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DARPA created its Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program to create a new paradigm for more routine, responsive and affordable space operations. In an important step toward that goal, DARPA has awarded prime contracts for Phase 1 of XS-1 to three companies.
Posted: Jul 18th, 2014
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Australian researchers who are designing robotic rovers capable of searching for fallen space debris are asking people to share images or videos that they may have captured during last Thursday evening 's skyfall.
Posted: Jul 18th, 2014
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While the moon's surface is battered by millions of craters, it also has over 200 holes - steep-walled pits that in some cases might lead to caves that future astronauts could explore and use for shelter, according to new observations from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.
Posted: Jul 18th, 2014
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Scientists for the first time have experimentally re-created the conditions that exist deep inside giant planets, such as Jupiter, Uranus and many of the planets recently discovered outside our solar system.
Posted: Jul 17th, 2014
Read moreSoil deep in a crater dating to some 3.7 billion years ago contains evidence that Mars was once much warmer and wetter, says a geologist, based on images and data captured by the rover Curiosity.
Posted: Jul 17th, 2014
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Researchers are working to bring the multiverse hypothesis, which to some sounds like a fanciful tale, firmly into the realm of testable science.
Posted: Jul 17th, 2014
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As ESA's remaining supply ferry to the International Space Station burns up in the atmosphere, its final moments as its hull disintegrates will be recorded from the inside by a unique infrared camera.
Posted: Jul 17th, 2014
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Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, destination of ESA's Rosetta mission, seems to consist of two parts.
Posted: Jul 17th, 2014
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A heat-sensing camera has provided data to create the most detailed global map yet made of Martian surface properties.
Posted: Jul 16th, 2014
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Researchers have a better understanding of the asteroid Vesta and its internal structure, thanks to numerical simulations and data from the space mission Dawn. Their findings questions contemporary models of rocky planet formation, including that of Earth.
Posted: Jul 16th, 2014
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Before comet ISON raced past the Sun, it stopped producing dust and gas, as data from the SUMER spectrograph on SOHO show.
Posted: Jul 16th, 2014
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All eyes are on ESA's spaceplane to showcase reentry technologies after its unconventional launch on a Vega rocket this November.
Posted: Jul 16th, 2014
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One of the great, unanswered questions for space weather scientists is just what creates two gigantic donuts of radiation surrounding Earth, called the Van Allen radiation belts. Recent data from the Van Allen Probes - two nearly identical spacecraft that launched in 2012 - address this question.
Posted: Jul 15th, 2014
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NASA has issued an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for proposals about science instruments that could be carried aboard a future mission to Jupiter's moon Europa. Selected instruments could address fundamental questions about the icy moon and the search for life beyond Earth.
Posted: Jul 15th, 2014
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Astronomers analyzing a long-lasting blast of high-energy light observed in 2013 report finding features strikingly similar to those expected from an explosion from the universe's earliest stars. If this interpretation is correct, the outburst validates ideas about a recently identified class of gamma-ray burst and serves as a stand-in for what future observatories may see as the last acts of the first stars.
Posted: Jul 11th, 2014
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After a month surfing in and out of the atmosphere of Venus down to just 130 km from the planet's surface, ESA's Venus Express is about to embark on a 15 day climb up to the lofty heights of 460 km.
Posted: Jul 11th, 2014
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