Category: NASA

This illustration shows NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft-lander approaching a site on Saturn’s exotic moon, Titan. Taking advantage of Titan’s dense atmosphere and low gravity, Dragonfly will explore dozens of locations across the icy world, sampling and measuring the compositions of Titan’s organic surface materials to characterize the habitability of Titan’s environment and investigate the progression of prebiotic chemistry.

NASA has announced plans to launch a drone mission to one of Saturn’s moons, Titan, in search of signs of life. The drone, named Dragonfly, will be a part of NASA’s New Frontiers program that is aimed at exploring the solar system. Dragonfly is scheduled to launch in 2027 and will arrive on Titan in 2036.

According to NASA administrator, Bill Nelson, the Dragonfly mission is “an extraordinary opportunity to explore a world that we know has the potential for life, and one that could give us insight into the origins of life in our own solar system and beyond.”

Dragonfly will be a rotorcraft drone, which means it will be able to fly and hover like a helicopter. It will be equipped with a range of scientific instruments to study Titan’s surface and atmosphere in detail. The drone will also take samples of Titan’s surface and analyze its composition to search for signs of life.

Continue reading… “NASA is building a flying drone to search a Saturn moon for signs of life”

The display can switch to different channels at eyewatering speeds, matching that of a single honeybee wing flap

According to an article published on The Sun’s website, NASA has developed a new aircraft that does not feature a front window. In describing the design of the aircraft, the author states that “The futuristic-looking craft uses a camera system instead of a traditional cockpit windscreen, with pilots relying on screens inside the cabin to see what’s ahead.”

This new aircraft, known as the X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) aircraft, has been designed to “fly faster than the speed of sound without producing the deafening sonic boom that’s typical of supersonic planes.” NASA has partnered with Lockheed Martin to build and test the QueSST, with the goal of using it to “gather information on how members of the public react to the sound of a sonic boom.”

Continue reading… “Inside Nasa’s brand new futuristic aircraft which has no front window for pilots to see ahead”

A CGI demonstration of the Martian samples on their journey to EarthCredit: nasa

By Millie Turner

Nasa has received the green light for a new facility to house Martian samples – and perhaps alien life. 

The facility, based in Texas, should be ready by 2033, when the samples from Mars’ Perseverance rover are expected to arrive on Earth.

It will be the first time in human history that scientifically selected samples from another planet exist on Earth. 

To get the samples to Earth, humans must first launch from the surface of another planet – in another first-of-its-kind feat.

Scientists from Nasa and the European Space Agency (ESA) will use the facility to contain, transfer, assess the safety and coordinate scientific investigation of the samples.

The facility, known as the Mars Sample Receiving Project office, will be located at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston. 

Continue reading… “Nasa building US facility that could house alien life brought back from Mars”

An artist’s impression of the DRACO spacecraft, which will feature the new nuclear thermal rocket engine. 

By Kevin Hurler

CALLED DRACO, THE DEMONSTRATION SPACECRAFT COULD REACH MARS THREE TIMES FASTER THAN VESSELS RUNNING ON TRADITIONAL CHEMICAL-BASED PROPULSION.

One of the bigger questions surrounding NASA’s interest in sending a crewed mission to Mars surrounds the best way to get there, and it appears the agencymight have found its answer. NASA announced today that it will be developing a nuclear thermal rocket engine in collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The collaboration is called DRACO, or Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, and it’s expected to reduce the travel time it takes to get astronauts to Mars—and potentially more distant targets in deep space. According to a press release, NASA will lead technical development of the nuclear thermal engine that will be combined with an experimental DARPA spacecraft. The two agencies will further collaborate on combining the rocket with the spacecraft ahead of its demonstration in space as early as 2027.

“Our intent is to lead and develop a blueprint for human exploration and sustained presence in the solar system,” said NASA deputy administrator Pam Melroy in a NASA fireside chat this morning. “DRACO will be a critical part of evaluating the technologies that will take us deeper into the solar system.”

Continue reading… “NASA and DARPA Collaborating on a Nuclear-Powered Rocket for Quick Trips to Mars”

As NASA takes its first steps toward establishing a long-term presence on the Moon’s surface, a team of propulsion development engineers at NASA have developed and tested NASA’s first full-scale rotating detonation rocket engine, or RDRE, an advanced rocket engine design that could significantly change how future propulsion systems are built.

The RDRE differs from a traditional rocket engine by generating thrust using a supersonic combustion phenomenon known as a detonation. This design produces more power while using less fuel than today’s propulsion systems and has the potential to power both human landers and interplanetary vehicles to deep space destinations, such as the Moon and Mars.

Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and primary collaborator IN Space LLC, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, are confirming data from RDRE hot fire tests conducted in 2022 at Marshall’s East Test Area. The engine was fired over a dozen times, totaling nearly 10 minutes in duration.

Continue reading… “NASA validates revolutionary propulsion design for deep space missions“

By SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA

After the success of lettuce on the ISS (International Space Station), NASA continues its “agricultural” experiments to understand if vegetables can be grown in space.

This time it’s the turn of potatoes: from March the American agency, together with the Peruvian International Potato Center (CIP), will conduct experiments in a laboratory in Lima to understand whether potatoes can be grown on Mars.

NASA has selected one hundred types of tubers: forty from the Andes, used to reproduce even in dry and rocky terrain, and sixty genetically modified to resist various pathogens and survive with little water and salt.

One ton of these potatoes will be transported to a special laboratory in Lima, where the Martian atmosphere, consisting mainly of carbon dioxide, will be simulated.

Continue reading… “NASA’s unusual experiment will plant potatoes on Mars”

A space telescope designed to search for the hardest-to-find asteroids and comets that stray into Earth’s orbital neighborhood, NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor (NEO Surveyor) recently passed a rigorous technical and programmatic review. Now the mission is transitioning into the final design-and-fabrication phase and establishing its technical, cost, and schedule baseline.

The mission supports the objectives of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 directed NASA to discover and characterize at least 90% of the near-Earth objects more than 140 meters (460 feet) across that come within 30 million miles (48 million kilometers) of our planet’s orbit. Objects of this size are capable of causing significant regional damage, or worse, should they impact the Earth.

“NEO Surveyor represents the next generation for NASA’s ability to quickly detect, track, and characterize potentially hazardous near-Earth objects,” said Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer at PDCO. “Ground-based telescopes remain essential for us to continually watch the skies, but a space-based infrared observatory is the ultimate high ground that will enable NASA’s planetary defense strategy.”

Continue reading… “Construction Begins on NASA’s Next-Generation Asteroid Hunter“

Lockheed Martin’s X-59 aircraft

By Ameya Paleja

The first flight is likely in 2023.

The jet engine for NASA’s ambitious X-59 aircraft that will demonstrate the Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) has now been installed, the space agency said in a press release. 

NASA has teamed up with Lockheed Martin and General Electric Aviation to bring this ambitious plan to reality that could one day revive supersonic travel for the general public. While fighter aircraft can routinely fly at speeds much higher than sound speed, commercial airliners flying over populated areas cannot do the same. 
The reason is the sonic boom, the shockwaves created by an object traveling faster than the sound, which has enough energy to shatter windows and sound like thunderclaps to the human ear. The now-defunct Concorde flights faced the same problem two decades ago and could never truly unlock the full potential of supersonic flight. 

Continue reading… “NASA’s quiet supersonic X-59 now has a jet engine”