Science News

Scientists at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the University of Leicester have been commissioned by the European Space Agency (ESA) to investigate the feasibility of using dead stars to navigate spacecraft in deep space. The findings of the research will advise ESA strategy and if feasible this technique may in future revolutionise the way spacecraft navigate in the outer Solar System and beyond.

Why astronauts in the space station are weightless?The most common answer is because there is no gravity in space. But of course there is gravity in space, especially where the space station is located (only about 400km from Earth's surface).

What is the right answer?

In the past, because of its proximity to the Sun, it has been difficult for Earth-based telescopes to observe Mercury against the ferocious solar light. In 2015, to increase our understanding of this mysterious planet, Europe is launching BepiColombo, the first dedicated mission to Mercury. It will reach its destination in 2022.

Articles about ASTRONOMY: http://www.scoop.it/t/science-news?tag=astronomy

Long distance space travel could create the ultimate 'killer entrance', devastating your destination and anything around the arriving spacecraft, according to calculations by Geraint Lewis and colleagues from the University of Sydney.

NASA's New Horizons probe has entered the one billion-mile long home stretch on its space odyssey to Pluto.

NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission has put a pair of nearly identical spacecraft in orbit around the Moon. By using radio waves to measure tiny variations in the Moon's gravitational field, the spacecraft—named Ebb and Flow—will create a high-resolution map that will give scientists a clearer picture of what lies beneath the lunar surface and will provide insight into the evolution of terrestrial planets.

Stratolaunch Systems Space Aircraft Brings Paying Passengers Into Orbit With 6 Boeing 747 Engines

Via Guillaume Decugis

With current propulsion technology only able to move spacecraft at 0.005% of the speed of light, a one-way trip to the star system nearest our Sun, Alpha Centauri, would take 80,000 years to travel the four light-years to our nearest...

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan previously teamed up to develop the X prizewinning SpaceShipOne...

We tend to think of interstellar journeys as leaps into the void, leaving the security of one solar system to travel non-stop to another. But a number of alternatives exist, a fact that becomes clear when we ponder that our own cloud of comets — the Oort Cloud — is thought to extend a light year out and perhaps a good deal further. There may be ways, in other words, to take advantage of resources like comets and other icy objects for a good part of an interstellar trip. That scenario is not as dramatic as a starship journey, but it opens up possibilities.

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft will make its first flight to the International Space Station Feb. 7, 2012. It will be the second flight of the private spaceship designed to carry cargo and crew to space.

The US space agency plans to launch on Saturday the most powerful and advanced robotic rover ever built to explore Mars and hunt for signs that life may once have existed on the red planet.