discovery and exploration of the solar system
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Twin Probes Suffer Thruster Glitch on the Way to Mercury
For more than five years, a pair of spacecraft have been traveling through the solar system to reach the innermost planet Mercury and observe its extreme conditions. During its complex journey, the BepiColombo mission ran into a problem that’s preventing its thrusters from operating at full power, potentially jeopardizing the mission. BepiColombo launched in October…
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A Trip to Proxima Centauri and Other Far-Out Ideas NASA Is Exploring
NASA, in its relentless pursuit of space innovation, announced on Thursday the selection of 13 new projects for its 2024 Phase I awards under the Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. These awards, totaling up to $US175,000 each, are granted to teams proposing advanced and unconventional space technologies. The NIAC program, known for funding groundbreaking concepts,…
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California Legislators Slam ‘Rash’ NASA Cuts to Marquee Mars Mission
Six California lawmakers wrote to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson last week to oppose the agency’s recent cuts to the Mars Sample Return mission, which aims to bring samples collected by the Perseverance rover on Mars to Earth. The letter was written by congresspeople Judy Chu, Laphonza Butler, Mike Garcia, and Young Kim, as well as…
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Why Is Mars’ Atmosphere Leaking? A New Mission Seeks Answers
The NASA-funded mission will launch two twin spacecraft to explore Mars’ magnetosphere and how it interacts with solar wind.