSight to the device, and—most importantly—balanced three of the instrument’s six internal seismic sensors, while also confirming their functionality.

via gizmodo.com https://gizmodo.com – January 12, 2019 at 08:34 PM

International Spacestation (ISS)

Dragon-Kapsel erstmals bei Nacht gewassert

Ein Dragon-Frachtraumschiff ist am Sonntagabend gegen 21.10 Uhr Ortszeit (Montagmorgen 6.10 Uhr deutscher Zeit) von der Internationalen Raumstation ISS auf die Erde zurückgekehrt.

Dragon Released to Return Science and Supplies Back to Earth

The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft was released from the International Space Station today at 6:33 p.m. EST. Robotics controllers remotely commanded the Canadarm2 robotic arm to let go of the U.S. space freighter sending it on a solo trajectory back to Earth.

Read more… https://go.nasa.gov/2FuAYW9

via Space Station https://go.nasa.gov/2R8z7xf January 14, 2019 at 02:15AM

Spekulationen um Ein-Jahres-Flug von US-Astronaut Hague in der ISS

In russischen Medien sind Spekulationen über einen Ein-Jahres-Flug von US-Astronaut Nick Hague (Foto) in der Internationalen Raumstation ISS aufgetaucht. Hague soll im März zusammen mit dem russischen Kosmonauten Alexej Owtschinin und seiner Landsmännin Christina Koch mit dem Raumschiff Sojus MS-12 zur ISS fliegen.

Dragon Back on Earth as Crew Revs Up Station Science

The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft is back on Earth after splashing down in the Pacific Ocean Sunday night loaded with critical space research and International Space Station hardware. Four spaceships remain parked at the orbital lab including Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus resupply ship from the United States.

Read more… https://go.nasa.gov/2VRwqPn

via Space Station https://go.nasa.gov/2R8z7xf January 14, 2019 at 05:18PM

Station Trio Practices Emergency Before Radiation, Physics Research

The Expedition 58 crew members started Tuesday with an emergency drill before splitting up for more space research and hardware maintenance. Commander Oleg Kononenko led Flight Engineers Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques through a simulated emergency this morning aboard the International Space Station. The trio practiced communication and coordination with Mission Control Centers in Houston and Moscow.

Read more… https://go.nasa.gov/2SWWYgf

via Space Station https://go.nasa.gov/2R8z7xf January 15, 2019 at 08:24PM

Wrong Number! Here’s What Happened When a Dutch Astronaut Accidentally Called 911 from Space

This probably tops your most embarrassing butt-dial moment: Back in 2012, Dutch astronaut André Kuipers mistakenly called 911 from the International Space Station (ISS). “If you’re in space, it’s like you are making a call via Houston — first you dial the 9 for an outside line, and then 011 for an international line,” Kuipers told the Dutch outlet Nederlandse Omroep Stichting earlier this month. (The article is in Dutch; the quotes here are provided by Google Translate.)

Earth / Erde

Hurricane Satellites Reveal Flooding on Earth

Researchers examining data produced by small satellites launched in 2016 to track ocean winds were surprised the mission produced valuable information on soil moisture and flooding. NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System, a constellation of eight 30-kilogram satellites built by the Southwest Research Institute and the University of Michigan, observed the Amazon River basin in far more detail than NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive mission even when SMAPs radar still worked.

TanDEM-X: Mit Satelliten Eisverlust von Gletschern messen

Das Schmelzen von Gletschern infolge des Klimawandels ist längst Realität. Die genaue Messung dieses Prozesses ist allerdings schwierig. Jetzt haben Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler Daten von zwei deutschen Radarsatelliten sowie ältere Daten einer Shuttle-Mission ausgewertet, um die Massenverluste von Gletschern in Südamerika zu messen.

Solar System / Sonnensystem

Erste Bilder – So sieht es auf der Rückseite des Monds aus

via SPIEGEL ONLINE – January 11, 2019 at 09:49PM

Watch China Land on the Moon’s Far Side in This Awesome Video!

A spectacular new video gives a lander’s-eye view of the first-ever touchdown on the moon’s mysterious far side. The nearly 3-minute video was captured by China’s Chang’e 4 mission, which landed inside the 115-mile-wide (185 kilometers) Von Kármán Crater on the night of Jan. 2.

See the Far Side of the Moon in This Amazing Panorama from China’s Chang’e 4 Lander

China made history earlier this month with the first successful soft landing on the far side of the moon — and now, the mission has sent back an incredible panorama view of its work site.

See China Moon Mission’s Far-Side Landing Site from Above (Photos)

Scientists have used photos captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to further pinpoint the landing locale of China’s Chang’e 4 far-side mission. Looking at the just-released Chang’e 4 descent imagery allowed researchers to find the exact landing spot in a Narrow Angle Camera image produced by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC. That image was taken prior to Chang’e 4’s touchdown, explained LROC principal investigator Mark Robinson, who’s based at Arizona State University in Tempe.

China On the Moon! A History of Chinese Lunar Missions in Pictures

China’s Chang’e 4 Moon Mission Faces Its First Big Freeze on Lunar Far Side

China’s Chang’e 4 lander and rover are now getting cold-soaked, as darkness falls on their touchdown site on the far side of the moon On the night of Jan. 2, the Chang’e 4 mission softly touched down inside the 115-mile-wide (186 kilometers) Von Kármán Crater, which lies within the huge South Pole Aitken Basin in the moon’s southern hemisphere.

15 Jahre Bilder von der DLR-Stereokamera HRSC auf der ESA-Mission Mars Express

Vor 15 Jahren, am frühen Samstagabend des 10. Januar 2004, saßen und standen über ein Dutzend Wissenschaftler dicht gedrängt in einem winzigen schmucklosen Raum im DLR-Forschungszentrum Berlin-Adlershof und starrten gebannt auf zwei Monitore. Sie erwarteten die ersten Bilder “ihres” Experiments, der High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC).

Japan’s Hayabusa2 Probe to Snag 1st Asteroid Sample Next Month

A Japanese spacecraft will aim to snag the first samples of its target asteroid next month. The Hayabusa2 probe, which has been studying the diamond-shaped asteroid Ryugu up close since late June, will swoop down to the 3,000-foot-wide (900 meters) space rock’s surface for the first time during the week of Feb. 18, mission team members announced via Twitter Wednesday (Jan. 9).

See the Earth, Moon and Asteroid Bennu in a Single Photo

Here’s something you don’t see every day: Earth, the moon and a potentially dangerous asteroid, all in the same frame. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe captured the photo on Dec. 19, when it was about 71 million miles (114 million kilometers) from its home planet but much closer to the space rock Bennu.

Phoenix Mars Lander: The First Spacecraft to Taste Martian Water

On May 25, 2008, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander blazed through the Martian atmosphere and landed at the northern pole of the Red Planet. The spacecraft made history as its robotic arm was the first to touch and sample water on Mars. During the lander’s three months on the Red Planet, Phoenix revealed an unprecedented amount of information about the Martian environment.

Mit Infrarot-Augen auf Titan blicken

Der Saturn-Mond Titan ist zwar von einer dichten Atmosphäre umgeben, aber mit Hilfe der Infrarot-Augen der internationalen Cassini-Mission offenbaren sich in diesem umfassenden Mosaik die unzähligen Oberflächenmerkmale des Mondes.

NASA-Sonde New Horizons: Bildersequenz zeigt Annäherung an Ultima Thule

Zum Jahreswechsel passierte New Horizons als erste Sonde einen Himmelskörper im Kuipergürtel. Nach einer Pause senden sie nun wieder dabei gesammelte Daten.

NASA May Decide This Year to Land a Drone on Saturn’s Moon Titan

The spacecraft that have peered through the yellowish haze surrounding Saturn’s moon Titan discovered a strange, yet strangely familiar world where life could theoretically take root. Now, scientists want to return — this time buoyed by Earth’s fascination with drone technology.

Beyond Solar System / Milchstraße & Kosmos

TESS: Neuer Planetenjäger findet erste Planeten

Die Mission des Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite der NASA, kurz TESS, kann sich über die ersten drei bestätigten Exoplaneten freuen. TESS sucht mithilfe der Transitmethode nach fernen Welten um helle Sterne. Bevor eine Entdeckung als gesichert gilt, muss sie durch weitere Beobachtungen bestätigt werden. Für über 280 von TESS aufgespürte potentielle Planeten läuft diese Überprüfung noch.

TESS Discovers New Planet Three Times as Big as Earth

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS, has discovered a third small planet outside our solar system, scientists announced this week at the annual American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. The new planet orbits a nearby dwarf star about 53 light years away, in the constellation Reticulum. It looks to have the longest orbital period of the three planets identified so far by TESS. The three planets discovered by TESS in its first three months of operation each have unique characteristics and orbits.

Politics / Politik

Rogosin kündigt Ergebnis der Untersuchungen zum ISS-Leck für die „nächsten Wochen“ an

Der Chef des russischen Raumfahrtstaatskonzerns GK Roskosmos, Dmitri Rogosin, hat angekündigt, dass die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung zu dem Loch in der Internationalen Raumstation ISS in den „nächsten Wochen“ vorliegen werden.

What’s Next for Air Force Weather Satellites?

The U.S. military’s highest priority weather satellite, a spacecraft requested by U.S. Strategic Command to observe clouds and theaters of operations, is on hold after NASA rescinded the contract award.

NASA-Chef Bridenstine nimmt Einladung zu Russland-Besuch an

Der Chef der US-Luft- und Raumfahrtbehörde NASA, Jim Bridenstine, hat eine Einladung des Generaldirektors des russischen Staatskonzerns GK Roskosmos, Dmitri Rogosin, zu einem Besuch Russlands oder des Kosmodroms Baikonur (Kasachstan) angenommen.

Roscosmos Claims That Bridenstine Will Meet Rogozin – In Russia

During the conversation, Dmitry Rogozin and Jim Bridenstine stressed that Roscosmos and NASA are committed to the goal of space exploration,” Roscosmos said. “They agreed to continue cooperating, both on the program of the International Space Station and Moon exploration projects, and on other missions of exploring outer space.

NASA (and Its Astronauts) Slowed by Government Shutdown, But Not Grounded

NASA hasn’t been totally grounded by the government shutdown. The partial shutdown — which is the nation’s longest ever, at 24 days and counting — has of course had a serious impact on the space agency. More than 95 percent of NASA employees have been furloughed, and development work on most future space missions has been slowed or suspended.

Technology / Technologie

Wine: Raumsonde soll mit aus Asteroiden gewonnenem Wasser fliegen – Golem.de

Forscher entwickeln derzeit eine Raumsonde, die eine sehr lange Zeit im Weltall agieren können soll. Wine soll Wasser aus Himmelskörpern fördern und dieses in Dampf umwandeln, der die kleine Sonde vorantreibt. Ein erster Test auf der Erde sei bereits erfolgreich gewesen.

Cool running

This year, ESA’s ground station boffins are planning to deploy a new cryogenically cooled ‘antenna feed’ – a gizmo used to transmit and receive deep space signals – on the Agency’s three deep-space antennas. The ground stations routinely communicate with missions like BepiColombo – heading to Mercury, Gaia – surveying stars in our Galaxy, and ESA’s two spacecraft at the Red Planet, Mars Express and the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.

Russisches Weltraumteleskop empfängt keine Kommandos von der Erde mehr

Das einzige russische Weltraumteleskop Spektr-R bereitet den Wissenschaftlern große Sorgen. Es empfange seit drei Tagen keine Kommandos von der Erde mehr, teilte der Direktor des Astrokosmischen Zentrums FIAN, Nikolai Kardaschow, mit. Es liefere jedoch kontinuierlich wissenschaftliche Daten

Russia’s only space telescope breaks down

Astro Space Centre chief Nikolai Kardashev said some of the Spektr-R satellite’s communication systems had stopped working.

But it was still transmitting scientific data, RIA Novosti news agency reports.

SpaceX Launches 10 Iridium Satellites Into Orbit, Then Sticks Rocket Landing

All 10 Iridium Next satellites were successfully deployed. A used SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lofted 10 final Iridium Next satellites into orbit today (Jan. 11), completing a two-year, eight-launch contract between the two companies.

SpaceX Finishes Building ‘Starship’ Hopper Prototype (Photo)

SpaceX has built itself a shiny new rocket.

Assembly of the test-flight version of SpaceX’s Mars-colonizing Starship vehicle is now complete, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk announced Thursday night (Jan. 10). The suborbital, hopping rocket is a sleek, shiny craft with three prominent fins that end in landing pads.

Space Telescopes of the Future: NASA Has 4 Ideas for Great Observatory to Fly in 2030s

NASA still hasn’t launched its new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a successor to the beloved and aging Hubble Space Telescope. But the agency is already preparing for an even bigger and better space observatory to eventually replace JWST.

Tiny Cubesats Picked for Proposed European Asteroid Mission

Two little cubesats will fly with a planned European asteroid mission to get some extra space-rock studies done.
The candidate Hera mission to the two-asteroid Didymos system will include two briefcase-size spacecraft, European Space Agency (ESA) officials announced last Monday (Jan. 7).

Hubble Space Telescope Will Last Through the Mid-2020s, Report Says

Despite recent issues with one of its instruments, the Hubble Space Telescope is expected to last at least another five years. A new report suggests that the iconic spacecraft has a strong chance of enduring through the mid-2020s.

Scientists Are Legit Building a Steam-Powered Spaceship, And It Sounds Awesome

Come one, come all and behold the future of space travel: steam power! No, seriously; half a century after the world’s first manned space mission, it seems that interplanetary travel has finally entered the steam age. Scientists at the University of Central Florida (UCF) have teamed up with Honeybee Robotics, a private space and mining tech company based in California, to develop a small, steam-powered spacecraft capable of sucking its fuel right out of the asteroids, planets and moons it’s exploring.

World / Welt

Einladung von Medienvertretern zur ESA-Weltraumsicherheitskonferenz

Die Weltraumsicherheit ist mit zahlreichen Themen wie dem Umgang mit Weltraumtrümmern, der rechtzeitigen Warnung vor Auswirkungen des Weltraumwetters oder der Aufspürung und der Bahnablenkung von Asteroiden ein aufstrebendes Gebiet, dem im Vorschlag des ESA-Generaldirektors für die nächste Ministerratstagung „Space19+“ im November 2019 Rechnung getragen wird.

SpaceX entlässt Hunderte Mitarbeiter

Der US-Raumfahrtkonzern SpaceX will seine Belegschaft um rund zehn Prozent verringern. Das bedeute die Entlassung von etwa 600 Mitarbeitern, teilte die Los Angeles Times mit.

SpaceX Laying Off 10 Percent of Its Workforce

SpaceX is laying off about 10 percent of its workforce, a cost-cutting move the company says is required to focus on development of its next-generation launch system and a broadband satellite constellation. In a statement late Jan. 11, the company confirmed that SpaceX is laying off a portion of its workforce. It is the first large-scale reduction of its workforce since the company was founded in 2002, although the company did fire several percent of its employees in 2014, a move that the company said at the time was based on performance reviews.

Indien will Ende 2021 einen eigenen Astronauten starten

From Volcanoes on Mars to Scarps on Mercury — How Places on Other Worlds Get Their Names

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

The New Horizons spacecraft, which flew past Pluto in 2015, successfully completed a flyby of “Ultima Thule,” an object in the Kuiper belt of bodies beyond Neptune on January 1, 2019. The name Ultima Thule, signifying a distant unknown place, is fitting but it is currently just a nickname pending formal naming. The official names of the body and of the features on its surface will eventually be allocated (this could take years) by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which celebrates its centenary in 2019.

Science / Wissenschaft

Team of telescopes finds X-ray engine inside mysterious supernova

ESA’s high-energy space telescopes INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton have helped to find a source of powerful X-rays at the centre of an unprecedentedly bright and rapidly evolving stellar explosion that suddenly appeared in the sky earlier this year.

Astronauts Could Be Growing Beans in Space in 2021

For freshly grown produce, space is truly the final frontier. But even astronauts will soon be able to abide by their mothers’ exhortations to eat more veggies. Following the much-celebrated harvest of a head of romaine lettuce aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015, astronauts’ vacuum-packed vittles may be kicked up a notch as early as 2021 with the addition of space-grown beans. More salad fixings are also in the cards. After that? The galaxy’s the limit.

‘Sub-Saturns’ May Force Scientists to Revise Idea of How Planets Form

Astronomers know our solar system better than any other, but they’re still learning new ways in which it doesn’t seem to be particularly normal. One such quirk, in patterns of planetary sizes, was the subject of a news conference held yesterday (Jan. 8) at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The results could prompt scientists to revise a leading theory of how planets form.
Read more… http://bit.ly/2FmOU5s

via Space.com https://www.space.com- January 12, 2019 at 02:55PM

Visually Surveying TESS with LcTools Light Curve Viewer

Robotik: Mars-Exkursion in Marokko beendet

Die fast vegetationslosen Steinwüsten Marokkos mit ihren rötlichen Bergrücken haben eine verblüffende Ähnlichkeit mit dem Mars. Sie sind daher ideal zur Erprobung von Software und Technologien, die einmal bei der Erforschung des Roten Planeten zum Einsatz kommen könnten. Genau solche Tests führten europäische Wissenschaftler im Dezember erfolgreich durch.

SOFIA: Sternwind behindert weitere Sternentstehung

Junge Sterne können durch ihren Sternwind dafür sorgen, dass keine weiteren Sterne mehr entstehen. Das ergaben Beobachtungen im Orionnebel mithilfe des Stratosphären-Observatoriums für Infrarot-Astronomie SOFIA, eines Teleskops im Jumbojet. Bislang hatte man angenommen, dass eher Ereignisse wie Supernova-Explosionen für die Regulierung der Sternentstehung verantwortlich sind.

Wine on Mars? The World’s Oldest Wine-Making Country Wants to Make It Happen

The first human colonists on Mars will have to forgo many of the creature comforts of Earth — things like enjoying an ozone layer, for example, or opting out of rearing genetically engineered Martian babies. Fortunately, one essential earthly amenity these hardscrabble colonists may not have to give up is wine. Georgia, a country with an 8,000-year-old viticulture tradition, is putting its top space and wine scientists to work figuring out how to grow grapes on Mars.