Problem with camera-based navigation system saw helicopter wobble through the air in biggest tech issue Ingenuity has faced
A navigation timing error sent Nasa’s Mars helicopter on a lurching ride, its first major problem since it took to the Martian skies last month.
The experimental helicopter, named Ingenuity, managed to land safely after the problem occurred, officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Thursday.
Continue reading...Osiris-Rex has been flying around the ancient asteroid since 2018 and collected nearly a pound of rubble last fall
With rubble from an asteroid tucked inside, a Nasa spacecraft fired its engines and began the long journey back to Earth on Monday, leaving the ancient space rock in its rearview mirror.
The trip home for the robotic prospector, Osiris-Rex, will take two years.
Continue reading...US agency accuses Beijing of failing to meet expected standards regarding its space debris
Remnants of China’s biggest rocket have landed in the Indian Ocean, ending days of speculation over where the debris would hit and drawing US criticism over a lack of transparency.
The coordinates given by Chinese state media, citing the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO), put the point of impact west of the Maldives archipelago.
Continue reading...Astronaut and pilot of the command module Columbia during 1969’s Apollo 11 mission
On 20 July 1969, Michael Collins, who has died aged 90, became the most solitary human in the universe – even if he derided that categorisation as “phony philosophy”. He orbited the moon alone, inside Apollo 11’s command module Columbia, and out of touch with ground control for 48 minutes on each orbit. Meanwhile, and more famously, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were becoming the first men to set foot on that rock, some 240,000 miles away from Earth.
As the command module pilot, on $17,000 a year, Collins was, he later wrote half-jokingly, “the navigator, the guidance and control expert, the base-camp operator, the owner of the leaky plumbing – all the things I was least interested in doing”. He was also, thought Aldrin, probably Nasa’s best-trained command module pilot.
Continue reading...Flight path of Kalahari’s six-tonne asteroid is first tracing of meteorite shedding rock to solar system origin
Astronomers have reconstructed the 22m-year-long voyage of an asteroid that hurtled through the solar system and exploded over Botswana, showering meteorites across the Kalahari desert.
It is the first time scientists have traced showering space rock to its source – in this case Vesta, one of largest bodies in the asteroid belt that circles the sun between Jupiter and Mars.
Continue reading...Ingenuity successfully takes flight, hovering at height of about 3 metres before touching back down
Nasa’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has completed the first powered, controlled flight on another planet, the space agency has announced.
The small helicopter successfully took flight on the red planet on Monday morning, hovering in the air at an altitude of about 3 metres (10 feet), before descending and touching back down on the Martian surface.
Continue reading...The Ingenuity helicopter, which arrived on the red planet in February, is expected to take to the skies on Wednesday
Nasa is gearing up to attempt the first controlled flight on another planet next week, with the tiny Ingenuity helicopter on Mars.
The helicopter is expected to take to the skies next week, with Wednesday being the earliest time scheduled.
Continue reading...Chunk of space rock was once the ‘poster child for hazardous asteroids’ but it will be a while before humans need to worry about it again
Nasa has given Earth the all clear on the chances of an asteroid called Apophis hitting our planet any time in the next century, having worried space scientists for over 15 years.
The 340-metre (1,100ft) chunk of space rock hit the headlines in 2004 after its discovery led to some worrying forecasts about its orbit. It became a “poster child for hazardous asteroids”, according to one Nasa expert.
Continue reading...Nasa’s latest Mars rover, Perseverance, has sent back the sounds of its six metal wheels driving across the planet’s surface. The recording was captured by one of its two onboard microphones, with Nasa releasing 16 minutes’ worth. Engineers are investigating whether a high-pitched scratching noise is caused by electromagnetic interference or the rover’s movement. Perseverance will continue to look for somewhere to launch the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, a drone that it is carrying
Continue reading...Vehicle had no problem going 6.5 metres, turning and backing up, then photographed its own wheel marks on planet’s surface
Nasa’s Mars rover Perseverance has taken a short drive two weeks after touching down, mission managers have said.
The six-wheeled, car-sized probe went 6.5 metres (21.3 feet) during a half-hour test within Jezero crater, an ancient lake bed and river delta.
Continue reading...Space agency also reveals audio recorded by Perseverance on surface of red planet
Nasa has unveiled a first-of-its-kind video of its car-sized rover Perseverance making its sensational landing on Mars, and released the first audio recorded on the surface of the red planet.
The American space agency shared the footage on Monday, days after the spacecraft made its dramatic descent to the Martian surface.
Continue reading...Car-sized vehicle designed to seek signs of life is pronounced ‘healthy’ after dramatic descent to surface of the red planet
Nasa scientists have said the Perseverance Mars rover is “healthy” and is beaming back many stunning new images from the surface of the planet, promising significant scientific discoveries ahead.
Related: Perseverance’s mission to Mars – in pictures
Continue reading...Nasa’s rover, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, landed safely on the floor of a vast crater on Thursday, the first stop on its search for life on the red planet
Continue reading...Radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zone
Nasa’s science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday and landed safely on the floor of a vast crater, its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet.
Mission managers at Nasa’s jet propulsion laboratory near Los Angeles burst into applause and cheers as radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zone inside Jezero crater, site of a long-vanished Martian lake bed.
Continue reading...Spacecraft will descend on red planet carrying helicopter and instruments to look for biosignatures
A rover and a tiny helicopter are preparing to land on Mars, aiming to offer an opportunity to answer an enduring question: has life ever emerged on another planet?
Nasa’s ninth mission to descend on the cold, dry, red planet will be steered by a $2.7bn (£2.1bn), car-sized, six-wheeled rover christened Perseverance, which is expected to touch down on Thursday following a seven-month journey.
Continue reading...Test is step before first unmanned launch later this year, in push to land humans on the moon again by 2024
Nasa’s Boeing-built deep space exploration rocket, Space Launch System (SLS), is set to fire its behemoth core stage for the first time on Saturday, a crucial test for a years-delayed US government project facing mounting pressure from emerging private sector technology.
The SLS hot fire test, expected to begin at 5pm CST Saturday at Nasa’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, will cap a nearly year-long “Green Run” test campaign to validate the rocket’s design.
Continue reading...Due to different methods, US Noaa judged year as fractionally cooler than 2016 while UK Met Office put 2020 in close second place
Last year was by a narrow margin the hottest ever on record, according to Nasa, with the climate crisis stamping its mark on 2020 through soaring temperatures, enormous hurricanes and unprecedented wildfires.
The average global land and ocean temperature in 2020 was the highest ever measured, Nasa announced on Thursday, edging out the previous record set in 2016 by less than a tenth of a degree.
Continue reading...Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin will take the first woman to the moon, the billionaire said as Nasa nears a decision over who will supply its first privately built lunar landers, meant to be capable of sending astronauts to the moon by 2024.
Related: Japan’s Hayabusa2 capsule returns to Earth carrying asteroid samples
Continue reading...Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi successfully lifted off for the 27-hour flight on Sunday
SpaceX has launched four astronauts to the International Space Station on the first full-fledged taxi flight for Nasa by a private company.
The Falcon rocket thundered into the night from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with three Americans and one Japanese onboard, the second crew to be launched by SpaceX. The Dragon capsule on top – named Resilience by its crew in light of this year’s many challenges, most notably Covid-19 – is due to reach the space station after 27-and-a-half hours and remain there until spring.
Continue reading...Forecasts of gusty, onshore winds over Florida force reschedule to Sunday of first full mission carrying four astronauts
Nasa and SpaceX have announced a 24-hour weather delay of their planned launch of four astronauts into orbit for America’s first fully fledged human mission using a privately owned spacecraft.
The liftoff time slipped from Saturday to Sunday evening due to forecasts of gusty, onshore winds over Florida – remnants of storm Eta – that would have jeopardised a return landing for the Falcon 9 rocket’s reusable booster stage, Nasa officials said.
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