Boeing Falsified Records of a New 787 That Leaked Fuel

Long-time Slashdot reader Freshly Exhumed quotes the CBC: Boeing staff falsified records for a 787 jet built for Air Canada which developed a fuel leak ten months into service in 2015. In a statement to CBC News, Boeing said it self-disclosed the problem to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration after Air Canada notified them of the fuel leak. The records stated…

SuperCam instrument integrated on NASA’s Mars 2020 rover

The French/American SuperCam instrument has been delivered early June to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and has been integrated this week on NASA’s Mars 2020 rover. The French space agency, CNES, together with university institutes in France, developed the multi-purpose camera to remotely analyze minerals, chemistry, sounds, and test for compounds associated with life, together with the Los Alamos National Laboratory (US)….

See super-detailed images of Saturn’s rings

Textures and patterns, from clumpy to straw-like, pop out of these images from the Cassini mission. “It’s like turning the power up a notch on what we could see in the rings,” said a scientist. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/images-sculpting-saturns-rings-details-cassini…

Swapping Spark Plugs For Nanopulses Could Boost Engine Efficiency By 20 Percent

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Transient Plasma Systems has its roots in pulsed power technology developed for the Department of Defense at the University of Southern California, specifically nanosecond-duration pulses of power. Since 2009, it has been working on commercializing the technology for the civilian market in a number of applications, but obviously it’s the automotive one…

Table salt compound spotted on Jupiter’s moon Europa

Europa has an ocean, hidden beneath its icy crust. The discovery of sodium chloride – aka table salt – on the moon’s surface might be strong evidence that Europa’s ocean is very similar to Earth’s. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/europa-sodium-chloride-table-salt-ocean…

NASA Hacked Because of Unauthorized Raspberry Pi Connected To Its Network

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: A report published this week by the NASA Office of Inspector General reveals that in April 2018 hackers breached the agency’s network and stole approximately 500 MB of data related to Mars missions. The point of entry was a Raspberry Pi device that was connected to the IT network of the NASA Jet…

Small satellite concept finalists target moon, Mars and beyond

NASA has selected three finalists among a dozen concepts for future small satellites. The finalists include a 2022 robotic mission to study two asteroid systems, twin spacecraft to study the effects of energetic particles around Mars, and a lunar orbiter managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to study water on the moon. At least one of these missions…

Mars 2020 rover gets its wheels

In this image, taken on June 13, 2019, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, install the starboard legs and wheels—otherwise known as the mobility suspension—on the Mars 2020 rover. They installed the port suspension later that day. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-06-mars-rover-wheels.html…

Astronomers make first detection of polarised radio waves in Gamma Ray Burst jets

Good fortune and cutting-edge scientific equipment have allowed scientists to observe a Gamma Ray Burst jet with a radio telescope and detect the polarisation of radio waves within it for the first time—moving us closer to an understanding of what causes the universe’s most powerful explosions. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-06-astronomers-polarised-radio-gamma-ray.html…

Exciting progress on NASA’s next Mars mission

The Mars Helicopter – which will launch with Mars 2020 – has now passed some key tests. Plus engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, celebrate with a selfie after attaching the Mars 2020 rover’s remote sensing mast. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-2020-update-mars-helicopter-rover-mast…