AceBreakingNews – An asteroid as big as a skyscraper will pass within 1.7 million kilometres of earth.An asteroid the size of the Empire State Building will pass “close” to earth next week. according to 9News Asteroid 2008 OS7: NASA says hazardous object approaching Earth
Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Feb.02: 2024: NASA News Published: Friday February /01/02, 2024: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe
There is no chance of it hitting the planet on Friday since it will pass seven times the distance from earth to the moon.
NASAβs Center for Near Earth Object Studies estimates the space rock is between 210 metres and 480 metres across.
That means the asteroid could be similar in size to New York Cityβs Empire State Building.
Discovered in 2008, the asteroid is designated as 2008 OS7.
It will not be back our way again until 2032 β but it will be a much more distant encounter then, staying 72 million km away.
The harmless flyby is one of several encounters this week.
Three much smaller asteroids also will harmlessly buzz earth on Friday, no more than tens of metres across, with another two on Saturday.
On Sunday, an asteroid roughly half the size of 2008 0S7 will swing by, staying 7.3 million km away.
AceNewsDesk – To show off just how impressive this is, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has published them alongside older versions taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Jan.30: 2024: NASA & ABC Space News: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe
We’ve just been given another series of striking images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Its latest offering is new imagery of 19 spiral galaxies, captured in “mind-blowing” new detail.
Here’s a few of them:
Comparing new images to old ones
Why the difference?
Because the JWST is more powerful than Hubble.
Its larger primary mirror has six times the light-gathering power of Hubble’s primary mirror.
And with its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), it has deeper infrared vision than Hubble.
But that’s not a slight on Hubble, which was launched in 1990 and designed to capture ultraviolet and visible light.
JWST, by comparison, was launched in 2021 β so its technology is much more advanced.
“Using Hubble, we would see the starlight from galaxies, but some of the light was blocked by the dust of galaxies,” University of Alberta astronomer Erik Rosolowsky said.
“With Webb’s view in the infrared, we can see through this dust to see stars behind and within the enshrouding dust.”
What do these images show?
Notice how we’re using the word “image” instead of “photo”?
That’s because they’re not like the photos you take on your phone.
The telescope picks up what’s invisible to the human eye and, back on Earth, scientists assign colours to those data points to visualise them, creating what’s called a ‘representative colour image’.
Let’s focus on this image, which is a face-on view of spiral galaxy CNG 628:
It’s a very wide shot encapsulating a whole lot of stars and space dust in great detail.
But it wasn’t beamed back to Earth looking like that β the colours were added by scientists, who assigned a colour to each filter they used.
All those tiny pinpoints of light blue in the centre of the picture are older stars.
The orange and red bits are visualisations of gas and dust.
And what about those dark gaps between the spirals?
Adam Leroy, an astronomy professor at the Ohio State University reckons they could have been created by the impact of one or more stars exploding.
“[They could have] carved out giant holes in the interstellar material,” he said in a NASA press release.
The closest of the 19 galaxies in NASA’s latest collection is called NGC 5068, which is about 15 million light years from Earth.
The most distant one β NGC1365 β is about 60 million light years from Earth.
Is the telescope just making pretty pictures?
No.
The data collected from the telescope offers new clues on star formation as well as galactic structure and evolution.
“Webb’s new images are extraordinary,” the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Janice Lee said in a NASA press release.
“They’re mind-blowing even for researchers who have studied these same galaxies for decades.
“Bubbles and filaments are resolved down to the smallest scales ever observed, and tell a story about the star formation cycle.”Spiral galaxy NGC 1512 is 30 million light-years away in the constellation Horologium.(Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team)
Dr Leroy said it was an exciting stepping-stone for galaxy research.
“Stars can live for billions or trillions of years,” he said.
“By precisely cataloguing all types of stars, we can build a more reliable, holistic view of their life cycles.”
GlobalWarming & ClimateChange News Desk – The Greenland Ice Sheet has shed about one-fifth more ice mass in the past four decades than previously estimated, researchers at NASAβs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California reported in a new paper
Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Jan.19: 2024: NASA News: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe
The majority of glaciers on the landmass have retreated significantly, and icebergs are falling into the ocean at an accelerating rate. This additional ice loss has had only an indirect impact on sea levels, but could hold implications for ocean circulation in the future.
Published in Nature on Jan. 17, the analysis offers a comprehensive look at retreat around the edges of the entire ice sheet from 1985 to 2022, drawing from nearly a quarter million pieces of satellite data on glacier positions. Of the 207 glaciers in the study, 179 retreated significantly since 1985, 27 held steady, and one advanced slightly.
Most of the ice loss came from below sea level, in fjords on Greenlandβs periphery. Once occupied by ancient glacial ice, many of these deep coastal valleys have filled with seawater β meaning the ice that broke off made little net contribution to sea level. But the loss likely accelerated the movement of ice flowing down from higher elevations, which in turn added to sea level rise.
βWhen the ice at the end of a glacier calves and retreats, itβs like pulling the plug out of the fjord, which lets ice drain into the ocean faster,β said Chad Greene, a glacier scientist at JPL and the studyβs lead author.
Accounting for Glacial Retreat
For decades researchers have studied the Greenland Ice Sheetβs direct contributions to global sea level rise through ice flow and melting.
Scientists participating in the international Ice sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE) estimated that the ice sheet had lost 5,390 billion tons (4,890 billion metric tons) between 1992 and 2020, adding about 0.531 inches (13.5 millimeters) to global mean sea level, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
But the IMBIE measurements do not account for ice lost due to the retreat of terminal glaciers along the edges of Greenland. (These glacier edges were already in the water, whether submerged or floating.) The new study quantifies this amount: For the 1985 to 2022 period in the new paper, the ice sheet was estimated to have lost about 1,140 billion tons (1,034 billion metric tons) β 21% more mass lost than in the IMBIE assessment.
Although it doesnβt add to sea levels, the additional ice represents a significant influx of fresh water to the ocean. Recent studies have suggested that changes in the salinity of the North Atlantic Ocean from melting icebergs could weaken the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, part of the global βconveyor beltβ of currents that transport heat and salt around the ocean. This could influence weather patterns worldwide, as well as affect ecosystems, the authors said.
A Comprehensive View of Glacial Retreat
Icebergs have tumbled from Greenlandβs glaciers for thousands of years as part of a natural cycle that typically balanced glacier growth in the winter with melting and retreat in the summer. The new study finds that ice retreat has far outpaced growth throughout the 21st century.
The researchers also found that Greenlandβs ice extent remained relatively steady from 1985 to 2000, then started a marked recession that continues to this day.
The data showed a glacier in northeast Greenland called Zachariae Isstrom lost the most ice, dropping 176 billion tons (160 billion metric tons) of mass due to retreat. It was followed by Jakobshavn Isbrae on the western coast, which lost an estimated 97 billion tons (88 billion metric tons), and Humboldt Gletscher in the northwest, which lost 96 billion tons (87 billion metric tons).
Only one glacier, Qajuuttap Sermia in southern Greenland, experienced any growth over the study period, but its gains were too small to offset the losses from other glaciers.
The researchers also found that glaciers with the largest seasonal fluctuations in the position of their ice front experienced the greatest overall retreat. The correlation suggests the glaciers that are most sensitive to warming each summer will be most impacted by climate change in the coming decades.
The discovery of a large-scale pattern of glacier retreat and its link to glacier sensitivity on seasonal time scales was the result of a big-data synthesis that looks at all parts of the ice sheet over time, said JPL cryosphere scientist Alex Gardner, a co-author of the paper. Scientists drew from five publicly available datasets that cumulatively tracked the month-to-month positions of 236,328 glacier edges as detected, either manually or by computer algorithms, in images collected by optical and radar satellites.
βPreviously, we had bits and pieces β lots of local studies,β Gardner said. βBut what this study offers is a systematic and comprehensive view that has led to some pretty significant insights that we didnβt have about the ice sheet before.β
AceBreakingNews – The debut of NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft is hoped to revolutionise commercial air travel in the US, paving the way for flights that can travel faster than the speed of sound.
Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Jan.16: 2024: NASA News: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe
The aircraft, which is expected to travel at 1488.64 kilometres per hour, was unveiled at a facility in Palmdale, California.
It is a collaboration between NASA and Lockheed Martin, an American aerospace, arms and defence company.
“This is a major accomplishment made possible only through the hard work and ingenuity from NASA and the entire X-59 team,” said NASA deputy administrator Pam Melroy.
“In just a few short years weβve gone from an ambitious concept to reality. NASA’s X-59 will help change the way we travel, bringing us closer together in much less time.”
The X-59 is at the Centre of NASA’s Quesst mission, which focuses on providing data that might help regulators reconsider rules that ban commercial supersonic flight over land.Β
In the US and other nations, such flights have been prohibited because of the disturbance caused by loud, sonic booms.
NASA said the design, shaping and technologies enable the X-59 to achieve a quieter sonic thump.
“It’s thrilling to consider the level of ambition behind Quesst and its potential benefits,” said Bob Pearce, associate administrator for aeronautics research at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“NASA will share the data and technology we generate from this one-of-a-kind mission with regulators and with industry. By demonstrating the possibility of quiet commercial supersonic travel over land, we seek to open new commercial markets for US companies and benefit travellers around the world.”
The aircraft is just over 30 metres long and 9 metres wide.
Its thin, tapered nose, which is a third of its length, is said to break up shock waves that would normally result in a sonic boom.
A sonic boom is a type of shock wave that happens when sound waves generated by a plane add together to make a really abrupt sound wave.
This means the cockpit is located almost halfway down the length of the jet and does not have a forward facing window.
Instead, the Quesst team created an eXternal Vision System, which is a series of high-resolution cameras feeding a 4K monitor to the cockpit.
The engine was also mounted on top with a smooth underside to keep shock waves from merging behind the aircraft.
The next step for the project is to prepare for it’s first test flight.
Once NASA completes flight tests, the agency will fly the aircraft over several to-be-selected cities across the US, collecting input about the sound the X-59 generates and how people perceive it.
NASA will provide that data to the Federal Aviation Administration and international regulators.
“Quick, quiet and quality takes on new meaning as we usher in a new era of quiet, supersonic travel,” said Lockheed Martin executive vice president Greg Ulmer.
GlobalWarming & ClimateChange News Desk – Earthβs average surface temperature in 2023 was the warmest on record, according to an analysis by NASA. Global temperatures last year were around 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASAβs baseline period (1951-1980), scientists from NASAβs Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York reported.
Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Jan.13: 2024: NASA News: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe
NASA and NOAAβs global temperature report confirms what billions of people around the world experienced last year; we are facing a climate crisis,β said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
β From extreme heat, to wildfires, to rising sea levels, we can see our Earth is changing. Thereβs still more work to be done, but President Biden and communities across America are taking more action than ever to reduce climate risks and help communities become more resilient β and NASA will continue to use our vantage point of space to bring critical climate data back down to Earth that is understandable and accessible for all people. NASA and the Biden-Harris Administration are working to protect our home planet and its people, for this generation β and the next.β
In 2023, hundreds of millions of people around the world experienced extreme heat, and each month from June through December set a global record for the respective month. July was the hottest month ever recorded.
Overall, Earth was about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 1.4 degrees Celsius) warmer in 2023 than the late 19th-century average, when modern record-keeping began.
β The exceptional warming that weβre experiencing is not something weβve seen before in human history,β said Gavin Schmidt, director of GISS. βItβs driven primarily by our fossil fuel emissions, and weβre seeing the impacts in heat waves, intense rainfall, and coastal flooding.β
Though scientists have conclusive evidence that the planetβs long-term warming trend is driven by human activity, they still examine other phenomena that can affect yearly or multi-year changes in climate such as El NiΓ±o, aerosols and pollution, and volcanic eruptions.
Typically, the largest source of year-to-year variability is the El NiΓ±o β Southern Oscillation ocean climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean.
The pattern has two phases β El NiΓ±o and La NiΓ±a β when sea surface temperatures along the equator switch between warmer, average, and cooler temperatures. From 2020-2022, the Pacific Ocean saw three consecutive La NiΓ±a events, which tend to cool global temperatures. In May 2023, the ocean transitioned from La NiΓ±a to El NiΓ±o, which often coincides with the hottest years on record.
However, the record temperatures in the second half of 2023 occurred before the peak of the current El NiΓ±o event. Scientists expect to see the biggest impacts of El NiΓ±o in February, March, and April.
This data visualization, which is updated monthly, shows the seasonal cycle of temperature variation on the Earthβs surface, and how those temperatures deviate from the average from 1951 to 1980.
The data come from the GISS Surface Temperature Analysis and are publicly accessible here. The seasonal temperature offsets are based on the MERRA-2 reanalysis data here.
Scientists have also investigated possible impacts from the January 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haβapai undersea volcano, which blasted water vapor and fine particles, or aerosols, into the stratosphere. AΒ recent studyΒ found that the volcanic aerosols β by reflecting sunlight away from Earthβs surface β led to an overall slight cooling of less than 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 0.1 degrees Celsius) in the Southern Hemisphere following the eruption.
βEven with occasional cooling factors like volcanoes or aerosols, we will continue to break records as long as greenhouse gas emissions keep going up,β Schmidt said. βAnd, unfortunately, we just set a new record for greenhouse gas emissions again this past year.β
βThe record-setting year of 2023 underscores the significance of urgent and continued actions to address climate change,β said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. βRecent legislation has delivered the U.S. governmentβs largest-ever climate investment, including billions to strengthen Americaβs resilience to the increasing impacts of the climate crisis. As an agency focused on studying our changing climate, NASAβs fleet of Earth observing satellites will continue to provide critical data of our home planet at scale to help all people make informed decisions.β
Open Science in Action
NASA assembles its temperature record using surface air temperature data collected from tens of thousands of meteorological stations, as well as sea surface temperature data acquired by ship- and buoy-based instruments. This data is analyzed using methods that account for the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and for urban heating effects that could skew the calculations.
Independent analyses by NOAA and the Hadley Centre (part of the United Kingdom Met Office) concluded the global surface temperatures for 2023 were the highest since modern record-keeping began. These scientists use much of the same temperature data in their analyses but use different methodologies. Although rankings can differ slightly between the records, they are in broad agreement and show the same ongoing long-term warming in recent decades.
Building on a half century of research, observations, and models, the Biden-Harris Administration including NASA and several federal partners recently launched the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center to make critical climate data readily available to decisionmakers and citizens. The center supports collaboration across U.S. government agencies and the non-profit and private sectors to make air-, ground-, and space-borne data and resources available online.
NASAβs full dataset of global surface temperatures through 2023, as well as details with code of how NASA scientists conducted the analysis, are publicly available from GISS. GISS is a NASA laboratory managed by the Earth Sciences Division of the agencyβs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia Universityβs Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.
AceBreakingNews – NASA announced Tuesday updates to its Artemis campaign that will establish the foundation for long-term scientific exploration at the Moon, land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface, and prepare for human expeditions to Mars for the benefit of all.
Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Jan.10: 2024: NASA News: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe
To safely carry out these missions, agency leaders are adjusting the schedules for Artemis II and Artemis III to allow teams to work through challenges associated with first-time developments, operations, and integration.
NASA will now target September 2025 for Artemis II, the first crewed Artemis mission around the Moon, and September 2026 for Artemis III, which is planned to land the first astronauts near the lunar South Pole. Artemis IV, the first mission to the Gateway lunar space station, remains on track for 2028.
β We are returning to the Moon in a way we never have before, and the safety of our astronauts is NASAβs top priority as we prepare for future Artemis missions,β said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. β
β Weβve learned a lot since Artemis I, and the success of these early missions relies on our commercial and international partnerships to further our reach and understanding of humanityβs place in our solar system. Artemis represents what we can accomplish as a nation β and as a global coalition. When we set our sights on what is hard, together, we can achieve what is great.β
Ensuring crew safety is the primary driver for the Artemis II schedule changes.
As the first Artemis flight test with crew aboard the Orion spacecraft, the mission will test critical environmental control and life support systems required to support astronauts. NASAβs testing to qualify components to keep the crew safe and ensure mission success has uncovered issues that require additional time to resolve. Teams are troubleshooting a battery issue and addressing challenges with a circuitry component responsible for air ventilation and temperature control.
NASAβs investigation into unexpected loss of char layer pieces from the spacecraftβs heat shield during Artemis I is expected to conclude this spring.
Teams have taken a methodical approach to understand the issue, including extensive sampling of the heat shield, testing, and review of data from sensors and imagery.
The new timeline for Artemis III aligns with the updated schedule for Artemis II, ensures the agency can incorporate lessons learned from Artemis II into the next mission, and acknowledges development challenges experienced by NASAβs industry partners.
As each crewed Artemis mission increases complexity and adds flight tests for new systems, the adjusted schedule will give the providers developing new capabilities β SpaceX for the human landing system and Axiom Space for the next-generation spacesuits β additional time for testing and any refinements ahead of the mission.
We are letting the hardware talk to us so that crew safety drives our decision-making.
We will use the Artemis II flight test, and each flight that follows, to reduce risk for future Moon missions,β said Catherine Koerner, associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. βWe are resolving challenges associated with first-time capabilities and operations, and we are closer than ever to establishing sustained exploration of Earthβs nearest neighbor under Artemis.β
In addition to the schedule updates for Artemis II and III, NASA is reviewing the schedule for launching the first integrated elements of Gateway, previously planned for October 2025, to provide additional development time and better align that launch with the Artemis IV mission in 2028.
NASA also shared that it has asked both Artemis human landing system providers β SpaceX and Blue Origin β to begin applying knowledge gained in developing their systems as part of their existing contracts toward future variations to potentially deliver large cargo on later missions.
Artemis is a long-term exploration campaign to conduct science at the Moon with astronauts and prepare for future human missions to Mars.
That means we must get it right as we develop and fly our foundational systems so that we can safely carry out these missions,β said Amit Kshatriya, deputy associate administrator of Exploration Systems Development, and manager of NASAβs Moon to Mars Program Office at headquarters. βCrew safety is and will remain our number one priority.β
NASA leaders emphasized the importance of all partners delivering on time so the agency can maximize the flight objectives with available hardware on a given mission.
NASA regularly assesses progress and timelines and as a part of integrated programmatic planning to ensure the agency and its partners can successfully accomplish its Moon to Mars exploration goals.
With Artemis, NASA will explore more of the Moon than ever before, learn how to live and work away from home, and prepare for future human exploration of the Red Planet.
NASAβs SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, exploration ground systems, and Orion spacecraft, along with the human landing system, next-generation spacesuits, Gateway lunar space station, and future rovers are NASAβs foundation for deep space exploration.
AceBreakingNews – US military’s secretive spaceplane launched on possible higher-orbit mission
Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Dec.29: 2023: AP News Agency & Reuters News Agency: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe
The U.S. military’s secretive X-37B robot spaceplane blasted off from Florida on Thursday night on its seventh mission, the first launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket capable of delivering it to a higher orbit than ever before.
The Falcon Heavy, composed of three liquid-fueled rocket cores strapped together, roared off its launch pad from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in a spectacular liftoff carried live on a SpaceX webcast.: https://t.me/Reuters/1151Reuters: World, [Dec 29, 2023 at 07:45]
The US military’s X-37B space plane has blasted off on another secretive mission that is expected to last at least a couple of years.
Like previous missions, the reusable plane resembling a mini space shuttle is carrying classified experiments.
There is no-one on board.
The space plane took off aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Thursday night, more than two weeks late because of technical issues.
It marked the seventh flight of an X-37B, which has logged more than 10 years in orbit since its debut in 2010.
The last flight, the longest one yet, lasted two and a half years before ending on a runway at Kennedy a year ago.
Space Force officials would not say how long this orbital test vehicle would remain aloft or what was on board other than a NASA experiment to gauge the effects of radiation on materials.
Built by Boeing, the X-37B resembles NASA’s retired space shuttles.
But they are just one-fourth the size at 9 metres long.
No astronauts are needed; the X-37B has an autonomous landing system.
They take off vertically like rockets but land horizontally like planes, and are designed to orbit between 240 kilometres and 800 kilometres high.
There are two X-37Bs based in a former shuttle hangar at Kennedy.
AceNewsDesk – The owner of an orange tabby cat called Taters is “celebrating his spotlight with him, but making sure he keeps his paws on the carpet”, after the feline starred in the first video transmitted to Earth by laser from deep space.
Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Dec.22: 2023: NASA News: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe
The 15-second video β beamed to Earth from NASA’s Psyche spacecraft 31 million kilometres away (that’s about 80 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon) β showed three-year-old Taters chasing a red laser beam on a couch.
Some graphics were overlaid onto the video, including Taters’s heart rate, colour and breed, as well as the spacecraft’s orbital path and technical information about its laser.
Taters’s owner, Joby Harris, an art director at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), told the Associated Press that he couldn’t be prouder, but didn’t want his cat’s new-found celebrity to go to its head.
“My cat Taters appeared in the first HD video ever beamed to Earth from outer space!” Mr Harris wrote on Instagram.
“This opens the door to next level comms streaming HD video from spacecraft and astronauts in the future.”
Taters’s Instagram biography now describes him as a “Laser Beam Motion Analyst”.
Video sent faster than most internet connections on Earth
The video of Taters was sent to Earth using something called a flight laser transceiver, which can send and receive near-infrared laser beams.
The clip had been loaded into the Psyche spacecraft before it was sent into space in October.
The ultra high-definition video was sent at the system’s maximum rate of 267 megabits per second (Mbps). For context, most NBN connections for homes in Australia are between 20Mbps and 100Mbps.
It took the video less than two minutes to reach the Hale Telescope at The California Institute of Technology’s Palomar Observatory on December 11, NASA said.
“Despite transmitting from millions of miles away, it was able to send the video faster than most broadband internet connections,” said Ryan Rogalin, the project’s receiver electronics lead at JPL.
“Everyone loves Taters,” he added.NASA says its team managed to receive the video in less than two minutes when it was sent by laser.(Supplied: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The historic link to a classic cat video
Aside from just being cute, there’s a historical link to NASA’s decision to allow Taters to star in their test video.
In 1928 when television was still in its experimental stages, engineers in the US used a small statue of the cartoon character Felix the Cat as a test pattern, which remained on screen for hours.
Of course, cat videos would later become extremely popular online.
NASA says its laser demonstration is meant to transmit data at rates up to 100 times faster than radio systems which are currently used by spacecraft far from Earth.
The administration hopes the technology will help it improve communications from deep space, especially as it prepares to return astronauts to the Moon β and eventually get them to Mars.
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said improving communications was “a key element to meeting our future data transmission needs”.
“Increasing our bandwidth is essential to achieving our future exploration and science goals, and we look forward to the continued advancement of this technology and the transformation of how we communicate during future interplanetary missions,” she said.
More test transmissions are planned as Psyche heads toward the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. But Taters won’t be making anymore appearances, according to JPL.
You must be logged in to post a comment.