Shannon Walker will be one of three astronauts joining the first operational Crewed SpaceX Mission in history. Dr. Walker will join astronauts Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover Jr of NASA, and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Noguchi and Walker are two of a select few people in the history of the world to be both astronauts and aquanauts.
NASA has announced that it has selected and a new mission that will study how the sun generates and releases solar particle storms into planetary space. The mission is called SunRISE and will examine what specifically drives solar particle storms. The goal is to help protect astronauts and spacecraft from the particles produced in the storms.
NASA has rolled out the first concept art images that show off its all-electric X-plane called the X-57 Maxwell. The renderings show the aircraft in several phases of operation at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. That research center is located at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
In a recent press release, D-Wave Systems Inc. is now offering free access to its Leap quantum cloud service to beat the COVID-19 pandemic. D-Wave is considered a leader in quantum computing software, systems, and services.
One year from now, NASA will launch a telescope called Webb. This telescope's full name is the James Webb Space Telescope, and it is the successor to the Hubble Telescope. Hubble changed the way we see the universe by orbiting Earth and observing space in both optical and ultraviolet wavelengths. Webb's orbit won't be around our Earth, but our Sun, and it'll further extend our visibility into the stars capturing data in infrared.
An innovative distributed telescope, combining the efforts of six satellites, will give NASA an unprecedented insight into some of the Sun's most powerful - and dangerous - activity. The Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment, or SunRISE, is a new multi-million dollar application of cutting-edge CubeSat technology, and if successful could pave the way to a whole new, and more affordable, age of space science.
Joseph Schubert likely has the strangest job you've heard about in a very long time - he's a peacock spider specialist. Today, a report written by Schubert was released, showing seven new peacock spider species he discovered in South Australia. These seven new spiders show how gorgeous the peacock spider can be, complete with fur "plumage" that'll make you forget that you're looking at the stuff of nightmares.
MIT scientists say that any device that sends out Wi-Fi signals also emits terahertz waves. A terahertz wave, or T-Ray, is an electromagnetic wave with a frequency between microwaves and infrared light. T-Rays are produced by almost anything that registers a temperature, including the human body and objects around us, making them pervasive in daily life. According to the scientists, if these waves were harnessed, the concentrated power could potentially serve as an alternate energy source.
Rice University and a Canadian health company called Metric Technologies teamed up to create a device that they call an automated bag valve mask ventilation unit. The creation they've come up with is a low-tech device that will squeeze the common bag valve mask ventilation devices that are found in hospitals around the world. These devices are frequently called AmbuBags, even if that's not their actual brand-name.
In an announcement on Friday, NASA revealed the first private American space company to receive a Gateway Logistics Services contract under the Artemis program: SpaceX. Under this new deal, SpaceX will eventually deliver various experiments, supplies, and other cargo to the planned lunar Gateway. The space agency has described this as a 'significant step forward' in its Artemis program, which is aiming for a manned return to the Moon by 2024.
An announcement from the EPA* effectively suspended environmental rules for organizations in the USA for an indefinite amount of time. The EPA's document claims that because the COVID-19 pandemic is constraining the abilities of groups normally regulated by the EPA, that those groups will not be subject to the same rules as normal. This "temporary policy" is in effect until the EPA says it's done.
Uranus is very far from the sun, making it one of the coldest planets in our solar system. Over 30 years ago, Voyager 2 flew by the planet on January 24, 1986. Decades later, scientists were looking over that data again and found another new secret about the planet. What scientists didn't know 34 years ago was that Voyager 2 had flown through a plasmoid, which is a giant magnetic bubble that scientists believe could have been stripping Uranus of its atmosphere.