space exploration
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Metals from Rockets and Satellites Are Polluting Earth’s Upper Atmosphere
Around 11 miles above Earth’s surface, leftover bits from rockets and spacecraft are lingering in our planet’s atmosphere that could potentially have a lasting effect on the climate. A group of scientists flew a sensitive tool attached to the nose of a special research plane, sniffing out aerosols in the atmosphere. They found significant amounts…
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New Decadal Survey Spotlights Funding Gap in Promoting Human Life in Space
A new decadal survey from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine just dropped, and establishing a sustained human presence off-Earth is on the docket. But NASA’s Division of Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) is underfunded, the survey reports, which could jeopardize humankind’s ability to actually establish such a presence. The 351-page document follows…
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How Many People Does It Take to Start a Colony on Mars?
It might only take 22 people to establish a colony on Mars, though that small group of cosmic inhabitants should have agreeable personality types to survive on the Red Planet, according to new research. Mars has been home to robotic explorers for nearly 60 years, but when it comes to landing humans on the Red…
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Mercury Probe Flies Through Charged Particle Rain That Triggers the Planet’s Auroras
On October 1, 2021, a pair of small spacecraft got their first good look at the closest planet to the Sun, revealing the strange process through which Mercury produces its own auroras. BepiColombo, a joint mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), launched in October 2018 and is still…