...men det finns förstås mycket mer rymdnyheter! Det är bara att googla på t ex
"space news". (Säg till om något viktigt missats!) --AE
NASA SKICKAR SOND TILL GIGANTISK METALLASTEROID
NASA is moving ahead with a mission to an asteroid so valuable it could destroy
our world’s economy – due to a hoard of metals estimated to be worth £8,000
quadrillion.
NASA’s Psyche mission is now set to launch in 2022 – and will target a
metal-rich asteroid known as 16 Psyche, arriving in 2026. American companies
such as Planetary Resources – backed by Titanic director James Cameron – are
already planning to send robotic vehicles to mine precious metals and rare
resources from asteroids. Christian Schroeder of the University of Stirling
says, ‘Asteroids crossing Earth’s orbit may become convenient targets for
mining operations, providing materials that are running out on Earth.’ Psyche
principal investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University in Tempe
said earlier this year that the 124-mile wide asteroid would be worth the
astronomical sum if we could somehow drag it back to Earth.
http://metro.co.uk/2017/12/06/nasa-mission-asteroid-worth-8000000000000000000-destroy-world-economy-7136162/
BENGTSFORS TILL RYMDEN
Ett företag från hela Sverige antogs till den nationella rymdinkubatorn ESA-BIC
Sverige vid uttagningen i december. Bengtsforsbaserade Nanosized har utvecklat
en teknik för partikelbestämning. Med hjälp av nanosfärer tillverkade i
tyngdlösttillstånd kan man verifiera storlek på partiklar i
tillverkningsprocesser samt kalibrera utrustning i rena miljöer.
- Det stöd och den kvalitetsstämpel det innebär att vara en del av ESA-BIC och
Innovatums inkubator ger oss en ovärderlig möjlighet att accelerera vår affär,
säger Björn Holmström VD och medgrundare på Nanosized.
Startups som blir antagna till Rymdinkubatorn erhåller en halv miljon kronor i
bidrag, tillgång till teknik och patent utvecklade av European Space Agency,
samt rådgivning och tillgång till en lång rad företag och industripartners som
ingår i ESA-BIC Sverige.
http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/innovatum/pressreleases/innovatums-startupfoeretag-tar-bengtsfors-mot-rymden-2317517
VOYAGERS STYRRAKET TÄNDES FÖR FÖRSTA GÅNGEN PÅ SNART 40 ÅR
NASA's announced that Voyager 1's already-amazingly-long mission will probably
be extended for an extra two or three years, thanks to a successful attempt to
use thrusters that haven't fired up since the year 1980.
As NASA announced last Friday, Voyager 1's been using its “attitude control
thrusters” (ACMs) for decades, to nudge the probe so that its antenna points at
Earth and it can stay in touch.
While the ACMs work, since 2014 they've use more fuel than in the past. As
Voyager 1 carries a finite quantity of fuel, thirsty thrusters are not welcome.
The probe does, however, have other thrusters – its "trajectory correction
maneuver” (TCM) thrusters were last used as it passed Saturn, to help point
Voyager 1's instruments at the ringed gas giant. As the TCMs are mounted on the
craft's rear and Voyager doesn't need a speed boost – it's already doing 17.46
km/second – they've been left alone since 1980.
But Voyager's masters felt the ailing ACMs meant it was worth trying to see if
the TCMs could pick up the slack.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/12/04/voyager_1_mission_extension_thanks_assmbler_code_and_thrusters_unused_since_1980/
NY SUPERJORD HITTAD
A possibly habitable alien world may be rocky like Earth — and it has a
neighbor, a new study reports.
The potentially rocky exoplanet is K2-18b, which lies 111 light-years from
Earth in the constellation Leo. It was discovered in 2015 by researchers using
NASA's prolific Kepler space telescope.
Those original observations revealed that K2-18b likely orbits in the habitable
zone of its dim red-dwarf star — that is, within the range of distances where
liquid water could exist on a world's surface. In addition, the discovery team
found that K2-18b is about 2.2 times bigger than our planet, making it a
so-called "super-Earth." [How Habitable Zones for Alien Planets and Stars Work
(Infographic)]
Super-Earths straddle the fuzzy size boundary between terrestrial planets and
gaseous worlds like Neptune, so the makeup of K2-18b was unclear. A team of
astronomers therefore studied the planet with the High Accuracy Radial velocity
Planet Searcher (HARPS), an instrument installed on the 11.8-foot (3.6 meters)
telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile.
https://www.space.com/39010-super-earth-alien-planet-maybe-rocky.html
JÄTTEGIGANTISKT SVART HÅL HITTAT
Scientists just found a very huge, very young supermassive black hole. As far
as we know, it shouldn't be able to exist, and it just might re-write our
understanding of the early universe.
It is the most distant black hole ever seen by scientists. And it is so far
away that we are seeing something that formed when the universe was only five
per cent of its current age – something that scientists say shouldn't be able
to happen.
Our understandings of the formation and beginnings of the universe suggest that
a black hole with such a huge mass shouldn't actually have been able to form,
scientists say.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/black-hole-nasa-supermassive-size-big-bang-gemini-mass-universe-beginning-a8095801.html
TAKE-ME-HOME-KNAPP RÄDDAR ASTRONAUTER
Scientists from a company called Draper have created a way for astronauts to
avoid being lost in space no matter how disoriented they become. The
researchers have created a “fool-proof way to return to the spacecraft”
according to Kevin Duda, a space systems engineer at the company. Duda and his
team have studied astronauts on the ISS and filed for a patent for a system
that ensures self-return too the spacecraft even when no one is available to
rescue them.
The team working in the new system says that it an advance that is long
overdue. Current spacesuits used on the ISS have no method of returning to the
spacecraft in an emergency. The system the team designed is able to determine
its precise location in space where GPS isn’t available.
The system can then compute an optimal return path trajectory that considers
time, oxygen consumption, safety, and clearance requirements. The system is
able to operate the jetpack on the space suit potentially guiding an injured or
unconscious astronaut to safety.
If the astronaut is able to function, the suit can give them contextual cues
via sensors in the helmet to guide them. The self-return system could be
actuated by the astronaut, space station, or mission control. The patent shows
that the system can also monitor movement, acceleration, and relative position
of the crewmember relative to a fixed object like an orbiting spacecraft.
http://www.webtopnews.com/spacesuit-take-home-button-save-lost-astronauts-5311-2017/
--Ahrvid
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