News tagged with spacecraft systems

Nasa begins development of Space Launch System flight software

(Phys.org) -- NASA engineers working on the new Space Launch System (SLS) can now begin developing the advanced, heavy-lift launch vehicle's flight software using newly delivered software test bed computers from Boeing. ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jun 01, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

NASA lunar spacecraft GRAIL complete prime mission ahead of schedule

(Phys.org) -- A NASA mission to study the moon from crust to core has completed its prime mission earlier than expected. The team of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, with twin ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 29, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Image: Saturn's brightly reflective moon Enceladus

(Phys.org) -- A brightly reflective Enceladus appears before Saturn's rings, while the planet's larger moon Titan looms in the distance.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 11, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Nasa's new carbon-counting instrument leaves the nest

(Phys.org) -- Its construction now complete, the science instrument that is the heart of NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) spacecraft - NASA's first mission dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 11, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 30

Ultra-cool companion helps reveal giant planets

(Phys.org) -- An international team of astronomers led by David Pinfield of the University of Hertfordshire has found a brown dwarf that is more than 99% hydrogen and helium. Described as ultra-cool, it has ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 10, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Dawn spacecraft reveals secrets of giant asteroid Vesta

(Phys.org) -- Findings from NASA's Dawn spacecraft reveal new details about the giant asteroid Vesta, including its varied surface composition, sharp temperature changes and clues to its internal structure. ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 26, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

LADEE closer to exploration of lunar environment

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) has received its integrated propulsion system that will enable the spacecraft to reach the moon. Achieving this milestone means the LADEE observatory is one step ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Is it snowing microbes on Enceladus?

There's a tiny moon orbiting beyond Saturn's rings that's full of promise, and maybe -- just maybe -- microbes.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 28, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (12) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

NRL tests robotic fueling of unmanned surface vessels

Engineers from the NRL Spacecraft Engineering Department (SED) successfully demonstrate the robotic fluids transfer from a stationary platform to an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) in wave heights greater than ...

Technology / Engineering

created Mar 20, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

Maglev track could launch spacecraft into orbit

(PhysOrg.com) -- With the aim to make it easier to launch spacecraft into low Earth orbit (LEO), two researchers have turned to maglev technology to catapult a payload hundreds of miles above the Earth. While ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 13, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (58) | comments 37 | with audio podcast report

O, Pioneers! (part 2): The derelicts of space

Before the Pioneer 11 spacecraft could venture beyond our solar system, it had to pass through the rings of Saturn. At the time, the rings were not well characterized and some thought the spacecraft could ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 06, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Space weather: Explosions on Venus

In the grand scheme of the solar system, Venus and Earth are almost the same distance from the sun. Yet the planets differ dramatically: Venus is some 100 times hotter than Earth and its days more than 200 ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 05, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (9) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

UH scientists analyze a tiny comet grain to date Jupiter's formation

Particles from comet 81P/Wild 2 brought to Earth in 2006 by NASA's Stardust spacecraft indicate that Jupiter formed more than three million years after the formation of the first solids in our Solar System. ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Mar 01, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Ames celebrates the 40th anniversary of Pioneer 10

Launched on March 2,1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the Asteroid belt, and the first spacecraft to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter. Famed as the most remote object ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 01, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

IBEX spacecraft measures 'alien' particles from outside solar system

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using data from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft, an international team of researchers has measured neutral "alien" particles entering our solar system from interstellar ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jan 31, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast