ScientistPankaj: NASA's Mars sample return plan is getting a major overhaul: 'The bottom line is $11 billion is too expensive'

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

NASA's Mars sample return plan is getting a major overhaul: 'The bottom line is $11 billion is too expensive'

NASA's Mars sample return plan is getting a major overhaul | Space Quiz! Which of these is a planetary feature that Venus lacks? | NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara talks about her spacewalk

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April 16, 2024

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The Launchpad

NASA's Mars sample return plan is getting a major overhaul

(NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA is looking for a new way to get its precious Mars samples back to Earth. The agency has had a Mars sample-return (MSR) architecture in place for some time now, but repeated delays and cost overruns have rendered the original plan impractical. "The bottom line is that $11 billion is too expensive, and not returning samples until 2040 is unacceptably too long," NASA chief Bill Nelson said.

Full Story: Space (4/15)

Space Quiz! Which of these is a planetary feature that Venus lacks?

Learn the answer here!

Gaseous atmosphere

Rocky terrain

Stable magnetic field

No moons

NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara talks about her spacewalk

(NASA)

O'Hara, along with SpaceX Crew-7 NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, conducted the fourth all-woman spacewalk at the International Space Station (ISS) on Nov. 1, 2023. They spent 6 hours and 42 minutes performing station maintenance, such as replacing a bearing to keep the solar arrays moving. All went well, O'Hara shared with reporters at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, a success she attributed to hours of training with her spacewalking partner. And, she gushed, being inside a spacesuit was a moving experience.

Full Story: Space (4/15)

Total Solar Eclipse 2024

2024 solar eclipse was a teachable moment in many ways

(Space.com / Tariq Malik)

It was the only time the moon would blot out the sun in the village of Potsdam until the year 2399. That's why my daughter, friends and I drove six hours from New Jersey through New York's Adirondack Mountains to this small college town of 15,000 people.

Full Story: Space (4/15)

Spaceflight

What I learned flying Boeing's Starliner simulator

(Boeing/John Grant)

Astronauts are preparing for future Starliner missions here, at the Jake Garn Mission Simulator and Training Facility (Building 5). In fact, they've been doing it for years. Two astronauts - NASA's Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore - will fly on Starliner's 10-day Crew Flight Test mission, or CFT, which is scheduled to launch toward the International Space Station (ISS) no earlier than May 6.

Full Story: Space (4/15)

Science & Astronomy

Milky Way's monstrous black hole is sleeping close to Earth

(ESO/L. Calçada)

The Milky Way has a big newfound black hole, and it lurks close to Earth! This sleeping giant was discovered with the European space telescope Gaia, which tracks the motion of billions of stars in our galaxy.

Full Story: Space (4/16)

Technology

Space-based solar power may be one step closer to reality

(Space Solar)

A first-of-its-kind lab demonstration shows how solar power transmission from space could work. The demonstration, carried out by U.K.-based startup Space Solar, tested a special beaming device that can wirelessly transmit power 360 degrees around. That would be important for a potential future space-based power station, as its position toward the sun and Earth would change over the course of each day due to our planet's rotation. The demonstrator is a key component of the CASSIOPeiA space-based solar power plant concept that is being developed by Space Solar. The company envisions that CASSIOPeiA could be in space within a decade, providing gigawatts of clean energy much more efficiently than solar plants on Earth.

Full Story: Space (4/15)

Search for Life

Venus is leaking carbon and oxygen, BepiColombo reveals

(ESA.ATG medialab)

An abundance of gases, including carbon and oxygen, are being stripped away from Venus' atmosphere, according to flyby data from Europe's BepiColombo space probe. This data was obtained as the Mercury-bound spacecraft flew past Venus, and could shed new light on the leaky atmosphere of our planetary neighbor. Down the line, the findings could help scientists catalog the makeup of Venus' fragile magnetic environment as well.

Full Story: Space (4/15)

Star Trek

'Star Trek: Discovery' season 5 episode 3 'Jinaal'

(Paramount+)

The latest installment of "Star Trek: Discovery" season 5 on Paramount Plus adds a little water - and possibly some fertilizer - to the various different story seeds sewn last week.

Full Story: Space (4/15)