#Electrically charged dust storms drive Martian chlorine cycle

“#Electrically charged dust storms drive Martian chlorine cycle” Martian dust storm. Credit: NASA How’s the weather on Mars? Tough on rovers, but very good for generating and moving highly reactive chlorine compounds. New research from Washington University in St. Louis planetary scientists shows that Martian dust storms, like the one that eventually shut down the…

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#NASA’s Mars rover drivers need your help

“#NASA’s Mars rover drivers need your help” Three images from the tool called AI4Mars show different kinds of Martian terrain as seen by NASA’s Curiosity rover. By drawing borders around terrain features and assigning one of four labels to them, you can help train an algorithm that will automatically identify terrain types for Curiosity’s rover…

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#NASA names first woman to head human spaceflight

“#NASA names first woman to head human spaceflight” Kathy Lueders has been named to head NASA’s human spaceflight program, one of the most important jobs in the agency as it prepares to return people to the Moon in four years The NASA official who managed the inaugural private crewed flight into space last month has…

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#ESAIL maritime satellite ready for launch

“#ESAIL maritime satellite ready for launch” The ESAIL satellite prior to encapsulation. Credit: Arianespace The ESAIL microsatellite for tracking ships worldwide—developed under an ESA Partnership Project—has completed its accommodation on Vega’s new dispenser for small satellites and is ready for launch. The Vega launch campaign at Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, resumed three weeks…

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#First space tourists will face big risks, as private companies gear up for paid suborbital flights

“#First space tourists will face big risks, as private companies gear up for paid suborbital flights” On May 30, 2020, millions of Americans watched the inaugural SpaceX Crew Dragon launch NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. This mission marked two significant events: First, the return of launch to orbit capability for human spaceflight from…

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