If you weren’t already aware, NASA’s solar-powered Opportunity rover is in a bit of a pickle right now. A continent-sized dust storm enveloped the rover and is blocking critical sunlight from reaching its solar panels, forcing it into a low-power state until the storm passes over. NASA planned to keep in touch with Opportunity throughout the course of the dust storm to ensure its well-being, but the rover didn’t respond to contact attempts on Tuesday, triggering worry among space agency staff. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/TAMU "At this point, we’re in a waiting mode. We’re listening every day for possible signals from the rover and are prepared to respond to that," explained Opportunity project manager John Callas at a NASA press conference on Wednesday. "We’re concerned, but we’re hopeful that the storm will clear and the rover will begin to communicate with us." Related: Curiosity rover's wheels are beginning to break The two biggest worries at the moment are: 1) that the dust storm will persist beyond Opportunity’s limited battery capacity, and 2) that the temperature could dip low enough to damage the rover’s vital onboard equipment. NASA remains optimistic about the latter situation, suggesting that a combination of factors such as the Martian Summer and the dust’s insulating effects will keep the environment warm enough to prevent damage. As of now, the space agency continues to leverage all available resources for monitoring the dust storm, including the nuclear-powered Curiosity rover and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. But all the monitoring capabilities in the world won’t relieve the stress of the current situation. “This team has a very strong bond with the rover, and we have a tight emotional connection with it,” Callas added. “By no means are we out of the woods here. This storm is threatening, and we don’t know how long it will last and what the environment will be like when it clears. We’re all concerned.” Related: Curiosity rover spies on Martian dust devils There’s no telling if or when Opportunity will begin communicating with engineers again, but NASA won’t stop trying to get in touch with it. It should be interesting to see what becomes of the situation. Source: NASA

Have you ever seen the Martian moon Phobos before? If you have, you’re probably well aware of how funky it looks. If you haven’t, then the best way we can describe it to you is it looks like a Death Star straight from Star Wars because of the massive crater it has. Image Credit: Viking Project/JPL/NASA Scientists have been searching for answers to find out just what may have caused that large crater to form on its surface, and now they just might be making headway in discovering the answer to the question astronomers have long wanted to know. Published in the Geophysical Research Letters, researchers from California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have used computer simulations to learn the most likely cause for the crater would have been a type of asteroid impact. These kinds of simulations have been made before in 2D, but this is the first time scientists have had the computational power to perform this task at the resolutions they did in 3D. The impact was the result of a porous asteroid that had just enough force to create a massive crater, but not quite enough to shatter the entire moon. Notably, the impact would have sent unpredictably-shaped crack-like patterns through the surface of the entire moon, which disproves the idea that the straight long grooves on the moon were caused by such a collision. Estimates place the impact object at around 820 feet in diameter, and suggest that it was traveling at around 14,000 miles per hour at the time of the collision. "We've demonstrated that you can create this crater without destroying the moon if you use the proper porosity and resolution in a 3D simulation," researcher Megan Bruck Syal said in a statement. "There aren't many places with the computational resources to accomplish the resolution study we conducted." It is worth noting that Phobos has been getting closer and closer to the Martian surface over the years; the impact could have had something to do with that too. There is a chance the moon may either break up in orbit or collide with the red planet in the distant future due to its unstable orbit. If it breaks up, Mars could get a ring; if it collides, well it won't be pretty. Source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory via International Business Times

While we’re on the topic of landing reusable rockets, which has been news hot off the press for companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin as of late, SpaceX is also working on some next-generation stuff, like a spacecraft capable of carrying human beings and hovering in mid air using rocket propulsion technology. Such a spacecraft would be especially useful in landing scenarios where it would be necessary to help humans make a soft landing on the surface of the Earth, or even other bodies in space, such as the Moon or even Mars. SpaceX is calling the new spacecraft Dragon 2, and it uses a grand total of eight SuperDraco rockets – two on each of the spacecraft’s four corners ­– to keep the spacecraft stable in mid air. Dragon 2 recently demonstrated a successful hover attempt in McGregor, Texas where suspended by safety harnesses from a tall crane, the spacecraft was put on rocket-only power to hover in the air. After the rockets were turned off when the test was completed, the safety harnesses caught the spacecraft in suspension in mid air. You can watch the demonstration in the video below provided by SpaceX: In a statement by NASA, it’s said that the SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft will be able to hover and land on the ground with the accuracy and precision of a helicopter despite using rocket technology instead of rotary blades. Because the rocket landing technology is still very much in testing, the rocket landing technology will not yet be used to bring astronauts home from space with the Dragon 2 spacecraft until further testing is conducted to ensure the safety of all those on board. Instead, the tried and true method of parachutes and water landing will be used, which allows astronauts to drop to the Earth safely. It’s worth noting that SpaceX has been working their behinds off to get rocket-landing technology to become a mainstream thing. With the reusable Falcon 9 rocket that recently landed upright back on the Earth’s soil successfully, and the failure of the second landing attempt on a barge at sea, they have a lot of catching up to do with Blue Origin, who just recently landed their second rocket without any hiccups. Source: NASA

NASA has wanted to design some higher-tech airplanes for commercial use for years, although budget constraints have limited the space agency’s ability to do so. Fortunately, the Obama administration has been very generous to NASA and is significantly improving the agency’s budget so more can be accomplished in less time. Although moving astronauts onto Mars is certainly on NASA’s to-do list, NASA also appears to be interested in bringing back its X-Plane concept, in which NASA will work on developing futuristic commercial airplanes that are faster, more fuel efficient, and quieter. "We're at the right place, at the right time, with the right technologies," said Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. “The full potential of these technologies can’t be realized in the tube-and-wing shape of today’s aircraft. We need the X-planes to prove, in an undeniable way, how that tech can make aviation more Earth friendly, reduce delays and maintain safety for the flying public, and support an industry that’s critical to our nation’s economic vitality." NASA notes that the budget plan will begin in October of this year and would span across a 10-year period for making aircrafts significantly more environmentally-friendly. In terms of making the airplanes quieter, it will be good for not only the passengers on board, but also all the people who look up into the skies to find out where that ultra loud jet engine sound is coming from. NASA will work on making jet fans significantly quieter, as well as drag flaps. The bodies of the airplanes would also be completely revolutionized, taking on a hybrid wing body configuration with engines at the top of the craft. Moreover, special coatings for the airplanes will keep bugs and residue from building up on the surfaces of aircrafts, which combined with fuel savings, could add up to $255 million over the course of the next 25 years. “This is an exciting time for the entire NASA Aeronautics team and for those who benefit from aviation, which, frankly, is everyone,” Shin said. “With this 10-year plan to accelerate the transformation of aviation, the United States can maintain its status as the world’s leader in aviation for many years to come.” With the additional budget NASA has been given, it should be very interesting to see where airplanes of the future are headed. Source: NASA

Researchers from Arizona State University have suggested that two giant blobs of rock cupping the Earth's core are likely behind a dent in the Earth's magnetic field. The Earth's magnetic field protects the planet from charged particles from solar winds that would otherwise strip the ozone layer and allow harmful ultraviolet radiation to enter. Over South America and the southern Atlantic Ocean, there are unusually weak spots in the field. These spots, known as the 'South Atlantic Anomaly' (SAA) allow these particles to reach closer to Earth's surface than normal, which can interfere with onboard computers and satellite data collection. While the cause of the dent is unknown, scientists expect it to increase in size in the future. Understanding why it exists, and why it may expand is important to scientists so they can counteract the disturbance experienced by satellites and onboard computers while traveling through this zone. It would also allow them to better understand how such changes affect the Earth's atmosphere and what is happening to Earth's magnetic field beneath the Earth's surface. The researchers' new theory attributes this dent to two large clumps of dense rock that cup the Earth's core like a pair of hands 1,800 miles beneath the Earth's crust. They say that these rocks likely came from a collision early in Earth's existence 4.5 billion years ago with a Mars-sized planet named Theia. The impact is thought to have turned the Earth's surface into a fiery sea of magma that caused it to shoot out enough debris to create the moon. The composition of the debris remaining from the collision in the Earth's mantle is then thought to have disturbed the liquid metal in its outer core that generates the Earth's magnetic field. According to the researchers, these rocks are between 1.5% and 3.5% denser than the rest of the Earth's mantle. They added that it's possible that denser chunks of the Earth's crust likely sank into the mantle to join these rocks, contributing to their growth over time. The paper will soon be published in the Geophysical Research Letters, where it may both prove the existence of Theia in our solar system billions of years ago, and explain its lingering impacts on the Earth's magnetic field. Sources: Business Insider, NASA, 52nd Lunar Planetary Science Conference 2021

SpaceX made significant progress on its deep-space Starhopper starship project last week after a prototype of the spacecraft’s rocket conducted its first untethered flight at the commercial space company’s South Texas-based proving ground in Boca Chica just before midnight on Thursday. Image Credit: Elon Musk/Twitter Equipped with a single roaring Raptor engine, the Starhopper prototype lofted itself up and away from the ground and jumped 20 meters into the air before landing. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter shortly after the test launch to say, “Starhopper test flight successful. Water towers *can* fly haha!!” SpaceX had initially planned to conduct this test launch a day earlier, but fuel chamber pressure complications compelled the company to stand down and wait another day. Fortunately, Thursday’s test launch was successful and well worth the wait. Here’s some footage of that test launch, shared to YouTube by Everyday Astronaut: Related: Watch SpaceX fly a Tesla Roadster into space with its Falcon Heavy rocket platform The launch was also substantial because it involved the flight of a full-flow-staged-combustion (FFSC) rocket engine. While space agencies around the world have built prototypes of this breed of engine before, they’ve never flown them. SpaceX officially became the first entity in the world to fly one of these types of engines on Thursday. While it may not look like much at first glance, this is the first step for SpaceX in proving its upcoming Starhopper platform. If anything, the launch proved to the company’s engineers that the platform is stable enough to continue development. The final product is expected to look much different than what we witnessed in the footage, and it will be particularly significant because it could become an interplanetary transportation platform for future missions to the Moon and Mars, among other things. Related: Is SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet system bad for space science and astronomy? As you might come to expect, SpaceX will move forward with more robust launch tests soon. The next test is poised to take the Starhopper prototype approximately 200 meters in the air, which is around ten times higher than what we saw here. It should be interesting to see how that goes… Source: Space.com, Elon Musk (Twitter)

Space telescopes are particularly important pieces of equipment, especially for astrophysicists, planetary scientists, and other space professionals that spend their entire lives studying the universe for specific answers for the endless slew of questions regarding where we all came from. On the other hand, space telescopes are tricky to build, and launching them into outer space poses a high risk for damaging the sensitive equipment that makes them tick. Image Credit: Pixabay Given the apparent circumstances, it should come as no surprise that NASA is currently investigating novel ways of building future space telescopes. In fact, NASA determined from a recent study that building space telescopes from start to finish in the microgravitational environment of outer space could be the best answer. NASA is calling it in-space assembly, or iSA for short. Related: What's taking so long to complete the James Webb Space Telescope? All significant space telescopes to date have been built on Earth and then delivered to space on a rocket once completed, and it will be no different for the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. But NASA’s latest approach involves contemplating the use of autonomous robots to fasten modular space telescope components in space. While the Hubble Space Telescope has been serviced in outer space before, this proposal is starkly different in that NASA wants to build space telescopes from top to bottom in outer space. It would reduce risks associated with launching fully assembled space telescopes because losses could be more easily replaced. Additionally, developing a backbone for such a concept would also make in-space telescope servicing more feasible. Of course, no idea is without its drawbacks. NASA claims that modular space-built observatories would reduce the number of anomaly resolution options and necessitate more money and resources for building parts and modules – especially the robotic machines that would be assembling these large objects in outer space. Related: Everything you need to know about the ESA's upcoming Euclid Space Telescope All in all, the pros outweigh the cons, and it’s entirely conceivable that the James Webb Space Telescope could be the last space telescope to be fully assembled here on Earth. It we’re lucky, perhaps those very same autonomous in-space building techniques could go on to build vital life support systems for deep space missions such as those involving the Moon and perhaps even Mars. Source: NASA

In 2016, the United Nations declared June 30 Asteroid Day, which aims to educate people about asteroids, including the risks that are posed by asteroid impacts, how they were involved in the formation of the solar system, and more. NASA keeps track of the asteroids we know of; right now there are at least 1,097,558 of them, many of which are found in the asteroid belt in between Mars and Jupiter, orbiting the Sun. Some are under 33 feet wide while others are as big as 329 miles in diameter. It's thought that about 4.5 billion years ago, a dense cloud of dust and gas collapsed and formed a swirling disk called a solar nebula, which gave rise to the Milky Way. Material was pulled into the center and the Sun and eventually the planets of our solar system began to form as stuff clumped together. The leftover remnants became asteroids, meteors, or irregular moons. Asteroids have orbits that can bring them very close to Earth, or in some cases, they collide. June 30 marks the anniversary of the Tunguska Event, a massive explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in remote Siberia in 1908. Most scientists believe the blast was caused by an asteroid that weighed around 220 million pounds (or almost 100,000 metric tons) and was roughly 120 miles (193 kilometers) wide, which entered the atmosphere at an estimated 33,500 miles per hour (54,000 kilometers per hour). As it sped towards Earth's surface, it probably heated to 44,500ºF (24,704ºC). The intensity of the heat and pressure caused the asteroid to annhilate itself, releasing an amount of energy that's equivalent to 185 Hiroshima bombs. The asteroid destroyed an area of about 800 square miles (2000 square kilometres). There is concern among some groups that we haven't done enough to detect inner Solar System Near-Earth Objects, which have the potential to cause mass destructon like the Tunguska Event. Scientists, businesspeople, artists, and many others have banded together to call on the public to sign the 100X Declaration, which is a petition asking governments to promote and advance asteroid discovery research. Learn more here. “The more we learn about asteroid impacts, the clearer it becomes that the human race has been living on borrowed time,” Brian May has said in a statement. “Asteroid Day and the 100X Declaration are ways for the public to contribute to bring about an awareness that we can get hit anytime. A city could be wiped out anytime because we just don’t know enough about what's out there.” Sources: NASA, AsteroidDay.org

China’s space program is evolving quickly. The country recently announced its plans to send 13 different payloads to Mars in the year 2020 to study our red planetary neighbor, but how will it move forward with so many expensive space rocket launches both before and after this endeavor? Image Credit: SpaceX via Pixabay Rather than launching rockets in the traditional sense by setting them upright on a ground-based launch pad and igniting their fuel sources, China’s Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASTC) plans to launch them from airplanes and freighter ships instead. It sounds a little crazy, and perhaps it is just a little bit, but China thinks they can make space launches more economical and easier to perform by using these methods. Related: Two men with jetpacks fly beside a massive A380 airplane A high-flying airplane could get a rocket up to a sufficient altitude before igniting its engines. Once there, the plane drops the rocket from its fuselage and officials command the rocket to burn. Because it's already in the sky and maintains the inertia of the airplane it gets dropped from, this would require less fuel than launching from a standstill at the ground. As for the ship-based method, the plan would be to ferry the rockets closer to the equator. Earth's surface travels more quickly there as the planet rotates on its axis than it does when you get closer to the north and south poles. In turn, this gives some additional push to the rocket's momentum and would help it to get up to speed more quickly while simultaneously conserving fuel. The techniques could be useful for making it cheaper to send small objects into space, but it also increases the weight ceiling of China's Long March rocket series. Since all of its fuel isn't being used to get the rocket off the ground, this means there's more leftover to get the heavy object into space once the rocket is already in the air. Related: SpaceX lands a Falcon 9 rocket on a drone ship in the middle of the ocean China eventually plans to put its own space station into orbit around the Earth, much like the International Space Station that astronauts use today. On the other hand, taking those big pieces into space isn't easy, and that's where all this fuel savings will quickly become an asset to China. Making space travel easier is a great way to help China increase its footprint in space and catch up with the United States and Russia as outer space superpowers. It can also contribute to pushing humanity and its understanding of space sciences even further. Source: Popular Science

We all marvel at human beings being able to leave the confines of Earth, even if they leave only for a short time. But one of the biggest questions that get asked about astronauts is what do they eat while up in space? Do they eat food from a tube or the same meals that they have on Earth? As it turns out, much like the technology that has been responsible for sending these brave pioneers into space has evolved since the beginning of the Space Age, the food they eat up there has evolved, as well. Let’s look at this space food evolution and see if the diets of astronauts are the same, or better off, then when the first astronauts were flown into space. When the Space Age first began, we obviously knew nothing about human space exploration, let alone what kinds of foods the astronauts could eat up there. As a result, the first astronauts to leave the gravitational confines of Earth were forced to eat food from tubes, which included John Glenn and the rest of the Project Mercury astronauts. But as the missions evolved, so did the food. When the Apollo Program started sending astronauts to the Moon, the food provided was both freeze-dried and plentiful in its menu selection. Skylab had its own dining room table and even food trays so the astronauts could (sort of) sit and enjoy their meal. By the time the Space Shuttle took flight, the astronaut meals started to resemble those of Earth, allowing the astronauts to build their own menu and choose from as many as 74 foods and 20 drinks. Today, astronauts aboard the International Space Station get to eat foods that are almost identical to what they ate on Earth, which includes a very healthy diets of fruits and vegetables, and they get to choose from over a hundred items to put on their menu. This includes the standard three meals per day and even snacks, allowing for at least 2500 calories per day. These healthier choices are not just to maintain their own personal health, but to help their bodies cope with the prolonged exposure to microgravity, which will only get longer the further we venture out into space? What will astronauts on the Moon and Mars eat? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! Sources: HowStuffWorks, Royal Museums Greenwich As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

Researchers aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have shown that bacteria can increase space mining efficiency by more than 400%. Their findings pave the way for easier access to materials such as magnesium, iron, and rare Earth minerals while in space. Carrying materials from Earth into space is expensive. Even with SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, it costs $1,500 to send a kilogram of payload into space. As such, ways to make use of materials already in space has been a keen area of research for some time. As such, for over ten years, a team of researchers had been developing small, matchbox-sized devices called 'biomining reactors' that are easily transported to and installed on the ISS. And in July 2019, they finally managed to ship 18 of the devices to the ISS for low-orbit experiments. For the experiments, each reactor contained a bacterial solution containing a small piece of basalt, a volcanic rock abundant on the moon. For three weeks, the basalt rock in each rector was exposed to the bacterial solution to see whether the bacteria could extract minerals from the rock in a similar way to how it does on Earth. In three gravitational environments- one simulating Mars, one Earth, and one microgravity, the team aboard the ISS performed experiments with different kinds of bacteria: Sphingomonas desiccabilis, Bacillus subtilis, and Cupriavidus metallidurans. They also used a control solution with no bacteria. All in all, they found that whereas B. subtilis and C. metallidurans yielded results similar to the control solution, S. desiccabilis managed to extract significantly more rare-earth minerals from the basalt than the control solutions. In particular, the bacteria managed to leach between 111.9% and 429.2% more of the rare earth elements than the control solutions. The researchers also noted that different gravitational forces did not seem to affect the performance of any of the bacteria. This came as a surprise given previous studies have found that microgravity affects microbial processes. The researchers also found that each bacteria reached similar concentrations in all three gravitational conditions, likely as they had sufficient nutrients grow. In the end, the researchers concluded that, with sufficient nutrients, biomining can significantly enhance rare mineral extraction in several gravitational conditions that may occur in space. While it is not necessarily economically viable to return materials harnessed from this process to Earth, the researchers say that biomining may nevertheless play a key role in supporting a self-sustaining human presence in space. Sources: Science Alert, Nature Communications

Astronomers have been studying Jupiter’s Great Red Spot for decades, and it continues to captivate their attention even today. Several modern observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope and Juno, have provided incredible views of the phenomenon, but astronomers aren’t planning to stop there. In fact, a statement released by NASA on Monday confirms the space agency’s plans to use the powerful infrared technology packed inside of the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to deliver some of the most detailed observations of the Great Red Spot yet. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (NASA Goddard) “Webb’s infrared sensitivity provides a wonderful complement to Hubble visible-wavelength studies of the Great Red Spot,” said astronomer Heidi Hammel of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). “Hubble images have revealed striking changes in the size of the Great Red Spot over the mission’s multi-decade-long lifetime.” Related: The heart of the James Webb Space Telescope has completed cryogenic testing Data collected with the JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), when paired with existing data from other observatories, could help scientific minds explain these long-time changes and better understand the mechanisms that enable this seemingly-eternal storm to exist for as long as it has. Scientists will make use of MIRI’s 5 to 7-millimeter range in an attempt to discern chemical compound signatures that harbor clues about the Great Red Spot’s deepest and darkest secrets, like the storm’s chemical composition and the high-temperature concentrations surrounding it. “If we don’t see any unexpected chemistry or aerosol signatures…then the mystery of that red color may remain unresolved,” said Leigh Fletcher from the U.K.-based University of Leicester. “These particular observations will reveal the storm’s vertical structure, which will be an important constraint for numerical simulations of Jovian meteorology. If those simulations can help explain what Webb observes in the infrared, then we’ll be a step closer to understanding how these gigantic maelstroms live for so long.” Related: Will the James Webb Space Telescope teach us more about Mars? With an official launch date projected for May of 2020, there’s still a while to wait before the JWST reaches outer space. Nevertheless, it should be interesting to see what this observational powerhouse may find once it gets there and begins scientific operations. Source: NASA

In an article recently released in Advanced Science, scientists at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics at Linköping University describe the experiments they have conducted to measure extracellular electron transfer. Extracellular electron transfer refers to the process in which bacteria in oxygen-free environments metabolize organic compounds (such as lactate) respire electric charges as a byproduct. Also known as extracellular respiration, you can think of extracellular electron transfers as the process of bacteria releasing electrons. The new Linköping University study focuses on the development of an organic electrochemical transistor that allows for enhanced observations of this process. Extracellular electron transfer is an important process for many electrochemical systems such as water purification, biosensors, and fuel cells. These systems add bacteria to their environs as an eco-friendly strategy of converting chemical energy to electricity. One common bacterium that is often added is called Shewanella oneidensis, which is known to produce electrical current when administered arsenic, arabinose, or organic acids. The new study looked at Shewanella oneidensis through an improved transistor, making it possible to look at the bacteria in smaller quantities. Principal research engineer Gábor Méhes explains, "We have shown that we can detect very small differences in extracellular electron transfer, in other words, the amount of charge released by the bacteria. Another plus is that we can achieve very short response times, and obtain a stable signal within ten minutes." "This is a first step towards understanding extracellular electron transfer in bacteria occupying only a small area with the help of a transistor, and how the conversion takes place between the bacteria and the electrode," adds Méhes. "One future goal is to learn how bacteria interact with each other, and with other cells and chemical substances in the human gastrointestinal tract." Méhes is a co-corresponding author with senior lecturer Eleni Stavrinidou. Both scientists hope that their work will spur others to invest in optimizing microbial electrochemical systems that generate energy. They say this research can inform on a wide range of subjects, from broadening understanding of gastrointestinal conditions to supporting human life on oxygen-less Mars. Sources: Advanced Science, Science Daily

On Friday, three International Space Station astronauts, including United States’ Kjell Lindgren, Russia’s Oleg Kononenko, and Japan’s Kimiya Yui, returned to Earth safely via a Russian Soyuz spacecraft after a long stay in the International Space Station where they performed various experiments and observations to learn more about the way outer space works. Now, with the team back on Earth, space agencies are preparing to send a new round of astronauts to the International Space Station to take their place On Tuesday, December 15th. These astronauts include NASA’s Tim Kopra, Roscosmos’ Yuri Malenchenko, and ESA’s Tim Peake, who will all be joining three other astronauts, NASA’s Scott Kelly, Roscosmos’ Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov, who are all still aboard the International Space Station. The rocket that will be launching from the launch site with the three new astronauts destined for the International Space Station on Tuesday has reportedly already been mated to the Soyuz spacecraft that will take them there at the Baikonur Cosmodome in Kazakhstan. Reports say the rocket is being transported to its launch site, where it will serve its purpose in getting the astronauts to the International Space Station safely to continue their jobs in space, where they will conduct more experiments and observations that will help us learn new techniques for longer travel missions, such as those involving putting people on Mars. “I watched as the rocket was loaded on to a giant flat-bed transporter painted racing green,” BBC’s Paul Rincon said. “On Sunday, the transporter will be hauled by train along the railway tracks that snake across the flat steppe of Baikonur to the launch pad where Peake, Malenchenko and Kopra will begin their journey.” NASA is currently working hard with commercial companies here in the United States that would one day give the United States the ability to be less dependent on other nations for getting astronauts in space. Currently, we rely mostly on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to get astronauts to the International Space Station because it’s a tried and true method. Many commercial rockets made in the United States over the years have had their fair share of failures, but were fortunately unmanned. Bringing this kind of ability back to the United States would be better for the United States involvement in space exploration, but many trial launches will have to help build NASA’s confidence in putting American astronauts on board. Source: BBC

SpaceX’s brand-new Falcon Heavy rocket is now one step closer to blasting off. The commercial space company conducted preliminary static fire tests on Wednesday to ensure that the rocket’s 27 Merlin engines perform as expected. Image Credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX/Twitter The static fire test involved anchoring the rocket to the Earth to prevent it from lifting off the ground. Specialized sensors attached to the rocket at the time of the trial enabled SpaceX engineers to capture valuable engine data. As all 27 of the Falcon Heavy’s engines ignited at the launch pad, the heat kicked up impressive cloudy plumes that could be seen from several miles away. Cameras placed all around the launch pad recorded the event from a distance. You can watch the ensuing video footage below: Related: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket stands tall at NASA's launch pad 39A The test didn’t last very long, but it was enough to take note of essential variables like thrust and heat, among other things. Engineers will use this data to fine-tune the official launch and improve upon the Falcon Heavy’s design in the future. And speaking of the launch, it seems we won’t have to wait too much longer to witness the Falcon Heavy’s maiden flight. A Tweet posted by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday hints that the behemoth rocket will take off “in a week or so.” While the Falcon Heavy might look like three Falcon 9 rockets strapped together, looks can be deceiving. It generates enough thrust to lift 119,000 pounds off the Earth’s surface, and it’s one of the most powerful rockets ever built. SpaceX will throttle Falcon Heavy’s performance at 92% during its maiden flight, but no one knows yet whether the rocket will reach space or blow up somewhere in between. It’s a gamble SpaceX will need to take, but the outcome should prove entertaining no matter how it ends. Assuming everything goes well, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy might become the go-to rocket for ferrying some of the heaviest telecommunications satellites into space. Moreover, it could serve as the primary transportation vehicle for sending humans to Mars when the time comes. Source: SpaceX, Elon Musk (Twitter) via BBC

When it comes to traveling to Mars and other planets, we really can’t continue to rely on chemical burn rockets. These will either burn out too quickly or take too long to get there, and we need to get to our destination as quickly and efficiently as possible. A Sydney-based rocket scientist known as Dr Patrick Neumann might have the answer. He has developed an ion drive engine that utilizes ion vapors from metals like magnesium to create thrust in a specific direction. Image Credit: Edwina Pickles His research is published in the Applied Physics Letters. This works by using magnetic fields that push ions at fast speeds. In doing so, a weak propulsion is generated, but in space, where there’s no friction to keep you from moving, the momentum can build over time. Once a chemical burn rocket gets this ion drive engine into space, as low as low Earth orbit, it can take over from there and start making its way to other worlds. The engine got a lot of attention recently after Neumann said it achieved a higher specific impulse than even the thrusters under development by NASA. In fact, it appears to have set a world record for specific impulse. There is some debate among scientists about whether or not this is a real-world advantage, however Neumann seems very solid about the fact that his project would be useful in situations where one might want to send a spacecraft to a location in space, such as asteroids, and then return samples back to the Earth. NASA’s Mike Patterson believes that NASA’s NEXT thruster, which operates on Xenon, is more efficient than the Neumann’s ion drive engine. Neumann is open to this criticism, suggesting that there are still further benefits to the Neumann drive that could be used for certain kinds of missions. "The potential advantage of his concept is that it is multi-propellant capable," Mr Patterson said. This advantage means Neumann’s ion drive engine could refuel itself in space and continue going for as long as it needed to. Fortunately, asteroids and space junk both seem to be abundant in magnesium, which is the highest-performing metal for Neumann’s ion drive engine. Such gives it certain advantages over other engine alternatives. You can watch Neumann walk you through his prototype in the video below: Neumann has recently signed a deal with Airbus Defense & Space to send the ion drive engine to the International Space Station where it can be tested for at least a year in space conditions. Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

It seems like the world of animal cruelty is so vast and ever-expanding. Whatever goes through the minds of people at the time they choose to partake is a complete mystery to those of us with sound trains of thought, but still, it happens. Almost exactly one year ago, Argentinians were filmed dragging a rare baby La Plata dolphin out of the water and leaving it out long enough that it eventually died on the beach. Now, almost an identical situation has happened, one year later. Once again in Argentina, beach-goers who wanted to take a picture with a baby dolphin that somehow ended up on the shore by itself, allowed the creature to die by dragging it out of the water and keeping it out for far too long. The fuzzy smartphone video below, shared by C5N, a local television news agency, shows the beachgoers holding and petting the creature while it lays motionless on the beach sand: Otra vez mataron a un delfín en San Bernardo. Sacaron al animal del mar para sacarse fotos. pic.twitter.com/4qzYnWvKiH — C5N (@C5N) January 23, 2017 “They let him die,” a witness said to news agency C5N. “He was young and came to the shore. They could have returned him to the water—in fact, he was breathing. But everyone started taking photos and touching him. They said he was already dead.” Although dolphins are air-breathers, much like us, they can dehydrate very quickly from being kept away from the water. Although they are mammals, they are marine mammals, and they still rely on water to survive. That’s exactly what happened to our little friend here in Argentina, who was kept out of the water so long for a selfie with some humans that he perished. It’s a sad story indeed, and unfortunately, many of these people are tourists who aren’t native to the region and simply don’t know any better about how their actions can hurt the local wildlife. Intentional or not, things might be more apt to change if Argentina would start patrolling their beaches to ensure activity like this doesn’t take place. One thing that’s clear in both incidents is that no one ever steps in to stop these people from handling the creatures. People really just need to start developing common sense so that nature doesn't have to suffer at our own hands. Source: La Capital via National Geographic

SpaceX is one of the most recognized names in space travel because the company practically pioneered the reusable rocket industry. Nevertheless, the Falcon 9’s first stage remains the only part of the rocket that SpaceX attempts to recover after almost every launch. Another critical component of the Falcon 9 rocket is its second stage, which separates from the first stage once the payload reaches a particular altitude. SpaceX has never attempted to recover the second stage after it serves its purpose, but that could all change in the near future. Image Credit: SpaceX Indeed, it now seems that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shares at least some enthusiasm for recapturing, refurbishing, and reusing Falcon 9 second stages during some of the company’s spaceflight missions. Musk Tweeted about his interest in the matter last week, and while the landings wouldn’t involve igniting a rocket burn to slow the descent through the Earth’s atmosphere, it instead seems that “giant party balloons” could make for a feasible alternative. SpaceX will try to bring rocket upper stage back from orbital velocity using a giant party balloon — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2018 Okay, sure; Musk may have been pulling our leg just a little bit with the “party balloon” idea. After all, controlled space landings typically involve high-tech parachutes that can withstand the harsh conditions endured throughout the fall. Then again, Musk is known to do some fairly-crazy things, like sending a supercar into space to follow Mars in its orbit around the Sun. All jokes aside, landing a Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage would involve some sort of souped-up balloon. To withstand such a plummet, it would require heavy-duty tethers capable of supporting the weight of the spacecraft, along with heat shielding to protect itself from the immense temperatures during descent. Related: SpaceX launches a refurbished Dragon capsule to the International Space Station Once the second stage slows down enough from the forces imposed by the balloon, it could return to Earth safely without being damaged beyond recognition from the heat it would experience otherwise. Musk’s Tweet certainly leaves us with a lot of wiggle room for speculation, but his endgame seems clear: to realize a fully-reusable rocket platform to slash space travel costs considerably. Fortunately, the company appears to be going down the right path. Source: Elon Musk, Tech Times

As a part of the Cassini probe’s Grand Finale, it’s tasked with whizzing in between Saturn and its rings and satellites 22 times before its suicide mission in September when it dives into Saturn’s atmosphere in a final farewell. NASA has been using Cassini during these 22 close-proximity flybys to learn more about everything from the age of Saturn’s rings, to their mass, to more about Saturn’s atmosphere. On the other hand, Cassini also gets a closer look at some of Saturn’s natural satellites, including the largest of them all, Titan. During one of these flybys, Cassini was able to grab incredibly detailed shots of Titan’s atmosphere revealing its Summertime methane clouds. The photograph was reportedly snapped on Sunday, May 7th when Cassini was just over 300,000 miles away from the moon. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute This isn't the first time methane clouds have been spotted on Titan, but because of the close proximity of the Cassini spacecraft at the time, they are some of the most detailed images yet. Along with Enceladus, Titan is one of the moons of major interest because it may have the environment required to support life. Like Earth, it’s believed that Titan harbors liquid oceans on its surface, and would be the only other known body in our Solar System besides Earth to do so. Related: Cassini grabs photographs of waves in Saturn's rings, caused by gravitational forces from moons Enceladus, on the other hand, is believed to have a sub-surface ocean, which means there’s a thick shell encasing the possible life-supporting ocean. Nevertheless, both moons are of interest to NASA and other space agencies, and this is the main reason NASA will be destroying Cassini in September, as it prevents the spacecraft from accidentally colliding with and contaminating either moon. One thing that’s for sure is NASA is exploring this region in our Solar System isn't over. NASA is planning two new missions to study these moons in more detail. It may be a while before we get new probes out there again, but once there, NASA plans to test their habitability with orbiters and landers just like we have done with Mars. Eventually, me may even drill into Enceladus’ surface to see if that subsurface ocean really exists. Source: Space.com, Popular Science

The first attempt to fully-inflate the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM for short, didn’t quite go as planned for astronauts aboard the International Space Station on Thursday. However, a second attempt was made on Saturday that NASA is now reporting was a success. Despite what was believed to be a malfunction during the initial inflation process, NASA just wanted to be completely sure that everything looked safe rather than potentially putting many lives in danger aboard the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams manually inflated the rest of the BEAM module on Saturday after it seemed to only be expanding widthwise during the first attempt to inflate it on Thursday, and not in any other direction. NASA attributes the originally inflation issues to being packed tightly for too long. As small of an issue as this may have been, the general rule of thumb in space is: better safe than sorry! Over a 7-hour inflating period, Williams monitored the situation to ensure everything was going well for the safety of everyone on board. Throughout it, Williams noted he had heard something that sounded like popcorn popping in a hot frying pan as the module was inflated; this was enough to let Mission Control know that the inflation process was going as expected. Immediately following the inflation process, special pressurization systems on board were used to make it so the BEAM module would have the same pressure as the rest of the International Space Station. As it sits now, the BEAM will be put through a rigorous testing phase before any astronauts are allowed to go into it. Some of the things that will be watched are pressure, inflation, and temperature among other things. Obviously, leaks are never a good thing, so that’ll be one of the things that is carefully assessed. Once deemed safe, the BEAM module’s 565 cubic feet of storage space can be utilized for storing objects on the International Space Station. BEAM has the opportunity to change the way we think of habitation in space, and on deep-space missions. These inflatable modules are easy to pack away, and can grow much larger than their initial size. Moreover, they are also much lighter-weight than their solid metal counterparts. Such habitation technology could prove be very useful in attempts to station human beings on Mars or on the Moon. Paired with advancements in 3D-printing and reusable rocket technology, a space exploration revolution is quickly closing in. Source: NYTimes, Space.com

New research has identified 37 volcanic structures on Venus that are thought to have been active recently. The findings, which suggest that geologic activity is still happening on the planet, were reported in Nature Geoscience by an international team of researchers. "This is the first time we are able to point to specific structures and say 'Look, this is not an ancient volcano but one that is active today, dormant perhaps, but not dead,'" said study co-author Laurent Montési, a professor of geology at the University of Maryland. "This study significantly changes the view of Venus from a mostly inactive planet to one whose interior is still churning and can feed many active volcanoes." Venus is known to have a younger surface than some other planets with cold interiors like Mercury and Mars. There is evidence of warmth on the interior of Venus, and ring-like formations known as coronae dot the planet's surface; they arise when hot material pushes through the mantle layer and crust. It had been thought that coronae on Venus were from ancient volcanoes that were long dormant, and that the planet's interior was too cool to support geologic activity. The crust would harden so much that material from the interior would be unable to penetrate it. In this work, the researchers applied computational models of the planet's geologic activity to simulate the formation of the coronae. Those efforts revealed characteristics that would only be observed in coronae that were recently active. The researchers used this data to show that there were coronae all over Venus in different phases of development, suggesting that the interior of the planet is still hot, and still pushing material up to the surface. "The improved degree of realism in these models over previous studies makes it possible to identify several stages in corona evolution and define diagnostic geological features present only at currently active coronae," Montési said. "We are able to tell that at least 37 coronae have been very recently active." The active coronae seem to be clustered in a few areas on Venus, which may provide some insights into the condition of the planet's interior in various locations. It may reveal good places to set down probes when future missions arrive. One called EnVision is currently planned to launch from Europe in 2032. Sources: Science Daily via University of Maryland, Nature Geoscience

All space rocks may look similar to the untrained eye, but scientists know how to tell them apart. Their composition, for example, can speak volumes about where they came from, whether that’s the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt, or elsewhere. But one space rock in particular, dubbed 2004 EW95, has researchers scratching their heads profusely. Its composition, rich in carbon and phyllosilicates, closely resembles something that we’d expect to find lurking in the asteroid belt. Instead, 2004 EW95 resides in the Kuiper belt. Image Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser An international team of astronomers made the discovery after leveraging the power of various observation instruments installed on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). They’ve published their findings in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters. With its composition in mind, the researchers are almost entirely sure that 2004 EW95 didn’t form in the Kuiper belt where it has been found. Instead, it seems more likely that an unknown event bounced the object out of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, causing it to float into the outskirts of our solar system. "The reflectance spectrum of 2004 EW95 was clearly distinct from the other observed outer Solar System objects," said study lead author Tom Seccull from Queen's University Belfast in the UK. "It looked enough of a weirdo for us to take a closer look." Related: NASA's New Horizons probe will observe a Kuiper Belt Object up close The VLT’s X-Shooter and FORS2 instruments enabled the researchers to study light reflectivity on 2004 EW95’s surface, and this served as the primary indicator of its composition. It wasn’t easy, especially given the space rock’s distance from Earth, but the researchers eventually gathered enough evidence to reach the conclusion that they did. "It's like observing a giant mountain of coal against the pitch-black canvas of the night sky," added co-author Thomas Puzia from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Related: Why the Kuiper belt is so significant Given the circumstances, 2004 EW95 serves a vital role as a piece of astronomical forensic evidence that paints a more detailed picture of the early solar system. Determining how it got from point A to point B, however, is another question that researchers have yet to answer indefinitely. It should be interesting to see what other astronomers make of the findings in due time. Chances are, this won’t be the last observation of 2004 EW95… Source: ESO

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is slated to become the most powerful space telescope ever built, but it’s not quite space-worthy just yet. The heart of the space observatory arrived safely at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California last week, and despite undergoing a slew of extensive tests in Houston, Texas already, NASA says there are more tests to complete before it’s ready for launch in 2019. Image Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn “Extensive and rigorous testing prior to launch has proven effective in ensuring that NASA’s missions achieve their goals in space,” noted Eric Smith, the program director for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA. “Webb is far along into its testing phase and has seen great success with the telescope and science instruments, which will deliver the spectacular results we anticipate,” he continued. Related: What might the James Webb Space Telescope be able to tell us about Mars? In its current form, the James Webb Space Telescope isn’t yet fully assembled. The heart of the spacecraft still needs to be mounted to the spacecraft chassis, which includes the multi-layered sunshield that will protect the sensitive instruments from the intensely-bright Sun. Fortunately, everything else is already at the Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems facility. After engineers put everything together, the completed space telescope will undergo additional scrupulous testing to ensure that everything deploys as we’d expect it to in space. This involves testing the origami-like folding features of the telescope’s primary mirror and sunshield, all of which must be packed into a cramped rocket’s cargo hold for space delivery. Given just how important of a project the James Webb Space Telescope is for the future of space exploration, it’s not too surprising that NASA’s taking its time to ensure that everything goes according to plan. After all, it’d be easier to repair a malfunction from Earth’s surface than it would be once the observatory is floating around in space. “At NASA, we do the seemingly impossible every day, and it's our job to do the hardest things humankind can think of for space exploration,” Smith added. “The way we achieve success is to test, test and retest, so we understand the complex systems and verify they will work.” Related: The James Webb Space Telescope could tell us a lot about Proxima b NASA will continue updating the public as final assembly and testing commence, so it shouldn’t be too long before we hear the next update concerning the space telescope’s progress. Source: NASA

New research suggests that the lakes underneath Antarctica’s thick ice could be home to more microbial life than the scientific community has previously recognized. Expeditions led to investigate two subglacial lakes that have been largely isolated for millions of years could answer questions about evolution on Earth as well as life on other planetary bodies, like Jupiter and Saturn’s icy moons and Mars’s southern ice cap. The findings are reported in the journal Science Advances. "Our eyes now turn to predicting the physical conditions in liquid water reservoirs on icy moons and planets. The physics of subglacial water pockets is similar on Earth and icy moons, but the geophysical setting is quite different, which means that we're working on new models and theories. With new missions targeting icy moons and increasing computing capabilities, it's a great time for astrobiology and the search for life beyond the Earth," says co-author Professor Martin Siegert, Co-Director of the Grantham Institute - Climate Change and Environment at Imperial. While prior expeditions have discovered over 400 subglacial lakes underneath Antarctica, their environments are still largely an enigma. Many of the lakes have been, shall we say, “quarantined” from each other and the atmosphere for millions of years due to the topography of the ice sheet. This has provided the unique conditions for evolution to take place in relative isolation. Professor Siegert, along with his colleagues at Imperial College London, the University of Lyon, and the British Antarctic Survey, was curious to learn about how microbes could evolve to survive persistent extreme cold conditions without access to sunlight. Now the team has detected that geothermal heat from Earth’s interior generates convection currents within the subglacial lakes, resulting in the movement of sedimentary particles and oxygen throughout the water. This, they say, could explain why more of the lakes seem to be able to support life. Lead researcher Dr. Louis Couston comments: "The water in lakes isolated under the Antarctic ice sheet for millions of years is not still and motionless; the flow of water is actually quite dynamic, enough to cause fine sediment to be suspended in the water. With dynamic flow of water, the entire body of water may be habitable, even if more life remains focused on the floors. This changes our appreciation of how these habitats work, and how in future we might plan to sample them when their exploration takes place." Sources: Science Advances, Science Daily

NASA has been throwing around the idea of leasing the International Space Station (ISS) to commercial entities when it finally surpasses its usefulness to the space agency in the mid 2020’s, but it would seem that the space agency has already started taking baby steps in this direction. According to a press release from NASA, the first commercial airlock could be added to the ISS as soon as 2019 thanks to the acceptance of a proposal from NanoRacks. According to the statement, NanoRacks is working closely with Boeing to produce an ISS-compatible airlock that will help push the ticket for commercial presence on the space station in coming years. Image Credit: NanoRacks/NASA Among the things the airlock could be used for are commercial research, technological demonstration, and storage among other things. It would serve as the launching pad for all kinds of CubeSats and other payloads that companies might pay to have hauled up into space. It’s very much a small preliminary step in terms of commercial presence on the ISS, but it’s sure to help transition it into something NASA eventually envisions it to become – a place for commercial organizations to start their initial footprints in space while the space agency moves on to bigger and better things, like habitation on Mars. “We want to utilize the space station to expose the commercial sector to new and novel uses of space, ultimately creating a new economy in low-Earth orbit for scientific research, technology development and human and cargo transportation,” said Sam Scimemi, director of the ISS Division at NASA. “We hope this new airlock will allow a diverse community to experiment and develop opportunities in space for the commercial sector.” So how will the airlock get to the ISS? According to the statement, it’s expected to launch aboard a commercial resupply mission in 2019; perhaps aboard a commercial rocket, like those by SpaceX. When it arrives, it will be attached to the tranquility module, the same place where the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is currently residing in testing as the first every expandable storage module on the ISS. Although these are still baby steps in expanding commercial presence on the ISS, NASA is openly reviewing all commercial requests to use it. While not all requests will be granted in the near future, that’s not to say things won’t change in the next decade. Commercial space presence is expected to help catapult mankind into the next era, increasing the way we learn about space and potentially even opening up new doors to space experimentation and manufacturing. Soon, we might even have more than one space station orbiting the planet, as interest from commercial organizations to build their own space stations is also growing. Source: NASA

NASA astronaut Christina Koch set a new record at the end of 2019 when she spent more consecutive days in space than any other female astronaut before her. Koch’s precedent-setting legacy for women in space endured until just this past week when she and two others from the International Space Station returned home. Image Credit: Pixabay Koch, accompanied by the European Space Agency’s Luca Parmitano and Roscosmos’ Alexander Skvortsov, departed from the International Space Station via a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ride back down to Earth on Thursday. The descent from the Earth-orbiting space lab went smoothly as the spacecraft landed softly in Kazakhstan. In total, Koch had spent 328 days in space while conducting her NASA-assigned duties as an astronaut on the International Space Station, shattering the previous 289-day record set by Peggy Whitson. Koch’s impressive stay in space comes second only to the 340 consecutive days that former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spent in space during a long-term research program involving his twin brother on Earth such that scientists could learn more about the effects of space on the human body. Related: How close is SpaceX to sending humans to space? Following her return home, Koch would be subjected to a routine medical checkup to ensure proper health. Given the circumstances of her long stay in space, her medical data could prove valuable to NASA. Understanding the side effects of long-term space travel on the human body is imperative as the future of space science looks to subject humans to deep space missions such as to the Moon and even Mars. Notably, Koch’s extended stay on the International Space Station wasn’t the only precedent she set that she could be proud of upon returning home. Koch, along with her colleague Jessica Meir, successfully completed the world’s first all-female spacewalk shortly before last year’s holiday season. It should be interesting to see what NASA scientists might learn from Koch’s medical data. In the meantime, Koch will spend several weeks reacclimating to Earth’s gravitational pull, a process that has been described as nightmarish by some astronauts who’ve lost substantial amounts of muscle mass while living in microgravity. Source: Phys.org, MSN

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is keeping its eye on Ceres, a dwarf planet in the middle of the Asteroid Belt in between the planets of Mars and Jupiter. It wasn’t long ago that NASA released images that Dawn took of a strange conical mountain on the dwarf planet. Recent images from Ceres taken by the Dawn spacecraft from just about 915 miles away are revealing specific objects on the dwarf planet’s surface that scientists are finding very intriguing. There are bright spots on Ceres’ surface that the new close-up photographs aim to shed some light on. These are the clearest and highest-resolution photographs ever shot of the bright spots on Ceres’ surface. The bright spots appear in the center of a crater on the dwarf planet known as the Occator crater. The new images give scientists a closer look at these unusual spots at a resolution that NASA says is equivalent to 450 feet per pixel. NASA notes in their announcement that the firm actually took two separate photographs to try and learn more about these bright spots; one at a higher exposure and one and a lower exposure, to ensure all of the details of the spots and the surrounding terrain would be captured. While there is still no concrete answer about where these bright spots came from, scientists will continue to analyze the bright spots for clues. The crater that the bright spots are located in is a very unusual crater because some of the inclines of the crater are actually vertical (straight up and down) instead of at a steep angle. The Dawn spacecraft has been mapping the surface of Ceres for a while in the hopes to help scientists learn more about the dwarf planet, as well as any key information that could help reveal how our solar system was formed. These mapping processes will construct a 3D diagram of Ceres’ entire surface, giving scientists something more tangible to look at. “Dawn has transformed what was so recently a few bright dots into a complex and beautiful, gleaming landscape," said Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer and mission director based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Soon, the scientific analysis will reveal the geological and chemical nature of this mysterious and mesmerizing extraterrestrial scenery.” Below, you can watch a 3D representation of Occator crater on Ceres, created by the Dawn spacecraft: Source: NASA

We’re getting so close to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy maiden flight that we can almost smell those roaring Merlin engine exhaust fumes. Its launch will mark the ignition of the world’s most powerful production rocket by a factor of two. Image Credit: SpaceX Falcon Heavy, which looks like three Falcon 9 rockets strapped together, purportedly generates enough thrust to lift 119,000 pounds from Earth’s surface into outer space. That said, it’s the ideal platform for upcoming space missions involving the Moon and Mars. On the other hand, SpaceX plans to throttle the Falcon Heavy’s performance at 92% during its maiden flight so that engineers can capture data more effectively for improving future launches. Standing tall at launch pad 39A in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Falcon Heavy’s 27 engines should ignite by approximately 1:30 P.M. Eastern time. Inside of its cargo bay exists a surprise concocted by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk himself: a Tesla Roadster electric car that could make its way into outer space if everything goes according to plan. Related: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket survived a hard landing in the Atlantic Ocean It’s hard to contain the amount of excitement SpaceX has about its mega-rocket, so the company put together the following launch animation video to depict how everything should go down: It’s worth noting that the Falcon Heavy is an untested rocket platform. Despite static fire tests performed by the commercial space company already, a Falcon Heavy has never flown before. Consequently, no one knows what’s going to happen; the rocket could either make its way into space as planned or blow up before it even gets there. Assuming it does reach space, SpaceX will attempt to land all three of Falcon Heavy’s first stages upright like they do with Falcon 9 rockets. Two of those will make their way back to landing pads on dry land, while the third attempts to land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. No matter what the outcome of this spectacular maiden flight event might be, it’s sure to draw heaps of attention. It should be interesting to find out whether Falcon Heavy will de-throne the Falcon 9 for massive satellite launches going forward. Source: SpaceX, Phys.org