NASA has removed its Janus mission from the Psyche mission's 2023 launch manifest after an assessment determined that Janus would not be on the required trajectory to meet its science requirements as a result of Psyche's new launch period. The Janus mission, which was designed to send twin small satellite spacecraft to study two separate …
UPDATE AS OF DECEMBER 15, 2022: The Lucy team updated the spacecraft's attitude controller on Dec. 6, resolving the previously observed vibration interaction between the controller and the solar array structural modes. As previously reported, the vibration was too small to pose a risk and the spacecraft continues to operate safely. The team resumed solar …
By Audrey Delpech, postdoc in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences department at UCLA Being part of the NASA S-MODE oceanographic mission was a great experience for me. It was only my second oceanographic mission and my first one on a US research vessel. I learned a lot about how to use the different instruments, interpret …
Micrometeoroid strikes are an unavoidable aspect of operating any spacecraft. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope was engineered to withstand continual bombardment from these dust-sized particles moving at extreme velocities, to continue to generate groundbreaking science far into the future. "We have experienced 14 measurable micrometeoroid hits on our primary mirror, and are averaging one to …
NASA announced Wednesday that its Lunar Trailblazer mission is approved to go forward, targeting a launch in mid-2023. NASA confirmed Lunar Trailblazer in 2020 as part of the agency's Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program to provide an understanding of the form, abundance, and distribution of water on the Moon, as well as …
Editor's Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process. We spoke with Kristen McQuinn of Rutgers University, one of the lead scientists on Webb Early Release Science (ERS) program 1334, focused on resolved stellar populations. These are large groups of stars – including stars …
As of Nov. 5, 2022, InSight is generating an average of 310 watt-hours of energy per Martian day, or sol. The tau, or level of dust cover in the atmosphere, was estimated at 1.33 (typical tau levels outside of dust season range from 0.6-0.7).
NASA, the French space agency Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES), and SpaceX are now targeting Monday, Dec. 12, for the launch of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch SWOT from Space Launch Complex-4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. After considering the schedule for completion …
The James Webb Space Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) has four observing modes. On Aug. 24, after measuring increased friction in one of the grating wheels used in MIRI's medium resolution spectrometry (MRS) mode, the Webb team paused science observations using this specific mode. Since then, a team of experts has carried out an in-depth investigation that has reviewed instrument …
NASA will share a new image or spectrum from the James Webb Space Telescope at least every other week on the mission's blog. This week, check the blog on Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 11 a.m. EST for a new image highlighting a nearby dwarf galaxy. In the meantime, learn more about what to expect as …
