Space News and Discussions

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Traces of Ceres' icy crust found at occator crater
https://phys.org/news/2021-08-ceres-icy ... rater.html
by Planetary Science Institute
Anomalies in the distribution of hydrogen at Occator crater on the dwarf planet Ceres reveal an icy crust, says a new paper led by Tom Prettyman, a Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute.

The evidence comes from data acquired by the Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRaND) aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft. A detailed map of the concentration of hydrogen in the vicinity of Occator was derived from observations from elliptical orbits that brought the spacecraft very close to the surface during the final mission phase, said Prettyman. The paper entitled "Replenishment of near-surface water ice by impacts into Ceres' volatile-rich crust: Observations by Dawn's Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector" appears in Geophysical Research Letters. PSI scientists Yuki Yamashita, Norbert Schorghofer, Carle Pieters and Hanna Sizemore, are co-authors.
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SpaceX Starlink satellites responsible for over half of close encounters in orbit, scientist says

By Tereza Pultarova - Senior Writer about 20 hours ago

Starlink satellites might soon be involved in 90% of close encounters between two spacecraft in low Earth orbit.

https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-s ... n-the-rise


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wjfox wrote: Fri Aug 20, 2021 8:37 pm
Which lends support to the theory the Moon was created by a collision between early Earth and a Mars-sized planet.
To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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SpaceX Super Heavy Starship Orbital Flight Tracking to Mid-September
August 19, 2021 by Brian Wang
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2021/08/s ... ember.html
SpaceX needs to complete the following to launch the Super Heavy Starship Orbital Flight
* complete the launch tower
* the Starship SN20 heatshield must be complete and each tile verified
* Both the SN20 and the BN4 prototypes must complete ground tests
* the fueling tank farm must be completed

All of these things are getting closer to completion but there is still 2-3 weeks left.
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To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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Titan-in-a-glass experiments hint at mineral makeup of Saturn moon
https://phys.org/news/2021-08-titan-in- ... aturn.html
by American Chemical Society

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is a natural laboratory to study the origins of life. Like Earth, Titan has a dense atmosphere and seasonal weather cycles, but the chemical and mineralogical makeup are significantly different. Now, earthbound researchers have recreated the moon's conditions in small glass cylinders, revealing fundamental properties of two organic molecules that are believed to exist as minerals on Titan.

The researchers will present their results today at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

"Simple organic molecules that are liquid on Earth are typically solid icy mineral crystals on Titan because of its extremely low temperatures, down to -290 F," says Tomče Runčevski, Ph.D., the project's principal investigator. "We found that two of the molecules likely to be abundant on Titan—acetonitrile (ACN) and propionitrile (PCN)—occur predominantly in one crystalline form that creates highly polar nano surfaces, which could serve as templates for the self-assembly of other molecules of prebiotic interest."
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NASA's Perseverance rover plans next sample attempt on Mars
https://phys.org/news/2021-08-nasa-pers ... -mars.html
by NASA
In its search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars, NASA's Perseverance rover is once again preparing to collect the first of many rock core samples that could eventually be brought to Earth for further study.

This week, a tool on the rover's 7-foot-long (2-meter-long) robotic arm will abrade the surface of a rock nicknamed "Rochette," allowing scientists to look inside and determine whether they want to capture a sample with the rover's coring bit. Slightly thicker than a pencil, the sample would be sealed in one of the 42 remaining titanium tubes aboard the rover.

Should the team decide to acquire a core from this rock, the sampling process would be initiated next week.

The mission attempted to capture their first record of the crater floor on Aug. 6 from a rock that ultimately proved too crumbly, breaking into powder and fragments of material too small to be retained in the sample tube before it was sealed and stored within the rover.
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