News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
The James Webb Space Telescope suffers from astigmatism, but that visual condition is a very good thing for astronomy, NASA assures us. A new explainer video the agency posted on YouTube talks about the huge telescope’s optics and how they will let astronomers peer deep into the universe’s history for future science work, ranging across … Read more
NASA raised concerns about SpaceX’s new Starlink satellites, including an increase of the risk of collision in orbit, in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The five-page letter was submitted to the FCC Tuesday (Feb. 8) and was first reported in SpaceNews. The letter, which includes a separate one-page letter from the National Science Foundation, … Read more
New images recorded by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe have revealed the red-hot glow of Venus‘s surface radiating through its shroud of toxic clouds – a finding that could help us better understand the minerals making up this rocky and mysterious planet. Using data from the Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe (WISPR) instrument, scientists … Read more
NASA’s asteroid monitoring system has been upgraded so that it can scan the entire night sky once every 24 hours for potentially hazardous space rocks that are heading our way. The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) is essential for tracking of asteroids and debris that could be on a collision course with Earth, and … Read more
NASA’s Mars sample-return plan continues to come together. The agency announced on Monday (Feb. 7) that it has selected the aerospace company Lockheed Martin to build the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), a small rocket that will launch pristine Red Planet samples back toward Earth a decade or so from now. “Committing to the Mars Ascent … Read more
The International Space Station will plunge into the sea in January 2031, NASA has announced. The orbiting laboratory, which launched in 1998, will splash-land 1,678 miles (2,700 kilometers) from land at Point Nemo, the final Pacific Ocean resting place for many dead satellites and space stations such as Russia’s Mir, according to the National Oceanic … Read more
The parachute system on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule hasn’t behaved exactly as expected recently, and NASA and SpaceX want to know why. The Dragon named Endeavour returned to Earth with four astronauts on Nov. 8, 2021, wrapping up SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station for NASA. During its descent that day, one of Endeavour’s … Read more
NASA and SpaceX will hold press conference to provide an update on the agency’s next astronaut launch from Florida today (Feb. 4) and you can follow it live online. The teleconference, which NASA announced Thursday afternoon (Feb. 3) comes as NASA and SpaceX are investigating parachute inflation delays during recent Dragon capsule landings. It will … Read more
NASA is preparing for the day its astronauts explore the south pole of the moon by heading underwater with the lights out. NASA has long used a vast swimming pool dubbed the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory to prepare for spacewalks, since the underwater work experience is the closest they can get to reduced-gravity environments before blasting … Read more
Axiom Space’s first astronaut crew just got the green light from NASA and the other International Space Station (ISS) partners for a trip to the orbiting lab. Axiom’s first crewed mission to the ISS, known as Ax-1, is scheduled to launch on March 30 aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Ax-1 will be commanded by … Read more