Mars helicopter Ingenuity aces 21st Red Planet flight

The Ingenuity helicopter’s Red Planet flight tally is up to 21. The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) NASA chopper just aced another Mars sortie, agency officials announced today (March 11). “#MarsHelicopter can’t be stopped! Ingenuity successfully completed its 21st flight on the Red Planet. The small rotorcraft traveled 370 meters [1,214 feet] at a speed of 3.85 … Read more

Ingenuity helicopter aces 20th Mars flight

NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity has now outflown its Red Planet expectations by a factor of four. The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity landed on the floor of Jezero Crater with NASA’s life-hunting, sample-caching Perseverance rover on Feb. 18, 2021. The solar-powered chopper soon embarked on a five-flight technology-demonstrating mission designed to show that powered flight is … Read more

Ax-1, 1st all-private crewed flight to ISS, aims to blaze trail for future missions

Axiom Space aims to set a standard for future crews with its pioneering mission to the International Space Station (ISS) next month. Axiom’s Ax-1, the first all-private crewed mission to the orbiting lab, is scheduled to launch on March 30 and last for 10 days. Ax-1’s four spaceflyers — three paying customers and Axiom’s Michael López-Alegría, … Read more

Roc soars again: Biggest airplane ever built aces 4th test flight

The biggest airplane ever built, Stratolaunch’s Roc carrier aircraft, just aced its fourth test flight. Roc, which will eventually haul hypersonic vehicles into the air, successfully finished its latest flight on Thursday (Feb. 24), a jaunt that came on the heels of another test flight in January. Roc lifted off from the Mojave Air and … Read more

NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission, 1st flight of new megarocket, won’t launch until May

NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission may end up being a summertime affair. An April launch is no longer possible for Artemis 1, which will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon using a huge Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, agency officials said today (Feb. 24). And May could be difficult to hit as well. … Read more

Scientists Unearth The Ancient Bones of The Largest Jurassic Pterosaur Ever Found

During low tide on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, a graduate student hunting for dinosaur bones looked down at the coastal rocks and made the discovery of a lifetime: the remains of the largest pterosaur on record from the Jurassic period.   Since collecting the specimen in 2017 – an eventful excavation that involved cutting out … Read more

SpaceX is planning its highest Dragon flight yet with a private crew

By Leah Crane Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis Polaris Program SpaceX has announced a new project aiming to take its Dragon spacecraft higher than ever before. The first flight of this programme, called Polaris Dawn, is scheduled for the end of 2022. Jared Isaacman, the billionaire businessman who sponsored and flew … Read more

Mars helicopter Ingenuity aces 19th flight after historic Red Planet weather delay

The dust storm couldn’t keep NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity grounded forever. The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity aced a 100-second sortie on Tuesday (Feb. 8), its 19th Red Planet flight overall but its first since Dec. 15. The flight had originally been targeted for Jan. 5. But on New Year’s Day, a big dust storm kicked … Read more

Can We Gauge Quantum Time of Flight?

Scientific American January 2022 Measuring the time it takes particles to travel between two points may be the best test yet for Bohmian mechanics A deceptively simple experiment that involves making precise measurements of the time it takes for a particle to go from point A to point B could cause a breakthrough in quantum … Read more

Historic Mars weather delay pushes Ingenuity helicopter’s next flight to Sunday

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has notched yet another milestone — the first weather-related flight delay on another planet. Ingenuity was scheduled to make its 19th Red Planet hop on Jan. 5. On New Year’s Day, however, a strong dust storm kicked up near Jezero Crater, which the helicopter and its robotic partner, NASA’s life-hunting Perseverance rover, … Read more