NASA to Provide Coverage of SpaceX Commercial Crew Test Flight with Astronauts
NASA will provide coverage of the upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for the agency’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the International Space Station.
SpaceX mission control to do social distancing for first crewed flight
SpaceX’s first crewed launch is planned for 27 May and will be run from a mission control with desks set six feet apart to comply with social distancing protocols
During its 30 years in orbit around Earth, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has witnessed the changing nature of spaceflight as the skies have filled with greater numbers of satellites, the International Space Station was born and in-space crashes and explosions have created clouds of fast-moving space debris.Hubble itself has felt the impact of this debris, accumulating tiny impact craters across its solar panels that evidence a long and eventful life in space. So what can we learn from these impacts, and what does the future hold for Hubble?
Der Helikopter, der im Juli mit dem US-Marsrover Perseverance zum Roten Planeten gebracht werden soll, wurde auf den Namen Ingenuity (Findigkeit) getauft. Das teilte die Luft- und Raumfahrtbehörde NASA mit. Der Heli ist das erste Luftfahrzeug, das aus eigener Kraft einen Flug auf einem anderen Planeten unternehmen […]
Title picture: Künstlerische Darstellung des Sternsystems Kepler-1649 (Bild: NASA/Ames Research Center/Daniel Rutter)
Vom Algorithmus aussortiert: Erdähnlichster Exoplanet in Kepler-Daten gefunden
Auch Jahre nach der Abschaltung von Kepler liefert das Weltraumteleskop weiter. Nun haben Forscher in den Daten den wohl erdähnlichsten Exoplaneten gefunden.
Earth-Size, Habitable Zone Planet Found Hidden in Early NASA Kepler Data
A team of transatlantic scientists, using reanalyzed data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, has discovered an Earth-size exoplanet orbiting in its star’s habitable zone, the area around a star where a rocky planet could support liquid water.
Auch CIMON-2, die Weiterentwicklung des kugelförmigen Astronautenassistenten, hat seine Fähigkeiten an Bord der Internationalen Raumstation ISS in ersten Tests erfolgreich demonstriert. Dies zeigte jetzt die Auswertung der entsprechenden Experimente an Bord. CIMON-2 arbeitete mit dem ESA-Astronauten Luca Parmitano zusammen. (20. April 2020)
Planetary Society Blog: CHEOPS Exoplanet Mission Launches, ISS Test Flight Goes Awry
Welcome to issue 12 of The Downlink, a planetary exploration news roundup from The Planetary Society! Most of our staff will be on vacation next week, so this will be our last Downlink of the year.!
ESA’s Cheops mission lifted off on a Soyuz-Fregat launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 09:54:20 CET on 18 December on its exciting mission to characterise planets orbiting stars other than the Sun.
Cheops soll nach unbekannten Exoplaneten Ausschau halten
51 Pegasi b war der erste, inzwischen haben Forscher 4000 Planeten bei anderen Sternen entdeckt. Jetzt soll ein neues Teleskop lebensfreundliche aufspüren.
ESA’s CHEOPS mission lifted off on a Soyuz-Fregat launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 09:54:20 CET on 18 December on its exciting mission to characterise planets orbiting stars other than the Sun.
ESA-Weltraumteleskop Cheops ist ins All gestartet, um Exoplaneten zu erforschen
Das ESA-Weltraumteleskop Cheops ist am 18. Dezember um 09:54:20 CET mit einer Sojus-Fregat-Rakete vom europäischen Weltraumbahnhof in Kourou, Französisch-Guyana, ins Weltall gestartet – zu einer spannenden Mission: Es wird extrasolare Planeten, sogenannte Exoplaneten, charakterisieren. Das sind Planeten, die andere Sterne als die Sonne umkreisen.
ESA plans mission to smallest asteroid ever visited
ESA’s planet-defending Hera mission will set a new record in space. The asteroid investigator will not only be the first spacecraft to explore a binary asteroid system – the Didymos pair – but the smaller of these two worldlets, comparable in size to Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza, will become the smallest asteroid ever visited.
Earth’s atmosphere stretches out to the Moon – and beyond
A recent discovery based on observations by the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO, shows that the gaseous layer that wraps around Earth reaches up to 630 000 km away, or 50 times the diameter of our planet
Hubble helps uncover origin of Neptune’s smallest moon Hippocamp
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, along with older data from the Voyager 2 probe, have revealed more about the origin of Neptune’s smallest moon. The moon, which was discovered in 2013 and has now received the official name Hippocamp, is believed to be a fragment of its larger neighbour Proteus.
Neue Forschungsergebnisse: Saturn-Ringe sind wohl jünger als gedacht
Der majestätische Saturn ist viele Milliarden Jahre alt. Doch sein Markenzeichen hat er wohl noch gar nicht so lange, wie ein Forscherteam herausgefunden hat.
We’re looking at Saturn at a very special time in the history of the Solar System, according to scientists. They’ve confirmed the planet’s iconic rings are very young – no more than 100 million years old, when dinosaurs still walked the Earth.
NASA’s Cassini Data Show Saturn’s Rings Relatively New – Solar System Exploration: NASA Science
The rings of Saturn may be iconic, but there was a time when the majestic gas giant existed without its distinctive halo. In fact, the rings may have formed much later than the planet itself, according to a new analysis of gravity science data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.
via Solar System Exploration: NASA Science – January 21, 2019 at 04:30PM
Hubble: Wide Field Camera 3 scheint wieder fit
Die Beobachtungen mit der Wide Field Camera 3 an Bord des Weltraumteleskops Hubbles dürften bald weitergehen: Die NASA hat das Instrument gestern wieder in den normalen Betriebsmodus versetzt. Nach einigen weiteren Tests könnte der normale Beobachtungsbetrieb bald wieder aufgenommen werden. In der letzten Woche hatte es Probleme mit der Kamera gegeben.
Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 Recovered, Collecting Science Data
The Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 was brought back to full operational status and completed its first science observations just after noon EST today, Jan. 17. The instrument autonomously shut down on Jan. 8 after internal data erroneously indicated invalid voltage levels. The Wide Field Camera 3 was installed on Hubble in May 2009 during the last servicing mission. It has taken over 240,000 observations to date and is the most used instrument of Hubble’s current complement.
The moon is a lifeless world once again. The cotton plants that sprouted on the moon’s far side aboard China’s Chang’e 4 lander are dead, done in by the bitter cold of the lengthy lunar night, GBTimes reported today (Jan. 16).
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.
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.
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.
Hubble: Probleme mit Wide Field Kamera 3 / Problems with Wide Field Camera 3
Hubble: Wide Field Camera 3 macht Probleme
Die Beobachtungen mit der Wide Field Camera 3, dem fortschrittlichsten Kamerasystem an Bord des Weltraumteleskops Hubbles für Bilder im sichtbaren Bereich des Lichts, sind gestern Abend wegen eines Hardware-Problems ausgesetzt worden. Während die Ursache gesucht wird, gehen die Beobachtungen mit den anderen drei Instrumenten weiter.
Hubble Space Telescope’s Camera Eye Suffers Malfunction
A hardware problem has put the main camera onboard the Hubble Space Telescope out of operation, according to a brief statement released by NASA today (Jan. 9). The issue with the Wide Field Camera 3 occured on Jan. 8 at 12:23 p.m. EST (1723 GMT), according to the statement. NASA did not provide any details about the glitch itself beyond saying that it was caused by a hardware problem and that the camera carries redundant electronics that could be used to get the instrument running again.
New Horizons: Vorüberflug an 2014 MU69 offenbar erfolgreich
Die NASA-Sonde New Horizons hat ihren Vorüberflug am Kuipergürtel-Objekt 2014 MU69 am frühen Morgen des Neujahrstages offenbar erfolgreich absolviert. Darauf deuten zumindest die diagnostischen Daten hin, die im Laufe des gestrigen Nachmittags empfangen wurden. Erste Bilder sollte es auch schon geben, die werden aber noch bis zu einer Pressekonferenz heute Abend zurückgehalten.
via astronews.com – der deutschsprachige Onlinedienst für Astronomie, Astrophysik und Raumfahrt – January 5, 2019 at 12:35PM
Nach 6,5 Milliarden Kilometern: Nasa-Sonde erreicht „Ultima Thule“ am Rand unseres Sonnensystems – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Wissenschaft
Nach jahrelanger Reise ist es am Neujahrstag so weit: Die Nasa-Sonde „New Horizons“ fliegt am Himmelskörper Ultima Thule vorbei. Noch nie hat eine Sonde ein so weit entferntes Objekt besucht.
With Ultima Thule Flyby, NASA Probe Helps Unlock Secrets of Planetary Formation
A close view of an ultra-distant fossil is helping to answer questions about the formation of planets throughout the universe. NASA’s New Horizons probe buzzed the outer solar-system object early on New Year’s morning, making the first flyby of such a primitive object. Because 2014 MU69 has remained virtually untouched since the birth of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago, it can reveal new details about that era. Already the first puzzling photos are helping to prove models of the early solar system.
After Ultima Thule Flyby, New Horizons Hits Pause on Data Dump
The New Horizons spacecraft fell silent yesterday (Jan. 4), but the communications pause is expected, and scientists on the mission will have plenty of data to keep them busy during the intermission, mission staff members said during a news conference held Jan. 3.
‚Meet Ultima Thule‘: 1st Color Photo of New Horizons Target Reveals a Red ‚Snowman‘
We now know what Ultima Thule looks like, and it’s not a bowling pin.
The first resolved photos of Ultima Thule have come in from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which zoomed past the frigid faraway object just after midnight yesterday (Jan. 1). The historic imagery reveals that the 21-mile-long (33 kilometers) Ultima is a „contact binary“ composed of two roughly spherical lobes.
Find further news on this topic in chapter „Solar System“
Weitere Nachrichten zu diesem Thema finden Sie im Kapitel „Sonnensystem“
OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft reaches Asteorid Bennu / OSIRIS-REx erreicht Asteroiden Bennu
Zoom! Asteroid Bennu Slips Past in OSIRIS-REx Flyby View
A spooky new series of photos of the asteroid Bennu show the diamond-shaped space rock approaching the camera and receding into the distance during a trio of flybys by a NASA spacecraft.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Enters Close Orbit Around Bennu, Breaking Record – OSIRIS-REx Mission
At 2:43 p.m. EST on December 31, while many on Earth prepared to welcome the New Year, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, 70 million miles (110 million kilometers) away, carried out a single, eight-second burn of its thrusters – and broke a space exploration record. The spacecraft entered into orbit around the asteroid Bennu, and made Bennu the smallest object ever to be orbited by a spacecraft.
via OSIRIS-REx Mission – January 1, 2019 at 02:06PM
NASA-Sonde Osiris Rex kommt Asteroid Bennu näher
Die Sonde Osiris Rex tritt in eine nahe Umlaufbahn des Asteroids Bennu ein. In den nächsten Jahren soll sie die Oberfläche berühren und Proben zur Erde bringen.
At 2:43 p.m. EST (7:43 GMT) on December 31, 2018, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft went into orbit around asteroid Bennu — setting new records for the smallest body ever orbited by a spacecraft and the closest orbit of a planetary body by any spacecraft.
via Breaking Science News | Sci-News.com – January 7, 2019 at 03:09PM
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx has started orbiting asteroid Bennu
After NASA’s OSIRIS-REx arrived at asteroid Bennu in early December, its ground team quickly started measuring and mapping out the celestial body. They needed all the information they could get in order to enter Bennu’s orbit, since the asteroid has such a small gravity pull. Sounds like the scientists were able to get what they needed, because OSIRIS-REx has successfully started circling the asteroid at 2:43 PM ET on December 31st.
Record Breaker! NASA Probe Slips into Orbit Around Asteroid Bennu
A NASA asteroid-sampling probe has begun circling its space-rock target, setting a new record for the smallest body ever orbited by a spacecraft. The OSIRIS-REx probe achieved orbit around the 1,640-foot-wide (500 meters) near-Earth asteroid Bennu with an eight-second engine burn today (Dec. 31) at 2:43 p.m. EST (1943 GMT).
Die Sonde „Osiris Rex“ ist in eine extrem nahe Umlaufbahn um den Asteroiden Bennu eingeschwenkt. Sie kreist seit Montagabend in 1,75 Kilometer Entfernung vom Asteroidenkern um Bennu. So dicht habe sich nie zuvor ein Raumfahrzeug seinem Untersuchungsobjekt angenähert, teilte die Amerikanische Astronomische Gesellschaft mit.
Die Sonde „Osiris Rex“ ist in eine extrem nahe Umlaufbahn um den Asteroiden „Bennu“ eingeschwenkt. Sie kreist seit gestern Abend in 1,75 Kilometer Entfernung vom Asteroidenkern um „Bennu“. So dicht habe sich nie zuvor ein Raumfahrzeug seinem Untersuchungsobjekt angenähert, teilte die Amerikanische Astronomische Gesellschaft mit.
Chang’e-4: Landung auf der erdabgewandten Seite des Mondes
Die chinesische Raumfahrtagentur CNSA hat offenbar erfolgreich eine Sonde auf der erdabgewandten Seite des Mondes gelandet. Der Lander Chang’e-4 setzte in der vergangenen Nacht um 3.26 Uhr MEZ im Südpol-Aitken-Becken des Mondes auf. Der Rover an Bord soll Medienberichten zufolge noch heute mit der Erkundung der Umgebung beginnen.
via astronews.com – der deutschsprachige Onlinedienst für Astronomie, Astrophysik und Raumfahrt – January 5, 2019 at 12:34PM
„Chang’e 4“: China schickt Kieler Messgerät zum Mond – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Wissenschaft
An Bord der chinesischen Mondsonde ist auch ein Messgerät aus Kiel, entwickelt vom Physiker Wimmer-Schweingruber aus Kiel. Das Gerät soll das Krebsrisiko für Astronauten erforschen – und hat einen wichtigen weiteren Auftrag.
Roboter an Bord der „Chang’e 4“: Chinas Mond-Rover rollt los – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Wissenschaft
Die historische Landung der Sonde „Chang’e 4“ auf der Mond-Rückseite ist geglückt. Nun ist auch der mitgebrachte Roboter unterwegs. Es stehen zahlreiche Experimente an.
Chinese Moon Rover Making Tracks on Lunar Far Side (Photo)
China’s far-side moon rover is already busy exploring its exotic new home. On Wednesday night (Jan. 2), the Chang’e 4 rover and its stationary-lander companion pulled off the first-ever soft touchdown on the lunar far side, coming to a rest inside the 115-mile-wide (186 kilometers) Von Kármán Crater. The six-wheeled rover, known as Yutu 2, isn’t pausing to catch its breath, as a newly released photo shows. Yutu 2 has already put a fair bit of space between itself and the lander, trundling over near the rim of a small crater on the floor of Von Kármán, which itself lies within an even larger impact feature — the 1,550-mile-wide (2,500 km) South Pole-Aitken Basin
China Makes Historic 1st Landing on Mysterious Far Side of the Moon
China’s robotic Chang’e 4 mission touched down on the floor of the 115-mile-wide (186 kilometers) Von Kármán Crater Wednesday night (Jan. 2), pulling off the first-ever soft landing on the mysterious lunar far side. Chang’e 4 will perform a variety of science work over the coming months, potentially helping scientists better understand the structure, formation and evolution of Earth’s natural satellite. But the symbolic pull of the mission will resonate more with the masses: The list of unexplored locales in our solar system just got a little shorter.
China’s Yutu 2 Rover Is Driving on the Far Side of the Moon
China’s robotic Chang’e 4 lander-rover duo pulled off the first-ever soft touchdown on the moon’s largely unexplored far side. And today (Jan. 3), the rover rolled onto the gray dirt floor of the 115-mile-wide (186 kilometers) Von Kármán Crater, creeping down twin ramps from a previous position atop the stationary lander.
Find further news on this topic in chapter „Solar System“
Weitere Nachrichten zu diesem Thema finden Sie im Kapitel „Sonnensystem“
Resist the ‚Dark Side‘ of Moon Names: The Lunar Farside Is Plenty Bright
Pink Floyd has a lot to answer for when it comes to popular ideas about the moon, but here’s how to always keep your lunar sides straight.
Let’s start with the farside, where China’s Chang’e 4 lander touched down yesterday (Jan. 2), making China the first country to land a spacecraft there. Our moon has a nifty trick: It’s tidally locked to Earth, which means that one half of the lunar surface always faces us, while the other half always faces away from us.
Raumfahrt und Mythos: Warum es die „dunkle Seite des Monds“ nicht gibt
Erstmals ist eine Sonde auf der Rückseite des Mondes gelandet, die oft irrtümlich die „dunkle Seite“ genannt wird. Licht bekommt sie schon – nur ist eine Mondhälfte von der Erde aus nie sichtbar. Eine kurze Erklärung.
‚It’s Going to Be Historic‘: New Horizons Team Prepares for Epic Flyby of Ultima Thule
In less than 10 weeks, NASA’s New Horizons mission will explore the most distant target ever visited by a spacecraft. In the early-morning hours of Jan. 1, 2019, New Horizons will ring in the New Year by flying past the Kuiper Belt object (KBO) officially called 2014 MU69 but nicknamed Ultima Thule, a city-size rock regarded as a frozen relic from the birth of the solar system. Although scientists have a rough size estimate for Ultima Thule — about 23 miles (37 kilometers) wide — they don’t have much more information. They aren’t sure if it’s elongated, if it has a moon or ring system or even if it’s a single object. Indeed, some of the very limited observations of Ultima Thule suggest it might actually be two close-orbiting bodies. [NASA’s New Horizons Mission in Pictures]
Russian official says Soyuz rocket failure caused by an errant sensor
Although the official report on the cause of a Soyuz rocket failure won’t be released until Thursday, a Russian official disclosed its central conclusion a day early, the country’s news agency TASS reports. Sergei Krikalev, the executive director of „manned programs“ for Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos, said a sensor on board the rocket failed to properly signal the separation of the first and second stages. As a result, one of the side-mounted rocket boosters did not separate properly from the vehicle and collided with the rocket.
Krikaljow: Sensorschaden war Ursache für Sojus MS-10-Absturz
Die Ursache für den Absturz des Raumschiffes Sojus MS-10 vom 11. Oktober steht nun amtlich fest. Ein defekter Sensor, der die Abtrennung der ersten von der zweiten Sojus-FG-Raketenstufe signalisiert, habe zu dem Fehlstart geführt, teilte der Amtierende Direktor für die bemannten Programme des Raumfahrtstaatskonzerns GK Roskosmos, Sergej Krikaljow, am Mittwoch auf einer Festveranstaltung zum 55. Jahrestag des Moskauer Instituts für Medizinisch-Biologische Probleme (IMBP) mit.
Havarie-Kommission gibt am 31. Oktober die Ursachen des Sojus MS-10-Fehlstarts bekannt
Offenbar sind die Ursachen des Fehlstarts des Sojus MS-10-Raumschiffes vom 11. Oktober geklärt. Die Havarie-Kommission unter Leitung von Oleg Skorobogatow werde ihre Untersuchungsergebnisse am kommenden Mittwoch bekannt geben, melden Moskauer Medien.
Defekter Sensor verursachte Fehlstart von Sojus-Rakete
Ein defekter Sensor hat nach vorläufigen russischen Angaben den Fehlstart der bemannten Sojus-Rakete am 11. Oktober verursacht. Das sagte der Leiter der bemannten russischen Raumfahrt, Ex-Kosmonaut Sergej Krikaljow, in Moskau. Deshalb habe es Probleme bei der Trennung der ersten von der zweiten Raketenstufe gegeben, erklärte er.
Defekter Sensor: Absturzursache für Sojus-Absturz ermittelt
Ein defekter Sensor habe nach vorläufigen russischen Angaben den Fehlstart der bemannten Sojus-Rakete am 11. Oktober verursacht. Das sagte der Leiter der bemannten russischen Raumfahrt, Ex-Kosmonaut Sergej Krikaljow, am Mittwoch nach Berichten der russischen Medienagentur Sputnik. Krikaljow trat in Moskau bei einer Festveranstaltung des russischen Instituts für medizinisch-biologische Probleme auf.
Neuer Aufbruch zum Mond – Erstes Servicemodul für das Orion-Raumschiff ist fertig
Bis heute waren zwölf Menschen auf dem Mond – allesamt NASA-Astronauten, die sich im Rahmen des Apollo-Programms der amerikanischen Raumfahrtbehörde zwischen 1969 und 1972 auf diese beispiellose Reise gemacht haben. Am 21. Juli 2019 jährt sich die erste Mondlandung zum 50. Mal, seit dem 14. Dezember 1972 hat kein Erdenbürger mehr den Erdtrabanten betreten. Das könnte sich in absehbarer Zukunft ändern: Die NASA möchte mit ihrem Orion-Programm ein Raumschiff entwickeln und bauen, das für unterschiedlichste Zwecke im Erd-, Mond- oder auch Marsorbit eingesetzt werden kann. Das sogenannte MPCV (Multi-Purpose-Crew-Vehicle) soll erstmals 2020 vom Kennedy Space Center in Florida mit dem Space Launch System SLS, der neuen Schwerlastrakete der NASA, zu einem unbemannten Flug starten, den Mond mehrfach umrunden und anschließend wieder zur Erde zurückkehren. Ein zentraler Teil aller Orion-Raumschiffe ist das Europäische Servicemodul ESM, das im Auftrag der NASA von der Europäischen Weltraumagentur ESA zu wesentlichen Teilen in Deutschland gebaut wird. Ohne das ESM kann das neue Crew-Raumschiff Orion nicht fliegen.
via DLR Portal – News-Archiv Raumfahrt https://ift.tt/2MixW72 October 31, 2018 at 03:02PM
Tschüss Europa, hallo Mond!
Das europäische Servicemodul (ESM), das dem Orion-Raumschiff auf seiner ersten Mission um den Mond Energie und Schub geben wird, tritt Anfang nächster Woche in Bremen seine Reise in Richtung USA an. An Bord des großen Transportflugzeugs Antonov An-124 wird es am frühen Morgen des 5. November starten und am 6. November im Kennedy Space Center in Florida ankommen.
Entwickelt und gebaut in Deutschland und Italien, ist das ESM der europäische Beitrag zur Rückkehr zum Mond.
Rekord: So nah war noch keine Sonde an der Sonne – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Wissenschaft
Die Nasa-Sonde „Parker Solar Probe“ hat einen neuen Rekord aufgestellt. Kein Raumfahrzeug kam der Sonne bisher näher. Und in den kommenden Tagen wird es noch heißer für das Nasa-Gerät.
A NASA Spacecraft Just Broke the Record for Closest Approach to Sun
A NASA sun-studying spacecraft just entered the record books. In April of 1976, the German-American Helios 2 probe made spaceflight’s closest-ever solar approach, cruising within 26.55 million miles (42.73 million kilometers) of the sun. But NASA’s Parker Solar Probe zoomed inside that distance today (Oct. 29), crossing the threshold at about 1:04 p.m. EDT (1704 GMT), agency officials said.
Hubble Space Telescope returns to science operations
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope returned to normal operations late Friday, 26 October, and completed its first science observations on Saturday, 27 October. The observations were of the distant, star-forming galaxy DSF2237B-1-IR and were taken in infrared wavelengths with the Wide Field Camera 3. The return to conducting science comes after successfully recovering a backup gyroscope that had replaced a failed one three weeks earlier.
via ESA Science & Technology http://sci.esa.int- October 29, 2018 at 05:23PM
Hubble Space Telescope Returns to Action After Gyroscope Glitch
The Hubble Space Telescope is back. The iconic scope resumed normal operations Friday (Oct. 26) after a three-week hiatus caused by issues with two orientation-maintaining gyroscopes, NASA officials announced in an update Saturday (Oct. 27).
The mission engineers and scientists for the Hubble Space Telescope have been working to correct some technical issues with the gyros that point the venerable space telescope. Hubble went into safe mode a couple of weeks ago and now seems to be back to resuming normal operations. Join Tony Darnell and Carol Christian as they discuss what happened with Hubble, how the problems were discovered and a fix found. We’ll also explore other topics related to Hubble, such as, how much longer will it be around? Will Hubble last long enough to overlap JWST?
Number of Habitable Exoplanets Found by NASA’s Kepler May Not Be So High After All
The tally of potentially habitable alien planets may have to be revised downward a bit. To date, NASA’s prolific Kepler space telescope has discovered about 30 roughly Earth-size exoplanets in their host stars‘ „habitable zone“ — the range of orbital distances at which liquid water can likely exist on a world’s surface. Or so researchers had thought. New observations by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia spacecraft suggest that the actual number is probably significantly smaller — perhaps between two and 12, NASA officials said today (Oct. 26). [Photos: Gaia Spacecraft to Map Milky Way Galaxy]
NASA Retires Kepler Space Telescope, Passes Planet-Hunting Torch
After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets – more planets even than stars – NASA’s Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel needed for further science operations. NASA has decided to retire the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler leaves a legacy of more than 2,600 planet discoveries from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.
Kepler has proven there are more planets than stars in our galaxy — and knowing that revolutionizes our understanding of our place in the cosmos.
Small planets are common.
Kepler has shown us our galaxy is teeming with terrestrial-size worlds, and many of them may be similar to Earth in size and distance from their parent stars. The most recent analysis of Kepler’s discoveries concludes that 20 to 50 percent of the stars in the sky are likely to have small, possibly rocky planets that are in the habitable zones of their stars where liquid water could pool on the surface. We still have much to learn about whether any of them could host life.
NASA’s First Planet Hunter, the Kepler Space Telescope: 2009-2018
NASA’s Kepler space telescope spent nine years in space, collecting an unprecedented dataset for science that has revolutionized our understanding of our place in the cosmos. It found our galaxy teeming with planets — more planets even than the stars — and stunned the world with many other first-of-a-kind discoveries. Profoundly, Kepler found planets that are in some ways similar to Earth, raising the prospects for life elsewhere. What did it take to lift a mission of this magnitude off the ground and keep it going? Here is a walkthrough the odyssey of the Kepler mission — from the earliest kernel of an idea, through its obstacles and into its most stunning moments of discovery and success. As NASA’s first planet-hunting mission, Kepler’s legacy will live on for generations.
RIP, Kepler: NASA’s Revolutionary Planet-Hunting Telescope Runs Out of Fuel
The most prolific planet-hunting machine in history has signed off. NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which has discovered 70 percent of the 3,800 confirmed alien worlds to date, has run out of fuel, agency officials announced today (Oct. 30). Kepler can no longer reorient itself to study cosmic objects or beam its data home to Earth, so the legendary instrument’s in-space work is done after nearly a decade.
„After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets – more planets even than stars – NASA’s Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel needed for further science operations.”
ISS Soyuz Start Failure /
Fehlgeschlagener Sojus Start zur ISS
Fehlgeschlagener „Sojus“-Start: Notfall in 70 Kilometer Höhe – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Wissenschaft
Bei Start der Mission „Sojus MS-10“ ist es zu einem schweren technischen Problem gekommen. Die Crew hat überlebt. Für die bemannte Raumfahrt ist die Notlandung ein herber Rückschlag.
Soyuz Rocket Launch Failure Forces Emergency Landing for US-Russian Space Station Crew
A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a new U.S.-Russian crew to the International Space Station failed during its ascent Thursday (Oct. 11), sending its crew capsule falling back toward Earth in a ballistic re-entry, NASA officials said. A search-and-rescue team has reached the landing site, both crewmembers are in good condition and have left the Soyuz capsule as of 6:10 a.m. EDT, NASA spokesperson Brandi Dean said during live television commentary. Russian space agency Roscosmos has released photographs of both astronauts being checked over after their abrupt landing.
A new era of astronomy has begun. For the first time ever, scientists have spotted both gravitational waves and light coming from the same cosmic event – in this case, the cataclysmic…
ESA’s INTEGRAL satellite recently played a crucial role in discovering the flash of gamma rays linked to the gravitational waves released by the collision of two neutron stars.
Kollidierende Neutronensterne Integral trägt zur Aufzeichnung von Neutronensternenkollision bei Der ESA-Satellit Integral hat kürzlich eine entscheidende Rolle bei einer bahnbrechenden…
For the first time, NASA scientists have detected light tied to a gravitational-wave event, thanks to two merging neutron stars in the galaxy NGC 4993, located about 130 million light-years…
Infrared View of NGC 4993, Host Galaxy to a Neutron Star Merger
NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope has provisionally detected the faint afterglow of the explosive merger of two neutron stars in the galaxy NGC 4993. The event, labeled GW170817, was initially detected nearly simultaneously in gravitational waves and gamma rays, but subsequent observations by many dozens of telescopes have monitored…
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed for the first time the source of a gravitational wave, created by the merger of two neutron stars. This merger created a kilonova – an…
Zum ersten Mal haben Astronominnen und Astronomen die Gravitationswellen, also die Kräuselungen der Raumzeit, und das Licht von zwei verschmelzenden Neutronensterne beobachtet. Mit dem…
Die Ära der “ Multi-Messenger-Astrononomie“ ist im August angebrochen: Zum ersten Mal wurden von derselben kosmischen Explosion sowohl Gravitationswellen wie ein Gammastrahlen-Blitz und…
spitzer.caltech.edu![ESA Science & Technology: Hubble observes source of gravitational waves for the first time [heic1717]](https://publicate.it/img/735x441x9/c/S3/esa-science-technology-hu-446367-1.jpg)
Volker Nawrath 