Saturday’s heartbreaking loss of contact with the Vikram lander – part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission to the moon – hasn’t changed the upbeat tone of India’s space science. Here’s what we know so far. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/india-chandrayaan-2-vikram-loss-of-contact-what-next…
Tag: polar
Polar EU Cancri investigated with Kepler spacecraft
Using NASA’s prolonged Kepler spacecraft mission, known as K2, astronomers have investigated a peculiar polar designated EU Cancri. The new observations, described in a paper published August 9 on arXiv.org, provide more insights into the nature of this intriguing object. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-09-polar-eu-cancri-kepler-spacecraft.html…
Indian moon mission’s landing module separates from orbiter
India’s space agency says the landing module of the country’s unmanned moon mission has separated from the orbiter ahead of its planned touchdown on the moon’s south polar region this weekend. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-09-indian-moon-mission-module-orbiter.html…
India’s Chandrayaan-2 Spacecraft Enters the Moon’s Orbit
Long-time Slashdot reader William Robinson writes: An unmanned spacecraft, Chandrayaan 2, India launched last month has begun orbiting the moon before it lands on the far side to search for water. The spacecraft is in orbit of 114 km x 18072 km and will continue circling the moon in a tighter orbit until reaching a distance of about 100 km x…
A New Idea For Fighting Rising Sea Levels: Iceberg-Making Submarines
To address the affects of global warming, a team of designers “propose building ice-making submarines that would ply polar waters and pop out icebergs to replace melting floes,” reports NBC News: “Sea level rise due to melting ice should not only be responded [to] with defensive solutions,” the designers of the submersible iceberg factory said in an animated video describing the…
A closer look at Io’s weird volcanoes
Io’s volcanoes have fascinated scientists since the Voyager 1 spacecraft first discovered them nearly 40 years ago. Now a comprehensive new report – based on ground-based studies – unveils new mysteries about the most volcanically active world in our solar system. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/new-report-ios-enigmatic-volcanoes…
Chandrayaan-2 successfully completes 3rd orbit-raising maneuver
India’s 2nd moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, successfully carried out its 3rd orbit-raising maneuver on Monday. It will soon enter trans-lunar orbit, with the goal of landing on the moon on September 7. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/chandrayaan-2-isro-india-moon-mission…
Inside dark, polar moon craters, water not as invincible as expected, scientists argue
The Moon’s south pole region is home to some of the most extreme environments in the solar system: it’s unimaginably cold, massively cratered, and has areas that are either constantly bathed in sunlight or in darkness. This is precisely why NASA wants to send astronauts there in 2024 as part of its Artemis program. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-07-dark-polar-moon-craters-invincible.html…
Meet a family of NASA space robots
NASA engineers are working on a new family of space robots that can roll, climb, and use artificial intelligence to navigate around obstacles in rough terrains on other worlds. Meet the family, here. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/nasa-space-robots-lemur-ice-worm-robosimian…
New hard X-ray eclipsing polar identified
Using ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Swift spacecraft, astronomers have found that a hard X-ray source known as 2PBCJ0658.0-1746 is an eclipsing magnetic cataclysmic variable of the polar type. The finding, presented in a paper published July 11 on arXiv.org, makes the object one of only a handful hard X-ray eclipsing polars known to date. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-07-hard-x-ray-eclipsing-polar.html…