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One More Wrinkle Related to the Starliner Delay
As if NASA needed another issue with the Boeing Starliner stranded at the International Space Station (ISS), the media (particularly the Indian media) is now reporting that one of the Starliner astronauts is having eyesight issues. According to one media source, Astronaut Sunita Williams is experiencing eyesight problems that may be linked to her exposure…
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Movie Quote: Not Such an Alien World
“The production design harkens back to both Scott and Cameron’s ALIEN movies. It’s a world we recognize so there’s not much new world-building except for the brief glance at an active mining colony. What’s different is the cinematography by Galo Olivares…ALIEN: ROMULUS works as a stand-alone movie, and is probably a better experience if you…
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Progress MS-28/89 Spacecraft Docks with the ISS
The Progress MS-28 (or Progress 89 per NASA) spacecraft successfully attached itself to the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday so that three tons of supplies could be unloaded. As with previous resupply spacecraft, it will remain attached to the station for the next six months before being ejected back towards Earth where it will burn…
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Study Findings: Feasibility of Keeping Mars Warm with Nanoparticles
Science Advances abstract of the study findings: One-third of Mars’ surface has shallow-buried H2O, but it is currently too cold for use by life. Proposals to warm Mars using greenhouse gases require a large mass of ingredients that are rare on Mars’ surface. However, we show here that artificial aerosols made from materials that are…
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Volunteer Work Pays Off: Sighted Star on Course to Escape the Milky Way
NASA’s Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 program allows interested volunteers to search earlier data to potentially locate an extra planet or new brown dwarfs near our solar system. Well, one of these volunteers found something unusual – an object with a mass similar to or less than that of a small star that was traveling fast…
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Pic of the Week: Russian Launch to Resupply the ISS
This week’s image is from earlier today when the Russian’s successfully launched its Progress MS-28 cargo spacecraft via a Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station (ISS). The resupply mission was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome located in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft will rendezvous with the ISS on Saturday. Note: NASA identifies the mission as Progress…
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Senate Bill to Assist Astronomers with the Night Sky
On August 1, Senators John W. Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) introduced a bill called The Dark and Quiet Skies Act (S.495) to assist astronomers with the night sky. In a press release from Senator Hickenlooper’s office, we learn the Act would …create a Center of Excellence overseen by National Institute of Standards and…
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Space Quote: Vast Water Reserves May Exist Within Martian Crust
“These new results demonstrate that liquid water does exist in the Martian subsurface today, not in the form of discrete and isolated lakes, but as liquid water-saturated sediments, or aquifers…On Earth, the subsurface biosphere is truly vast, containing most of the prokaryotic diversity and biomass on our planet. Some investigations even point to an origin…
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Study Findings: Archaeology in Space: The Sampling Quadrangle Assemblages Research Experiment (SQuARE) on the International Space Station. Report 1: Squares 03 and 05
PLoS ONE abstract of the study findings: Between January and March 2022, crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) performed the first archaeological fieldwork in space, the Sampling Quadrangle Assemblages Research Experiment (SQuARE). The experiment aimed to: (1) develop a new understanding of how humans adapt to life in an environmental context for which we are not evolutionarily adapted,…
